16, And On The Way Up

Jerry Sokoloski is in ninth grade at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute in Toronto and in his first season of high-school basketball.

"Everybody's nice; it's really good," he said. "I'm learning a lot. I have to work on the basic stuff: shooting, jumping."

One reason others are so nice might be because Sokoloski, 15, stands 7 feet 3 and weighs 320 pounds. And he's still growing.

"Most males grow until they're 21 or 22," said his mother, Dorothy Jessop, whose height is 5-7. "The doctors have measured his joints and the knuckles of his hands, and they predict he's going to get bigger, possibly 4 inches, maybe 6, they have no idea."

He's happy

The Charlotte Hornets' Anthony Mason, famous for complaining, has been riding out the NBA lockout surprisingly well. Turns out, Mason asked the Hornets for a $900,000 loan before the curtain clanged down, and they gave it to him.

He's not

For Charles Oakley, being traded to Toronto, locked out and watching Patrick Ewing in his role as union president haven't proved soothing.

"That's why we're in this situation," Oakley told The New York Times, "because you have all these so-called franchise players who aren't leaders, who don't make anyone better and don't even make the playoffs. This league has become all about fake superstars, about hype."

Skip the crossword puzzles

From the Gallery column of The San Diego Union-Tribune: "NBA star Kenny Anderson, professing unconcern about a New York Times story on his financial travails during the lockout that produced a torrent of vitriol from fed-up fans:

"`Some people don't even know of The New York Times. . . . The corporate world probably reads it. But a lot of my friends who I deal with, they read the New York Post comics and look at the pictures."

Gathering no Moss

Steve Hummer of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, commenting on 19 NFL teams passing on Minnesota Viking Randy Moss in the draft:

"Akin to 19 record companies auditioning the Beatles and telling them, `Cut your hair, get Ringo more involved, then we'll talk.'

"Or, to 19 editors informing John Grisham, `Nobody wants to read about lawyers.'

"Even the NBA, now officially the world's daffiest league, got around to drafting Michael Jordan by the third pick."

Trivia question

Who was drafted ahead of Jordan?

Hakeem Olajuwon, by the Houston Rockets, and Sam Bowie, by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Compiled by Chuck Ashmun, Seattle Times