But Who Will Be the ‘Air’ to the Throne?

The Washington Wizards have been winning lately and Michael Jordan has reevaluated his role with the team: “I’m going to go back upstairs [as an executive]. These guys are going to have to know how to win amongst themselves,” he told Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post. “What I wanted to do by coming down here was to kick-start the whole process.

“I didn’t want to steal the spotlight. I didn’t want to relive my career all over again. I can’t.... I wanted to help them develop the proper attitude and dedication. Then [say], ‘You take it from there.”’

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Trivia time: When did USC play its first Christmas Day football game?

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Later, perhaps: The Associated Press reports that the slow preparations for the 2004 Summer Olympics don’t trouble the Greeks.

They have other priorities.

A nationwide poll found that organizing the Games ranked 18th among the country’s priorities, behind such items as unemployment, health care and education.

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Shame on them: Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times, commenting on Tampa Bay’s 27-3 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday: “This was an unforgivable performance by a joyless, juiceless team as drab as the Illinois afternoon. It was a team that seemed disinterested in the job at hand, one that could not match the Bears in effort, execution or energy. Compared to the Bears, the Bucs seemed listless, lifeless, lackluster.”

You left out lousy, Gary.

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Too good a life: Colin Montgomerie said in an article in British Golf World magazine that the lifestyle enjoyed by today’s professionals is out of sync with reality: “To be truthful, I think as golfers we are overpaid. It’s unreal and I have trouble dealing with the guilt sometimes.”

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He keeps going and going: From comedy writer Earl Hochman: “Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, who’ll turn 75 on Friday, dispelled rumors that he wasn’t coming back, saying he’ll only retire when he feels his back goes out more than he does.”

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Dawg day afternoon: Iowa football Coach Kirk Ferentz, a former Cleveland assistant coach, wasn’t surprised when Brown fans pelted game officials with debris after a controversial call on Sunday: “In ’93 the team released [Ohio native] Bernie Kosar,” Ferentz told Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “The reaction was unbelievable. It was like a bomb went off in the city.

“Coach [Bill] Belichick needed security people outside the team building and his home.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1941, UCLA defeated Florida, 30-27, to finish with a 5-5-1 record. Thirty five years later, the Bruins weren’t as fortunate in their final game, losing to Alabama, 36-6, in the Liberty Bowl.

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Trivia answer: USC played the San Diego YMCA in 1897, losing, 18-0.

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And finally: Jeff Gordon in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “In sniping with Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban, Los Angeles Laker center Shaquille O’Neal suggested that Cuban was lucky to be so rich. Cuban, a dot-com billionaire, took offense to that.

“‘Yeah, everything I’ve done is luck,’ Cuban sniffed. ‘But Shaq being 7 feet 2, 300 pounds--that was planned.”’