‘80s Lakers Would Still Steal the Show(time)

The Lakers have won consecutive NBA titles, but they are not better than the Laker “Showtime” teams of the 1980s, according to Byron Scott, now the coach of the New Jersey Nets.

Scott, a member of those dynasty teams, told Fred Kerber of the New York Post: “They’ve got two great players in Shaq and Kobe and they’ve got a bunch of guys who are pretty good. With no disrespect to those guys, we had five guys who probably could have been All-Stars every year.”

Of the matchups, he said O’Neal would have scored on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but Kareem would have scored right back. “There’s no way Shaq would have stopped Kareem. Nobody could stop that sky hook.”

At shooting guard--Bryant against Scott himself--Scott acknowledged that Kobe would have won that battle. However, he said Magic Johnson would have given the edge to the earlier Lakers.

“They wouldn’t have had an answer for Magic. Kobe would have had to guard Magic, and Magic was just a beast in the post.”

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Trivia time: Which NBA team holds the record for the highest winning percentage in home games in a season?

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Eastern bias: Jon Heyman of Newsday commenting recently on Mo Vaughn: “Three days into his Mets’ career, Vaughn’s already made more friends than he found in three years in Anaheim, a baseball wasteland if there ever was one.

“Vaughn is an Easterner all the way, and Southern California has all the intensity of a deflated beach ball. Out there, patrons sometimes select seats by their tanning potential.”

You’re right, Jon. It’s usually sunny and clear here--but you wouldn’t know about good weather.

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Still bitter: Reuters reports that U.S short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno, who won the gold medal when his South Korean rival was disqualified, was voted by Korean college students as “most unwelcome” at soccer’s World Cup, a Seoul magazine reported.

The poll of 442 college students on the most unwelcome figure gave Ohno 174 votes to only 68 for Osama bin Laden.

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Alcott on the move: It’s a busy week for LPGA Hall of Fame golfer Amy Alcott. She threw out the first pitch at the Dodger game on Wednesday night and she’s the tournament host of the Office Depot Championships that begin today at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana.

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Uninvited: Texas Ranger third baseman Herbert Perry: “I guess I’m the only one of Steve Spurrier’s former Florida quarterbacks who isn’t going to Washington with him. I’m afraid that tells you about my quarterbacking.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1993, North Carolina defeated Michigan’s “Fab Five” team, 77-71, in the men’s NCAA championship game at New Orleans.

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Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, .976, 40-1, in 1985-86.

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And finally: Tony Kornheiser in the Washington Post: “Well, it sure was nice while it lasted. If this is the end of Michael Jordan as a Washington Wizard, at least let us agree that it was great fun....

“Michael Jordan was the best thing to happen to the Washington Wizards in 20 years. If it only seems to have lasted 20 minutes, well, they were a great 20 minutes.”