Integrity and NBA Don’t Go Together Well Right Now

Sam Smith writing in the Chicago Tribune on the NBA lockout: “Commissioner David Stern says there has to be a certain number of games for a season to have integrity--around 50.

“That suggests if the impasse lasts another week or two, the league would cancel the season. Why? Not enough games.

“But the sport that produces the best postseason tournament in the U.S. plays 25 to 30 regular-season games. And then it invites just about everyone into a single-elimination tournament.

“It’s what the NBA should do this season: Play an NCAA-style tournament with every team eligible.

“And best of all, the Clippers could win the title. Which would be the best statement about the coming NBA season.”

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Trivia time: The Boot Hill and Mineral Water are discontinued bowl games. Where were they played?

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Too late now: Oregon has been conditionally selected to play in the Holiday Bowl against Nebraska on Dec. 30--and USC is headed for the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.

However, Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune reasons that the Trojans would have been a better choice than Oregon for the Holiday Bowl:

“In prestige, Oregon-Nebraska isn’t close to USC-Nebraska.”

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UCLA academic leader: Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News: “Note to bowl championship series fathers: If you are going to use numbers and formulas to determine which teams play in your title game, why not include graduation rates in the great scheme of things?

“Just so you know: Latest figures, which examine progress of 1991-1992 freshman football classes, peg UCLA’s graduation rate at 65%, Kansas State’s at 35% and Tennessee’s at 11%.”

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Bear facts: Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times was not impressed with Tampa Bay’s victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

“The Bears are an awful team that was minus their best running back and their first two quarterbacks. The guy they were left with, Moses Moreno, played a lot more like Rita Moreno than Dan Marino.”

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Holiday downer: Last Thursday was “a rough day for Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra,” NBC’s Jay Leno said. “This is their first Thanksgiving apart.”

Leno reports that Electra will fight Rodman’s efforts to have the marriage annulled. “I’m with Carmen. You don’t throw away a nine-day marriage. She gave him the best days of her life.”

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Trivia answer: Appropriately in Dodge City, Kan., and Excelsior Springs, Mo.

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And finally: The Japanese baseball team managed by Sadaharu Oh is investigating reports that accuse its players and employees of a complex sign-stealing scam: using a stadium TV camera and a person in the stands signaling with a megaphone.

The three Daiei Hawks players accused of involvement in the scam denied any wrongdoing, a team official said.

“I can’t believe it,” said Oh, a former Yomiuri Giant slugger who holds Japan’s career record of 868 home runs. “I’d like to believe my players.”