NBA ALL-STARS: ALL OUT FOR VICTORY

Some all-star games are merely exercises, a parade of name personalities in sports, if you will, going through the motions. Be careful not to get injured for the important league or conference games often seems to be the attitude. But that’s not so with the NBA All-Star Game, coming up Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).

Whether it’s ego, pride, one-upmanship or a combination of all three, you get the distinct feeling that players such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the rest are not just flapping their jaws when they say they’ll “go all out” in this annual game.

There was some of that feeling in last week’s “Pro Bowl” game, too. Maybe it was the stigma of that drug-ridden Patriots fiasco in “Super XX” that provided the impetus for the NFC-AFC chosen to “go all out” to make up for it. If it came to placing “Super XX” in a time capsule, we’d suggest throwing it out and replacing it with what was a good, competitive “Pro Bowl” tape.

Sunday’s game, in a way, makes up for that ridiculous NBA scheduling of recent years that limits the two top teams, Lakers and Celtics, to meeting only twice a season. At least this 36th All-Star Game has some Lakers vs. Celtics atmosphere. Not only is there Johnson, Jabbar and James Worthy vs. Bird, Robert Parish, et al., there’s Pat Riley vs. K. C. Jones as the coaches.

The coaches’ personal records in All-Star games stand at Jones 2 wins, 1 loss; Riley 1 win, 2 losses.

And for the record, the East leads the West, 23-12.

The announcing team Sunday at the Reunion Arena, Dallas, are regulars Dick Stockton, Tom Heinsohn and Pat O’Brien.

CBS bids to make it a sports double-header Sunday, following the NBA game with “Sports Sunday” at 1:30 p.m. The lineup there has the Vitalis/U.S. Olympic Invitational Track and Field Meet, along with a live junior welterweight boxing bout, Alexis Arguello (79-6) vs. Bill Costello (31-1).

The All-Star track athletes perform in the 17th edition of this event which will be taped tonight at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., for showing Sunday afternoon.

Carl Lewis, Eamon Coghlan, Sydney Maree and other track stars will be performing on what is reputed to be one of the fastest indoor tracks in the U.S.

Lewis, also branching into a singing career, will do the National Anthem. John Tesh and Craig Masback report.