Plight of Evacuees Moves Leiweke

The stories of New Orleans evacuees and their struggles are everywhere.

One that moved sports executive Tim Leiweke concerned Jeanette Gray, who, along with seven relatives, came to live with her daughter Veronica’s family in a two-bedroom apartment in Huntington Beach.

After Leiweke saw Lisa Sigell’s report on Channel 2, he contacted Gray, met with her and her family and found them a separate three-bedroom apartment. Leiweke and the Staples Center Foundation will share in paying the rent for a year.

Also, as president of AEG, which owns and operates Staples Center and the Home Depot Center, he got Staples and Home Depot to donate furniture and school supplies.

Sportscaster Jim Hill, who made Leiweke’s good deeds public, said, “Tim was very hesitant to draw any attention to himself. He only did so with the hopes that it might encourage others to step up.”

Trivia time: The San Diego Chargers’ LaDainian Tomlinson can tie the NFL record of 12 consecutive games with a rushing touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys today. What two former running backs share the record?

More charity: TNT analyst Kenny Smith, a former NBA player, was in New York over Labor Day weekend for his father’s 70th birthday when he came up with a great idea for a gift. Not for his father, but for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

He thought, “How about a charity basketball game?” He soon had players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett -- 29 in all -- lined up.

As a group, they have pledged to donate more than $1 million. Smith has been working all week, arranging the game. It will be played today at the Toyota Center in Houston and TNT will televise it, commercial free, tonight at 11.

“I think I’ve had about five hours sleep the past week,” Smith said. “But every time I start to feel worn out, I just think about how those people in the Superdome and on the freeway overpasses must have felt.”

Sleep wins out: Satellite dish users on the West Coast missed out on the end of last week’s classic match between Andre Agassi and James Blake in the U.S. Open because of a TV blunder. Viewers on the East Coast missed out on the end because it was past their bedtime.

The five-set match ended at 1:15 a.m. Phil Mushnick of the New York Post wrote that he hung in there until 11:50 p.m.

“Sleep is undefeated,” Mushnick wrote. “It has never lost a fight.”

Looking back: On this day in 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the all-time hit leader with his 4,192nd hit, breaking Ty Cobb’s record.

Trivia answer: John Riggins and George Rogers.

And finally: Rob Dibble of FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” on Milton Bradley’s being nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award:

“To have Milton Bradley mentioned in the same breath as Roberto Clemente is absolutely disrespectful to the memory of Roberto Clemente.”

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