Choice Between All-Star Forward or Pencil Pusher and Paper Clips

Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune on the feud between Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls and General Manager Jerry Krause:

“ ‘Trade me or him,’ says Pippen. That’s no choice. Pippen is the only one who is worth anything.

“Well, perhaps Krause would bring some office supplies and a bag of lint. Maybe it would be worth offering him around just to see.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Laker record for scoring average in a season?

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Twilight zone: Guard Malik Sealy of the Clippers on the San Antonio Spurs’ Dennis Rodman:

“Whatever he’s doing gets him 19 rebounds a game. I might have to paint my hair orange. He might be the normal one, and all of us might be crazy. Ever think of that?”

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Sir Ernie? Kelvin Sampson, new Oklahoma basketball coach, on Ernie Abercrombie, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound swingman:

“He can play. He’s tough and has a Charles Barkley-type body. He wheels his big butt around like an anvil and is tough as a drunk ox.”

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Hallelujah: Alan Greenberg in the Hartford Courant: “The hockey season is saved because the hockey players are not the beyond-reality spoiled brats their baseball brethren are. For that, we should be thankful.”

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Conspiracy: Indiana Coach Bob Knight on 6-8 Brian Evans after a recent game:

“I thought Evans was much better in the second half; I thought he was a double agent in the first half.”

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Gangway: Update on Doug Atkins, Hall of Fame defensive end, who finished his career with the New Orleans Saints in the late 1960s from Mary Foster of the Associated Press:

“It was not just on the field that Atkins cut a giant swath. He rumbled around training camps--armed and accompanied by his pit bull Rebel--through bars, and over anyone who got in his way.”

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No strings attached: Jimmy Johnson, former Dallas Cowboy coach, is a proponent of bringing back instant replay as an officiating tool but says the review official in the booth should be separate from the crew on the field.

“Don’t put a puppet up there where he is going to be afraid to overturn a call by his friend on the field,” Johnson said.

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Hot property: Guard Jesse Sapolu of the San Francisco 49ers on the prospect of losing offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan as a coach to another franchise:

“Whoever has the ability to hire him is going to be very, very, very lucky, believe me.”

Will anyone from the Raiders second that sentiment?

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Trade-off: From the Associated Press: “Seven years ago, St. Louis lost a bad NFL team. On Tuesday, the city got one back.”

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Trivia answer: Elgin Baylor, 38.3 points in 1961-62.

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Quotebook: NBC’s Conan O’Brien: “The hockey strike has been settled. . . . They’ve finally stopped bickering, and now they can get down to some serious bloodshed.”