SLAM FLUNK

As someone who has written for your magazine, I know how carefully you fact-check the articles therein. I can only assume then that the June 21 “L.A. Speak” (by Jamie Reno, Palm Latitudes) was a belated April Fool’s prank that had you howling into your display terminals as you prepared it. Mind you, I’m not referring to the fact that most of your list consisted of common basketball terms that have been used by sportscasters, writers and fans for a decade and are not at all peculiar to outdoor players.

And did you try to slip a sly Father’s Day reference past us when you said basketball players yell “My dad!” when they make a bad shot? In case some readers took you seriously, let’s reassure them that, on courts across the country, players say “My bad!” and not “My dad!” And they say it when they take a bad shot, not when they make one. No schoolyard player worth his salt would apologize for any shot that went in, regardless of how bad a shot it might have been.

BERNARD OHANIAN

Berkeley Editors’ note: Our bad, dad!