THE NBA PLAYOFFS : GREAT SCOTT? : After Four Seasons, the Laker Guard Is Still Looking for the Fans’ Respect

The chant begins almost as soon as Byron Scott sits down in the living room of his Culver City home.

Coo-ooo-p-p-p.

No, not that. Not here. That’s a sound Scott hears only at the Forum. Michael Cooper is not in demand here.

This is merely 5 1/2-month-old Londen Brenae Scott, seeking her father’s attention.

It matters little to Londen that her father does not own a most-valuable-player trophy, like the one Magic Johnson picked up the other day. Or a defensive-player-of-the-year award, like the one Cooper just received.

She’ll take this Laker guard just as he is.

That’s not always the case at the Forum, judging by the way the crowd has taken to clamoring for Cooper, sometimes from the moment Scott misses a shot or throws away a pass or lets someone drive past him for a basket.

But that’s not the way Scott is judged by Laker General Manager Jerry West.

“I think Byron’s had a terrific year,” West said.

True, West may be more biased about Scott than Boston broadcaster Johnny Most is about the Celtics. West, after all, is the guy who set himself up to be pilloried for trading Norm Nixon, an all-star and Forum favorite, for Scott four years ago.

On the other hand, West is also the guy who has begun negotiating a new contract with Scott, who figures to receive a hefty raise from the four-year deal that is earning him $440,000 this season.

At such a time, you might expect a general manager to itemize Scott’s faults, real or imagined, from the way he runs the break to the way he wears his socks.

Not West, who not only says how badly he wants Scott to remain a Laker, but defends him against the slings and arrows--not to mention “Coo-ooo-p-p-p” calls--that have been aimed his way.

“Byron has had to go through a lot more than most young players,” West said. “There have been many things said about him that have been unfair.”

Now, who would say anything nasty about Scott, who finished this season with career highs in scoring (17 points a game), rebounds (3.5) and assists (3.4), and set club records in free-throw percentage (89.2%) and three-point field goal percentage (43.6%)?

Nixon, for one. In a national magazine interview conducted before the season but published in January, Nixon said Scott “hasn’t done (bleep) “ The reason the Lakers were upset by Houston in last season’s playoffs, Nixon claimed, was that Magic Johnson was worn down. That wouldn’t have happened if Nixon had been wearing a Laker uniform instead of a Clipper one, he said.

Ask West about Nixon’s comments and you get silence in return, although his jaw noticeably tightens.

Ask Scott, and he shrugs.

“I don’t know why he’d say anything like that,” Scott said. “Norm’s a great player, he did a great job when he was with the Lakers, they won two world championships with him.

“I don’t know why he’d keep going after me . . . and the things I’ve done with the Lakers. So when I see it, I kind of grin about it and forget it. I don’t think he knows me as a person.”

On the playgrounds of Inglewood, and at Morningside High, where he set school scoring records and was a high school All-American, they used to call Scott’s name.

He’s still in the same neighborhood, but that’s not his name he hears.

Coo-ooo-p-p-p.

“It’s not the most pleasant thing, but it doesn’t bother me,” Scott says. “I think it might bother my mother and father more than it bothers me. They’re sitting up there, and knowing my mother, she probably turns around and says something.”

And what can Scott say?

“Coop’s been there nine years,” he said. “You have to appreciate what he’s done. I mean, I appreciate . . . I love the man. To me, it’s just another great player coming in.

“Most of the time when I hear it, that’s when the other players come to me and pump me up, give me more support.

“I think I am appreciated, by the coaching staff and my teammates.”

And the fans?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Only time will tell.”

Scott is willing to wait. The memory is still too fresh of when he arrived here as a rookie from Arizona State and wondered if he’d ever be accepted by his teammates. Especially by Magic and Cooper, who were so close to Nixon.

“It was hard to come to practice every day knowing that you really weren’t wanted there,” Scott says quietly.

One Laker observer recalled seeing the rookie, so eager to please, offering to bring a cup of water to one of the Laker all-stars during a practice break. The all-star turned his back.

“Nobody was really talking to me,” Scott said. “I think James (Worthy), who was a second-year player, was the first guy to talk to me. It was a tough, tough situation.

“Then one day, Magic started talking to me, showing me things. And Coop talked to me in his own way, with elbows, pushing and stuff.

“It’s nothing I held against any of them. I knew what they were going through. They’d just lost a close friend, who was very dear to them, and they felt Jerry had made a bad decision.

“I understood that. I think that’s one of the reasons I hung in there, because I understood.”

Fast-forward to today, and you find that Scott has gone from exile with Johnson and Cooper to brother, a remarkable transformation he is at a loss to explain.

“We have a special type of caring and love for one another you don’t see on other teams,” Scott said.

“Magic’s the type of person that once he likes you, he likes you. But if you asked me how Byron Scott, Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper became so tight a trio, I couldn’t answer.

“I think at the beginning they found out that I wasn’t the type of person who was easily pushed over or would lie down. If I had to fight, I would fight.

“Magic said to me, ‘You’ve got a lot of heart.’ He told me about how they had beat up on him in his first training camp, and said that he saw a lot of me in him.”

Byron Scott lifts his daughter out of her walker, pops a cassette into his video recorder, then settles back into the couch, Londen snuggled in his lap.

Dale Ellis and the rest of the Seattle SuperSonics flicker onto the screen.

“See what I get to watch all day long?” Scott says.

In the Lakers’ 112-104 win over Seattle in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals last Tuesday, Scott scored 16 points and had 5 assists. He also played a team-high 43 minutes, much of which he spent in pursuit of Seattle’s high-scoring Ellis.

That may come as a surprise to those who thought Cooper would be the only Laker to draw Ellis’ number. But Cooper’s attention is divided between Ellis and the other SuperSonic shooters, Tom Chambers and Xavier McDaniel.

Thus, even though he may not have gotten the credit, that was Scott chasing Ellis through all those double screens, putting a hand in his face whenever he went up with a shot.

“It doesn’t bother me to get overshadowed by a master of defense,” Scott said. “The papers may say Coop shuts a guy down, but Coop comes to me and says, ‘We shut him down.’

“Team awards are great, but the team takes more pride in stopping Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers and Xavier McDaniel because you can’t stop them one on one.”

Scott could go elsewhere and become the one who stands out, rather than the role player he is with the Lakers. With the player-owner collective bargaining agreement due to expire at the end of this season and the union clamoring for unrestricted free agency, Scott may receive some tempting offers.

This, however, is home. And he and his new agent, Leigh Steinberg, make it clear that their preference is to stay.

Scott is the first NBA player in several years to be represented by Steinberg, who requires that all of his clients devote a portion of their earnings to community work.

“To find a young man who has grown up here, returned to play professionally and is excited by the concept of being a role model--to me, that’s a perfect fit,” Steinberg said.

There’s another compelling reason to stay as well.

“There’s nothing you can do to take the place of being on a team that wins 59 or 60 games, a team that has a chance to win a championship every year,” Scott said.

In such a setting, they may not call out your name. But they’ve got to call you winner.