‘Hate L.A.’ pep talk never fails
Bill Laimbeer was never a fan favorite in Los Angeles when he was one of the Detroit Pistons’ “bad boys.” And Laimbeer isn’t very fond of L.A., either.
On “NBA Access With Ahmad Rashad” today at 3 p.m. on Channel 7, Laimbeer, now coach of the WNBA Detroit Shock, is shown giving a fiery pep talk to his team before it played the Sparks at Staples Center on May 18.
“I hate Los Angeles,” Laimbeer says. “I have from the start. I grew up here and I can’t stand it! They’re Lakers, I’m Pistons. I hate the Sparks too. I hate [Coach Michael] Cooper. He ain’t beating us. Let’s come together as a group -- care for each other, root for each other, pick each other up, cover for each other.
“But the most important thing -- let’s go out and kick some butt
And the Shock won, 79-73.
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Trivia time
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Laimbeer played basketball at what Southern California high school?
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‘Bad girls’ too
Apparently, Detroit has some tough women as well. The Detroit Free Press reported that April Fowlkes, a 5-foot-9, 300-pound guard for the Detroit Demolition women’s football team, nabbed a thief who allegedly stole a teammate’s car.
Fowlkes spotted the car at a service station not far from the team’s practice facility and started charging.
Two men saw her coming and took off running, but a third who was walking back to the car ended up getting pinned against it for 10 minutes until the police arrived.
“When he saw me, his eyes kind of got big,” Fowlkes told the newspaper.
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Scary thought
The NBA referee scandal may have eliminated any hope of Las Vegas getting a team. As comedian Argus Hamilton noted, “There’s now concern that an NBA team in Las Vegas could seriously erode the town’s moral fiber.”
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What he needs is a sobriety test
Cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov, who was tossed out of the Tour de France after testing positive for blood doping, pleads innocence.
The accusation is that he had a transfusion using his father’s blood.
“That’s absurd,” Vinokourov told the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. “With his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka.”
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Sad but true
A day after Vinokourov’s troubles, Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen was unceremoniously yanked from the race by his team.
Commented Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “Even veteran Tour watchers say they hadn’t seen anything this shocking in, oh, maybe five or six hours.”
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A Miami vice
Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp is among the 46 sports figures who have appeared in animated form on the Fox hit show, “The Simpsons,” over the last 18 seasons.
“ ‘The Simpsons’ is like an American icon,” Sapp was quoted as saying by the San Jose Mercury News.
Then, revealing how he spent his time during college days at Miami, Sapp added: “That’s like ‘Beavis and Butt-Head.’ If you didn’t watch those two in college, something was wrong. That’s all we did.”
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Trivia answer
Palos Verdes High. Note: The school Laimbeer attended closed in 1991 because of declining attendance but reopened in 2002.
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And finally
From NBC’s Jay Leno: “You have to wonder what’s going on in sports. Baseball’s greatest hitter has got this steroid thing going. You have an NBA ref fixing games, NFL dogfighting rings, the Tour de France leader just got kicked off his team. One more scandal and Americans could actually start watching soccer.”
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