NBA CHAMPIONSHIP : LAKERS VS CELTICS : Thompson Throws His Weight, Words Around : Lakers Find Reserve Center-Forward Can Hold His Own Against Best of Them

For Mychal Thompson, one-time aspiring space shuttle commander, jet pilot, and National Football League quarterback, who still talks of becoming--Honest!--prime minister of the Bahamas, there is another, more realizable career goal: Laker substitute.

You think it isn’t a good life? You’re 32 but they aren’t going to play you till you drop. You come in, as he did Tuesday, when so many throats are quivering, do your thing to the tune of 16 points and 9 rebounds, and suddenly you’re within a victory of a championship, with the world at your feet.

Well, lots of press at your feet, anyway.

Press? Did someone say press?

“What’s the difference between this and San Antonio?” Thompson was asked Wednesday. Glad they asked. Thank you, Ed McMahon.

“It’s like comparing Twiggy to Dolly Parton.”

And Magic Johnson to all of Thompson’s other point guards?

“That’s like a choice between Phyllis Diller as your leading lady and Christie Brinkley.”

Magic, himself?

“He’s the best. The best looking, the best player, the friendliest, the nicest, most competitive person I’ve ever been around.”

But how about that Larry Bird?

“Larry is like a big cat in the jungle that’s hungry. You don’t know when he’s going to pounce on you, but when he pounces on you, you’re history.”

Do you see a pattern emerging here? He’s got a million of ‘em, as the Lakers learned back on Feb. 13 when they liberated him from Spur-dom. This dude can talk.

He talks so freely and poetically, and the Lakers have done so well with him--26-3 in his first 29 regular-season games, followed by two throwaway losses; 15-2 in the playoffs--that it has obscured the fact that he has struggled since donning the gold and, uh, blue.

“I guess so,” Thompson said Wednesday. “Everybody can’t be a Kevin McHale or a Robert Parish. I’m just trying to improve every game.”

Says Coach Pat Riley: “Don’t look at his numbers to measure his contribution. It’s where he makes an impact. Tuesday night was very timely.

“Even though he’s at 40% (field goal percentage) and 55% from the line, I still felt very comfortable with him on the floor. He’s not a mistake player. He’s an excellent defensive player. He just needs more minutes to become consistent.”

It’s been a tricky little career since Thompson arrived in 1978, the first player taken in the National Basketball Assn. draft. He spent seven seasons in Portland, averaged as many as 20.8 points, shot 50.5% overall but wound up a reserve. He was something less than the bruiser of the century; Coach Jack Ramsay said he lacked intensity.

“If I wasn’t a Rick Mahorn or a Kenny Carr or a Bill Laimbeer, I still tried,” Thompson says. “I still tried to give my all, even though it didn’t look like I was.

“I just don’t show much emotion out on the court. Jack thought that was relaxed, laid-back, a don’t-care attitude. I cared about losing and giving 100% as much as anybody else.

“Jack would always tell me to get meaner--go out and eat red peppers. Go get bitten by a dog with rabies.

“I tried to appease him. When I got meaner, I’d always foul out. Then he’d get mad at me anyway for fouling out.

“You can’t change. You’ve got to be yourself. As long as you give 100% on the court, there’s nothing wrong with being yourself. Not everybody is going to agree with your style. Jack just happened to be one of them. . . . So they just got rid of me.”

Thompson had his half season in San Antonio. The Lakers, discerning his potential--he can play center or either forward spot, he can run, he isn’t bashful--gave up cash, two draft choices and two backup centers, Frank Brickowski and Petur Gudmundsson for him.

Look how far they’ve come together.

Think how far they might go.

“I’m 32, going on 22 physically,” Thompson says. “That’s what weight training has done for me. I do it six days a week, on the road, off the road, an hour and a half a day. I feel like I can conquer the world.

“I didn’t start playing basketball till I was 16. That’s why my body isn’t broken down. The typical American plays his whole life.

“I was on the beach till I was 16. That preserved me very well.”

Just think, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is playing at 40 and he grew up in New York where all they have is Jones Beach. Mychal Thompson could be with us in perpetuity. Restock your notebooks.