OK, Okahoma City, we’re sorry about the rodeo

By Ron Kantowski

Thursday, July 3, 2008 | 5:11 p.m.

NOW:

OK, Oklahoma City, we give up. We cry "uncle." We're willing to admit that Oklahoma City is OK (but you can have Tulsa).

In other words, we're sorry for stealing the National Finals Rodeo from you in 1985.

Now give us the Sonics, darn it.

If you do, we promise never to make fun of Barry Switzer's comb-over again.

And we'll bring back the Wishbone. Honest. We'll give UNLV's Tank Summers one of those tear-away jerseys and tell him he's Billy Sims.

----- Actually, there's two legitimate reasons that Oklahoma City now has an NBA team and Las Vegas does not. One is that Clay Bennett, the guys who owns the Sonics, or whatever they will be called, is from Okie City. The second, and bigger reason, is that Okie City has a first-class NBA arena. Las Vegas does not. Remember those shovels that were supposed to go into the ground in June? Maybe we can use them to bury the rumors about that new arena we're getting.

----- UNLV coach Lon Kruger was assessed a technical foul in the Rebels last exhibition game in Australia, believed to be his first since taking over the Rebels. Think he'll write about it on CoachKruger.com? Probably not. Anyway, the players said he didn't do anything to warrant it. According to reports, a fan behind the UNLV bench said he preferred Helen Reddy to Olivia Newton-John and the ref, who apparently has never been mellow, thought it was Kruger who said it and T'd him up.

----- Former NBA All-Star and TNT analyst Chris Webber will host his 3rd Annual C-Webb’s Bada Bling Weekend July 25-27 at Planet Hollywood. So unlike the host, you should save a timeout to use on this one. In addition to current or retired NBA players Grant Hill, Kenny Smith, Vlade Divac, Bobby Jackson, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Moses Malone and Paul Pierce, celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather, Tichina Arnold, Nas, Finesse Mitchell and the cast of ABC’s “Greek” are expected to celebritize during the benefit, which assists school kids. For more information, click here .

THEN:

Long before the Tropicana received publicity for the presence of E coli in its water system, it received publicity for its swimming pool, which featured a swim-up blackjack table. This was when you didn't need a gold key or a $100 bill to get into the pool area, just a bathing suit. I know a guy who used to get in wearing cut-offs.

Anyway, by the middle of the afternoon, guys were spilling whole Tequila Sunrises into the pool and Louis Pasteur probably could have cured cancer with the sludge that was floating around that blackjack table. Nobody seem to care. All anybody cared about was if the drunk guy from Cedar Rapids was going to hit on "17" and take their face card.