He Had a Beef With the Boss, So He Loaded Up on the Beef

Dick Barnett was best known for his days with the New York Knicks, but he also played for the Lakers from 1962-65. In his book, “Life on the Run,” Knick teammate Bill Bradley wrote:

“The day businessman Robert Short sold the Lakers to businessman Jack Kent Cooke for $4 million, Short told the Lakers how much he appreciated their loyalty and hard work. To show his gratitude, he said that everyone could have a steak dinner at the hotel and charge it to him. Barnett went back to his room and ordered 20 steak dinners from room service.

“He stacked them up in the hallway and left them there. ‘The man just made $4 million and he’s going to buy me a steak dinner--damn,’ he says.”

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A different era: Jim Thorpe has been dubbed both the “world’s greatest athlete” and the “athlete of the century,” but his personal bests in track and field pale in comparison with today’s standards.

A sampling, courtesy of “Jim Thorpe: World’s Greatest Athlete,” by Robert Wheeler: 100-yard dash: 10.0 seconds; 1,500 meters: 4:40.1; high jump: 6 feet 5; pole vault: 10-8; shot put: 47-10, and discus: 125-8.

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Trivia time: Who was the first to call Thorpe the “world’s greatest athlete?”

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Ouch: From Bob Raismann of the New York Daily News: “Howard Cosell died 10 years too late. And that’s just telling it like it is.”

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Add Cosell: Raismann went on to write: “Over the last decade, Cosell became bitter, spewing venom at former colleagues and a business he had changed the first 67 years of his life and made us forget all he meant and the things he stood for. This giant shriveled up into a mean old man.”

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Last add Cosell: Boxing promoter Bob Arum remembers a chance meeting with Cosell a few years ago on a New York street corner. Arum told Cosell that ABC boxing commentator Alex Wallau had throat cancer.

“He deserves it,” Cosell said.

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A big fall: Sign at San Jose Arena on Friday night, when the Kings lost to the Sharks, 4-0: “All the Kings’ goalies and all the Kings’ men couldn’t get Wayne to the playoffs again.”

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Only in New York: George Steinbrenner has been complaining about slow ticket sales for his Yankees, and Phil Musnick of the New York Post claims he is using it as leverage to get a new stadium.

Wrote Musnick: “Here’s the rub: We’ve received communiques from fans who very much wanted to purchase tickets, except the ticket office is so understaffed, so filled with misinformation and so rude to customers as to do everything possible to prevent people from buying tickets.”

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Bad choice: George Foreman wore dark glasses at a recent Boxing Writers Assn. dinner in New York to hide the damage inflicted by Axel Schulz.

Said presenter Steve Farhood: “Of all the tomato cans, you pick one who can fight back.”

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Add Foreman: “After the fight, three writers came up to me and said, ‘George, you know you lost,’ ” he said. “I told them, ‘You make sure and write that. You write that and I’ll make a bagful of money in the rematch.’ I’ll be so rich that bankers will come to me and say, ‘George, lend us some money.’ ”

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Trivia answer: King Gustav V of Sweden at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.

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Terrible threes: TNT analyst Hubie Brown claims the three-point shot is ruining basketball.

“It makes for bad basketball,” he said. “Three-point teams get only so far. You can’t shoot low-percentage shots and get to the NBA finals. Last year, Houston and New York both had terrible three-point shot percentages.”

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Quotebook: From David Letterman: “In an effort to bring a lot of people out to Shea Stadium this year, the Mets held a press conference and announced that all 1995 games would be played on the road.”