The Talk of the NBA : Sacramento Team May Create Scheduling Difficulties

The NBA has decided for the time being not to make any division changes for next year. And that means the Sacramento Forklifts, or whatever they will be called, will remain in the Midwest Division.

The league says the reason is to make sure the Sacramento team stays there before changing the divisions. (The Kansas City Kings franchise is moving to Sacramento next season.) The league has an option to take over the club if a suitable arena is not ready in two years. Sacramento officials say there will be one--all that’s needed is a zoning variance.

“The issue (of changing divisions) would be considered only after a permament building is contructed,” NBA General Counsel Gary Bettman said. “We’re not going to even consider realignment until everything gets settled down.”

The move makes geographic sense, if nothing else, provided Phoenix would switch to the Midwest Division. The Suns currently are the only Pacific Division team not on West Coast time. But Suns General Manager Jerry Colangelo has been on the offensive against any divisional change for the Suns all season. He thinks the Suns belong in the Pacific Division, though Phoenix was in the Midwest the first two years the NBA went to a four-division alignment.

As for scheduling, the Eastern Conference teams won’t be affected except for the extra miles. They only play one road game against Western Conference teams. In the Western Conference, though, there is some effect.

Each team plays other teams in its division six times and teams in the other division five times. So by staying in the same division, Sacramento will have to play six games against Houston, Dallas, Denver, Utah and San Antonio (Texas), against whom they were a combined 8-22 this season. And they will be able to play only five games against the Pacific Division teams, against whom they were 14-16 this past season.

Boston Celtic Larry Bird didn’t seem overly upset that Indiana’s eighth Congressional District, in which lies his hometown of French Lick, is without a representative in Washington, D.C. The seat has been disputed since last fall’s election and the district is the only one in the country without a representative in Congress: “We don’t need no congressman. The sun shines down there all the time, everyone’s happy,” Bird said. When asked what he thought about the race, he said, “They ought to give it to the guy who can drink the most beer.”

The Gorilla in Phoenix had Suns fans chuckling again. He warmed up before the game and, like many of the Suns players, suddenly became injured. He limped off the court and later showed up in coat and tie and sat on the Phoenix bench with Maurice Lucas, Larry Nance, James Edwards and Walter Davis, all of whom were in civvies.

Here are some playoff tidbits to note as the series progress at their glacial pace.

--0nly one team in NBA history has been able to do what the New York Islanders did in the NHL, rally from a 0-2 deficit and win a best-of-fiver. That distinction belongs to the 1956 Fort Wayne Pistons, who came from a 0-2 hole and eliminated the St. Louis Hawks. Fort Wayne then lost to Philadelphia in the finals in five games.

--The team that won the opener of the best-of-five series has gone on to win win 30 of the 36 series in previous seasons. Last year, the eight first-game winners all won their series.

--Sixteen of the 36 series have gone to five games; seven have been sweeps and 13 have gone four games.

--The team with the home-court advantage is 25-11 in best-of-five series. But last year, three teams, New Jersey, New York and Phoenix, won in the first round despite not having the home court edge.

Only seven teams have a long-hoped-for-shot at Georgetown University center Patrick Ewing, but one of the others should be able to draft a 7-6 center if they want.

Boston Celtics Personnel Director and draft czar Jimmy Rodgers thinks Bridgeport’s Manute Bol will probably go in the second or third round, mainly because of the widely held theory that you can’t coach height. Rodgers feels that a team would certainly have to view Bol, 22, as your basic project (i.e. four years), but that he might be worth a chance if a team has the luxury of waiting that long.

Bol, incidentally, was a fifth-round pick of the then San Diego Clippers in the 1983 draft--the choice is listed as Manute Bol, the Sudan--but did not sign. So the Clippers have no rights to him. The feeling is that he wants to come out now for the money to get his sister out of Sudan. Rodgers also said that Tulane’s John Williams was projected as a strong first-rounder until the point-shaving shenanigans erupted. As of now, all bets are off on Williams until the case is settled.

Playoff fever has really hit Philadelphia. A turnaway throng of 7,170 showed up at The Spectrum for the Sixers-Washington Bullets playoff opener. It was the smallest Philly crowd of the season, but well ahead of the team playoff low of 4,255 in 1964.

What the fans saw can’t be classified as playoff basketball, either. The Bullets turned the ball over on seven of their last nine possessions and played the second half without an ineffective Ricky Mahorn and an injured (wrenched back) Jeff Malone. Tom McMillen did not play and Greg Ballard only went 14 minutes, mainly because of the fine play of Charles Jones.

In the playoffs last year, only 47 of the 79 games were sellouts. And only three teams, Boston, Dallas and Portland, sold out all their games. Six of the teams had no sellouts and two more had only one.