These Days, It Wouldn’t Even Pay for Parking

A recent mention in Morning Briefing about Los Angeles businessman Marc Stern’s giving away his tickets to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962 and Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game last month prompted reader Randy Thompson of El Segundo to e-mail another basketball ticket story.

Thompson said he attended the 1966 national collegiate championship game between Texas Western and Kentucky -- subject of the movie “Glory Road” -- and the Houston-UCLA game at the Astrodome in 1968 -- when the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak ended.

“Tickets were $7 for the 1966 game and $4 for the 1968 game,” Thompson said.

Trivia time: Who holds the record for most shot attempts in an NBA All-Star game?

Nonfiction fiction: The producers of “Glory Road” have been criticized for changing the facts of the story. “Why would you want to fictionalize a watershed sporting event?” asks Bill Simmons in ESPN the Magazine. “Imagine a Jackie Robinson movie in which Jackie joins the Dodgers in 1955 and wins the World Series over the Yankees with an inside-the-park home run in the seventh game. Would that be remotely acceptable?”

Promos everywhere: “It seems the Rolling Stones were censored by ABC during their Super Bowl performance,” wrote Michael Ventre of MSNBC.com. “As a result, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ came out as ‘Watch “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday nights.’ ”

A key innovation: Brooks Melchior writing on sportsbybrooks.com about webcam views of the Indianapolis Colts’ new stadium: “If you watch long enough, you might see workers installing goalposts that can move 30 feet to the right on command.”

Offers cash, could crash: Tom Naito of West Los Angeles, who had never made a bid on EBay and never driven a race car, submitted the winning bid of $50,350 for the right to participate in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race April 8 in Long Beach. The cash goes to Grand Prix Foundation charities. Now all Naito needs is a crash course in learning how not to crash.

Good question: Reader Bill Hessell last week asked: “When was the last time North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Louisville were all unranked in the men’s basketball top-25 rankings?”

North Carolina, which defeated Clemson, 76-61, Saturday, is now ranked No. 23.

This explains it: Jay Leno, on the split between Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow: “Apparently she met a guy with a car.”

Trivia answer: Rick Barry, who took 27 shots in the 1967 game won by the West, 135-120. Barry made 16 and scored 38 points. Michael Jordan also took 27 shots in 2003, but that was a double-overtime game. Jordan made only nine shots and had 20 points as the East lost, 155-145.

And finally: The Associated Press’ Ronald Blum, on Al Michaels’ getting out of his ESPN contract to ostensibly sign with NBC: “Do you believe in switching networks? Yes!”

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