They Threw a Stench Into the Proceedings

Losing to the Golden State Warriors, a bottom feeder in the NBA, can prompt a violent reaction.

Bob Sansevere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press expressed his disgust after the Timberwolves, at home, had lost to the Warriors Tuesday night, 115-109.

“Just a few blocks from Target Center is a garbage incinerator,” Sansevere wrote. “That’s not what stinks in the neighborhood, though. It’s the Timberwolves. They reek.

“The Wolves’ next promotion shouldn’t be another bobblehead giveaway. They should provide fans with something they really need, like nose clips.”

Bob, baby, it’s only one game out of 82.

Trivia time: Which school holds the men’s Final Four single-game record for shooting percentage?

Incentive? Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “One of the proud advertisers on the center-field scoreboard at Pacific Bell Park, along with the Chronicle, of course, is that well-known energy firm, Enron.

“Wait till Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent hear about the club’s new promotion: Hit the Enron sign, lose your 401(k).”

Anything else? Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, on New Orleans’ “desperation” to get the Hornets there: “If [NBA Commissioner] David Stern announced that New Orleans had to hose down Bourbon Street once a day instead of once a month, practice voodoo only on weekends and make the Mississippi River flow the other way, the mayor-elect would appoint a blue ribbon committee to look into it.”

Positive spin: Dennis Eckersley, former Oakland Athletic pitcher, estimates he has seen the tape of the dramatic Kirk Gibson home run hit off him in the 1988 World Series “about a thousand times.”

He says, “Just for the heck of it, I watched the whole game the other night on ESPN Classic.”

What struck him the most about it?

“I couldn’t get over how young I looked.”

Challenged: Jerry Greene in the Orlando Sentinel: “Cincinnati basketball Coach Bob Huggins decides to stay put, saying, ‘We still have much to do here.’ Yeah, Bob, like graduate somebody.”

More Greene: “About the Tyson-Lewis fight, you can sit ringside for a cost ranging from $2,500 to $10,000--but being seen in those cheesy $2,500 seats will be an embarrassment.”

Extroverted: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Now Charles Barkley says his race-card zings at the Masters were just a trick to make people pay attention to him.

“Exposed by himself as a half-cocked loose cannon, Barkley will never again be taken seriously. Tragically, the only career options left open to him are TV and politics.”

Trivia answer: Villanova, 22 of 28 field goals, 78.6%, against Georgetown in the championship game in 1985.

And finally: A new stamp honoring the Norwegian Soccer Federation’s 100th anniversary has forced the Norwegian postal service to launch an international manhunt.

The 1.3 million stamps have a picture of a soccer referee in action, but it’s the wrong one, and the postal service has no idea whose likeness it is.