We’ve Heard of Trash Talk, but a Trash Hug?

General Manager Jerry Krause of the Chicago Bulls was so conflicted about the trade that sent Toni Kukoc to Philadelphia “that he wept and demanded a hug from Toni,” wrote Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, who added cynically:

“The media was not there to see this outpouring, but Krause claims it happened. One envisions a lamp post bending down to embrace a dumpster.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 Conference men’s basketball record for blocked shots in a game?

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Trade-off: Pitcher Mike Hampton’s agent, Mark Rodgers, to the New York Daily News, on the Mets’ inability to come to terms.

“They decided to test-drive Mike for a year before they buy him. And quite frankly, Mike gets to test-drive the Mets. No one gets the keys until November.”

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Snap, crackle, pop: New York Yankee coach Don Zimmer has a titanium knee and it caused a problem when he went through the metal detector at the Tampa (Fla.) airport.

“It sounded like the Fourth of July,” he told the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger.

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Young old man: New Golden State Warrior Larry Hughes, when asked about going to California from frosty Philadelphia:

“It’s going to be nice to not to have to walk outside and have your bones ache, even if I am just 21.”

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Inside stuff: Former Chicago Bull center Luc Longley, to an e-mailer who asked what he’d learned from Michael Jordan: “What ties go well with what suits.”

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Realist: Spring training is usually a time for optimism. However, when informed that one oddsmaker had listed the Florida Marlins’ chances of winning the World Series at 100 million to one, Marlin pitcher Ricky Bones said, “I imagine the odds haven’t gone down very much.”

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E-negotiating: In their argument before an arbitrator regarding how much their ace relief pitcher, Mariano Rivera, should be paid this coming season, the Yankees quoted the number of hits he’d made on the team’s Web site.

That’s Internet hits. Not baseball hits.

The Yankees’ star shortstop, Derek Jeter, got 727,196 clicks on the Web site last season, compared to 68,974 for Rivera. Therefore the pitcher did not deserve a salary comparable to Jeter’s $10 million this year. Or so claimed the New York Daily News, citing sources familiar with the negotiations.

Rivera had sought a salary of $9.25 million. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the Yankees’ offer of $7.25 million

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Looking back: On this day in 1987, Seattle’s Nate McMillan set an NBA rookie record with 25 assists to lead the SuperSonics to a 124-112 victory over the Clippers.

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Trivia answer: Arizona’s Loren Woods had 14 against Oregon earlier this month.

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And finally: Robertas Javtokas dunked a basketball over a rim set at 11 feet 9 inches to set a world record Saturday in Kaunas, Lithuania, according to Lithuanian newspapers.

“The Guinness Book of World Records” cites Sean Williams and Michael Wilson, both of the Harlem Globetrotters, as setting the dunk record with a rim height of 11-8 on Sept. 16, 1996.