They Don’t Want This Rookie to Make Cut

M.L. Carr, part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and a former Boston Celtics player, coach and executive, expects big things from top draft pick Adam Morrison -- but only, apparently, as long as the mop-topped Morrison steers clear of barbers.

“I see a cross between Pistol Pete [Maravich] and Larry Bird,� Carr told the Boston Globe. “That’s where Adam will be, somewhere in between them. He’s got the Pistol’s hair and Larry’s mustache.

“And it’s all about the hair. I cut Ben Wallace [in Boston] because he didn’t have his hair back then. He didn’t have his strength.�

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Trivia time: Three of the four players in NBA history who compiled 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists are former Lakers -- Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. Who is the fourth?

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Assisted living: Jim Eriotes, who this week became the oldest player to appear in a professional baseball game when the 83-year-old struck out in his only appearance for the independent Sioux Falls (S.D.) Canaries, grumbled to reporters afterward that if he’d been given a few more at-bats, he would have delivered a hit.

“Or maybe an intentional walker,� wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times.

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Runs almost like new: Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald, on Floyd Landis’ taking the overall lead in the Tour de France despite a degenerating hip that he plans to have replaced next month: “It’s a jalopy of a joint, but Landis figured it still runs, and he would get the maximum mileage before trading in for a newer model.�

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Vandy was handy: Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News, in the wake of French soccer player Zinedine Zidane’s head-butting of a taunting Italian opponent, pointed out that on-field insults have long been a part of sports.

“One of the great trash-talkers was Michael Jordan, who could elevate it to an art,� Lincicome wrote of the basketball icon.

“Classic is his description of teammate Will Perdue, whom he called Will Vanderbilt because Jordan said Perdue was not good enough to be named after a Big Ten school.�

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Diplomacy, please: NBC’s Conan O’Brien, on the opening of the G8 Summit: “This year the biggest problem will be keeping the leader of France from head-butting the leader of Italy.�

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Where’s Namath? Steve Aschburner of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, on guard Mike James, who signed a four-year, $23.4-million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves this week after going undrafted out of Duquesne and playing for six teams over the last five seasons: “James is such an underdog that Seabiscuit, Rocky Balboa and the ’69 Mets all have scoffed at him at one time or another.�

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Trivia answer: Charles Barkley.

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And finally: Former “Baywatch� star Pamela Anderson’s recent comment that she is a “soccer mom� and attends every game her 8- and 10-year-old sons play “may help explain why her sons’ games draw standing-room-only crowds of leering fathers,� wrote Greg Cote of the Miami Herald.