Maybe He Found His Calling in Life

If it was attention Joe Horn was seeking with his cellphone touchdown celebration, it’s working.

The New Orleans Saint receiver attended Thursday night’s NBA game involving the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Hornets.

The Hornets’ mascot, after dunking off a trampoline, pulled out a cellphone and walked over to Horn’s seat and pointed him out. The crowd gave Horn a standing ovation and he stood and waved. That’s almost $30,000 worth of attention there.

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Trivia time: It was noted in Morning Briefing recently that a Boston Celtic player never has won an NBA scoring title. How many times has a Celtic won the regular-season MVP award? Can you name them?

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The West of the story: Regarding Friday’s trivia question, a number of readers e-mailed to say that, although Jerry West was never voted regular-season MVP, he was the MVP of the NBA Finals (1969, the first year the award was given) and MVP of the All-Star game (1972). West is the only player from the losing team to be named MVP of the NBA Finals.

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Safe assumption: Charles Barkley had this to say about the Portland Trail Blazers on TNT Thursday night: “I like watching those nutty Trail Blazers play because you never know what team you’re going to get with them.... They can be great, they can be good, they can be bad.... One thing I know is that they will probably be high.”

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Critiquing Charles: NBA Commissioner David Stern says this about Barkley: “Charles bring viewers to the set because they know he is going to speak very honestly and very extemporaneously. You never know what he is going to say; he doesn’t know what he is going to say.”

Says Barkley: “I always know what I’m going to say.”

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Detached fan: Ben Affleck, a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, said of the New York Yankees on Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”: “I recognize that they are what’s evil in sports. ... It’s not that there’s hatred, but this is the epicenter of all things that are wrong with professional sports embodied by George Steinbrenner.”

Of Pedro Martinez throwing Yankee coach Don Zimmer to the ground during the American League championship series, Affleck said, “Pedro behaved so admirably. ... That was a horrible display of Yankee aggression.”

New Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who followed Affleck on the show, said: “I realized after watching the last segment why I want to go to Boston ... because Boston fans have the ability to detach themselves from reality.”

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Trivia answer: Ten. Bill Russell (five times), Larry Bird (three), Bob Cousy (once, 1957, the first year this award was given) and Dave Cowens (once, 1973).

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And finally: From Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, in the column he does for America Online: “The Saints play in Jacksonville Sunday, and Jaguar officials will be ready for Horn’s encore. ... The Jags are planning to install mousetraps in the goalposts.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.