‘Baywatch’ Star Gets to Face the Music Too

Dirk Nowitzki, who grew up in Germany, told reporters during the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals that he has a free-throw ritual to help him relax.

The Dallas Mavericks forward said he hums the song “Looking for Freedom” by his boyhood idol, David Hasselhoff.

Hasselhoff, who on Friday attended Game 2 of the Mavericks’ conference finals series against the Phoenix Suns at Dallas, thought he was hearing things when he found out about it.

“Now I stopped drinking a long time ago,” he was quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as saying.

Added Hasselhoff: “When I was on the road singing ‘Looking for Freedom,’ Dirk was 11 years old. It was No. 1 in Germany for eight weeks in 1989 -- three months before the Berlin Wall came down.”

TNT’s Charles Barkley, upon hearing that Hasselhoff was at the game, said: “It ain’t like he’s got anything else to do. How long has ‘Baywatch’ been over with?”

Trivia time: What team drafted Nowitzki ninth overall in the 1998 NBA draft?

More Hasselhoff: He was interviewed by TNT during Friday’s game and got other mentions. When Nowitzki -- who missed only two of eight free throws in the game -- didn’t connect from the line in the fourth quarter, commentator Steve Kerr said, “He’s changing the iPod to a new song.”

When Nowitzki joined the TNT crew on the postgame show, Reggie Miller said, “We revived David Hasselhoff’s career tonight. ‘Baywatch 8’ is coming out now.”

The choice was easy: According to the May issue of Dodgers magazine, Jeff Kent was equally fond of motorcycle racing and baseball when he was a junior at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. But his father simplified his son’s decision to concentrate on baseball by promising to buy him a truck if he got a college scholarship.

“They weren’t giving motorcycle scholarships,” said Kent, who ended up getting a baseball scholarship to California.

Bound to happen: Rusty Wallace of NASCAR fame, working his first Indianapolis 500 as a commentator for ABC, said on the final lap of Sunday’s race: “This is the most exciting Daytona 500 -- I’m sorry the most exciting Indy 500 -- ever.”

Looking back: On this day in 1993, Wayne Gretzky scored three times and had an assist as the Kings defeated the Maple Leafs, 5-4, at Toronto in Game 7 of the NHL Western Conference finals.

Trivia answer: The Milwaukee Bucks, who immediately traded Nowitzki, along with the draft rights to Pat Garrity, to Dallas for the rights to Robert “Tractor” Traylor. Dallas, picking sixth, could’ve taken Nowitzki but was able to pay him less and get an extra player by letting him slip to ninth. The Bucks had no interest in Nowitzki.

And finally: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on the NFL’s budgeting $10 million to check out the L.A. Coliseum and Anaheim for stadium suitability: “That’s $1,000 for a blimp ride over the area and $9,999,000 to discuss the findings over dinner at the Ivy.”

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