‘Coach, This Is Just a Suggestion, but Maybe We . . . ‘

Coach Bill Parcells of the New York Jets, speaking to a group of high school football coaches recently, emphasized the need to be flexible.

He cited an example involving linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Parcells said Taylor was a loose cannon as a New York Giant rookie in 1981.

“He didn’t have a clue what he was doing,” Parcells said. “Like a dog chasing cars.”

In one game, the linebacker ignored a pass coverage assignment and sacked the quarterback. Parcells, then the Giant coach, scolded him for the mistake, even though it had a positive result.

When Taylor repeated the “mistake” later in the game, Parcells was livid. “We don’t even have what you’re doing [in the playbook],” he said.

“Coach,” Taylor answered, “we better put it in Monday.”

They did, Parcells said.

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Trivia time: Which current NBA player has played in the most playoff games without having won a championship?

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Why bother? Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune writes that five NBA Eastern Conference teams--Washington, Orlando, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee--are battling for one playoff spot, the last in the conference.

“With seven weeks left in the regular season, the race to get swept by the Bulls is perhaps the most competitive.”

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No ice dancer: Rick Tocchet of the Phoenix Coyotes still has a hard time coping with his two suspensions for knee-on-knee hits, which he considers minor infractions.

“The Coyotes signed me for a reason, and it wasn’t to waltz around the ice,” he said.

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His own funeral: The Portland Trail Blazers were routed Friday night by the Indiana Pacers, 124-59, prompting beleaguered Blazer Coach Mike Dunleavy to say:

“I would have tried to get kicked out, but I figured if we were going to play that bad, I was going to stick around and watch it.”

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Globe-trotter: Rich Strom of the Chicago Tribune notes that it takes some people a couple of years to accumulate enough frequent flyer miles to earn a free trip. Edmonton’s Roman Hamrlik almost did it in a couple of days:

“After helping the Czech Republic win the Olympic gold medal, Hamrlik logged close to 20,000 miles flying from Nagano, Japan, to Prague, with two refueling stops in Russia, then to Amsterdam, Minneapolis and finally Edmonton.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1965, Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics had 38 rebounds against the Lakers, a Los Angeles opponent’s record at the time.

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Trivia answer: John Stockton of the Utah Jazz.

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And finally: New Jersey Net players grew tired of Coach John Calipari’s constant talking about Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley before last weekend’s home-and-home series.

Said rookie Keith Van Horn: “I told him one time, ‘I think you love Pat Riley more than you love your wife.’ ”