Just Wait Until Players’ Union Hears About This

Chicago Blackhawk Coach Craig Hartsburg carried out his threat to take television privileges away from his team at the United Center dressing room.

He disconnected the cable on the 48-inch TV that faces the area where players ride their stationary bikes.

“It [still] works, but we only get three stations,” winger Tony Amonte told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Is Hartsburg the Grinch that almost stole TV?

Trivia time: How many former USC basketball players became NBA head coaches?

Over the rainbow hair? Chicago center Luc Longley, on Bull forward Dennis Rodman’s return to the team after his NBA-imposed suspension for kicking a cameraman:

“We need you, Dennis, wherever you are. We’ve got your ruby slippers here. Come home. And bring Toto with you.”

Homesick: Arizona Diamondback Manager Buck Showalter, the former Yankee manager, after receiving a round of applause when introduced at a long-drive contest during the Phoenix Open:

“I wish someone would boo. It would make me feel more at home. Like New York.”

To err is fatal: Golf television analyst and former standout player Johnny Miller, on why he never learned to fly: “I like hobbies where the double bogeys don’t kill you.”

Boredom pays off: For St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis, a native of the Canadian town of Inverness, Nova Scotia, it wasn’t difficult to develop a good enough shot to win the hardest shot competition at the NHL All-Star game.

“Guys from small towns have to do something to kill time,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Different tune: From the Good Doctor in Inside Sports magazine:

Q: The Utah Jazz got rid of their uniforms with the jazzy musical note on the front. How come?

A: Because the team is being renamed the Utah Tabernacle Choir.

Looking back: On this day in 1983, John Riggins gained 166 yards in 38 carries to lead the Washington Redskins to a 27-17 Super Bowl XVII victory over the Miami Dolphins at the Rose Bowl.

FYI: The Detroit Falcons became the Red Wings in 1932, the last NHL team to change nicknames while staying in the same city.

Trivia answer: Six--Mack Calvin, Bob Kloppenburg, Alex Hannum, Fred “Tex” Winter, Bill Sharman and Paul Westphal.

And finally: Flip Saunders, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, on second-year forward Kevin Garnett, who doesn’t want to admit he has grown to 7 feet for fear he’ll get branded as an inside player:

“He’s just 6-foot-12, that’s all.”