Night’s Best Bout Came Outside the Ring

The most entertaining bout of the evening Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas may have been the one involving two sportswriters during a pre-fight news conference.

A few reporters were questioning promoter Bob Arum when a feud involving Ron Borges of the Boston Globe and Michael Katz of MaxBoxing.com, who was covering the fight for the New York Times, boiled over. Katz called Borges a shill for Don King, Borges in turn knocked Katz’s beret off his head, and the two went at each other -- sort of.

“It really wasn’t much of a fight,” said publicist Bill Caplan, who has been involved in a few press-room scraps. “The only knockdown came when Arum, who was trying to break it up, hit the deck.”

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Trivia time: Who are the only three players who have won at least six NBA titles without ever playing for the Boston Celtics?

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Fast thinking: Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, whose car is owned in part by David Letterman, was a guest on Letterman’s CBS show Wednesday night.

Letterman asked Rice whether he ever gets scared.

Said Rice: “If you’re starting to get scared when you’re driving, you probably should get out of the car.”

Letterman: “Is that right? You don’t get scared at all?”

Rice, aware of Letterman’s penchant for getting speeding tickets, asked, “Do you get scared when you’re going fast?”

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The bright side: Indy-car race driver Ed Carpenter is employed by Eddie Cheever’s Red Bull team, having replaced Rice last year. Carpenter, a guest on the “SpeedFreaks” radio show, said Cheever told him, “The good news is, if I get rid of you, you’ll win the Indy 500 next year.”

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Top this: Larry Bird, on the “Two on Two” special on ESPN today, says, “Somebody once told me there is more to life than basketball. I said, ‘What is it?’ And they didn’t give an answer.”

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Moderate goal: Of Magic Johnson’s business prowess, Bird says, “I always said Magic wanted to be a billionaire. I just wanted a couple hundred million.”

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Rising to the occasion: From Channel 9’s Alan Massengale: “Who knew the Lakers’ wake-up alarm would be the Game 2 end-of-regulation buzzer?”

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Looking back: Today marks the 66th anniversary of the opening of Hollywood Park. On that day, a Friday in 1938, a crowd of 25,258 wagered $512,942, an average of about $20 per person.

When 16,410 attended the races at Hollywood Park last Saturday, the day of the Belmont Stakes, the average wagering was $255 per person.

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Trivia answer: Michael Jordan (Chicago, 1991-93 and 1996-98), Scottie Pippen (Chicago, 1991-93 and 1996-98) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee, 1971; Lakers, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88) each won six titles. Bill Russell has won the most NBA titles as a player, with 11.

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And finally: From reader Jerry Greene of San Francisco: “The way Gary Payton is playing, the Lakers should give the ‘Glove’ the ‘Boot.’ ”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].