Can Shaq Get 100? Only if He Doesn’t Go to the Line

Wilt Chamberlain is the only player to have scored 100 points in an NBA game. Jim Cleamons, a teammate of Chamberlain and now an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls, thinks Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal is the best bet among today’s players to match that feat.

“He could just have one of those phenomenal nights where he’s getting a lot of layups and run-outs,” Cleamons told Tony Armour of the Chicago Tribune. “Because of his size and strength, he could dominate like Wilt.”

Chicago guard Steve Kerr isn’t so sure.

“Shaq would end up with 86 points just because he missed 14 free throws,” he said.

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Trivia time: When was the first motor race through the streets of Long Beach, and who won it?

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Hot dog: When Brazilian soccer star Tulio was faced with an empty net in Capa Botafoga’s 4-1 victory over Universidad Catolica, instead of calmly booting the ball between the uprights, he flicked it in the air and back-heeled it into the goal.

“It was a goal of football art,” he said in answer to critics of his grandstanding.

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Gerontology: Mark McGwire, the Oakland Athletics’ slugger who spends nearly as much time on the disabled list as on the field, analyzed his problem:

“They say once you hit 30, your body starts doing funny things.”

McGwire is 32.

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Double trouble: As public relations director of the Cincinnati Reds, Mike Ringering must keep his media notes to a single sheet of paper under orders from owner Marge Schott. Now he’s in trouble with General Manager Jim Bowden for putting out too little information.

“I’m trying to make some trades and other teams read this stuff in the notes about our players and they won’t even talk to me,” Bowden complained.

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Different strokes: Ed Fowler in the Houston Chronicle: “Mark Twain once called golf ‘a good walk spoiled.’ Has tennis ever inspired a line so memorable?”

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New society: Hall of Fame basketball coach Chuck Daly told Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune why he turned down $3 million a year to return to the NBA as coach of the New York Knicks:

“You’re really not working with individuals anymore. You’re working with multimillionaire athletes who are corporations in short pants. They have to allow you to coach them to a certain degree.”

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Quick work: Former Dodger pitcher Dennis Cook tried his hand at relief pitching for the Texas Rangers during spring training. In one game, he threw one pitch, getting a game-ending double play.

“You mean, they pay Mike Henneman a million dollars to do this?” he asked.

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For the record: Reader George Kroger of Thousand Oaks takes issue with Monday’s trivia item that USC and Stanford are the only private NCAA schools west of the Rocky Mountains playing Division I-A football, naming BYU and Pacific. Right on BYU, but wrong on Pacific, which quit football last December.

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Trivia answer: Sept. 28, 1975, a Formula 5000 race won by Brian Redman of England in a Lola.