Little Giant Is Making Big Strides as Player to Watch

The most watched player in Michael Jordan’s basketball camp at UC Santa Barbara was a 17-year-old from China named Yao Ming who stands 7 feet 5. According to John Zant of the Santa Barbara News-Press, he is known as Da Yao (Big Yao) and Xiao Ju Ren (Little Giant) in his native country.

“He’s much better than [the Clippers’ Michael] Olowokandi was as a freshman,” said former USC coach George Raveling, a camp director for Jordan.

*

Foreign sport? The last two No. 1 NBA draft picks are foreign-born. Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, the 1997 selection, is a native of the Virgin Islands. Olowokandi, taken this year, was educated in England and is a native of Nigeria.

*

Trivia time: The PGA Championship starts Thursday in Redmond, Wash. Which two players have won the most PGAs?

*

The best: Deion Sanders, not Michael Jordan, should be considered the finest athlete in the world, according to Ron Wolf, general manager of the Green Bay Packers.

“He’s a Pro Bowl football player who can bat .300 in baseball,” Wolf said. “He’s so good that we don’t appreciate him.”

*

On the other hand: Mike Lupica, in ESPN the Magazine, gives the nod to Bo Jackson.

“Compared to Bo, Deion is Bo Peep,” writes Lupica. “In 1989, [Bo] hit 32 homers, drove in 105 runs and rushed for 950 yards, almost without taking a breath or breaking a sweat.”

*

Not quite: Headline on the Mighty Duck update in the August edition of the Hockey News: “Coach Hartsburg joins prez Gauthier to complete Ducks’ office overhaul.”

Turns out the presses rolled too soon.

Last Thursday, in the team’s fifth coaching or management move of the summer, Gauthier replaced Jack Ferreira as general manager, retaining his title of president.

*

The right genes: According to Super Prep’s preseason forecast, Chris Simms of Franklin Lakes Ramapo High in New Jersey, is the top-rated prep quarterback in the country. Simms, a 6-5 lefty, is the son of former New York Giant quarterback Phil Simms, most valuable player of Super Bowl XXI in 1987.

*

Good luck: Sometime today, in an attempt to get in “The Guinness Book of World Records,” Kung Fu master Clifford Flenoy of Lancaster will have two 8 by 8-inch cinder blocks, each 16 inches long, placed on his unprotected groin and a 226-pound man swinging a 15-pound sledge hammer will try to break through the cinder blocks.

If it comes off, it will be a chi/ki record. Anybody want to challenge him?

*

Does it matter?: The 1954 Cleveland Indians won a record 111 games, a mark the current New York Yankees are threatening, but don’t ask Bob Feller to say which team is better.

“How the hell would I know which team is better?” the Hall of Fame pitcher asked. “Those arguments can go on as long as the sun comes up. It’s just busy work. If you lay 10 accountants end to end, they’re going to reach no conclusion. This is the same story. It means nothing.”

*

Handicap golf: First there was Casey Martin riding in a cart while playing tournament golf because of a circulatory birth defect in his right leg.

Now comes Erik Compton, 18, of Miami, who is believed to be the first heart transplant recipient to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, scheduled Aug. 24-30 in Rochester, N.Y.

When he was 12, Compton underwent surgery to replace a weakened heart with one from a young victim of a traffic accident.

*

Trivia answer: Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus each won five times.

*

And finally: Tom Lasorda, the Dodgers’ interim general manager, is supposedly searching for a permanent GM. One American League general manager says, “Lasorda is hiring the same headhunter firm that Bud Selig used.”