Prediction Quickly Lost All of Its Flash

Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald, writing before the start of the Laker-Spur series: “The San Antonio Spurs, a team of lunch buckets and construction boots, are going to kick the defending champion Lakers, all flash and panache, right out of the playoffs.

“The sizzling Lakers are the trendy pick for the championship because they haven’t lost in about four months, and Shaq and Kobe have done us the courtesy of putting down the rattles and pacifiers long enough to coexist.

“But why does it seem like people are forgetting about San Antonio’s consistent excellence? The Lakers have not been the best team in basketball the last three years. The Spurs have.”

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Trivia time: What was the largest winning margin on the PGA Tour in 2000?

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Crossing out bridge: Rick Morrissey in the Chicago Tribune: “Bridge will be featured at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City as an attraction sport, sort of an hors d’oeuvre before the feast, and if all goes well, it will be one of the main courses at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, along with the traditional winter sports. You know skiing, hockey, bridge.

“If bridge is a sport, then Madonna is celibate and I’m the poet laureate of the United States. (Roses are red, violets are blue and bridge is a card game.) If bridge is a sport, then so are the tetanus shot, river dredging and figuring out your taxes.”

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Raw deal: Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel:

* “Bo Hamburger, one of Denmark’s leading cyclists, was suspended for testing positive for a controlled substance--probably Pam.”

* “Did you hear about the yoga enthusiast who refused Novocain during a root canal? It seems he wanted to transcend dental medication.”

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Precedent: From the book, “The Baseball Timeline:”

“A federal court awarded $7,500 to David Levy, whose skull was fractured in a scuffle with Yankee Stadium ushers when he tried to retrieve a foul ball hit by Lou Gehrig in August 1934.

“As a result, major league clubs decided fans can keep balls hit into stands.”

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Lost at sea: “Scottie Pippen recently took possession of an 85-foot custom-built yacht,” says Michael Ventre of MSNBC. “In order to make his Trail Blazer teammates feel comfortable while on board, the ship has no rudder.”

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So do freeloaders: Reader Mike Gaynes to the San Francisco Chronicle: “A lot of the neighbor complaints about Dennis Rodman’s 40th birthday party in Newport Beach were related to guest parking. UFO’s take up a lot of curb space.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1997, the Chicago Bulls won the lowest-scoring playoff game in NBA history, a 75-68 victory over the Miami Heat.

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Trivia answer: 15 strokes, by Tiger Woods in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

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And finally: Manager Buddy Bell of the Colorado Rockies, ripping himself for leaving Mike Hampton in a game too long:

“Hampton just got to the point where he gave us everything he had, and I just pushed it a little bit, and I should have never have done that. It’s been like that all year--really indecisive stuff.

“I haven’t helped out much. It was stupid. Stupid. That was stupid.”