Harding Has Plenty of Fight Left in Her

Tonya Harding plans to make her professional boxing debut on the undercard for the Mike Tyson-Clifford Etienne fight on Feb. 22.

“It is my goal to be a future, undisputed bantamweight champion,” Harding said. “My proven athletic ability and competitive nature will help this dream become a reality.”

Said Jay Leno, “They’re calling her ‘The Great White Trash Hope.’ ”

Daily shot: The Lakers have become the butt of jokes on late-night television. Here’s the latest from Leno:

“Michael Jordan has announced that he will retire at the end of the season -- as opposed to the Lakers having retired at the start of the season.”

New role: Jordan had said he was going to turn over the reins of the Washington Wizards to the team’s younger players, but after a four-game losing streak, he started and played 37 minutes in a 95-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Observed Laura Vecsey in the Baltimore Sun: “When Jordan said he was willing to be a role player this season, we could have guessed what kind of role: Emperor.”

Trivia time: What is the individual record for points scored in a women’s college basketball game?

Confusion abounds: It’s not easy figuring out which college football teams are going to which bowl games.

Tim Kawakami in the San Jose Mercury News: “I remain unsure which teams are bowl-eligible, BCS-qualified, sponge-worthy, Nielsen-friendly or FDIC-insured.”

Ad-libbing: Gary Owens recalls that he and Chick Hearn were hired as the announcers for the car race in the 1969 hit Disney movie, “The Love Bug,” featuring a Volkswagen bug named Herbie.

“When I said, as the script required, ‘Herbie has got a mind of his own,’ Chick, instead of saying what he was supposed to say, came back with, ‘Just like Wilt Chamberlain,’ ” Owens said.

Angel fan: American League Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics, appearing on Fox Sports Net’s “The Paperboys,” was asked about the Angels winning the World Series.

“I think it’s great for SoCal,” he said. “If I wasn’t on the A’s, I’d be rooting for them.”

Trivia answer: The record is 60 points by Cindy Brown of Long Beach State in 1987 against San Jose State.

And finally: Jeremy Shockey, the New York Giants’ rookie tight end, was asked by CBS’ Deion Sanders how it came about that he became the NFL’s marketing version of Anna Kournikova.

Shockey and Kournikova were recently featured together in a back-page layout in the New York Daily News.

“Our marketing guy was talking to a newspaper guy,” Shockey said, “and the newspapers here are all tabloids, which means whatever you read is 50% true. The guy said, ‘You market him with techniques like Anna Kournikova gets marketed.’ And the guy blew it all out of proportion, saying that I want to be the ‘Anna Kournikova of football.’ ”

Shockey apparently wasn’t pleased.

“I think I’m definitely cuter than her,” he said.

-- Larry Stewart