Gail Goodrich

Former NBA and ABA player Dennis Hamilton died Monday night in Chandler, Ariz. He was 68. Hamilton played for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1967-68 and with the Atlanta Hawks in 1968-69. He played a season for the ABA's Pittsburgh Pipers and another for the Kentucky Colonels in 1970-71. Though Hamilton wasn't with the Lakers long, he proved himself to be quite dependable during his one season  in Los Angeles. In his 44 games with the team, the 6-foot-8 forward made all 13 of the free throws he tried (he appeared in two playoff games but did not shoot any free throws)

The 1971-72 Lakers championship team recently came together to raise $150,000 to benefit the West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation. Legendary Lakers including Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Jim McMillian, Jim Cleamons, Flynn Robinson and Keith Erickson were in attendance, along with coaches Bill Sharman and Bill Bertka. The Lakers won their first championship outside of Minneapolis, beating the New York Knicks in five games (4-1). The late Wilt Chamberlain was named NBA Finals MVP. Hall of Famer Bill Walton served as master of ceremonies at the Lakers Legends Charity Event, held Dec. 8, which raised funds for the inner-city outreach program Team to Win. “WCSMF is such an incredible organization and my wife, Joyce, and I were excited to be able to contribute to the auction,” Sharman said.

Upstaging an NCAA basketball championship game is a tall order, but Bill Bradley almost did it, 34 years ago tonight. At Portland, on a night UCLA won its second consecutive national championship, Bradley and his Princeton Tigers were playing Wichita State in the third-place game, which was discontinued after 1981. Bradley scored 58 points before fouling out with 5:04 remaining in Princeton's 118-82 win. He received an ovation that lasted several minutes.

The Bruins have been out of the race for weeks, but officially ended their three-year reign as Pacific 10 Conference champions on Thursday when 15-0 Arizona defeated California and eliminated third-place UCLA. Still, there are milestones to accomplish: UCLA's next victory this season will give the senior class of Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson its 100th career victory.

The Lakers won three of four games against the Sacramento Kings this season: * Dec. 8 at Arco Arena--Kings 103, Lakers 91: The Kings' frenetic energy ran the Lakers ragged, as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Ron Harper combined to commit 16 turnovers and Predrag Stojakovic came off the bench to score 19 points. Chris Webber scored 20 with 12 rebounds.

Often when UCLA basketball is the hot topic, and it constantly sizzled this season, John Wooden's name creeps into conversations. Comparisons to the Bruin teams coached by Wooden, a longtime Encino resident, are inevitable. Many successors have tried to live up to the legacy left by Wooden when he retired after the 1974-75 season, fresh from guiding the Bruins to an unprecedented 10th national championship, but none has been truly able to shake his sizable shadow.

He is 35, coming off a season in which he shot 40.1% for the Vancouver Grizzlies, and still in a fight for minutes, just like when he left as a free agent in the summer of 1993. But he's also a Laker again, so life is good. "I think I'm enjoying it right now almost as much as when we were winning in the '80s because of the fact that for me it's a re-start," Byron Scott said. "It's a rejuvenation for me. Getting a chance, No. 1, to be back in my home city, No.