CSN Bay Area

Tony Parker didn’t know that the collector for the dues he had to pay as a rookie would be Tim Duncan.

“He didn't talk to me for a whole year,” Parker said Monday the day after the Spurs beat Dallas in Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal. “It was kind of weird coming from France and you have your superstar player that doesn't talk to you as a point guard, it's kind of tough, you know? Because you're supposed to talk to everybody.”

To the best of our knowledge, Stephen Curry talks to all his teammates, but this may simply be a flaw in his character.

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First, the NBA says Chris Paul got hosed by the officials at the end of Warriors-Clippers 1. Now it says Dwight Howard got hosed by the officials at the end of Blazers-Rockets. Seems clear from here that Rod Thorn ought to be officiating these games.

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In other NBA olds, the league has become a more direct arm-twister, advancing its Sacramento squeeze play to an even finer art in Milwaukee. ESPN reports that the league has the right to buy back the Bucks from incoming owners Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry if a deal to a bring a new arena to the city is not in place by November 2017. The deal includes a provision that allows the league to buy back the team for $575 million if a new building is not in the process of being built by the deadline.

In other words, the league is now squeezing the city to come up with $400 million to build a new joint, and will keep doing so until someone says no, at which point its team will go to Seattle. Or Virginia Beach. Or Las Vegas. Or Vancouver. Just to name four cities that either had or has been rumored at one point or other to have a team.

But probably not Oakland.

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And now for other franchise hilarity, this time in Hartford, where one new children’s crusade to get an NHL franchise back where once there were the Whalers. Seems that rumors had cropped up that big-deal money guy Arnold Chase was supposed to be interested in buying the New York Islanders and moving them to Connecticut as Whalers Deux. Nobody could find this rumor anywhere but local radio personality Scott Gray asked Chase, who hedged his bets a bit.

“This rumor is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, ” Chase said.  “It’s total fantasy.  With all due respect, sports is the last thing on my mind. I have no idea who the Islanders are.”

So the bet he actually hedged was whether he even knew what hockey was. He might. He just doesn’t know any of the teams.

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USC coach Steve Sarkisian got himself in some hot water with USC alums, but not for the usual reason of not winning enough. This time, he disrespected the shirt.

Well, one shirt in particular, that of freshman offensive lineman Toa Lobendahn, who was given jersey number 55. In the SCVerse, that can only be worn by linebackers, and they have the linebackers to enforce it.

“USC is all about tradition, and to put that number on means something,” former Trojan linebacker Willie McGinest said during the spring game. “We’ve got to have some meetings and conversations with Sark about that.”

They may have spoken, or maybe not, but Sarkisian backed down quickly, as anyone whose job security is beholden to alumni and their donations.

“It’s a little bit of miscommunication there, and I probably dropped the ball so we’ll fix it,” Sarkisian said. “It’s a great number and a historical number, and I’ve got a lot of respect for the guys who have worn it.”

In other words, Toa Lobendahn should save any pictures taken of him wearing 55, because it’ll be the last time he comes within six lockers of it.

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Steve Kerr, the clubhouse leader for the freshly vacated New York Knicks head coaching job, used to be the general manager of the Phoenix Suns. Thus, he knows exactly what coaching is.

“Coaches basically know when they go in that they are likely to be fired. It's a brutal business, it's a brutal profession,” Kerr said on Sirius XM. “I think back to a year ago when the Knicks were one of the best stories in the league, they won 54 games, I thought Mike Woodson was one of the top coaches in the league. He did a fantastic job and then everything fell apart this year for a number of reasons.”

And knowing what he apparently knows, he still wants this job? Oog.

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And finally, someone asked Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon what he told his team during a recent (as in Monday) team meeting. The response, according to John Boyle of the Everett Herald:

“The sky’s falling. The Mariners are four games under and everything’s going to hell.”

Now get out there and beat those Astros, damn you.