Old-School Style Is Out in Coaching

Jim Barnett, a former NBA player and now a TV analyst on Golden State Warrior broadcasts, told John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Examiner how coaching styles have changed since he played 25 years ago.

“When I played for Alex Hannum, he put the fear of God into you,” Barnett said of his time with the old San Diego Clippers. “I remember one time we had to touch every step in the San Diego Sports Arena. He was mad at us one day. Couldn’t miss a step anywhere in the arena.

“Bad knee or no bad knee, didn’t matter who you were. You couldn’t do that today.”

Trivia time: Who are the only two active players in the major leagues with last names beginning with Q?

Long-range rumor: Sam Smith in the Chicago Tribune:

“One scenario has (Phil) Jackson (the Chicago Bulls’ coach) moving to coach the Knicks in two years when Pat Riley’s contract ends and Riley getting a part-ownership deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.”

Daydreams: The conversation occurred in the Hollywood Park winner’s circle after a first-time starter named Mr. Dipper won last Wednesday’s ninth race.

“I dreamed of becoming a jockey when I was growing up on a farm and riding plow horses,” said the horse’s co-owner.

The man shaking his hand said, “When I was a kid, I never wanted to be anything but a basketball player.”

Wilt Chamberlain and jockey Kent Desormeaux never realized those boyhood ambitions.

Farewell Ken?Bill Conlin in the Philadelphia Daily News: “Seattle is geographically isolated and . . . dependent on a moribund aircraft industry and has no more chance to keep Ken Griffey Jr. than Bill Clinton has of winning a second term.”

FYI: Sports formally rejected by the International Olympic Committee: 1. racquetball; 2. triathlon; 3. taekwondo; 4. golf; 5. bowling.

Harding update: What’s next for Tonya Harding? How about “American Gladiators?”

The agent for the notorious figure skater says he is negotiating for her to appear on the syndicated television show in which men and women, often of the muscular variety, compete, well padded, in forms of combat.

Fishing facts: Did you know that it’s against the law:

--To fish in pajamas on Chicago’s breakwater?

--To carry tackle into a cemetery in Muncie, Ind.?

--To fish with bare hands anywhere in Kansas?

--To fish from horseback in Washington, D.C.?

--To give liquor to fish in Oklahoma?

Trivia answer: Infielder Tom Quinlan and pitcher Paul Quantrill of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Quotebook: Charles Oakley of the New York Knicks: “A team is like a car. You got your oil change, you got your filter, you got your plugs. If you get your oil and your filter and not your plugs, something’s going to break down.”