NBA Stars Give Jordan a Lesson in Astronomy

Something unusual happened Sunday in the NBA All-Star game.

The West won for the first time in six years and Michael Jordan played like a rookie.

“After all, that’s what he is,” said George Gervin, who started at guard for the West.

So what was everyone else’s excuse? The game itself was anything but unusual, outside of the West’s somewhat dull 140-129 victory and the fact that a record 43,146 watched it in the Hoosier Dome.

“This is a football stadium,” said Norm Nixon of the Clippers. “I hate these places.”

With 24 players performing in such an easy-going manner, it looked more like the touch-and-tickle Pro Bowl of the NFL. When the West was winning in the second half, the biggest cheers were for the paper airplanes flung from the upper deck.

Sure, the NBA’s 35th All-Star game had its moments, but not too many of them.

Ralph Sampson scored 24 points for the West and received the most-valuable-player trophy, Boston’s Larry Bird received an elbow from Utah’s Adrian Dantley which may have broken his nose and Laker Coach Pat Riley received his first victory in three tries as coach of the West.

“I didn’t want to leave here 0-3 because I would have started boycotting the All-Star game,” Riley said.

And then there was Jordan, the Chicago rookie who came up with one slam dunk and missed seven of his other eight shots in a largely forgettable All-Star debut.

It was all a little disturbing, but no more so than the rumors circulating around the Hoosier Dome that the only thing larger than the crowd was the size of Jordan’s head.

Some of his East teammates were privately reported to be thinking that Jordan has been acting a little too cocky.

The rumblings began Saturday when Jordan didn’t take off his warmups in the first round of the slam-dunk contest. Jordan was not exactly protected by his teammates when San Antonio’s Gervin took him apart in the first half.

“Everybody has things to learn,” said Detroit’s Isiah Thomas. “I think he’s a very confident player.”

Gervin said much the same thing afterward.

“Not taking anything away from him, but we’ve all got to come in and learn,” he said.

Jordan admitted that his confidence was shaken by the way he played, but said he was only nervous about playing in his first All-Star game.

“I wasn’t trying to live up to anyone’s expectations or live anything down either,” Jordan said. “I didn’t care about going out and scoring 30. I didn’t want to overdo it.”

Gervin finished with 23 points on 10-for-12 shooting and had 15 points in the first half when Riley decided to work Jordan over.

“I don’t think there was any doubt he did,” Riley said. “I told Ice, ‘Here’s a guy after your shadow and stepping all over it.’ But in a good way, of course.”

Magic Johnson wound up second to Sampson in the MVP voting and Gervin was third. Johnson, who scored 21 points with 15 assists, said that Sampson had told him he wanted to play guard in the same backcourt.

“That’s OK with me, but he can’t do any dribbling,” said Johnson. “He’s gotta be the shooting guard. I would have to think that he would be much better if he played with me.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the other Laker in the starting lineup, played 23 minutes after picking up three quick fouls and scored 11 points.

The East, which last lost the All-Star game in 1979, got 22 points from Thomas and 21 from Bird, who should get some sort of award for trying to play after getting hit by Dantley’s elbow in the fourth quarter.

Bird stuck a cotton ball up his right nostril to stop the blood from messing up his uniform any more. Bird will be X-rayed today to determine whether his nose is broken.

Larry Nance (16 points), Rolando Blackman (15) and Nixon (eight assists), gave the West a lift off the bench, especially in the second half.

That helped to overcome the smaller East’s 68-48 rebounding advantage built on 33 offensive rebounds.

“This is the first time I ever felt like an Eastern Conference coach because I had all the big guys and we still got out-rebounded,” said Riley. “It must be something that I’m doing that isn’t working.”

Jordan’s first All-Star game didn’t come close to matching his first season in the league. He has received rave notices as the most publicized rookie of the season, but many of his East teammates said Jordan still has a lot to learn both on and off the court.

“I think Michael is on his way to being accepted,” said Philadelphia’s Julius Erving. “But he’s got a big burden on him.

“He has to deal with the situation as being this year’s phenomenon,” Erving said. “Young people have a tendency to focus on the present and not think about the future. Maybe that’s yet to come to him.”