Hoping for Hoola Hoops in Heaven

You didn't know Richard Knerr, but his legacy is all around you.

When you go to the park and see a group of granola 20-somethings playing Ultimate Frisbee, he is there.

When you walk down the street and see this little girl swiveling her hips inside a Hoola Hoop, Knerr is a part of it.

And on a hot summer day, when you race down the yard and do a belly flop on that long, plastic Slip 'N Slide, Richard Knerr is smiling somewhere.

Knerr, the co-founder of Wham-O, the company that gave life to each of these beloved American pastimes, is dead at the age of 82. For the benefit of kids all over the world who've never gotten to try them, you have to think that these toys will be available for use in Heaven.

Hopefully Knerr will be there to enjoy them, too.

Greeks and Chileans go at it at Australian Open

The Australian Open needs a new working tagline, and I'm suggesting "It's all fun and games until someone gets pepper sprayed."

For the second straight year at the tennis tournament Down Under, police have had to eject unruly fans. Last year it was Serbian and Croatian fans going at it with sticks and flag poles.

This year was a seemingly more tame event, with a few Greeks and Chileans mixing things up. Three fans were pepper sprayed and five were ejected. The video, if you care to watch (which you should, if only for the Australian accents), is here.

I understand the bad blood between Serbs and Croats; it's not so long ago that the two countries were at war. I kind of see those two countries like the Bloods the the Crips, or the Sharks and the Jets on the international scene.

But the Greeks and the Chileans? Either that Australian sun is shining too hot (it's summer down there), or the beer is flowing like wine at the Open. From the looks of things, maybe both.

AFP Photo from Melbourne Herald-Sun

Bynum-less Lakers reduced to one dimension

With Andrew Bynum sidelined by a knee injury, the Lakers returned to old form Monday night in Seattle.

They won in overtime, but how they did it had to send Phil Jackson looking for the nearest equipment closet in which to meditate. Just like last year, it was all Kobe, all the time.

Bryant scored 48 points on 44 shots, and getting his teammates involved was hardly a consideration. Use Kobe's two assists or the rest of the box score -- the next highest-scoring Laker was Ronny Turiaf with 14 points -- as evidence that without Bynum, Los Angeles is a one-man show.

Bynum had emerged as a strong inside presence, perhaps more valuable for his rebounding (11th in the NBA at 10.2 per game) than for his scoring (13.1). But that was improving, too; over the past five games prior to the one in which he was injured, Bynum averaged 18.8 points.

All that to say that Kobe and the Lakers are back to square one. For the moment, they are tied for first in the Western Conference, and it would be absurd to pick them not to make the playoffs. But eight weeks is a long time, and there's no guarantee that Bynum will return at full strength even then.

So, once again, it's Kobe's team and everyone knows it. Can he shoulder the load for the next two-plus months, or will he crumple under the weight of carrying the team and start to look for a way out again? If the latter, he'd better start campaigning hard; the trade deadline (February 22) is just over a month away!

AP PHOTO

Let's play two: NBA schedules Heat/Hawks redux

In the NBA, this is about as close as you can get to a double header.

Upholding an appeal by the Miami Heat, the NBA has scheduled Miami and Atlanta to play a "do-over" of the final 51.9 seconds of their December 19 game.

The Hawks led 114-111, when Shaq fouled out with less than a minute remaining in overtime. Except for one thing: it was O'Neal's fifth foul, and in the NBA you get six. Oops!

So while Atlanta went on to win the game, it will be as if the game never happened -- for now. The Heat protested the outcome of the game, and for the first time since 1982, the league upheld their protest. Even though he can't shoot free throws well, the big man tends to have a big outcome on the outcome of basketball games.

The game will be replayed to its conclusion March 8 from the point when O'Neal was unduly ejected, and then, after some sort of short break, the two teams will go at it again. As we said, a double header!

My only question is this: what about the folks who thought they watched a real game the first time around? Are they admitted to watch the Choose Your Own Adventure ending, then shuttled out unceremoniously before the start of the feature presentation? Or do they have to sit at home and watch on TV, pointing out to their friends, Hey I was at this game?