By AILENE VOISIN, Sacramento Bee

Michael Vick isn't someone you want your daughter marrying. You wouldn't invite him for a nice dinner with the neighbors. Frankly, I don't even want to look at him. If he lived in my neighborhood, I'd seek a restraining order to keep him away from our pets.

He fought dogs. He drowned dogs. He electrocuted dogs. He enjoyed the competition. How sick is that?

There were five of them, five Eastern European stars who dreamed like boisterous, boastful schoolboys, believing they could board an overseas flight, communicate while speaking very little English, join their respective teams, shred stereotypes and enjoy long, productive NBA careers.
One of them -- Vlade Divac -- did.

The expectations would squash anyone else his size. In an NBA department store, this is a player who buys his clothes in the petite section. He is 6-foot tall, maybe. He weighs 165 pounds, maybe. He is 33 years old -- no, maybe about that.Yet there is nothing undersized about Allen Iverson's skills or his shoulders.

So what do we know about this Cable guy? Other than the fact that this Tom Cable is much too large to climb onto someone's roof or under their house to run a television line?

Reggie Theus is one of the fortunate ones. He still has a job. He also has health insurance, a nice car and a nicer car, and homes in Northern and Southern California. If not the perfect life, the Kings' head coach certainly enjoys a comfortable existence.What he lacks is security.

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- You can't make this up. You can't make this up, because this is all so implausible, it comes from the world of make believe. Then you revisit the topic and the toxicity of the environment - the Oakland Raiders at their headquarters - and the craziness of the Monday afternoon media session makes complete sense.

You never forget your first love. You never forget the Beatles. That's the first thing to remember.The "Dream Team" nickname should have been retired when Magic, Michael, Larry and Charles - John, Paul, George and Ringo in shorts and sneakers - finished romancing the globe and rocking the world.

Gene Upshaw died at age 63, too soon to finish the job and certainly too young to perish. Pancreatic cancer does that, though. It strikes with brutal and usually lethal force. Early Thursday, it overpowered one of the most dominant and influential figures in modern professional sports.

J.T. O'Sullivan is ornery enough to make this San Francisco 49ers quarterback situation interesting. I believe that. He is also going to surprise people outside the Cal-Davis zip code with his arm, his feet, his intellect and his competence.

The scene initially was niggling, troubling, then so much worse than that. Frankly, it was outrageous, with minimal cover provided by the flags and the uniforms and the procession of beaming, glistening faces.All those nations.All those men.