Scorecard

POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

Muhammad Ali said last week that before his loss to Larry Holmes, he had taken unusually large doses of a drug called Thyrolar, which is properly administered for thyroid deficiencies (according to the man who prescribed it, Dr. Charles Lee Williams Sr. of Chicago, Ali suffers from hypothyroidism) but is sometimes also used for losing weight (which Ali did, dramatically). Overdoses of the drug can cause dehydration and fatigue, and Ali reportedly admitted feeling abnormally tired even before going into the ring. If all this is true, Ali performed a disservice to the public by neither pulling out of the fight nor notifying the Nevada State Athletic Commission, as required by law, that he was taking medication. But Ali would be guilty of an even greater disservice if the story about taking the medication isn't true. That could mean that he was trying to explain away his punchless performance against Holmes to pave the way for—perish the thought—another fight.

Sig Rogich, chairman of the Nevada commission, was meanwhile concerned about Ali's intake of other drugs. Rogich told SI's Pat Putnam that when one of the commission's doctors arrived to collect the required post-fight urine sample, Dr. Williams let it be known that immediately after the fight he had given Ali a sedative and a painkiller containing codeine; Rogich said that All's urine, a sample of which was taken after a considerable delay, was subsequently found to contain an opiate and a tranquilizing agent called phenothiazine. Although the codeine and sedative Williams mentioned could have accounted for the presence of these drugs in Ali's urine, Rogich pointed out that the commission had no way of ascertaining whether the drugs might have been administered before the fight, a legitimate enough concern in view of Ali's lethargic showing in the ring. As for Ali's failure to notify the commission that he was taking Thyrolar, Rogich said, " Ali will never box again in this state if I have anything to say about it. We'd be the laughingstock of the nation."

THE THIRD-YEAR JINX

The NBA has proved notably dynasty-proof in recent years, witness the fact that no team has won back-to-back league championships since (who else?) the Boston Celtics did so in 1967-68 and 1968-69. Indeed, staying on top is so difficult that most of the recent NBA champions skidded to losing records and/or last place in three seasons or fewer. The pronounced nose dives make it almost seem as though the NBA has a third-year jinx.

Los Angeles won the league title in 1972 and by 1975 had fallen to 30-52 and the cellar in its division. Ditto the 1973 champion New York Knicks; by 1976 they had fallen to 38-44, last in their division. The 1975 champ, Golden State, fell to the divisional cellar in 1978 (although with a 43-39 record), just as the '76 title-winning Celtics did in '79. And the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the NBA crown in 1977, struggled last season to a 38-44 record.

If the pattern continues, the Washington Bullets, who won the NBA championship in 1978 and dropped below .500 last season, will hit bottom this season, a fate that will similarly befall the Seattle SuperSonics (1979 titlists) in 1981-82 and the Los Angeles Lakers (1980 champs) the season after that. "It's a strange thing that happens with winners," says Golden State Coach Al Attles, "In building a winner, you spend a lot of time searching for your identity. This works well with young teams with players who accept that they're less important than the team. But young guys become older and impatient and greedy."

LUBE JOB

Early in a game against Utah State two weeks ago, Utah's defensive linemen, conferring between downs at the line of scrimmage, found that their hands were similarly and suspiciously covered with goo. They complained to the officials, who discovered a foreign and decidedly slick substance on the jerseys of Utah State's offensive interior linemen. Invoking an NCAA rule prohibiting "grease or any other slippery substance applied on a player's person or clothing," the officials ordered the Aggie players to change their jerseys, which resulted in a six-minute delay of the game while the miscreants roamed the sidelines looking for new garments. After the game, which Utah State lost 23-19, Aggie Coach Bruce Snyder admitted that his linemen had applied a "silicone spray substance or something of that nature" to their jerseys, presumably to thwart Ute pass rushers. He said the Aggies had learned the trick from "the pros."

They may not have learned well enough, if Pittsburgh Steeler Center Mike Webster is to be believed. Although Webster denies having resorted to any such chicanery himself, he told SI's Bruce Anderson that some NFL players have used a silicone spray, adding, "It's a metallic dust but it's so fine it's like an oil. It leaves no film. If it's done the right way, no one should be able to detect it."