Nuggets Don’t Measure Up Off the Floor Either

The locker rooms at McNichols Sports Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets, literally don’t measure up to NBA standards.

The urinals are two inches too low and, instead of eight shower heads eight-feet high in the Nuggets’ locker room, there are only five at 6-feet-6 inches.

Moreover, an NBA spokesman complained that the ceilings in the officials’ locker rooms are only eight feet high instead of nine, prompting Woody Paige of the Denver Post to comment: “When was the last time you saw an 8-foot referee?”

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Trivia time: Who was the coach of the Rams in their first season in Los Angeles in 1946 and what was the team’s record?

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Help! Curtis Strange, discussing in Golf World magazine the differences in how he and Tom Kite have dealt with recent swing struggles: “I’ve listened to Delta sky caps. I don’t think Tom has.”

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Little big men: The Associated Press Little All-American football team is not exactly little. The offensive line features four players weighing 300 or more pounds. Only Bob Goltra of Pittsburgh State (Kansas) is under 300 and he weighs 296 pounds and stands 6 feet 7.

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The easy life: Baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement includes a minimum salary of $150,000 and provisions that players no longer have to room with a teammate on the road, prompting Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to comment:

“They were thinking of adding a provision under which players would not have to actually play, until someone told them that one’s been in in effect since 1981.”

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Ho, ho, ho: Here’s a Christmas card from the Las Vegas Thunder of International Hockey League:

“Holiday wish list: Extra ice packs, 20 Don Rickles comebacks, case of Band-Aids, scar-free stitches, Jacuzzi for aching bones, shoe box full of Advil, one unbreakable stick, six dozen Swedish massages, new dentures, Holyfield boxing lessons . . . Peace on Earth & Goodwill to All Men [until we play ‘em].”

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Grounded: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune on the jumping abilities of Chicago’s Luc Longley and Vancouver’s Bryant “Big Country” Reeves: “There is more air under Plymouth Rock.”

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Dogged effort: From Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle: “A score you might have missed: Hirofumi Nakajima of Japan, who weighs 144 pounds, beat 320-pound American Edward Krachie in the International Hot Dog Eating Federation championship by gobbling 23 1/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

“As coaches say, it’s not how big you are; it’s how hungry you are.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1962, the Dallas Texans defeated the Houston Oilers, 20-17, in overtime in the American Football League championship game in Houston.

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Trivia answer: Adam Walsh, and the team had a 6-4-1 record.

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And finally: A picture of Clipper center Kevin Duckworth was shown next to the overweight character Eddie Murphy portrayed in “The Nutty Professor” during a look-alike segment on the KeyArena video board Friday night in Seattle.