Durant takes talent to Harlem

Some NBA players might take their talent overseas while being banned from current NBA teams by the ongoing labor dispute.

But Kevin Durant found an ideal and fun way to stay in NBA shape during the month-old lockout.

He is staying stateside to hit the playground circuit.

The star forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 66 points Monday at Harlem's famed Rucker Park in an Entertainers Basketball Classic game, according to ESPN.com.

Rucker Park, located across the street from where the Polo Grounds used to stand, is famed for pickup games and leagues that have included greats such as Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving.

Durant's DC Power teammate and point guard Randy "White Chocolate" Gill has known Durant for nearly 10 years.

"He's young and hungry, and it makes your job real easy playing with a guy like that," Gill said after the game. "Most of the time, just give him the ball and get out of the way."

The Rucker league is known for teaching defensive techniques to the Washington Generals, perennial foil for the Harlem Globetrotters.

A perfect way for Durant to keep his game NBA ready.

■ PHILLIE SHOWS LOVE -- Philadelphia gets a bad rap for being a tough town, and newcomer Hunter Pence tried to show it truly is one of brotherly love.

In his second game with the Phillies after being traded from Houston on Friday, the right fielder apparently felt so guilty Monday about his .305 batting average for the team with the majors' best record that he tried to help the opposing Colorado Rockies pitcher.

That must have been why Pence went to the plate late in the game with the weighted "doughnut" still on his bat after using it for practice swings.

Try as he did to help out the Rockies, a teammate alerted Pence to remove the 1-pound weight.

■ BARREL OF INK FOR RYAN -- Rex Ryan has progressed from last year's much-publicized fetish for his wife's feet.

The New York Jets coach now has a fetish for a calf, which is his and about the size of a cow.

Ryan showed up at training camp practice Monday wearing shorts that revealed a new tribal-style tattoo on his right calf. The black ink starts at his ankle and winds to just below the knee.

"I just felt like it," Ryan said in a statement -- maybe the first issued by an NFL coach about his own tattoo.

Ryan received the needling in Hawaii last month from an artist who has "given me tattoos before."

Fortunately, they have not been exposed to the public.

He calls the design "mid-life hieroglyphics."

■ BARNEY AND THE 'CATS -- Boise State has its blue "Smurf Turf" football field. The gridiron at Eastern Washington is red. Central Arkansas will use purple and gray turf this fall.

And Northwestern is considering a purple basketball court.

"The purple court is hideous -- it looks like a crime scene on the set of Barney the Dinosaur," writes FanPhooey.com.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL