No. 13 Pick Proves Unlucky for Celtics

Red Auerbach, president of the Boston Celtics, acknowledged that the club made a mistake when it took Michael Smith of Brigham Young as the 13th overall pick in the NBA draft.

“The only mistake we made, and it’s a simple fact,” Auerbach said. “We should have taken (the Lakers’ Vlade) Divac. But we didn’t know he could play.”

Smith has seen limited duty for the Celtics, 114-105 losers to the Clippers at Boston Garden Friday night.

Chris Ford, Celtic assistant coach, said of Smith: “You have to give it your maximum in this league. You can’t coast. He doesn’t know how to push himself day in and day out. If he ever wanted to prove people wrong, now’s the time. He has to gain the respect and admiration of his teammates, and there’s no easy way of doing that.”

Trivia time: Oregon State’s Gary Payton scored 48 points against Loyola Marymount on Dec. 19, tying former Beaver star Mel Counts for fourth place on the Pacific 10 Conference scoring list. UCLA’s Lew Alcindor had the two best performances with 61 and 56 points. Who is third?

That’s one way: Hall of Fame defensive lineman Art Donovan in “Fatso,” by Bob Drury, on playing in pain:

“Once I was with the old Dallas Texans, and we were playing the Rams, who had an offensive tackle named Tom Dahms. After he missed a block on me, he came up from behind and jumped up and down on my leg to make sure he snapped it real good.

“Three weeks later our crazy coach, Jimmy Phelan, suited me up and sent me into a game. ‘I can’t move!’ I screamed at Phelan. ‘I got a broken leg.’

“ ‘That’s OK, Fatso,’ he said. ‘If they run a play at you, just fall down and try and get in their way.’

“So I went in and I didn’t play half bad, either.”

Put ‘em on hold: Eldon Miller, basketball coach at Northern Iowa, was deluged with congratulatory phone calls Thursday after his Panthers upset 20th-ranked Iowa, 77-74, before a UNI-Dome crowd of 22,797 Wednesday night. It was the largest basketball crowd in state history and UNI’s first victory over Iowa in 77 years.

But Miller and his staff didn’t take time out to celebrate, proceeding with their normal meetings instead. Miller said: “We don’t delay those meetings much. I can always return phone calls.”

Still a bargain: The Sporting News recently listed the worst trades in the NBA. Included was the 1980 deal that sent the Lakers’ Don Ford and a first-round draft pick (Chad Kinch), to Cleveland for Butch Lee and a first-round pick (James Worthy). Asked by Jim Rome of KTMS radio in Santa Barbara about the the trade, Ford said: “Let’s just say when I call (Laker General Manager) Jerry West for tickets, he sends a limo.”

Starting in style: There appears to be no truth to the rumor that Donald Crump, new commissioner of the Canadian Football League, has demanded an office tower to house his staff.

Trivia answer: Stanford’s Hank Luisetti scored 50 against Duquesne on Jan. 1, 1938.

Quotebook: Bill Parcells, coach of the New York Giants, on his team’s two consecutive losses to the Rams: “I really don’t have to get hit in the face with a skunk three times before I smell it.”