Reggie Miller should make it a family affair in the Hall of Fame

Even as a virtual shoo-in for election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame next year, Reggie Miller is following in the footsteps of his older sister. …

Cheryl Miller was inducted 15 years ago. …

Once, the story goes, Reggie was reveling in a high-scoring game as a teen in Riverside when he asked Cheryl how many points she’d scored that day and was stopped in his tracks. …

“105,” she said. …

Who would have ever guessed that Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ return to Cleveland would create such a ruckus? …

Kobe Bryant is the top player in the NBA, according to a Sporting News survey of current and former players, coaches, general managers and broadcasters. …

Runner-up in the voting: LeBron James. …

No. 10: Pau Gasol. …

Lakers fans bemoaning Andrew Bynum’s frequent injury-related absences might consider this: Bynum in 2006-07 played in all 82 games, the same number Greg Oden has played in since he was drafted in 2008. …

USC’s free fall has been staggering: eight losses in its last 18 games, including blowout defeats against Oregon and Stanford a year ago and Oregon and Oregon State this year. …

Before last season, the Trojans had lost only nine times in seven years, none by more than seven points. …

Defensive lineman Kevin McReynolds, a 280-pound top-100 prospect reportedly considering UCLA, recently told Sporting News Today, “Whoever else told you they were the best cook in the top 100 is a liar. I can cook. …Then again, I don’t think you can find a single lineman who can’t cook.” …

Fickle Frogs: When Texas Christian makes its Big East debut in 2012, it will have played in five conferences since the mid-1990s. …

Infielder Juan Uribe “obviously wanted to be a Dodger more than he wanted to be a Giant,” Giants General Manager Brian Sabean told the San Francisco Chronicle this week. “He didn’t give us a chance to keep pace” in negotiations. …

Jamie Moyer, planning to continue pitching even though he’ll be 49 when he recovers from elbow surgery in 2012, conceivably could draw interest from the Dodgers. …

Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm was 49 when he made 16 relief appearances for the Dodgers in 1972. …

Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams is on pace to challenge many of Peyton Manning’s rookie passing records. …

Don’t bet on Chris Johnson’s reaching his preseason goal of 2,500 yards rushing: He’d have to average more than 300 yards a game over the Tennessee Titans’ last five to make it. …

Rafael Palmeiro, who pointedly (and falsely) denied using steroids on Capitol Hill, probably will find himself on the receiving end of a similar finger-wagging from Hall of Fame voters. …

Reader Bob Tucker of Solvang wonders if the upcoming heavyweight bout between Evander Holyfield, 48, and Brian Nielsen, 45, represents the second-oldest combined age for fighters “behind Frank and Jamie McCourt.” …

College basketball’s highest-ranked West Coast team, you might be surprised to learn, is San Diego State. …

Nearly 50 years since leading USC to its most recent outright conference basketball championship, John Rudometkin will finally have his No. 44 jersey retired Sunday by the Trojans. …

Fifty years ago Friday, Gene Fullmer fought Sugar Ray Robinson to a 15-round draw at the Sports Arena in the third of their four bouts, retaining his world middleweight title. …

The 79-year-old Fullmer, 2-1-1 against Robinson, will be inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in June. …

Tom Fears and Rick Mears both were born on Dec. 3, the Hall of Fame former Los Angeles Rams wide receiver in 1923 and the four-time Indy 500 champion in 1951. …

Gil McDougald, who died this week, played on five World Series championship teams with the New York Yankees but probably is best known for hitting a line drive in 1957 that struck pitcher Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians in the face. …

Score, after suffering a severe injury to his right eye and a broken nose, was never the same. …

Noting that Michael Phelps is dating Brittny Gastineau, daughter of Mark Gastineau, reader Jerry Li of Huntington Beach e-mails to suggest, “ NFL scouts are already drooling in anticipation of a pass-rushing offspring with killer ‘swim’ moves.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com