Bob Hill

San Antonio fired Bob Hill earlier Tuesday, then tried to give Gregg Popovich, the team's general manager and replacement coach, a slam dunk. The Spurs gave him center David Robinson, who had sat out the first 18 games of the season because of back problems, and an assignment to win in Phoenix. Popovich missed the shot. He fired an airball. Wesley Person scored 29 points for the Suns, who won, 93-76, for their fourth victory in a row and fifth in six games.

Ross Porter died. "He fell into my arms," says Lin, his wife of 51 years, "and said, 'I am leaving.'" Anyone who knows Lin won't be surprised with what happens next. She orders her husband not to leave. Doctors and nurses call a code blue at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center and Dr. Ramin Salehi-Rad sprints from the hospital basement to Porter's upstairs room. It's late July, a little more than three months ago, and Ross is not with us. He does not have a pulse for 48 seconds before a UCLA medical team goes to work on that great big heart.

Rick Pitino, who led Providence to college basketball's Final Four last season, was named the head coach of the New York Knicks today, and vowed to make an instant contender of the team with the NBA's second-worst record last season. Pitino, an assistant with the Knicks under Hubie Brown from 1983 to 1985, had been the first man considered when interim coach Bob Hill was fired at the end of last season.

Bob Hill has been named acting general manager of the El Toro Water District. Hill has worked for the district for 18 years. He succeeds Ron Kennedy, who announced his retirement in April. The district, with an annual budget of $16 million, supplies water and waste-water service to 51,000 customers in Laguna Woods and parts of Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo. Hill's appointment to the $101,000-a-year job was made by the district's board of directors.

Jack and Dennis, two American kids growing up in the heartland. . . . Jack Haley was a rich kid from Seal Beach. He didn't play team sports in high school because he didn't like them. Besides, he wasn't very good at them. Instead, he surfed in the summer and skied in the winter. After discovering basketball, he married a UCLA cheerleader and started a family. Dennis Rodman was a poor kid from Dallas.

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.

The Cleveland Cavaliers interviewed Fordham Coach Bob Hill for their head coaching job about a month ago, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Saturday. Hill, 52, has a 257-212 record in seven seasons coaching the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. He was fired in December 1996 after a 3-15 start in San Antonio. The Houston Rockets exchanged first-round draft picks with the Orlando Magic, completing a complex transaction from 1999.