It Would Be the Return of Match Game 77
Two days after Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game against the New York Knicks at Hershey, Pa., in 1962, Chamberlain’s team, the Philadelphia Warriors, played the Knicks again at Madison Square Garden.
In that game, Chamberlain was held to 58 points.
Tonight against the Golden State Warriors, all Kobe Bryant has to do is score 77 points to match Chamberlain’s two-game total of 158.
Trivia time: What UCLA basketball player was part of the Bruins’ 88-game win streak and had a personal streak of 187 victories, counting high school and junior college?
The new king: “I feel blessed to be a King right now,” Ron Artest said on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” Wednesday after the trade that sent him to Sacramento. But the deal almost fell through because of Artest’s agent, Mark Stevens.
Jim Gray, who reported the trade for ESPN, said on Fox Sports radio, “The agent wouldn’t even let Ron Artest talk to the owners, the general manager, or the coach. So if you thought that Drew Rosenhaus was a handful, say hello to Mark Stevens.”
Tough security check: Reader Dave Czolba of Pasadena, a Pittsburgh native who has family members who are Steeler season-ticket holders, says attending games at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field is quite an experience. “I think they check your blood-alcohol level going into the stadium,” Czolba said, “and if it is too low, they send you back out.”
A different approach: Of the security for the Super Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit, comedian Argus Hamilton says, “It will be tight. Ticket-holders have been warned that the moment Bill Ford enters the stadium, they should sit up straight and look profitable.”
It was Big D: Dozens of readers responded to set the record straight about a Sandy Koufax item in Thursday’s Morning Briefing. After Koufax pitched a no-hitter at Philadelphia on June 4, 1964, it was Don Drysdale who asked, “Did we win?”
Drysdale had been given the night off to attend a charity event in Washington and was later told of the no-hitter by sportswriters after he arrived in Philadelphia.
Looking back: On this day in 1973, UCLA, with an 82-63 victory over Notre Dame, broke the NCAA record for consecutive victories with win No. 61, as Bill Walton had 16 points, 15 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. The old record of 60 victories in a row was set by the 1956-57 San Francisco Dons, the season after Bill Russell and K.C. Jones graduated.
Trivia answer: Larry Hollyfield. His Compton High team was undefeated for two seasons, winning 66 in a row. He spent one season at Compton College, which went 33-0 and won a state championship. He then played three seasons at UCLA.
And finally: Of quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Hasselbeck, Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Roethlisberger vs. Hasselbeck sounds more like a beer-tasting contest than a Super Bowl.”
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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.
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