And They Said <i> Worthy </i> Was a Great Finisher

The Lakers should have expected that James Worthy would retire as soon as they hired Del Harris as their coach.

Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, Jack Sikma and Adrian Dantley all called it quits while playing for Harris.

“They call me ‘the Great Retirer,’ ” Harris said. “Guys look at me and say, ‘I must be done, I’m playing for Del.’ ”

Trivia time: What school was the last from the West Coast to play in the Sugar Bowl? Same old Bobby: Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Indiana’s Bobby Knight got together recently and the talk turned to basketball, specifically Paterno’s ability. Paterno demonstrated his two-hand set shot, then admitted, “I was the worst shot.”

To which Knight responded, “Come to my practice in the morning and I’ll show you someone worse.”

A critique: Norman Chad, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, says he is not a fan of returning instant replay to NFL officiating, nor of those who are:

“Leading the charge (for instant replay) is Skip Bayless, a fellow who runs a football newsletter out of the basement of some trailer-park home in Texas, talks daily to Cowboy assistant strength coaches and appears on ESPN every 15 minutes of every NFL weekend, squawking about such critical issues as play-clock enforcement. This guy lingers like a bad cold.”

It is different: Pitcher Curt Schilling of the Philadelphia Phillies isn’t sure that William J. Usery is the right man to act as negotiator in the baseball strike.

“You’re talking about a guy who’s dealt with strikes where people get killed,” Schilling said. “He’s not going to sit and listen to a bunch of millionaires who are full of it.”

Dial it in: “Laker Legends” is the name of Laker assistant coach Bill Bertka’s radio show on KLAC and the name fits, mainly because Bertka knows all of them.

One of his shows featured a long-ago taped interview with Wilt Chamberlain. Bertka asked which was better, the 69-13 Laker team that won 33 in a row in 1971-72 or the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76er team that was 68-13.

Wilt, who was on both teams, said it was the 76ers. Anybody going to tell him he’s wrong?

Coordinated: The official magazine of the Charlotte Hornets is called Sting and the address of the NBA team is 100 Hive Drive.

Priorities: Ohio State basketball Coach Randy Ayers is a hard man to discourage. This year he lost several players, a scholarship and the right to recruit off campus because of an NCAA violation.

“Somebody asked me who I was happiest to see coming back this season,” Ayers said. “And I said, ‘Me!’ ”

Bud on button: Tennis commentator Bud Collins scored an ace with his comment as Martina Navratilova faced match point in her final match with Gabriela Sabatini Tuesday night in New York: “This is career point.”

Trivia answer: St. Mary’s, which lost, 33-13, to Oklahoma State in 1946.

Quotebook: Kevin Gilbride, the recently fired offensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers, comparing his stormy relationship with Buddy Ryan to his losing a kidney to cancer in 1992: “I had two bouts with cancer. Unfortunately, one of them was inoperable.”