Reynolds Wired on Sideline

Jerry Reynolds, coach of the Sacramento Kings, is back on the sidelines wearing a heart monitor after he collapsed on the court Dec. 27 during a game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Kings made things a little easier on Reynolds the other night in his first game back when they ran away from the Dallas Mavericks, 123-96.

“Once the game started, I didn’t think about my heart,” Reynolds said. “I was more concerned with Mark Aguirre than whether my heart was pumping. If it stops, I figure I’ll find out about it soon enough.”

Add Reynolds: He was unconscious for about a minute after collapsing face-first during the fourth quarter of a close game against the Trail Blazers.

Reynolds remained motionless for six minutes before being removed from the arena on a stretcher. He spent two days in a hospital, where doctors determined that stress and a poor diet, not a heart attack, caused the collapse.

“I thought I fell backward,” Reynolds said after viewing a tape of his collapse. “I didn’t know I was lying there like a drunk.”

Reynolds is so excitable on the court that players, fans, a radio announcer and referee Blaine Reichelt thought the collapse was just another one of his antics.

“At first, I thought it was one of his regular tantrums,” Sacramento guard Kenny Smith said. “Then I realized it was serious.”

Reichelt was so convinced Reynolds was putting on a show that he called a technical foul on the coach but later rescinded it.

Last Add Reynolds: He said he had a nightmare in the hospital in which he was “lying there like a beached whale and Jack Nicholson comes along and says, ‘NBA action, it’s fan tastic.’ ”

When Coach Spike Dykes of Texas Tech was told that the Red Raiders’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State in Japan had no way of making the papers in the United States, he said, “Why do you think we scheduled it?”

Texas Tech lost to Barry Sanders, Hart Lee Dykes and friends, 45-42.

John Reid, a member of the Holiday Bowl selection committee, says there are some disadvantages to wearing the committee’s flaming red blazer.

“I try not to wear it in hotel lobbies,” Reid said. “People keep trying to give me their luggage.”

Quotebook

NBC football commentator Joe Namath, with Syracuse holding a 10-7 lead over LSU at halftime of the Hall of Fame Bowl on New Year’s Day: “I think this game is definitely going to be decided in the second half.”