McAdoo Is in L.A.--With 76ers

Now that he is back in the National Basketball Assn. with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Lakers are going to make it up to Bob McAdoo. They refused to give him a uniform for this season, but they are going to give him a ring for last season.

In a brief pregame ceremony tonight, McAdoo will receive the 1985 championship ring he earned last season with the Lakers, who only a few weeks after winning the title from Boston, decided against bringing him back for a fifth season.

McAdoo officially became a 76er at midnight, 15 days after the 34-year-old veteran signed an offer sheet that the Lakers did not match.

So McAdoo’s 13-year career begins again tonight when he wears a 76er uniform against the Lakers at the Forum.

“It’ll be strange seeing him with another team, in another uniform, sitting at the other end of the floor,” Laker Michael Cooper said. “He’ll come out with a lot of fire, simply because it’s against us.”

McAdoo has not played a game since last June 9 at Boston Garden, the day the Lakers won their second NBA title in McAdoo’s four seasons with them.

When Laker General Manager Jerry West decided he would rather have Maurice Lucas than McAdoo, West let McAdoo go in order to use his contract, under the salary-cap restrictions, to sign Lucas.

“We have no second thoughts,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “It was a good move for us, getting Lucas. We lost a little bit of offense, but we picked up in some other areas. I’m just glad McAdoo’s in the Eastern Conference.”

76er General Manager Pat Williams said McAdoo has been working out on his own to get in shape, although he does not expect McAdoo to play much tonight. Coach Matty Guokas said McAdoo should play at least 12 minutes and possibly 20 minutes.

Williams said he was relieved that the Lakers waited the full 15 days allowed in the offer sheet procedure.

“It just seemed to us Bob needed so much work here that he wasn’t going to get traipsing from Cleveland to Boston to Seattle to Utah with the team,” Williams said.

“So by working hard on his own, he has gotten in shape. You know, he’s three or four months behind everybody. He’s got a history of injuries, pulls and strains and all that. If we had gotten him early, I don’t know what we would have done with him. He was not ready to play.”

McAdoo will earn $205,000 for the rest of the season, which is the same amount the 76ers offered him in training camp. The 76ers, also bound by the salary cap, designated McAdoo to receive Cliff Richardson’s salary.

Williams said McAdoo looked like a good risk for the 76ers to take.

“We’ll find out,” he said. “We figured that down the stretch, the veteran might play a role in some victories for us. We’re not asking Bob McAdoo to come in and do miraculous things for us. We’re asking him to come in and play a role. It’s a worthwhile gamble. If it works out, fine, if not, well, it was not a major procurement in terms of money.”