Hill Made Move From Gritty City to Pretty City

After Grant Hill used his free-agent leverage to leave the Detroit Pistons for the Orlando Magic, Piston President Tom Wilson belittled Hill by saying:

“As great a player as he was, he wasn’t a reflection of the city. This is a gritty city. Even white-collar people think they’re blue-collar people.

“Grant is a fluid, elegant player. I am not sure the city responded to that.”

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Trivia time: Who was the first diver to win successive Olympic gold medals in springboard and platform diving?

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Overqualified? In Tuesday’s edition of The Times, 99 Cents Only Stores ran an ad that might interest Bob Knight if he’s seeking immediate employment: “Mr. Bobby Knight. We have an opening for a security guard--99 cents per hour!!”

Security guard. How can Knight pass it up?

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Too late now: Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, writing before Knight was fired as Indiana’s basketball coach:

“The soon-to-be-hottest-selling T-shirts on the Purdue campus: ‘Hey, what’s up, Knight?’ The real story would have been if he had responded, ‘Just chillin’, dude. What’s up with you?’ ”

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Appropriate: From comedy writer Earl Hochman: “After finishing second in his last race, Zippy Chippy ran his consecutive losing streak to 87, prompting his owner to announce he’s changing Zippy’s name to Mr. Ed.”

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Yawn: Tennis great Martina Navratilova, dismissing the proposed “Battle of the Sexes” match between John McEnroe and one of the Williams sisters:

“I think it would be great for McEnroe. I don’t see how it would be good for anybody else. Same old, same old. Apples and oranges. It’s like saying Barbra Streisand can sing as well as Elton John.”

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Remember when? In a column in the New York Post in 1968, Larry Merchant wrote: “The star of the New York [Knick] press stands 6-9, has a wall-to-wall wingspan, reads Albert Camus and doesn’t have to worry about editors cutting his best lines. He is Phil Jackson.”

“[He] is where the action is. He roams about like a Giacometti sculpture on roller skates, a jangle of limbs in motion.”

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Underachieving: Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post: “Right now, the $100-million Redskins are a mediocre NFL team. They shouldn’t be. But they are. And they’re going to have to face it before they can correct it.

“Eight quarters, each as consistently undistinguished as the last, is a pattern.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1959, Pat Lowry knocked out Joe Micelli in the main event at Hollywood Legion Stadium. What made the event significant was that it marked the end of boxing at the popular stadium.

The arena, which opened in 1920 on El Centro Avenue one block north of Sunset Boulevard, is now a Bally Total Fitness Center.

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Not so distant past: On this date in 1997, UCLA quarterback Cade McNown completed a school-record five touchdown passes in a 66-3 rout of No. 11 Texas.

It was the biggest defeat by a team ranked in the Associated Press college football poll.

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Trivia answer: Pat McCormick in 1952 and 1956, a feat matched by Greg Louganis in 1984 and 1988.

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And finally: Former Indiana University professor Murray Sperber, a longtime critic of Knight, told USA Today that he anticipates that Knight will continue coaching to try to break Dean Smith’s career victory record:

“I expect him to show up at Boise State or the lower depths of Division I.”