Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.
(PRE)SEASON'S GREETINGS
Kobe didn't play, Phil didn't coach, the game started a half-hour earlier than it should have and the hometown hero couldn't hit the broadside of a peach basket. Yet a big crowd of 13,326 turned out for Sunday's Phoenix Suns-Los Angeles Lakers NBA preseason game at the Thomas & Mack Center and created a buzz that Cheech Marin could appreciate.
You can debate Las Vegas' viability as a future NBA market until former UNLV and Cimarron-Memorial star Marcus Banks sinks a basket (0-for-7 Sunday night) for the Suns. But there's no debating Las Vegas' viability as a one-off NBA exhibition site, even with Lakers stars Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson nursing injuries.
Actually, this year, we're going to be a two-off site, as the Maloof Brothers are closing the Ghostbar at the Palms (not really) to watch their Sacramento Kings do battle with the Lakers in another game that doesn't count at 7 tonight at Thomas & Mack .
Thomas & Mack Director Daren Libonati, who was still fretting that NBA patrons were standing 20 deep for a hot dog when the game tipped off at the strange hour of 6:30, said it took him five years to convince Lakers brass that playing two games that don't count here made twice as much sense (and dollars) as one.
But now that the turnstiles are proving him right, his long-range goal is to entice the Lakers to make Las Vegas their preseason home away from home. He'd like to put on four Lakers games at the Thomas & Mack, one for every week in October, and sell a miniseason ticket package for the four games.
"That would be a great little test model if we ever got a team here," Libonati said.
BRING 'EM ON
A three-game trip to Corvallis, Ore., in late April will mark the third consecutive season that UNLV will play the reigning NCAA baseball champion.
While Rebels coach Buddy Gouldsmith would probably attempt to schedule the New York Knights if Roy Hobbs hadn't retired after suffering that nasty gunshot wound, not even he imagined that the championship banner would be flying over Goss Stadium on the Oregon State campus when the Rebels arrive April 20.
"Schedules are put together so far in advance that things don't always turn out the way you plan," Gouldsmith said. "But in this case, we continue to illustrate our desire (to play) the very best that college baseball has to offer."
Two years ago, that meant Cal State Fullerton, which is back on UNLV's schedule. Last year, it was Texas, from whom the Rebels took two of three.
18
Shoe size of Lakers center Andrew Bynum
5
Number of languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian, Creole) spoken by the Lakers' Ronny Turiaf
1970
Year of the Cadillac convertible that the Lakers' Luke Walton calls his most prized possession (next to his gasoline credit card)
THE READERS SOMETIMES E-MAIL
Hi, Ron. After reading your amusing article on PGA fashion, I finally realized why I always pulled for Gary Player as a child. First, there were not a lot of TV viewing options for a young sports fan in the '60s. Second, Gary always looked edgy dressed in his all-black outfit. I usually rooted against Doug Sanders, because of his lavender shoes.
James Price, Las Vegas
James: Doug Sanders said he chose his wardrobe color combinations by going to the pharmacy and checking out the colors of the pills. Obviously, he didn't much care for the color of aspirin, unless of course it was baby aspirin.
"Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team."
Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers coach
AROUND THE HORN
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