Not all super teams win championships
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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.
