Coach Said ‘Sit on It,’ and He Did

Kenny Smith of the NBA champion Houston Rockets said that in the first organized basketball game he played, his team was leading by a point with a few seconds to play when the coach told him to sit on the ball and run out the clock.

“Listening to everything he said, I literally sat on the ball, not knowing the meaning of the term,” Smith said. “I sat on the ball, but the clock ran out and we won the game.”

Smith said he was 8 years old at the time.

Add Rockets: It has been reported that Houston had never won a major professional championship in any sport until the Rockets beat the New York Knicks.

Well, sort of. The Houston Oilers won American Football League championships in 1960 and 1961.

Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for grounding into the most double plays in a season?

Infamous: Tennis Magazine France recently conducted a survey of 65 top male pros asking them to rate their peers in various categories.

Among the winners were Stefan Edberg, best sportsman; Michael Chang, most intelligent; Ivan Lendl, most professional--and Austria’s Horst Skoff, biggest cheat.

Details of Skoff’s alleged cheating were not provided.

No big deal: The Detroit Tigers share the major league record with the 1941 New York Yankees for hitting at least one home run in 25 consecutive games.

Alan Trammell of the Tigers isn’t impressed.

“To be honest, I don’t see what the record really means,” he said. “I think it’s a meaningless record. What’s it worth if you (finish) in last place?”

Hockey beggars: NBC’s Conan O’Brien: “The New York Rangers are celebrating their victory by traveling around the city carrying the Stanley Cup. And out of habit, many New Yorkers are throwing change in it.”

Make-up call: In a recent Morning Briefing item from the Washington Post, Baltimore Oriole owner Peter Angelos criticized Manager Johnny Oates, saying among other things that Oates was “not a very good manager.”

Angelos has since apologized in a letter to Oates, saying his remarks were taken out of context and were made while the Orioles were losing a one-sided game.

Harding update: Tonya Harding has agreed to appear as a feisty waitress in an independent filmmaker’s movie about a woman running from the mob.

Harding will play Gina, a waitress who accidentally receives a cache of money from the mob in “Breakaway.”

Trivia answer: Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox, with 36 in 1984.

Quotebook: Shortstop Pat Meares of the Minnesota Twins, on hitting two home runs Sunday after 408 at-bats without one: “The ball is officially juiced.”