Someone Else Who Is Sleepless in Seattle

Seattle SuperSonic Coach Nate McMillan, in an interview with Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times, discussed the pressure on a coach when his team loses: “It’s frustrating. When you’re losing, you don’t want to go out to dinner. You don’t even want to get out of your car and pump gas. There’s always somebody there who will ask you what’s wrong....

“When things aren’t going well, you feel that everybody’s talking about you. They’re whispering about you. You get kind of paranoid. You think about what you do and where you go. You don’t want to go out to the restaurant after a loss. You go home.”

Hey, coach, at least you’re paid well for your setbacks. There are other jobs, well....

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Trivia time: What is the NFL record for points in a game by both teams?

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Hard to please: Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News, commenting on the Oakland Raiders’ unimpressive 13-6 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Saturday: “They proved only that they might go down as the least convincing 10-3 team in NFL history. For now, the only thing they do consistently well is win.”

Isn’t that what they’re paid to do?

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Superstar scolding: Peter Vecsey of the New York Post, commenting on Allen Iverson and the struggling Philadelphia 76ers: “Iverson’s sorry shot selection isn’t making teammates better this season. At the same time his noticeably reduced reckless abandon at both ends has made the team worse.

“Everyone suffers when the MVP fails to play to a higher plateau.”

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Very short term: Jerry Greene in the Orlando Sentinel: “So this high school superstar gets a visit from the new coach at Notre Dame and says: ‘Coach, are you positive you’ll be here for the next four years?’ And the coach says: ‘No, but the next four days for sure.”’

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Merci: Olympic volunteers and Salt Lake Organizing Committee staffers can begin a crash course in French--the other official language of the Olympics besides English--with a CD-ROM created by a Brigham Young professor and a team of 17 students.

The disc has 14 self-guided lessons to provide a basic knowledge of Winter Olympic French in 15 hours.

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Presidential humor: President Bush to Joe Garagiola Jr. when the Arizona Diamondbacks visited the White House: “I’m always suspicious of guys who’ve got a famous father.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1971, the Lakers won their 24th consecutive game by defeating the Phoenix Suns, 132-106, on the way to an NBA-record 33 consecutive victories.

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Trivia answer: 113 points; Washington 72, New York Giants 41, on Nov. 27, 1966.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News, lamenting that the Rose Bowl became part of the bowl championship series:

“One thing about the Rose Bowl, the right teams always went, the Big Ten champ and the Pacific 10 champ. The Rose Bowl was the lone pure bowl, its greed contained in civic boosterism and traditional self interest. You know, local greed, the good kind....

“The words ‘Rose Bowl’ always have been the two most crisp in all of college football. The Rose Bowl spent most of the past century setting the bar, and now it lowers itself so it can get under it.”