Let’s See Him Fight His Way Out of This

And you thought your credit card bills were out of control.

Mike Tyson is 38. He’s $38 million in debt.

According to Mark Schlabach of the Washington Post, Tyson once owned six mansions, two white Bengal tigers and 110 cars. He spent $2 million on a bathtub for Robin Givens, his first wife, and has blown an estimated $400-million fortune. Court records indicate Tyson was down to his last $1,250 three months ago.

What does he do to dig his way out of that hole? Call Danny Williams.

Williams will be Tyson’s tomato-can opponent Friday night in Louisville, Ky., the first of seven bouts designed to get creditors off Tyson’s back.

“I guess life’s lessons have been pretty priceless for me,” Tyson said.

Trivia time: USC and Louisiana State, the teams that shared the college football national championship last season, have one common opponent this season. Name the team.

Clothes call: Joe Hawk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is gearing up for the Olympics:

“Athens was the site of the first Olympic Games. But did you know the first competition took place in the nude? ... That might have been fine for some track events, maybe even for some field events, but thankfully Games officials came to their senses before the following were added: fencing, team handball, weightlifting, the vault in gymnastics and any equestrian jumping.”

Royal flush: Speed will be of the essence for Big 12 Conference football defenses this season, with four teams using five defensive backs in their base formation and the rest of the league prowling in a 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 alignment at least 40% of the time.

Notes Sean Keeler of the Des Moines Register: “The modern Big 12 looks like a row of slot machines at Harrah’s: nickels everywhere.”

Dribble-drive: Rucker Park in Harlem isn’t the only place to find a good pickup basketball game this summer.

Try Rainer Beach High in Seattle, where Will Conroy and Nate Robinson of Washington, Jamal Crawford of the Chicago Bulls and Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart of USC were spotted last week.

But a look outside the gym caught the attention of Dan Raley of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“It’s hard to say which is more impressive -- all of the basketball talent collected inside or the fleet of cars parked just outside the locker room door, some on the sidewalk,” Raley wrote. “Crawford is driving a new cream-colored Jaguar, the twins a red Hummer and Conroy a new white Touareg.”

Trivia answer: Oregon State. The Beavers open at Baton Rouge, La., on Sept. 4, and play host to the Trojans on Nov. 6.

Bear facts: Former Texas El Paso basketball coach Don “the Bear” Haskins, who led the Miners to the 1966 NCAA championship, hasn’t been inside a movie theater since 1970, when he saw “Patton.”

But as Matthew Aguilar of the El Paso Times points out, “A man of the Bear’s legendary status certainly deserves better than sacrificing two hours for “I, Robot.”