Text messages from press row . . .

Lakers fans from Boyle Heights to Barcelona offer a heartfelt muchas gracias to the Memphis Grizzlies’ Michael Heisley, who may not have overtaken Donald Sterling as the NBA’s most clueless owner but is closing fast. . . .

Look at it this way: The Lakers did not land an All-Star when they traded Shaquille O’Neal, but they did when they unloaded Kwame Brown. . . .

A day after finalizing the deal that delivered Pau Gasol to Kobe Bryant, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak slipped quietly into Pauley Pavilion moments before the tip of Saturday’s Pacific 10 Conference showdown between UCLA and Arizona, as inconspicuous as possible for a 6-foot-9 former player. . . .

A flashier man would have waved to the jacked-up crowd and surely been showered in thunderous applause, a response similar to the one that greeted Gasol earlier in the day at In-N-Out, but Kupchak ducked in without fanfare. . . .

He deserved to take a bow. . . .

Note to local merchants: Prepare for a run on Spanish flags before Gasol’s Lakers debut at Staples Center on Feb. 19 against the Atlanta Hawks. . . .

Maybe the Phoenix Suns will be a better playoff team with O’Neal at center, but Steve Nash & Co. won’t be nearly as much fun to watch. . . .

If Reggie Bush marries girlfriend Kim Kardashian, star of the so-called reality television series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” his stepfather-in-law would be 1976 Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner. . . .

Kardashian’s late father, Robert, was a lawyer for O.J. Simpson. . . .

Welcome back, Teemu Selanne. . . .

Steve Smith, on the receiving end of five Eli Manning passes Sunday in the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, shared backcourt duties with the Lakers’ Jordan Farmar at Woodland Hills Taft High during the 2002-03 high school basketball season. . . .

Says Taft Coach Derrick Taylor: “It was such an amazing backcourt, it should have been against the law. They were unguardable.” . . .

Farmar and Smith, a four-time All-City selection in basketball, shared West Valley League player-of-the-year honors with Reseda Cleveland’s Nick Young, the former USC star now playing for the Washington Wizards. . . .

Pro Bowl offensive guard Logan Mankins of the Patriots grew up on a 10,000-acre cattle ranch in Catheys Valley, Calif., northeast of Merced, and “dreamed of being a professional steer roper,” according to the Patriots’ website. . . .

Patriots fans probably wish the former Fresno State star and his fellow offensive linemen had done a better job tying down the Giants’ pass rush. . . .

House of Blues: Tom Brady & the Heartbroken. . . .

Rolling ticket prices back to 1958 levels for next month’s Coliseum exhibition against the Boston Red Sox would have been a magnanimous, goodwill-engendering move by Frank McCourt and the Dodgers. . . .

Charging $25 and $15 per seat and donating the net proceeds to charity was an even better idea. . . .

Top price for Dodgers tickets in 1958, by the way, was $3.50. . . .

It was great to see John Wooden back at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, but it was strange not seeing Lute Olson on the Arizona bench. . . .

Excuse Rick Neuheisel his enthusiasm in referencing UCLA’s 100 NCAA championships during a rousing halftime address at Saturday’s game and noting, “We want the football program to be part of the next 100.” . . .

The NCAA, of course, does not crown a champion in major college football, much to the chagrin of fans from coast to coast. . . .

Maybe the new coach was advocating a playoff system? . . .

USC, by the way, has won more NCAA men’s titles and Stanford more NCAA women’s titles than UCLA, but UCLA’s combined total is second to none. . . .

Note to Tim Floyd: You might keep saying it, but Arizona’s basketball program is not the one by which Pac-10 success is measured. . . .

Unforgettable sight: Bob Knight walking briskly through New Orleans from the Louisiana Superdome after winning his third national championship in 1987, the number of Indiana fans falling in behind swelling with each step. . . .

Over the next 21 years, he never recaptured that moment. . . .

Vanity license plate spotted: BRU4USC. . . .

A conflicted mind, or a Trojans-loving barista?

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