Boycott Lacked a Blaze of Glory

A proposed fan boycott of Sunday’s Trail Blazer game against the Lakers at Portland never got off the ground.

The announced crowd of 20,580 for the home team’s 101-99 victory “was closer to the truth than it is most nights,” noted John Canzano of the Portland Oregonian, whose colleague, Steve Duin, had urged fans to stay away in protest of the “Jail Blazers” and their numerous brushes with the law.

“As protests go,” Canzano wrote, “this whole fan thing sort of fizzled.

“There were only a handful of empty seats. There were only a few angry signs. And the demonstration planned by a pack of fed-up Blazer fans?

“Well, the picketing mob outside the Rose Garden swelled to six before one guy left to go home and mow his lawn.”

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Trivia time: Who was the first guard to win the NBA scoring title?

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Hard living: Former NHL journeyman Andy Brickley, noting to the Boston Globe that he once had a knee ligament replaced by one from a cadaver: “I told them to get one from a 90-year-old woman, so it could match my other knee.”

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Bumpy road: Regarding Pavel Bure of the New York Rangers, sidelined down the stretch because of aching knees, Coach Glen Sather told the Edmonton Journal, “It’s like having a low tire on a Ferrari. It doesn’t drive as well as it should.”

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Party pooper: After running a poor time in the 40-yard dash and registering a vertical leap of only 28 inches, far below the average for an NFL-caliber receiver, Harvard’s Carl Morris told pro scouts that he had not been fully prepared for the workout. He had been vacationing in Cancun with his agent.

“I heard he was planning a draft-day party,” a scout told Ron Borges of the Boston Globe. “It better be on the second day of the draft. And late in the day.”

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You go, girl: Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel, after NBA Commissioner David Stern had threatened to pull the plug on the WNBA this season if a labor agreement weren’t reached by Friday: “Well, it’s nice to know Martha Burk will have something to do after this week.”

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Asking too much? Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on the Pirates’ trimmed-down third baseman: “Aramis Ramirez lost a lot of weight. That enables him to bend over to field a ground ball. Somebody please tell him that.”

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Not buying it: Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, on Yankee David Wells saying he’d offered to retire because of his controversial book: “Right. He was going to do that right after he retired from cheeseburgers.”

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Amen: Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, on the Mighty Ducks’ 2-1 Game 1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings: “Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 63 saves, breaking Billy Graham’s world record.”

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Trivia answer: Dave Bing, who averaged 27.1 points a game for the Detroit Pistons during the 1967-68 season.

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And finally: Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, on sprint champion Marion Jones confirming reports of her pregnancy: “If doctors discover it’s quadruplets, there goes the world record in the 4-by-100.”