Stan Albeck, Raging Bull of the NBA

You might have noticed that there have been some fairly interesting fights of late--in the ring, on the rink, on the football field and on the baseball diamond, where wacky Joaquin Andujar bumped an ump. John Tudor even lost a one-rounder with a dugout cooling device, proving that baseball still has the toughest fans in the world.

But lost in all this ruckus was a scuffle every bit as interesting.

Marvelous Stan Albeck vs. Chuck (the Motor City Cobra) Daly.

Two NBA coaches, lunging for each other’s throats.

It happened last Saturday in Chicago, when Albeck’s Bulls were playing Daly’s Pistons. These two teams do not get along, see. So, when Detroit center Bill Laimbeer gave Michael Jordan a shot that the Chicago superstar considered cheap, Jordan decided the time had come to wrap himself around Laimbeer like a headband.

While all this was going on, Albeck, Chicago’s coach, evidently said something to Daly, Detroit’s coach, that was not an inquiry as to how many timeouts he had left.

Daly tried to get at Albeck. Albeck tried to get at Daly. Two men in business suits and neckties suddenly started pawing at one another like mud-wrestlers.

No serious blows were landed. There is no truth to the rumor, by the way, that in an NBA fistfight, you have to get a punch off within 24 seconds.

Anyway, to watch this unexpected rumble was to try to picture such a scene happening elsewhere. Tom Landry slapping Don Shula across the face with his hat. Billy Martin kicking dirt on Sparky Anderson. Al Arbour grabbing a puck and trying to make Glen Sather eat it.

Use your imagination.

Whitey Herzog hates an umpire’s call. He accuses the ump of favoring the other team. Dick Howser springs from the other dugout. Tells Herzog to cool it. Herzog tells Howser he couldn’t manage a supermarket. Howser tells Herzog his haircut went out with Dick Tracy.

Pow. Right in the kisser.

Perhaps we are seeing a new trend. Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport, we now bring you fights between coaches.

We already have grown men, like Martin, making fools of themselves, kicking dirt and doing kung fu with pitchers in hotel lobbies. We already have baseball managers, those models of sportsmanship, yapping and slobbering in the faces of umpires, because tradition requires it.

Sparky Anderson has said that practically the only reason he argues with umpires is that his players expect him to stand up for them. Often, Sparky says, when he is animatedly wagging his finger in an umpire’s face, he actually is telling him: “Look, I don’t want to be out here, but I gotta stand up for my guy, so you gotta listen!”

When Albeck instigated last Saturday’s fight with Daly, as the NBA evidently decided he did, Jordan and the other Bulls said they were delighted because their coach of a year ago, Kevin Loughery, never would have done such a thing. Loughery was all bark and no fight, the players insinuated.

Well, maybe so. The players know best what motivates them. They apparently are glad to go to war with Albeck as commander, as they will Thursday when the coach returns from his one-game suspension to renew the running of the Bulls. They have a date with the Clippers at the Sports Arena, in case Don Chaney wants to jump rope and punch a bag in preparation for Albeck’s arrival.

Albeck, who has coached or assistant-coached practically every team in North America, including the Lakers, has his hands full in his first season with the Bulls. This is a team that has never won a championship since the day it was born.

Take it from a guy who spent a couple of seasons covering the Chicago team in the late 1970s--164 games, 61 wins--the Bulls have left a mess wherever they have gone. Since 1978, Larry Costello, Scotty Robertson, Jerry Sloan, Paul Westhead, Rod Thorn and Loughery have all coached these guys, without success. Now it is Albeck’s turn.

He has inherited Air Jordan, who was so good as a rookie that they named a new line of tennis shoes after him. All Reggie Jackson ever got was candy. Jordan is the sort of player you could easily hold under 40 points if he would agree to play on one leg.

The Bulls got this great player gift-wrapped last season because Houston and Portland didn’t want him. The Rockets and Trail Blazers took Akeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie instead. The Bulls made the playoffs, but if they would not have gotten Jordan in that draft, their record probably would have been something like 9-73.

Never before had this team been so lucky. In 1979, the Bulls flipped a coin against the Lakers for the first pick in the draft. Thorn, the Chicago general manager, called heads. It came up tails. For Los Angeles, it came up Magic Johnson.

Magic, who could have gone back to college, turned pro. He often said his preference was to stay in the Midwest, to play in Detroit or Chicago, so for years the Bulls have cursed their luck. Johnson’s agent, George Andrews, however, says that had the Bulls won the flip, Magic would have gone back to Michigan State.

The Bulls got David Greenwood instead and held onto him until last week, when he went to San Antonio for George Gervin. Poor Greenwood got to watch one bunch of Bulls after another. He got to watch Artis Gilmore, who rarely made a basket in the final minute, and Reggie Theus, who rarely made an easy pass when a difficult one was available, and Quintin Dailey, who rarely could be counted on to show up for work.

The Bulls are not bad now, having survived years of hilarious first-round draft choices such as Kennedy McIntosh, Jimmy Collins, Clifton Pondexter and Tate Armstrong. But they need extra effort to win, because, unlike the Lakers, they cannot overcome off-nights through sheer talent.

If motivation is what they need, Albeck apparently intends to give it to them. He is doing his roadwork these days, and is preparing for the big Pat Riley fight at the Forum in December.