No Longer a Cook, but He Works With One

When the Lakers’ Caron Butler was Jay Leno’s guest recently, he talked about his difficult youth, which included time in a youth correctional facility and at least one minimum-wage job.

Said Leno: “I was a fast-food guy. I worked at a McDonald’s. Were you a fast-good guy?”

Butler said he worked at a Burger King.

“I was the guy in the back, behind the big grill, 6-foot-5 inches of me,” Butler said. “Forehead sweating, everybody pointing at me [and saying], ‘Look at the big dude.’ ”

He paused.

“Well, look at me now.”

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More from Leno: “I guess you heard there was a mix-up in the Iraqi election,” he said. “Apparently, by mistake, a lot of ballots were switched with NBA All-Star ballots and now the new president of Iraq is Yao Ming.”

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Trivia time: Actor Paul Giamatti, star of the movie “Sideways,” is related to what prominent sports figure?

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Check signals: Adam Sandler said on “Best Damn Sports Show Period” that Sean Salisbury worked with him in preparation for his role in the upcoming remake of “The Longest Yard.”

But when host Tom Arnold asked Sandler, “And you feel like he taught you things?” Sandler responded: “Not at all.”

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Popular alibi: Alabama booster and Memphis businessman Logan Young was convicted of bribery in connection with the pursuit of recruit Albert Means. During the trial, Lynn Lang, Means’ high school coach, testified that he accepted $150,000 from Young to persuade Means to sign with Alabama in 2000.

David Climer of the Nashville Tennessean wrote that Young’s defense was “based, at least in part, on the oldest excuse in the book. I’m sure there’s a legal term for it, but most of us know it as the ‘Well, I had been drinking quite a bit when I said ... ‘alibi.”

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Pet project: Tony La Russa has accepted a new deal to continue managing the St. Louis Cardinals through 2007 even though he might prefer another line of work. La Russa, who helped create the Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, Calif., recently told the San Francisco Chronicle: “If baseball players were as neat to be around as the pets, I’d probably do a better job of managing.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1972, Robert Douglas, the coach and owner of the Spartan Braves, an all-black team that later became the New York Renaissance, became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Renaissance won 88 consecutive games in 1932-33.

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Trivia answer: Paul Giamatti is son of the late Bart Giamatti, who as baseball commissioner in 1991 banned Pete Rose from the game for life.

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And finally: Tom Klimasz, a news producer at Channel 5, sent along another “Carnac” line from the “Tonight Show,” this one sometime in the mid-1980s.

The answer: “Send in the Clowns.” The question: “Instead of the national anthem, what are they now playing at Dodger Stadium before Dodger games?”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.