They Both Went From L.A. to the Parquet

Bill Sharman and Paul Westphal, arguably the two best players in the history of USC basketball, recently met for dinner at a restaurant in Long Beach. Mutual friend Rob Yardley, son of former Stanford and NBA star George Yardley, brought them together.

Sharman retired from the Boston Celtics in 1961, and Westphal was drafted by the Celtics in 1972.

“When I was drafted, I found out about it by reading the small type on like Page 7 of The Times,” Westphal said. “The Celtics sent a telegram, but they sent it to Southern California College [now Vanguard University, located in Costa Mesa]. I got it three days later.”

Trivia time: Westphal was the 10th player taken in the 1972 NBA draft. Who was the future Hall of Famer drafted two spots later by the Milwaukee Bucks?

Another draft story: Sharman, before his 10-year, Hall of Fame run with the Celtics, spent one season with the Washington Capitols before they folded. Sharman said that when the Capitols called, informing him that they had drafted him, he responded: “You did? What for?”

Sharman in 1950 got a $12,000 bonus to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers and wasn’t even thinking about playing pro basketball. Only after the Capitols bumped up their initial offer of $4,000 a year to $8,000, plus $1,000 for moving expenses, did Sharman decide to also play pro basketball.

Welcome to the NBA: Westphal signed with the Celtics for $60,000 a year, plus a $5,000 bonus -- huge by 1972 standards. Coach Red Auerbach was not pleased that the team had spent so much on a rookie.

“The first day of practice he said, ‘You should be paying us for teaching you how to play the game,’ ” Westphal said.

A direct hit: Westphal, now Pepperdine’s basketball coach, said he recently saw the new massive parking structure on the USC campus, located about 200 yards from the basketball arena under construction.

Wondering why USC would need such a big parking structure for basketball, he said, “How many parking spaces do you need for a thousand fans?”

Something about it: After wrist surgery, Mike Cameron is expected to return to the New York Mets soon, which could lead to a demotion for right fielder Victor Diaz. Marty Noble of MLB.com wonders if this means that the Mets have “a Cameron-Diaz issue” on their hands.

Looking back: On this day in 1999, Charismatic, a 30-1 shot who’d run in a claiming race in February, charged to victory in the 125th Kentucky Derby, giving trainer Wayne Lukas his third Derby victory of the 1990s.

Trivia answer: Julius Erving, who was a rookie with the Virginia Squires of the ABA. Erving continued to play in the ABA until the league folded in 1976, then became a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

And finally: Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Q: What do you call a Laker team that missed the playoffs for the fifth time in 58 years?

“A: No-Show Time.”

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