Good-Bad Deal Has Quickly Gotten Ugly

The Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks swapped players, and swapped images with the headliners in the four-player deal: troublesome Isaiah Rider to Atlanta and good guy Steve Smith to Portland in what could mean a windfall for Oregon charities.

Not that anyone noticed the contrast in personalities or anything.

“It was no accident that one [Trail Blazer] employee explained his attendance at the Rider news conference by simply saying, ‘I wouldn’t miss this. It’s the greatest day in the history of the franchise,’ ” wrote Dwight Jaynes in the Portland Oregonian.

” . . . Rider was being showcased much of last season for exactly the purpose he served on Monday--to bring the team a better player.

“And in the end, after all the suspensions and unpredictability, that was the best thing he ever did for the Blazers.”

*

The other side: “We’d like to [win] with as much character and community involvement as possible, but most people aren’t concerned about that,” Hawk General Manager Pete Babcock told the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. “Our players speak to 100 kids at Special Olympics, and it gets very little attention. Those kids will remember it all their lives, but all fans remember is, ‘Who’d you beat?’ ”

*

Trivia time: In a conference that included NFL first-round picks Akili Smith of Oregon and Cade McNown of UCLA, and third- rounder Brock Huard of Washington, who led the Pacific 10 in passing efficiency last season?

*

Boy bites shark: Greg Norman launched his own Internet site this week, being careful to note that https://www.shark.com is devoted to matters of lifestyle--fitness, travel, cars, fashion, etc.--and not simply to golf.

Maybe it should also cover family issues. One “gate crasher” as Norman spoke with reporters in unveiling the site was his son, who left quickly enough, just not quietly.

“Bye, dad,” Greg Jr. said. “Nice Web site for a beginner.”

*

Trivia answer: Keith Smith of Arizona.

*

And finally: There have already been plenty of volunteers, about 10,000 people having already ordered the special Tennessee license plates that will honor the national football champions. And they aren’t even available yet.

The first batch is scheduled to arrive in early September, with “Tennessee” printed across the top, a Volunteer helmet beside the license number and Tennessee’s checkerboard end zone with “National Champions” in black letters across the bottom.

The plates cost an extra $25 and can be renewed for that amount each year.