The NBA / Gordon Edes : New Evidence Backs Up Barkley

Head Ball: There were a few snickers--including at least one that ended up in print--when Charles Barkley, the Philadelphia 76ers’ round mound of rebound, claimed he really hadn’t blown a breakaway slam dunk after making a steal against the Lakers in a recent game.

“The ball must have hit my head and come back out,” said Barkley, whose credibility seemingly would have been better served if he’d taken the Fifth Amendment.

But as the accompanying photo by free-lancer Steve Dykes demonstrates, Barkley is headstrong in more ways than one. The ball is clearly in the basket, and apparently was thrown down with such force by Barkley that it did hit his head and bounce back out.

Chick Hearn, who has been broadcasting Laker games since 1960 says he has never seen that happen. “The thing that makes me want to refute it is that two referees never saw it, no coach saw it, no spectator saw it it and none of us in the booth saw it,” Hearn said.

“I can’t believe it, but if you’ve got a picture I can’t wait to see it.”

Another rarity occurred in Sunday night’s Laker-Utah game, when a shot by Jazz forward Thurl Bailey came to a stop on the flange at the back of the rim and stayed there.

“I’ve only seen that once before,” Hearn said.

Back Aches: Scott Skiles, the Michigan State All-American guard who was the No. 1 draft choice of the Milwaukee Bucks, will miss the rest of the season because of a herniated disk in his spine. Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson said the injury will require surgery.

Skiles was projected as the Bucks’ fourth guard when training camp started, but he played in only 13 games, averaging just 3.8 points a game. He sought opinions from three doctors and planned to see Arthur White, the surgeon who operated on San Francisco 49er quarterback Joe Montana.

The injury may be career-threatening for Skiles, who signed a three-year guaranteed contract with an option for a fourth year. Initially, he said that the injury occurred in a game while he was still at Michigan State, but on another occasion he said he was hurt early in training camp.

With Sidney Moncrief out until perhaps the playoffs with tendinitis in his right knee, the Bucks are thin in the backcourt. They signed Junior Bridgeman, the former Buck and Clipper, to a 10-day contract, and he’s scheduled to play his first game tonight. Keith Smith, the rookie from Loyola Marymount, should also get more playing time.

The Bucks’ top draft choice last year, former UCLA star Kenny Fields, was released earlier this season.

More Bad Backs: The New York Knicks put their top draft choice, Kenny Walker, former Kentucky All-American, on the injured list. Walker pulled a back muscle a month ago in a game against the Phoenix Suns, then three nights later collided with Utah Jazz giant Mark Eaton. He had been playing fewer than eight minutes a game since.

In his first game in Boston Garden since his playoff-record, 63-point performance, Chicago Bull guard Michael Jordan was comparatively underwhelming with 34 points on 13 of 31 shooting.

“Those kind of expectations are going to be here for me every time I play here,” Jordan said. “I can’t possibly live up to them until . . . the next time.”

The Lakers sent league officials a tape of Friday night’s run-in with the Suns, which featured Laker forward Frank Brickowski and Sun rookie Grant Gondrezick in the main event, and Laker guard Wes Matthews and Sun assistant coach Al Bianchi on the undercard.

Bianchi’s involvement hardly ranks as an upset. Earlier, the league fined him $500 for threatening retaliation against Detroit Piston center Bill Laimbeer, who took Sun center Alvan Adams out of a game.

A couple of seasons ago, Bianchi directed some heated words at forward Jeff Ruland, now with the 76ers, and on still another occasion, he threw a clipboard at referee Jim Capers. After that incident, the Suns decided they might be better to send Bianchi out on scouting trips rather than having him sit on the bench.

When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retires, will the sky hook be retired along with him? Mike DeCourcy of the Pittsburgh Press found there aren’t many practitioners of the specialty shot.

“It’s a very difficult shot to learn, because it’s contrary to anything a player has done to that point,” said Kentucky Athletic Director Cliff Hagan, another former master of the shot.

“They don’t have the patience to learn the feel. It’s such a strange feeling. Players get pretty far along in basketball, and they think they’re pretty good, and they don’t like people throwing something at them they can’t do.”

Cleveland Cavalier rookie center Brad Daugherty is working on one but said he rarely attempted the shot before he got to the pros. Why?

“Because it looks funny,” Daugherty said. “When you’re growing up, nobody wants to shoot a hook shot. Everybody wants to shoot jump shots and pass behind the back. It just looks funny.”

Norman Still Stormin’: Norm Van Lier, the former Bull guard known for his defense and fiery temper, was let go as coach of the Rockford (Ill.) Lightning of the Continental Basketball Assn. after the team had lost 8 of its first 12 games. A team spokesman said owners weren’t impressed with Van Lier’s rapport with the team.

New York Brownout: Knick players are finding life considerably more mellow under Bob Hill, who replaced the fired Hubie Brown.

“When Hubie was here, we had the freedom to go ahead and break a play if we had something,” Bill Cartwright said. “The problem was if we broke it, it better work. I think maybe people were a little hesitant to do that. Now, you go ahead and take a chance. It’s a little less pressure under Bob, but the bottom line is delivering. We’re playing situations. We’re creating on our own.”

Upward Mobility: Only two players in NBA history have increased their scoring averages in each of their first seven seasons: Denver’s Alex English and Boston’s Kevin McHale.

English went 5.2, 9.6, 16.0, 19.9, 23.8, 25.4, and 28.4 in his first seven, from 1976-77 to 1982-83.

McHale has gone 10.0, 13.6, 14.1, 18.4, 19.8, 21.3, and currently is at 25.9.