Not much punch for the price

Sports Illustrated’s list of this year’s highest-paid athletes includes a trend that should make general managers a bit uneasy.

After removing athletes from golf, auto racing and boxing from the top 20, eight of the remaining 13 have never won a championship -- and their price tag adds up to some $200 million.

The list includes (cue up Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” as background music):

* Kevin Garnett -- Makes $29 million but is still begging for something more: Please trade Kobe here, please trade Kobe here -- uh, but not for me!

* Alex Rodriguez -- Surely $28 million comes in handy when you’re trying to follow in Wade Boggs’ cleat prints; where is Margo Adams these days anyway?

* Barry Bonds -- Sits home at night counting his $23 million and sticking pins in a Scott Spiezio doll.

* Jason Giambi -- For $22 million, you’d think a guy could take a home run trot without getting injured.

An idea whose time has come -- again

The latest challenge to the NFL monopoly on professional football will come in August 2008, when the United Football League plans to kick off.

The league has already landed one big name: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (A league that won’t fine me for ripping officials? Sign me up!).

Cuban has yet to blog on the Golden State Warriors’ first-round victory, but he did chime in with musings about the new league: “Is it crazy to try to compete with the NFL?” He might want to run that by those who lost money on the World Football League, the U.S. Football League and the XFL.

Peyton no,

Eli maybe

UFL officials say the league will not compete with the NFL for top players, “but rather try to draw borderline players.” There are plenty of those. The league will locate franchises in markets unoccupied by an NFL team. That means Los Angeles and Anaheim will be candidates, as well as, it could be argued, Oakland.

Trivia time

What year did a Cleveland sports team last win a major professional championship?

This league just doesn’t rate

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says research shows that his league has “50 million fans” but “people who follow this game who are passionate about the game don’t watch it on TV in the United States as much as we’d all like.”

The obvious answer to the problem might be to get NHL games on accessible TV, but Bettman instead offered the excuse, “I think it’s a little unfair to define us based on traditional television ratings.”

So where exactly are these fans, huddled around the Western Union telegraph office awaiting the second-period results?

Ready to abdicate

What do Kings fans think about the Ducks getting their hands on the Stanley Cup?

Reader Dominique Atoigue of Santa Barbara was pretty clear about that subject in an e-mail:

“These finals make me sick to my stomach. I will probably experience a mental breakdown if the Ducks win the Cup, and highly doubt I’ll renew my season tickets if they do, since the ultimate goal for Kings’ fans will no longer be desirable.”

Trivia answer

Football’s Cleveland Browns in 1964 -- 20 years before LeBron James was born.

And finally ...

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Larry Hughes said it best, describing teammate James’ 48-point performance Thursday: “You’re only as good as your last game. Right now, I’d say he’s great.”

chris.foster@latimes.com