It Became a Genuine Circus Out There

PGA Tour player Chris Smith said he once played in a celebrity-pro team skins game with a guy who liked to clown around. Only this guy was a real clown--red ball on his nose, orange fright wig, the whole bit.

It turns out that Divot the Clown was a trick-shot artist and a good player. He just chose to wear three-foot long shoes instead of golf spikes. Divot ended up winning eight of the nine holes and the majority of the $10,000 pot.

“He didn’t speak to us the whole time,” Smith told the Associated Press. “I tried to shake his hand and he just honked. He was honking the whole time and after four holes, we were all mad at him.”

Trivia time: Who is the Laker career playoff leader in three-point shots attempted and made?

Paranoid: Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the conspiracy cry of the Milwaukee Bucks extended to their fans in Game 6:

“There was a sign that said, ‘Hey, Ref, which Sixer’s Your Son?’ And another that showed a cut-out of Commissioner David Stern wearing a Philadelphia jersey, smiling gleefully, holding real, taped-on dollar bills in his hands.

“That and the large photo cutouts of 76er guard Allen Iverson, his head superimposed on the body of a diapered baby, a pacifier in his mouth and a milk bottle in his hand, were probably the most offensive.”

Take a hike: Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle is thankful that the Bill Walton-Steve Jones NBA TV pairing on NBC ended Sunday:

“Jones thinks he’s some sort of national hero for challenging Walton’s comments, but most of the time, he comes off as an arrogant slug who loves the sound of his own cynical laughter. Walton is a first-rate talent who gets a little flighty sometimes. Jones is just a guy named Snapper, picking fights for no reason.”

The Cuban hour: Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks has become the first NBA owner to get a weekly TV show. “We’re going to try to do some things that are fun,” he said. “There’s a lot that you can do at 10 o’clock on Saturday night that you can’t do at other times.”

Stern, who has fined Cuban heavily for his on-court antics, probably will be a nervous viewer.

Surprise: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “The scouting report that describes a certain Cardinal pitcher as ‘quite a problem . . . by far the wildest I’ve ever seen . . . I recommend his release’ was written in 1939 about Stan Musial.”

* “That wasn’t the first time an Al Davis suit was rejected. It happens to him every day in the fashion world.”

Revival: Famous miler Eamonn Coghlan, in an interview with Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune, on waning interest in track and field in the U.S.:

“If one network here would take a chance with track, one night a week, it would help. In Europe, they can’t believe U.S. track athletes aren’t even known in their own towns.”

Trivia answer: Michael Cooper, 316 and 124.

And finally: Woody Paige in the Denver Post, writing confidently after New Jersey tied the Stanley Cup finals at 2-2 on Saturday:

“Inevitability has been prolongated, The Avs will win the Stanley Cup. They just won’t do it Monday night in Game 5 in Denver.