Are Lakers Still Acting a Little Kurt?

Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News commenting on the Lakers after they were routed by the Spurs on Tuesday, 105-81:

“In January, the Lakers looked as if they might win 70 games, and now they look ripe for yet another [playoff] sweep [by the Spurs]. How Phil Jackson’s Zen changed them: Last year they bickered on the court, this year they don’t talk to each other at all.

“All the Spurs said it. The Lakers acted as if Kurt Rambis still stood frozen on the sideline. . . .

“Jackson tries to inspire his players by giving them selected books for road trips, and this time Jackson erred. [Glen] Rice didn’t need to read ‘The Invisible Man.’ ”

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More Spurs: David Robinson said San Antonio stifled the Lakers defensively: “We made them do some things uncharacteristic of the triangle offense. They don’t have all the reads down. We tried to take A and B away from them and make them go to C.”

Oh, so that’s what happened.

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Trivia time: How many times has Mark O’Meara won the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am?

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Really? Jay Leno on Super Bowl most valuable player Kurt Warner: ‘To give you an idea what an outsider he is to the game, you know he’s never even been to prison.”

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What might have been: After being criticized for not shaking the hand of Iowa basketball Coach Steve Alford, his former star player at Indiana, Bob Knight opened a news conference by shaking every reporter’s hand.

Said Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: “Thank goodness no one criticized him for his mouth.”

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Nonviolent move: Shaun Powell of Newsday on the Knicks’ Latrell Sprewell being left off the All-Star team: “In an awkward coincidence, the All-Star fate of Sprewell was left in the hands of the coaches. And, the coaches choked back.”

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Al Capone style: Colorado Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley on how his team left goalie Marc Dennis out to dry in a recent loss to lowly Chicago:

“We should have put him on a wall with five guys with shotguns, and it would have been the same thing.”

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Is he? How did Genius Chidzikwe, a Southern Methodist sophomore and Davis Cup tennis player from Zimbabwe, get his name? Said SMU Coach Carl Neufeld: “His dad just believed in positive reinforcement. And he’s a smart kid. So I guess it worked.”

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Any city will do: Shawn Kemp, on rumors the Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to trade him: “You take nothing for granted. I came into this league to play for the NBA. I didn’t come in to play for Seattle, Cleveland, New York or anybody.”

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Trivia answer: Five, the first in 1985, the last in 1997.

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And finally: Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley asked about the statement Dennis Rodman’s agent, Steve Chasman, made that his client was considering two “warm-weather contenders” before signing with the Dallas Mavericks:

“He was talking about warm-weather planets--Mars and Mercury.”