Lakers Have Cemented Sports Fans Everywhere

The most hated team in America? According to Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, it’s the Lakers.

Ostler wrote that the Lakers have inspired and united all of America.

“When the Lakers sputtered, fizzled and dropped off the radar screen, Idaho potato farmers high-fived New York stockbrokers, who chest-bumped New Orleans jazz musicians.

“The Lakers were a team all America could get behind not getting behind.”

But what about the New York Yankees?

“Compared to the Lakers, the Yankees are beloved,” Ostler wrote.

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Trivia time: Joe Morgan finished his 22-year major league career in 1984 with what team?

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Crime does pay: Reader Janice Hough, on the woman who avoided a jail sentence for embezzling $3,000 by agreeing to donate Green Bay Packer tickets: “This is the kind of judicial decision that could inspire Laker fans to some serious larceny.”

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One Laker supporter: OK, maybe not everyone outside L.A. hates the Lakers. Here’s what Detroit Piston Coach Larry Brown had to say about Kobe Bryant on Fox Sports radio:

“He’s one of the special players in our league and loves to play. This poor kid has been hung out to dry with all the stuff that’s gone on this season and I feel terrible for him.”

Of the Lakers, Brown said, “That’s a team that is going to be good and they are going to get a great coach and I think Kobe is going to have his best year next year.”

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Where does he apply? Does it sound as if Brown might be making a pitch for the Laker coaching job? He also indicated to Fox’s Andrew Siciliano that he wanted to stay in coaching.

“It’s like stealing,” Brown said. “I’ve been tricking people for over 30 years, doing what I’m doing, and I’ve got to keep doing this. I love it.”

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Not too fast: Before Brown can pursue the Laker job, if he’s interested, he has some business to take care of.

Bob Hille of the Sporting News, noting that Southern University fired basketball coach Michael Grant for pursuing another job, jokingly wrote that the Pistons were forced “to issue a press release stating that Larry Brown would continue with the team through the rest of the playoffs.”

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At least one perk: David Stern, a guest on “Sports Business Radio” with Brian Berger and Keith Forman, had this to say about what he would be doing if he weren’t the NBA commissioner or a lawyer:

“I’d probably be back at Stern’s delicatessen, which my dad owned. Maybe I wouldn’t be making a lot of money, but I’d never go hungry.”

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Special area: Bill Scheft of Sports Illustrated, on the Dodger Stadium renovations: “They also moved the field in right field back 10 feet to create a ‘timeout’ corner for Milton Bradley.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1994, Charles Barkley scored 56 points, including 38 in the first half, leading the Phoenix Suns to a 140-133 playoff victory over the Golden State Warriors.

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Trivia answer: The Oakland Athletics.

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And finally: Reader Ed Larkin, on the supposedly understaffed RFK Stadium ground crew that took 31 minutes to cover the infield with a tarp Saturday night: “That has to be the only understaffed department in all of Washington, D.C. ... ever.”

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