Not all super teams win championships

Super teams don’t always bring super results. …

The Lakers’ supposedly unbeatable trio of Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor played three seasons together without winning a championship. …

By 1972, when the Lakers finally won, Baylor had retired. …

Michigan’s Fab Five — Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson — never won a Big Ten championship, much less a national title. …

Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton failed to earn rings for the Lakers in 2004. …

Maybe things will turn out differently for LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and their cohorts. …

The World Cup, perhaps the most coveted trophy in sports, might also be the ugliest. …

David Villa and Spain are favored over Wesley Sneijder and the Netherlands in Sunday’s final, according to BetUS.com. …

The Angels’ Ervin Santana won’t lose often when pitching as well as he did Thursday in a hard-luck loss at Chicago. …

Ilya Kovalchuk and the Kings should keep talking. …

Each of the four players who have shot 59s on the PGA Tour have Southern California ties: Al Geiberger was a two-time All-American at USC; Chip Beck won the L.A. Open in 1988; David Duval carded his record-matching score at PGA West in La Quinta; and Paul Goydos, who did it Thursday, played at Long Beach Wilson High and Long Beach State. …

“Most people try to shoot their age,” Goydos told reporters at the Buick Open. “Today, I shot my height.” …

The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, hoping to convince Lane Kiffin and USC to open their 2011 season in the Georgia Dome, bills itself as the “ Daytona 500 of college football.” …

That’s apt because the Trojans, in the form of NCAA sanctions, will be driving with restrictor plates for the foreseeable future. …

USC basketball Coach Kevin O’Neill, like Kiffin a former Tennessee coach, doubts he and Kiffin will return together when the Trojans play at Knoxville in December. …

“We’d have to wear Kevlar instead of suits if we did,” O’Neill tells GoVolsXtra.com. …

Not everyone, it seems, appreciated Andrew Bynum’s gritty, sore-kneed performance in the playoffs, rookie DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings inexplicably noting via Twitter, “Bynum doesn’t deserve to touch the trophy!” …

Say what? …

Perhaps because she’s often an ungracious loser, Serena Williams might be the United States’ least appreciated star athlete. …

Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, attempting to establish himself on the ATP Tour, is a son of the ex-pole vaulter of the same name. …

North Carolina-bound James McAdoo, starring for the U.S. team in the FIBA U-17 World Championships in Germany, is a nephew of former Lakers forward Bob McAdoo. …

Carl Hubbell would have been John McGraw’s choice to start for the National League in the first All-Star Game, in 1933, but four days earlier he pitched an 18-inning, 1-0 shutout. …

He still pitched two innings in relief. …

The All-Star Game’s first run batted in came from a .147 lifetime hitter, New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez, and the first home run was hit by a former pitcher, Babe Ruth. …

Kirk Gibson was not an All-Star in 1988, when he was the National League’s most valuable player. …

Since then, according to the Wall Street Journal, five other All-Star snubs went on to be named MVP in the same season they were left off their league’s All-Star team. …

The most recent: Jimmy Rollins, three years ago. …

Alex Rodriguez, on the threshold, would be the seventh member of the 600-homer club, joining Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. …

He hasn’t said otherwise, so Brett Favre presumably is returning for another season with the Minnesota Vikings. …

Reader David Dow of Sherman Oaks e-mails to note that the late George Kell, a 10-time All-Star, should be added to the list of Arkansas-bred baseball Hall of Famers. …

Kell, who batted over .300 nine times, was from tiny Swifton, Ark., as was former Angels manager Bobby Winkles. …

Torii Hunter, another Arkansan, has never batted .300. …

Noting that an overwhelming majority of poll respondents said during a recent Dodgers telecast they were opposed to the All-Star game result determining home-field advantage for the World Series, Vin Scully added, “And I couldn’t agree with you more.” …

Amen.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com