HOTBOX

Sporting News, The, July 19, 1999

You can take the player off tobacco road, but you can't take tobacco road out of the player (sounds a lot like a cigarette ad, doesn't it?). Michael Jordan is showing his true colors--North Carolina blue, of course--as he and designer Alexander Julian are tweaking the Tar Heels uniforms for next season. Writes Sherrod Blakely of the Raleigh News & Observer. "Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge said the `swoosh' logo that now appears on the uniform will be replaced by the `Jump Man' logo, a high-flying likeness of Jordan ... The logo is a symbol of the Jordan Brand, a subsidiary of Nike ... The Jordan Brand shoes have been worn by UNC players since 1995 ... Nike products bearing his name still account for about 4 percent of the company's revenue--or about $400 million." Sounds like the early '90s, when MJ was being underpaid by the lame and less-than-huggable Jerry Reinsdorf.

NO TIME FOR PRIMA DONNAS: Everybody knows Gotham is the city that never sleeps and that New Yorkers love to rave/complain about their city with the same passion as the upcoming New York Senate race is likely to produce (see Hillary vs. Rudy under Titanic egofest). But even in a city as big as NYC, you can always find a little humility--even with the traditionally bombastic and lately dull Bronx Bombers. Recently, Joe Torte moved Derek Jeter in the batting order, and Jeter's reaction was telling. Writes Shay Glick of the Los Angeles Times. "After manager Joe Torre switched him from second to third in the order, he said: `It doesn't matter to me where I hit. I don't do anything different. It's just that my first at-bat's going to be a minute and a half later. That's all.' Sounds like good advice for all those pretenders who moan when the manager moves them out of their spot in the order. Sad to say, for all you Yankee haters, but Jeter's reaction is another example of doing the little things to help your club be successful.

THE CUP CHRONICLES: Here's how new the Dallas Stars are at this whole Stanley Cup championship thing: In an apparent homage to The Who and Greg Louganis (oddly enough), the Cup was allegedly tossed off a roof of a house into a pool, suffering a three-inch ding (or the equivalent of a Bryan Marchment check into the boards). Writes Kevin Sherrington in the Dallas Morning News. "Vinnie Paul, drummer for the Dallas-based rock group Pantera, told The Wall Street Journal ... that it happened at his house, the night after the Stars beat the Sabres in Game 6 to win the Stanley Cup. A few of the Stars and 200 of their closest friends partied at Paul's house. At one point ... the Stars' Guy Carbonneau tossed the 35-pound Cup from his balcony into the pool. On one bounce. `It's his fault, Mr. Hockey himself,' Paul said of Carbonneau. Carbonneau denied he baptized the Cup." The Cup has since been repaired, and the NHL should be glad it was the Stars who were in possession and not the Cowboys, who likely would have employed their traditional "20-stripper" salute or gotten the Cup suspended for violation of the NFL substance abuse policy.