LEFTOVERS: Jesus finally ready for NBA debut
Fifteen years after Jesus Shuttlesworth announced he’d attend Big State, the mythical Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y., basketball legend finally will make his NBA debut this season.
Ray Allen, who portrayed Shuttlesworth in the 1998 Spike Lee film “He Got Game,” will wear a Miami Heat jersey bearing “J. Shuttlesworth” on the back in three games this season — on Jan. 21 against the Boston Celtics and on March 12 and April 6 against the Brooklyn Nets.
Several other Heat and Nets players also will wear jerseys this season from the NBA’s special edition Name Collection.
While the league hasn’t officially released the nicknames to be used — Lee posted a photo of the Shuttlesworth jersey on his Instagram account — LeBron James surely will have “King James” on his jersey, Paul Pierce will have “The Truth” and Kevin Garnett either “KG” or “The Big Ticket.”
Because Allen bolted Beantown to play for rival Miami before last season, some Celtics fans — as well as Pierce and Garnett, who reportedly still haven’t forgiven their former teammate — believe the initial J on the Shuttlesworth jersey should stand for Judas, not Jesus.
Allen could give the J to Brooklyn coach Jason Kidd, who early in his playing days was dubbed “Ason Kidd” because he didn’t have a “J” (jump shot).
No truth to the rumor that Chris Bosh, the least-respected member of the “Heatles,” will wear a “Ringo” jersey.
■ RED-NOSED SHORTSTOP? — When he’s not guiding Santa’s sleigh as a high-flying, red-nosed reindeer, Rudolph doubles as a switch-hitting, slick-fielding shortstop. Who knew?
Known as “Mr. December” or “Red,” Rudolph has his own page on baseball-reference.com, which lists the upper Greenland native as a 5-foot-3-inch, 375-pound right-hander.
Contrary to the song named for him, according to the website Rudolph has played in plenty of Reindeer games — 155 of them, to be exact, last season for the North Pole Reindeer.
The list of similar batters (all actual players) is comprised of Rob Deer, J.T. Snow, Dasher Troy, Cupid Childs, Al Clauss, Steve Christmas, Matt Holliday, Holly Hollingshead, Frosty Thomas and Ozzie Guillen.
“Ozzie Guillen just happened to be the No. 10 guy on the page I was using (for Rudolph), and, as far as I’m concerned, Ozzie Guillen is always funny, so we left him on there,” baseball-reference founder Sean Forman said.
This might be a wild guess on our part, but we think Rudolph will go down in history. Unless he tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs. How else can we explain his shiny red nose and flying ability?
■ BOB CRATCHIT BELICHICK — Asked if he had a favorite holiday song, Bill Belichick, the normally dour New England Patriots coach, gave a surprising answer.
“Christmas? Actually I enjoy all of them, I really do,” he said. “Whatever one comes on, it puts a smile on my face. It’s a great time of year.”
Belichick clearly is lying. His favorite Christmas song has to be “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” from the Dr. Seuss classic, “How The Gronk Stole Christmas!”
COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
