Over the Heel? Not in Kupchak’s Opinion

From one North Carolina guy to another, Mitch Kupchak says Michael Jordan is a different player than before, but ... “He’s clearly still at the top, one of the best in the league.”

Kupchak, the Lakers’ general manager, has been keeping a trained eye on Jordan’s comeback at 38 and he has noticed a few changes in Jordan.

“The obvious difference is what he does and how he does it differently now. He doesn’t play so much above the rim, which clearly was always the reason you moved to the front of your seat when you watched him, his ability to climb. Same thing with Kobe [Bryant] today, you move to the front of your seat because you expect to see something special.”

With Jordan, you’re simply not going to see it as often, Kupchak said.

Jordan is still going to score 25 or 30 points a game, says Kupchak, but he’s going to get his points on jump shots, free throws and backing in on defenders with savvy. But as for Jordan’s above-the-rim game, it’s far from his main weapon anymore. And Kupchak doesn’t see it improving as the season wears on.

“When you close in on 40, you don’t get back the ability to jump like you did before.”

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Trivia time: Which Pacific 10 Conference school has had the fewest first-team academic All-American football players?

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Fowl news: This is the time of year that coots interrupt their migration to stop at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. No one likes this except the coots.

This is where Flint comes in. Flint is a 3-year-old border collie from a company called Bye Bye Birdie in Escondido.

It’s Flint’s job to herd the coots back into the water. They come out, Flint herds them back in. The plan is for the coots to take the hint that it’s not cool to feed on the course, that they should find another place to do their coot business.

That means next month’s Tiger Woods charity golf tournament should get off coot free.

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Automatic: From Dallas, there is word that Cowboy owner Jerry Jones is serious about putting together a deal to have a Winston Cup car racing team by 2003. You can only imagine how this car would perform ... the driver gets fired halfway through the race? The engine is dropped? It stops short of the finish line? Oh, never mind. That’s the Detroit Lions car.

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Uniform decision: By the way, the Lions are going to wear vintage 1935-style uniforms for their Thanksgiving Day game against the Green Bay Packers, who will don 1939-style uniforms.

The Lions, who were 8-3-2 in 1935 and won the title game against the New York Giants, are obviously banking on two things: good karma from the retro uniforms and Dutch Clark coming back to lead the way.

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What? The stadium where the Reds will play, the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, is running $17 million under budget and will open on time. Pass the smelling salts, please.

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Trivia answer: Arizona and California, 3 (USC leads with 22).

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And finally: The Dallas Mavericks have game previews in German on their official Web site to inform the fans of what German-born Dirk Nowitzki is thinking. If the Mavericks had done the same thing for Dennis Rodman, he’d probably still be playing.