You Can See Him in Living Color, Not Black and White

Jay Leno, host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC, didn’t start out to be a comedian.

“I wanted to have a career in sports when I was young, but I had to give it up,” he said. “I’m only 6 feet tall, so I couldn’t play basketball. I’m only 190 pounds, so I couldn’t play football.

“And I have 20/20 vision, so I couldn’t be a referee.”

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Add Leno: “NBC is the network that years ago brought you the famous Jets-Raiders game that was cut short for the movie ‘Heidi.’ Remember that one? The executive who made the decision is still working at NBC. I haven’t met him, but then I don’t get down to the boiler room much.”

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Trivia time: Who are the five former NBA players whose jersey numbers have been retired by more than one team?

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Burn, baby, burn: From the Sporting News, at the top of a list of 10 reasons to hate the Dallas Cowboys: “If the Cowboys have returned from the ‘70s, maybe disco will, too.”

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Wrong number: Among the sports collectibles offered in the Upper Deck Authenticated catalogue is a 1971-style sleeveless Oakland Athletic jersey signed by Reggie Jackson, whose signature includes a 44 in the bottom loop of the first letter of his last name.

Jackson wore No. 9 when he played for the A’s in 1971.

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Back to school: In a letter to the Dallas Morning News, Bill Yielding of Carrollton, Tex., bemoaned the plight of the Dallas Mavericks: “Why doesn’t the NBA take a rule from the PGA, which requires a player to go through a qualifying school and maintain a certain stroke average to keep his PGA Tour card?

“If a basketball team does not win a certain percentage of games, (it) would lose (its) ‘NBA card’ and would have to go back to qualifying school.”

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Name game: Christian Laettner of the Minnesota Timberwolves was named after Fletcher Christian, the Marlon Brando-Clark Gable character in “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

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Maybe they should move: Before Jan. 28, when they drew a capacity crowd of 16,611 to the Summit for a game against the NBA champion Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets had not attracted a “home” sellout since their opener, when they played the Seattle SuperSonics before a full house at Yokohama, Japan.

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Trivia answer: Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia 76ers and Lakers; Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks; Julius Erving, New Jersey Nets and 76ers; Nate Thurmond, Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, and Bob Lanier, Detroit Pistons and Bucks.

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What, no Kareem?Noticeably absent from the above list is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose number has been retired by the Lakers, but not by the Bucks.

During six seasons in Milwaukee, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30.4 points, was a three-time most valuable player and led the Bucks to their only NBA title in 1971.

The Bucks have retired the numbers of six other players--Robertson, Lanier, Jon McGlocklin, Brian Winters, Junior Bridgeman and Sidney Moncrief.

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Quotebook: Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres, after failing in his bid to become only the sixth NHL player to score 50 goals in 50 games: “I’m not from a different planet. I’m human, man.”