Suffice to Say, Humble Isn’t Their Favorite Pie

Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach have more in common than the record for most NBA titles by a coach, says Fran Blinebury of the Houston Chronicle:

“Neither Red nor Phil must have mirrors on his walls, because a casual glimpse by one would show a reflection of the other.

“At nine championships apiece, they deserve to be listed on the same page of the record books. Jackson is the height of haughtiness. Auerbach is an artist of arrogance.

“But at the moment, nobody can touch Red and Phil, who don’t own an ounce of humility between them.”

Trivia time: Which Laker great was the first commissioner of the old American Basketball Assn.?

Tuning out: Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times, commenting on the NBA Finals:

“I don’t want to overstate the importance of this--give us a competitive, seven-game series next season, and the fans will be back--but we someday might look back at the end of NBC’s long affiliation with the NBA as the beginning of the end of the golden age of sports television.

“In recent days, two of the most powerful executives in sports TV have said out loud what industry insiders have been telling themselves and each other for quite some time: The golden goose might be laying her final eggs.”

Pre-peat: John Kundla, who coached the Minneapolis Lakers to three consecutive NBA titles from 1952 to ‘54, says the feat wasn’t appreciated then as it is now.

“They didn’t call it a ‘three-peat’ then,” Kundla told Newsday. “We didn’t think anything about it. We didn’t realize until much later what we had accomplished.”

Hall injustice: Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times says the Basketball Hall of Fame blew it again by denying induction to 80-year-old Tex Winter, a Laker assistant who is expected to retire after a 55-year coaching career in the college and pro ranks:

“Of the 246 individuals in the Hall of Fame, I don’t think any of them, including Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Red Auerbach, Larry Bird or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is more deserving than Tex Winter.

“Longevity and seniority aren’t the reasons Winter should be inducted into the Hall. Those 55 years are rich with pioneering accomplishments, unselfish service and coaching involvement in more than 1,000 victories.”

Short memory: A New York writer called Jason Kidd the biggest acquisition in the history of the New Jersey Nets’ franchise, but Eric Corwin of Sportspages.com begs to differ:

“I’ll go with a fellow by the name of Julius Erving, acquired from the Virginia Squires when the Nets called Long Island home and the league they played in bounced red, white and blue basketballs.”

For those too young to remember, that would be the old American Basketball Assn.

Trivia answer: George Mikan.

And finally: Nearly 40,000 fans attended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ “FanFest,” and perhaps no one was more excited than a woman quoted by the Orlando Sentinel. After getting Coach Jon Gruden’s autograph, she said it ranked “right up there with getting married and having children.”

To which Tom Fitzgerald of the San Francisco Chronicle replied, “That’s not the way Al Davis sees it.”