The Message Is a Little Too Deadly

New York Knick Coach Pat Riley told Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune of a meeting with the team’s marketing staff last summer.

“The first artwork they had me look at was looking down on a basketball court,” Riley recalled. “There was a hoop, and inside the foul circle was the chalk outline of a dead person. I said I didn’t know if we wanted to go that far.”

Wrote Smith: “Tough town. Tough team.”

Trivia time: Who holds the Indianapolis 500 record for most starts from the front row?

Home, sweet home: As part of a radio-station promotion in San Diego, snow was blown over part of the right-field bleachers to welcome the Colorado Rockies on their first West Coast road trip.

Altitude crisis: From Todd Phipers of the Denver Post: “Don Nelson, coach and general manager of the Golden State Warriors, describing Shawn Bradley, the 7-foot-6 Brigham Young undergraduate who has made himself available for this year’s draft:

“When he sits down, his ears pop.”

Add Bradley: Dick Weiss of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that Bradley might be the best athlete ever at his height, citing that he hit .400 in baseball as a high school senior and scored in the low-80s in golf.

FYI: Discontinued events in the Olympic Games include the standing high, long and triple jumps, ancient style discus and freestyle javelin.

Looking back: The “This Date in Sports” segment on Tuesday, May 25, had a glaring omission.

On May 25, 1935, Jesse Owens set three world records and tied another in the Big Ten track meet at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Owens won the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds; the 220 in 20.3, the 220 low hurdles in 22.6 and the long jump at 26 feet 8 1/4 inches.

Add Owens: His long jump mark was 1 1/2 feet longer than the winning jump in the recent Pacific 10 track and field meet in Berkeley.

Ping-Pong scam: John Powers of the Boston Globe reports that they have found a way to cheat in table tennis. “Some players are using toxic glue on their paddles to help catapult the ball,” Powers writes. “So the federation has taken up random testing to detect culprits.”

Dissenter: Bill Walton told USA Today that he isn’t ready to anoint Michael Jordan as the greatest NBA player ever.

“I see no difference between Bird, Magic and Jordan,” Walton said. “New York is the only team that doesn’t constantly stroke Michael Jordan. And you can’t beat Michael Jordan if you don’t dislike him.”

Trivia answer: Rick Mears, 11.

Quotebook: Rolando Blackman of the New York Knicks on teammate Patrick Ewing: “It’s like a pie. He’s the center of everything and we’re the crust, nice and flaky and tasting good.”