Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.
BULLS' NORMAN STILL STORMIN'
Every time I turned around at the Las Vegas sneak preview of "Basketball Man," the upcoming documentary about basketball creator Dr. James Naismith, I bumped into somebody who would get after you on defense.
Oscar Robertson. Norm Van Lier. Rick Barry.
OK, Oscar Robertson and Norm Van Lier.
Robertson, of course, was a great player on both ends of the court. But it was on defense where the three-time NBA all-star Van Lier excelled. Put it this way: The rock band Tenacious D wasn't named for Van Lier, but it could have been.
Van Lier's gritty style endeared him to Bulls fans during his years in Chicago during the 1970s and was at least partly responsible for him landing small parts in the popular "Barbershop" movies that were set in Chicago. The other is that his daughter works in the motion picture industry.
"My daughter, who got me in 'Barbershop,' is talking to (director) Ron Howard as we speak about my life story," said the man Bulls fans affectionately called "Stormin' Norman," who somehow is now old and gray and 59.
Van Lier said he still has nightmares about his turbulent past, and they have nothing to do with Jerry West or Gail Goodrich and the 1973 NBA playoffs.
In 1966 Van Lier was standing next to his cousin, Sandy Martin, who was mowed down and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Pennsylvania. Van Lier insists he was the target because he was dating a white girl.
"That was no accident," said Van Lier, who until recently did TV and consulting work for the Bulls. "Every day of my life I think about that," he said. "It was the '60s, man. I watched leaders get assassinated, presidents killed and it was like, 'Wow. What the hell is going on?' So to go to college and survive and live like I do today, I feel very fortunate."
OSCAR MIRED
I was sitting on a stool next to Oscar Robertson, occupying far too much of his time, at least according to a fan who was shooting me icy glares straight from Reykjavik after the sneak preview of "Basketball Man" at the House of Blues.
Finally, the man got tired of waiting and interrupted.
"Do you know who you are talking to?" the man said impatiently.
Before I could think of a suitable wisecrack, the "Big O" came to my rescue, slapping me lightly on the knee with a giant hand that could palm Sunday.
"He's from Indiana," Robertson said, winking at me. "He knows all about me."
Chet Coppock:
"I also loved the meanness of Norm Van Lier. He'd break a chair over your head to win a game."
former Chicago sportscaster
CHAIR PERSON
Like the other NBA legends and stars I spoke with, Van Lier said he empathized with Ian Naismith's desire to extol the virtues of sportsmanship that his grandfather envisioned when he hung those peach baskets on the wall in the Springfield, Mass., YMCA in 1891.
But then I mentioned to Van Lier that I remembered him once chasing after Sidney Wicks with a folding chair during a rough game against the Trail Blazers.
"You would have to be from Chicago," Van Lier said, or something to that effect.
"When you step on the court, you play and knock it out," he said of the Wicks incident. "But when the game's over, it's o-o-o-ver. Let's go out and have one."
AROUND THE HORN
St. Louis Rams and former Eldorado High running back Steven Jackson is one of three NFL players vying for a role in the daytime drama "General Hospital," going up against wide receivers Sinorice Moss of the New York Giants and Braylon Edwards of the Cleveland Browns in the Fox Sports Network's "Helmets Off: Tackling Acting" reality series. You mean they're just now getting around to replacing Luke and Laura? Next Thursday the Versus network (formerly OLN) will show a replay of the seldom-seen 1993 WBO championship bout pitting Tommy Morrison against George Foreman at the Thomas & Mack Center. Even though I know how that one ends, it's still got to be more interesting than Saturday's Boise State blowout of Utah on Versus An overmatched high school football team in Michigan has elected to forfeit its remaining games because it was not fielding a competitive squad. Sorry, UNLV football fans. The NCAA has rules against that.
84
Distance in feet of Norm Van Lier's longest basket, which stood as an NBA record for 24 years
11
Number of years since UNLV last won a conference opener in football
11
Number of consecutive road losses for UNLV heading into Saturday's game at Colorado State
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