That's one scary monster in the middle

Magic Johnson ... Kobe Bryant ... Jerry West ... Elgin Baylor ...

Selecting an all-time Lakers team was no problem for Charles Barkley — until it came time to choose a center, that is."I couldn't decide," the Chuckster told his TNT audience, "so I went with 'Wilt Abdul-O'Neal.' "

Upon further review

Yahoo! Movies released its list of the "10 most historically inaccurate movies," including "10,000 B.C.," "Gladiators," "The Last Samurai," "Braveheart" and "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Somehow missing the cut:

• The BALCO documentary "Honey, I Shrunk the Slugger," and

• "Tampa With Success: The Year The Rays Won The World Series."

Grease isn't the word

Oil prices have reached $100 a barrel, and the U.S. public has been predictably shocked and devastated by its impact.

But enough about visions of ESPN's Steve Lavin sporting the dry look.

Chad 7, Humility 0

Bengals receiver Chad Johnson, appearing on FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period," said he once shared this slice of humility with Packers QB Brett Favre during pregame warmups:

"Just throw me the ball. I just want you to know what it's like to throw to greatness."

The good Knight

Robyn Norwood was refused a press credential for coach Bob Knight's first game at Texas Tech in 2001 — ostensibly for something negative she'd written about him — so the L.A. Times scribe was somewhat taken aback when Knight granted her an interview last week.

Roll the audio:

Norwood: "You know, I thought I was on your enemies list."

Knight: "You could have been. Everybody's been on it once or twice."

He's on the green

Tiger Woods and the late Ben Hogan are tied for third with 64 career victories, but the similarities between their careers pretty much stops there.

As Randy Phillips of the Montreal Gazette noted: "Woods' career earnings are $79,909,376. Hogan earned $332,517."

Grab a No. 2 pencil

Pat Riley would prefer to be:

a) Coaching the Miami Heat.

b) Watching a bunch of college players.

c) Aren't a) and b) one and the same?

Talko time

• Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg, envisioning the trash talk when Stanford played Cornell in an NCAA-tournament opener: "Your matriarch is so unintelligent she can only abbreviate Pi to the fifth number."

• Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel, after the Falcons cut QB Joey Harrington and then re-signed him a week later: "What happened? Did he get better?"

• Golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, to The Associated Press, when asked his age before this weekend's Puerto Rico Open: "72 — I'm even par."

• Headline at Fark.com: "Kuznetsova triumphsova Sharapova."

Stick to Jugs guns, Kid

Oregon State suspended pitcher Jorge Reyes — the MVP of the 2007 College World Series — and a teammate for three games after they fired a .22 rifle inside the Corvallis city limits, striking a house and car with their errant shots.

On the bright side, though, Reyes did get credited with a two-hitter.

Sideline Chatter appears Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in The Seattle Times. Dwight Perry: 206-464-8250 or dperry@seattletimes.com