Fox Makes Game Fantastic for Boy

Rick Fox turned football player right after Wednesday night’s victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at the Great Western Forum.

Fox sprang from the bench and grabbed the ball as other players walked off the court, then ran like a fullback going up the middle, covering it with both arms, to deliver courtside.

The recipient was a young boy who had had the misfortune of being in the way as Fox tried to recover the ball with 2:20 remaining. Fox did not actually crash into the youngster, but in the attempt to avoid contact put the brunt of the impact on the chairs. That sent the seats and the youngster backward, causing him to hit his head on the floor.

Fox and referee Ron Garretson comforted the frightened boy, then decided he would also get the ball. But fans chanted several times in the final two minutes, “Give the ball back!” So, when the game ended, the boy got the ball back. This time to keep.

Earlier, Fox had turned the Forum into a strip club, having so much success at slapping balls away from Buck players that he finished with five steals. This was not just about a game, though.

This was about years.

“Karl Malone and Rick Barry,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “Those were the two greatest I ever saw in stripping the ball before guys can get into the shooting position. Now, Rick has showed the same thing. He has great hand action.”

Much the way a shooter gets in a groove, Fox has found one as a defender. He has 16 steals in the last seven games. And he held two possible all-star small forwards, Shareef Abdur-Rahim of the Vancouver Grizzlies and Glenn Robinson of the Bucks, below their season scoring averages on consecutive nights. Robinson had averaged 32.3 points in his previous six games.

“Modestly, I’ve always been that good,” Fox said Thursday. “[Celtic announcer] Tommy Heinsohn always used to say that. So I took a lot of pride in it.”