Sometimes a Temp Job Is Best Place to Start

Chuck Daly knows what Laker interim Coach Frank Hamblen is going through. Daly became an NBA head coach for the first time in 1981 after Don Delaney was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers after a 4-11 start.

“I went through this,” Daly said on TNT. “I took over the Cleveland team in December and went through the same thing. It is almost impossible because players have a mind-set from the previous coach. They see what is going on, and it goes downhill.”

Daly actually replaced Bob Kloppenburg, a Cleveland assistant who took over for Delaney and coached three games, all losses. Daly went 9-32 before being replaced by Bill Musselman.

But things worked out all right for Daly. He was hired as coach of the Detroit Pistons in 1983.

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Trivia time: Hamblen’s other stint as a head coach in the NBA came with Milwaukee in 1991-92. The Bucks went 23-42 during his tenure. What Buck coach did Hamblen replace and who replaced him after the season? (Hint: One was a future Laker coach, the other was a former Laker coach.)

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Career decision: Hamblen, as a senior, was captain of the 1968-69 basketball team at Syracuse, where he studied broadcasting. The school has produced such broadcasters as Bob Costas, Marv Albert and Dick Stockton.

Hamblen says he was thinking about a career in broadcasting until he came to a fork in the road and had to make a choice. He accepted a job as an assistant coach and scout for the San Diego Rockets, who moved to Houston in 1971.

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Off and running: Santa Anita is seeking to attract younger fans. Maybe that’s why the first race Sunday was named in honor of Isabella Szabo’s first birthday. And little Isabella was in the winners’ circle with parents Tom and Nicole Szabo and grandfather Gary Dimkich after Wooden Ticket, to the delight of hunch players, won the race.

First race, first birthday, so of course a bet on No. 1 was a winner. Wooden Ticket, part of a two-horse entry, paid $6.20.

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Who you going to call? A recent Morning Briefing item asked if the Angels would call LAPD if there was a crowd-control problem at Angel Stadium.

Reader Charlie Jenner of Los Alamitos points out his city’s police department also is called LAPD. That’s good to know, because Los Alamitos is closer to Anaheim than Los Angeles is.

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Looking back: On this day in 1975, Julius Erving of the New York Nets scored 63 points in a 176-166 quadruple-overtime loss to the San Diego Conquistadors. The 342 combined points set an ABA record.

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Trivia answer: Hamblen replaced Del Harris, then was replaced by Mike Dunleavy.

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And finally: Drag racer Eric Medlen, eliminated in the first round of the Funny Car competition Sunday at the Winternationals at Pomona Raceway, used to ride bucking broncos in rodeos. Of the similarities between his current ride and his former one, he said, “It’s all horsepower. It’s just a different exhaust system.”

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