Bradley Gone, But May Never Be Forgiven

For failed millionaires in Philadelphia, parting can be such sweet horror.

More than two years into the experiment that brought him from a Mormon mission to the Philadelphia 76ers, 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley was traded to the New Jersey Nets.

Wrote Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin:

“[Coach John] Lucas has been through 12-step programs himself. He has become the Mother Teresa of the NBA’s substance dependent, a halfway house for guys one step from either the Continental Basketball Assn. or a crack house.

“But there is no 12-step program to cure gutlessness.

“This kid is more than an empty uniform. He is a thief who turned the bad judgment of everybody with a dream of what he could become into the biggest daylight heist since the Brinks Robbery.”

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Trivia time: What is the major league baseball record for most victories by a team in a single season?

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A fat Shaq? Thomas Hamilton is 360 pounds, more than 7 feet tall, and so what if he wasn’t drafted and never played a minute of college basketball?

Hamilton, who is with the Celtics, had a tryout with the expansion Toronto Raptors, but was released before the season started.

“He has to lose some weight,” Raptor Coach Brendan Malone said. “But if he could get up and down the court, he’d be as unstoppable as Shaquille O’Neal.”

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Add fat Shaq: Celtic Coach M.L. Carr recently suggested that Hamilton change his jersey number to the very available No. 30 Carr wore during his Celtic playing days.

“I’m going to give it to anyone who can help me get [the jersey] in the rafters,” Carr said.

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History lesson: Fox NFL analyst John Madden, whose decade coaching the Raiders gave him a love for the old American Football League, is thrilled HBO let him help put together “Rebels With a Cause: The Story of the American Football League,” a documentary showing next week.

“It’s a way of giving thanks and not forgetting the league,” Madden told the Baltimore Sun.

“There’s a generation of young people that, when you say AFL, you get a blank look. You say AFL, they think you mean AFC. It’s as if you don’t know your alphabet.”

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Trivia answer: The 1906 Chicago Cubs, who won 116 games.

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Quotebook: Heavyweight Mike Tyson, sounding relaxed after a workout leading up to his fight against Buster Mathis Jr. in Philadelphia on Saturday:

“I’m having a good time. I’m pretty loose. All my life, I never smiled. I never had fun. I was in a neophyte stage. Now I’m smiling, see? I’m having fun.”