Basketball Players

Lamar Odom sat down, placed his Bible on a table and, with damp eyes, told the story of his summer. His infant son died while sleeping in a crib, a loss that has tugged at him since it happened in June. The autopsy report labeled it an "unremarkable" death, a seven-month-old's life snatched by sudden infant death syndrome, the latest in a line of losses traceable through Odom's years. Odom was in New York for the funeral of an aunt when Jayden Odom died.

Tony Parker, last of the blue-chip high school seniors on UCLA's basketball recruiting wish list, gave three reasons Monday after announcing that he had chosen the Bruins. Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams. Parker, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound center from Lithonia, Ga., was in the spotlight alone in making his choice later than most, but the moment he signified his decision by putting on a UCLA cap, he became part of a foursome. "I thought I would go somewhere where I could really succeed with the freshmen that came in with me," Parker said.

Bob Costas, the television sports analyst widely considered one of the best in the country, was no different from many athletes, sports fans and basketball experts 20 years ago Monday when Magic Johnson held a news conference to tell the world he was HIV-positive. "I was stunned," Costas said, "and my immediate thought was, knowing what we thought we knew about HIV, we would watch Magic Johnson die a public death, that he would waste away. This was what we thought we understood about the virus, that his days were numbered.

Maybe there's a reason incoming Kentucky recruit Nerlens Noel shaved "UK" into his flat-top haircut last week instead of opting for a tattoo. Tattoos are meant to last. What lasts, these days, at Kentucky? Barely a fortnight after Kentucky won its eighth NCAA title by beating Kansas in New Orleans, the basketball team's starting lineup announced Tuesday it was skipping out early for the NBA. The exodus includes starting freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb.

It was a day when he was lambasted on talk radio and the Internet, linked socially to Louis Farrakhan by a New York Post gossip columnist and threatened with fines by the NBA for not speaking publicly, and near the end of that day Shaquille O'Neal apologized. He said he was not a racist for his taunt of Houston center Yao Ming, said his relationship with the Nation of Islam leader was his business, and, simply by saying all of that, eased any pressure he might have felt from the NBA.

The next reserve center on the Cypress College basketball team will have big shoes to fill--Size 20s, to be exact. Seven-foot Don Peck of Cerritos, a soft-spoken engineering student, owns one pair of handmade, $650 brown dress shoes that he wears on special occasions. He knocks around campus and works part time in extremely rare, large-sized Nike basketball shoes costing $80 to $150.

Is this a great country or what? In six years, Scott Brooks has gone from Horned Frog to Anteater to Patroon to Philadelphia 76er. Me? Oh I'm staying with a teammate of mine, perhaps you've heard of him. Charles Barkley . One moment a guy is too small to play in the National Basketball Assn. and is happy to find work in the Continental Basketball Assn.; the next he's the starting point guard for the team of his dreams, the 76ers, and in so doing develops something of a cult following.

Kobe Bryant has said he wants to test the free-agent market this summer, maybe try life as a big Jordan in a small pond. Well, for the last five games, he has. With Shaquille O'Neal planted on the bench, Bryant has been the man, throwing up dozens of shots off hundreds of dribbles, jacking, jabbing, juking. And, oh yeah, losing. Which, in the last seven years, is what happens nearly half the time when Bryant plays and O'Neal doesn't.

Yeah, he said it. As a joke, Nick Van Exel insists. To get the guys laughing at a tough time. And he was misunderstood, he says now, not for the first, but for the worst and last time as a Laker. Van Exel said and did a lot of dead-serious things as a Laker, some wild, suspension-provoking things, and this is what he's going to be remembered for? "1-2-3 . . . Cancun!" It was a cold, cold time for the Lakers.

Name; Pos.; Ht.; Wt.; Previous school; Comment Jordan Adams; SG; 6-5; 205; Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy; One of the top perimeter shooting prospects in the country should boost Bruins' three-point accuracy. Kyle Anderson; PG; 6-8; 215; Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony; A versatile talent who can play the one to the four but will probably utilize exceptional basketball IQ as starting point guard. *Larry Drew II; PG; 6-2; 180; North Carolina; Played two full seasons and part of a third for Tar Heels.

KATIN REINHARDT, SANTA ANA MATER DEI, SENIOR The 6-foot-5 Reinhardt, a Nevada Las Vegas signee, averaged 18.6 points and was a prolific shooter from three-point range for the Monarchs. XAVIER JOHNSON, MATER DEI, SENIOR Consistency was the strength of the 6-7 Colorado-bound Johnson, who averaged 18.4 points and 9.3 rebounds for the Division I state champion 34-2 Monarchs. MARQUEZE COLEMAN, MISSION HILLS ALEMANY, SENIOR The 6-4 senior who signed with Nevada averaged 21.1 points and 7.0 rebounds.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisville Coach Rick Pitino , after Saturday's NCAA national semifinal defeat, had the courage to compare Kentucky freshman center Anthony Davis to Bill Russell . Sacrilege? "When you see this young man at the collegiate level, you realize why they're so good," Pitino said of Davis. "Not that their other players aren't, but he's so much of a factor. " Davis had 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots in Kentucky's 69-61 win against Louisville.

The Lakers got younger and shed more than $9 million in player costs Thursday, saying goodbye to two longtime franchise standards but getting quicker in the process. The Lakers acquired point guard Ramon Sessions and seldom-used small forward Christian Eyenga from Cleveland for Luke Walton, Jason Kapono, their first-round pick in this year's draft and less than $1 million in cash. They also acquired power forward Jordan Hill from Houston for Derek Fisher and the first-round pick they got from Dallas in the Lamar Odom trade.

Ben Howland has been exposed as wholly unwilling and/or afraid to stand up to his recent star recruits (almost none of whom become star players until they wind up at another program or the NBA). No need to any longer assign the blame to AAU ball for over-indulging entitled hoopsters when the UCLA coach just does more of the same on a grander scale and higher level. And a 54-year-old "coach" allowing his inked-up thug to outright bully much smaller players speaks so lowly of character that anyone with a sense of decency would distance himself from the current program.

Standing only 5 feet 2, Natalie Nakase was always one of the smallest players on the basketball court. That never prevented her from dreaming big. She was barely recruited out of high school but turned herself into an all-conference point guard at UCLA. Later, she became the first Asian American player in the professional National Women's Basketball League. Nakase has retired as a player, but she continues to dream. "My goal is to coach in the NBA," she said. That seems like far-fetched ambition.

Old A.C. Green. Sitting like a dean. Watching the Lakers go far. Along came a bear, and sat on his hair. And everyone said, Dude, that's bizarre. * This is the story about the little green bear that sometimes sits atop the head of the Lakers' big power forward. Don't laugh. This is serious. He is an important figure. He represents an important ethic. He is about strength, endurance, respect. We're talking, of course, about the bear.

Lisa Leslie remembers the man's words but not his name and for that she apologizes. Leslie was a second grader, terribly tall, terribly shy. The man came to her school assembly and began to speak. "He started out by saying something like, 'I'm not going to quiet you down. If I'm here to speak to just one person, I've done my job.' "I don't know why," Leslie says, "but I focused in on this man and he spoke.

Sunday was supposed to be the day the sports potatoes got off their couches. This is the NFL's contribution to society. No games — and no, the Pro Bowl is not a game. It is an exhibition. The kids down the block playing flag football hit harder. It is a day to be devoid of five guys, sitting at a table in a TV studio, making six-figure salaries to state the obvious for an audience that will nod in deep appreciation at being told that the Patriots need to establish their running game.