De La Hoya’s Age Ought to Be a Consideration

He’s 27, which means Oscar De La Hoya right now is about as good as he’s ever going to be, no matter how many new versions of himself he chooses to unveil.

Anyway, as he displayed Saturday against a terribly overmatched Derrell Coley, each “new Oscar” is remarkably similar to the old.

And 27 is way past time to be tinkering with your style, your identity, your corner and your proper weight class.

So, apparently he’s resolved to stick it out with trainer Robert Alcazar, who makes both De La Hoya and his father feel comfortable (a rare two-fer).

That resolved, let’s take a quick look into De La Hoya 2000, and beyond . . .

1. He’s still a great fighter though how great will be measured by the next two or three years. OK, so Coley was his least dangerous foe since 1997. But De La Hoya again showed the sport’s best combination of hand-speed and accuracy, even counting Roy Jones Jr.

2. His chin remains vulnerable--see Coley, fourth round--especially when Alcazar, who does not put much thought into defense, is training him. In his early days with Alcazar, De La Hoya, using the same, hunched-over, stand-still style, was knocked down twice . . . by lightweights.

3. He’s not ready to chase Felix Trinidad up to the 154-pound class. Why did Oscar run in the last four rounds against Trinidad? Because he didn’t want to get hit any more, and that was at 147 pounds, an awkward weight for Trinidad.

4. It’s better to fight Shane Mosley in June and wait until November to get Trinidad for the rematch at an in-between 150 pounds. This is assuming (as I do) that Trinidad knocks out David Reid this weekend.

Mosley is tremendously tough, and hungrier, but he’s zooming way up from lightweight and De La Hoya has always loved fighting little guys making the big weight-jump.

5. He’ll beat Trinidad, then beat him again in 2001, a measure not so much of any “new Oscar,” but of what he has always had (and sometimes ignored): The will to fully realize this era’s greatest boxing talent.

THE BIG PICTURE

The first reaction, to both incidents, was disgust:

Darryl Strawberry, again?

Marty McSorley, are you nuts?

If neither plays their sport professionally again, a major possibility, maybe we can step back and, with a little more perspective, at least acknowledge that it’s right that they’ve grabbed the headlines together one last time, at this particular time.

These men are saying goodbye in a way that symbolizes the New Age of Sports and Entertainment, the Era of Marrying Multimillionaires and special Annulment Editions of Dateline NBC and ESPN.com insta-polls on which of Chris Berman’s hairstyles is spiffiest.

Strawberry and McSorley probably had to blow up for good in the early days of 2000. They both seem so last millennium: Drug problem? Goons in the NHL? Where’s the Fox-reality drama or the Palm Pilot-uplink in that?

And there are so many other 20th century heroes left to go . . .

* Rickey Henderson: Nobody stole more bases or seems more tired each time he wanders into camp late, and whining.

* Dennis Rodman: Somewhere around 2025, he’ll take his child on his knee and say, “Son, please don’t ever do anything I did.”

* George Steinbrenner: Buying control of the New Jersey Nets is the definition of sporting self-destruction.

* Mike Tyson: In 20 years, he’ll be more Jerry Lewis than Joe Louis--revered in Europe, a flabby joke in U.S.

* Bob Knight: Wins 2000 national championship, and next seven in a row, and succeeds President George W. Bush in 2008.

WEEKEND TALKING POINTS

1. Tonya Harding, and friends: A ski-masked friend with a tire iron on Nancy Kerrigan, a hubcap on her boyfriend. All she needs is a race car, a dog, a top hat and she’ll be close to being accused of a crime using every Monopoly gamepiece.

2. Arena Football League cancels season because of labor troubles: How to screw up your sport over money without the complications of actual success.

3. UCLA, USC, NCAA tournament jockeying: Hard to see how both get in, so after Trojan loss to Oregon, it’s Bruins’ berth to lose.

4. More UCLA: A 2-2 finish, with Bruins’ high computer rating and CBS’ push for a top West Coast draw, could land them No. 8- or 9-seeding and comfy first-round draw against a Seton Hall-level team.

5. Lakers at Portland on Tuesday: NBA pushed tip-off back 30 minutes to give Paul Allen and Jerry Buss extra time to plot takeover of the world.

6. Clippers 78, Atlanta 77: Jim Todd, savor this. Lenny Wilkens, you do not deserve this.

7. NBA trade-deadline fizzle: What do you get when everything hinges on David Falk and Donald Sterling? A lot of bluster and zero results.

8. Ken Hill, Angel ace: Hey, let’s be optimistic. Griffey and Green are out of AL, so it’ll be at least mid-May before his ERA jumps over 7.00.

9. Dodger center fielder: Best thing about battle between Devon White and Todd Hollandsworth is at least there’s a choice.

10. Anthony Mason, arrested in New York City: He’s most upset that he didn’t get to have Jennifer Lopez beside him in the getaway car (allegedly).

LEADING QUESTIONS

Is NBC feeling a little blessed today, or what?

First, the network with the faltering NBA ratings gets Vince Carter flying for an NBA-high 51 points against Phoenix early in the day. . .

Then, ABC is stuck with Tiger Woods, trailing all day. . .

And finally, NBC ends with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal racing past the Houston Rockets, with Bryant starting off on pace to get 60 or more if he wanted. . .

But wasn’t the best part of it--if you’re talking about basketball, not about NBC’s favorite showboat, look-at-me generation hoopster ball--that Bryant scored his 18 first-quarter points in the flow, then, when he cooled down, started passing the ball to anyone open?

Or maybe it was O’Neal’s weekly stab at a triple-double?

Can NBC hype team ball? Will it even try?