He Made Sure an Accord Was Finally Reached

In his new book about the NBA called “Loose Balls,” Jayson Williams of the New Jersey Nets describes former teammate Armen Gilliam as a penny pincher.

“When I played for the Sixers, he lived next door to me in a $400,000 condo, but his lights were never on.

“And then one day he had company because I heard people over there, and I go outside to look, and I see he does have lights. And then I trip over something and I see Armen’s whole apartment go dark.

“I had tripped over an extension cord that he had run under my patio and was stealing my power.”

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Trivia time: Which are the four former ABA teams that joined the NBA in 1976-77 after their original league folded?

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Booooring: Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star admires the skills of Masters champion Vijay Singh and David Duval as long as he doesn’t have to interview them.

“Truth is, they’re both amazingly drab. Their news conferences are like torture chambers. Their television interviews send Americans everywhere scurrying to their refrigerators. They don’t seem to like people.

“They don’t seem to enjoy the games they play. They both look as if they’re suffering horrible pain on the golf course.”

Victim shortage: Retired Colombian cycling hero Oliverio Rincon was abducted and then released recently by leftists guerrillas for the second time this year.

“I think it says a lot about the current state of Colombian sports,” says Michael Ventre of MSNBC, “when guerrillas have to kidnap the same guy twice.”

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Telling it like it is: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “After consulting a lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union, Utah resident Daron Malmberg was allowed to keep a special Olympic license plate that read ‘SCDNL.’

“Officials had threatened to revoke it as inappropriate. Malmberg’s first choice, ‘BRIBE,’ was turned down because somebody already had it.”

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Out or safe? From comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “Colorado Rockies’ pitcher John Thomson was arrested Thursday after his Corvette skidded into a house in Tucson.

“It gives new meaning to the baseball phrase ‘sliding into home.’ ”

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Trivia answer: Denver, Indiana, the New York (now New Jersey) Nets and San Antonio.

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And finally: Just how hard is it to come from behind to win at the Masters? Writes Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post: “Augusta National is a course that, once it gets you down, tears at your judgment, torments your nerves, teases you with unwise gambles and, if you ever do get back in contention, leaves you too exhausted to cap the comeback with a triumph.

“Curtis Strange once began the tournament 80-65, then had a two-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday, but Rae’s Creek got him. Or was it the pressure of fighting from behind on a track where the slightest twitch can equal double bogey?”

Care to talk about Sunday’s encounter at Rae’s Creek, David Duval?