The NBA / Chris Baker : Marvin Webster, Former Knick, Rebounding Well in the CBA

Marvin Webster, who has been out of the National Basketball Assn. for two years, is trying to come back.

The former New York Knick forward is playing for the Pensacola, Fla., Tornados in the Continental Basketball Assn.

Webster, 34, had 22 rebounds in the season opener and has averaged 18 rebounds in his first five games.

“He’s playing pretty well,” Pensacola Coach Gary Youmans said. “We’ve been playing him about 30-35 minutes a game. His scoring skills are still lacking, and he’s got a ways to go. He can’t move laterally as well as he used to.

“But I think he could help somebody in the NBA if he keeps improving.”

Webster isn’t the only guy in the CBA with ties to the NBA.

There are four former NBA coaches--Tom Nissalke of Jacksonville, Bill Musselman of Tampa Bay, John Killilea of Topeka, and Herb Brown of Cincinnati.

Three former NBA players are also coaching in the CBA: Cazzie Russell at Wyoming, Phil Jackson at Albany and Norm Van Lier at Rockford, Ill.

And the league president is Carl Scheer, former Clipper general manager.

Center Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz on his college days at UCLA:

“Oh, college life was great--the friends, the fun, the football games. Those still rank as some of my best times. But basketball was another story,” Eaton told a Utah reporter.

“It was terrible. I don’t recall any good memories of college basketball. My first year, we had a fast running team so I can understand why I didn’t get too many minutes. But my second year, well, I don’t have any answers.

“I was left home on the team’s final road game of the season and the final game of my career. Of course, I never made a name for myself while at UCLA, but after that, I kind of faded into obscurity.”

Eaton, who has become a shot-blocking star with the Jazz and in 1985 was named the NBA’s defensive player of the year, was a reserve at UCLA under Larry Brown in 1980-81 and under Larry Farmer in 1981-82.

Atlanta Hawk guard Glenn (Doc) Rivers on last week’s shoot-out between Dominique Wilkins, who scored 57 points, and Michael Jordan, who had 41: “I wish I could have been in the crowd just to watch the game. At one point, they just went back and forth at each other. Michael would make a fantastic move, and Dominique would come right back at him.

“It was phenomenal. It seemed like Michael came on Dominique’s turf, and it turned out Michael did pretty well on his turf. Michael is awesome.”

Utah publicist Bill Kriefeldt surveyed the team to find out the players’ favorite books.

There was a three-way tie for first among the Bible, “Yeager” and “The Matarese Circle.”

Darren Daye, the former UCLA star waived by the Chicago Bulls and then signed by the Boston Celtics, is wearing No. 20 for the Celtics.

That’s the only Celtic number between 14 and 25 that hasn’t been retired.

Among the Celtics who have worn it: Ray Williams, Wayne Kreklow, Fred Saunders, Phil Hankinson, Rex Morgan and Larry Siegfried.

Akeem Olajuwon returned to the Houston Rockets last Saturday after missing seven games with an ankle injury, and it was almost as if he’d never been away.

Olajuwon made his first six shots and his first four free throws. He had 28 points and 7 rebounds as the Rockets beat the Sacramento Kings, 119-106. He made 11 of 14 shots from the floor and 6 of 7 free throws.

Even so, Olajuwon says he’s still playing at about 75%.

Houston has had their Twin Towers for just 2 of their 20 games this season.

Former NBA star Elvin Hayes was fired from a $40,000 public relations job with the University of Houston because of budget cuts. The school also released three other athletic department employees in the cutback. Hayes had been serving as an assistant athletic director.

Cleveland Cavalier rookie guard Ron Harper has World B. Free’s old locker, his starting job and his role as designated shooter.

“I look at that young boy, Harper, and I see a young me,” said Free, 33, who signed an offer sheet Friday to play for the Philadelphia 76ers. The Cavaliers have 15 days to match it. Free, who earned $600,000 last season, turned down an offer of $450,000 from Cleveland this season.

Earlier this season, a group of fans held a demonstration after a Cavalier practice, chanting: “We want Free.”

Wayne Embry, general manager of the Cavaliers, said he once had to cut another 33-year-old guard, Oscar Robertson.

NBA Notes

There have been reports in the New York papers that the Knicks are trying to trade center Bill Cartwright, but Knick General Manager Scotty Stirling denies it. Stirling told the writers who cover the team that he would bet them a trip to the Virgin Islands that Cartwright won’t be traded. . . . At the one-quarter mark of the season, the league’s field-goal accuracy is 47.2%, a full percentage point below last season’s. Scoring is also down 2.3 points to 108 a game. . . . Only four teams in the NBA are playing at .500 or better both at home and on the road. Atlanta is 9-0 at home and 9-4 on the road, the Lakers are 10-1 at home and 6-4 on the road, the Golden State Warriors are 8-4 at home and 5-5 on the road, and the Seattle SuperSonics are 6-6 at home and 5-3 on the road. . . . Kevin McHale of the Celtics is the only player in the league in the top 10 in four statistical categories--scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots. . . . Dominique Wilkins may be tearing up the NBA now, but Utah Coach Frank Layden said he thinks that if the 1982 draft were held again, the top players would go in exactly the same order, with James Worthy being picked first by the Lakers, Terry Cummings second by the Clippers and Wilkins third by Utah. The Clippers traded Cummings to Milwaukee, and the Jazz traded Wilkins to Atlanta. “All three of them have made big contributions,” Layden told the Salt Lake City Tribune. “But I think the other two (Worthy and Cummings) are more complete players. They can do more things.”