Hard Part for the Spurs Will Be Landing This Aircraft Carrier

By GORDON EDES

June 22, 1987 12 AM PT

<i> Times Staff Writer </i>

David Robinson won’t be in New York for today’s National Basketball Assn. draft.

He’ll be in the White House, brunching with the Vice President.

After that, who knows? Escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Persian Gulf? Tracking enemy submarines in the Indian Ocean? Winning gold medals in South Korea?

The Navy hasn’t had a celebrity this big (sorry, Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino) since a young John Kennedy was rescuing crewmen of PT 109.

And they’ve never had a 7-foot-1 ensign who, by all reports, combines the court presence of a Bill Russell, the courtliness of a Julius Erving, and the intelligence of a Supreme Court justice.

Too good to be true? That remains to be seen, but Robinson is clearly the flagship of this or any other draft of the ‘80s. And the San Antonio Spurs, for one, say they are willing to wait two years for Robinson to make the Hemisfair Arena his home port of call.

The Spurs, who won the draft lottery last month, will use the No. 1 pick today to select Robinson even though James H. Webb, the Secretary of the Navy, has decreed that Robinson must satisfy a two-year military obligation before he can play pro ball. Angelo Drossos, president of the Spurs, says he’s content to mark the days off his calendar.

“It’s like when we put a $1 million contract in the lap of Robert Parish’s mother when we were trying to sign him after his junior year,” Drossos said Friday.

“She said, ‘No, I don’t want him to play pro ball. I want him to finish school. We’ve been poor this long, one more year won’t make any difference.’ ”

The Spurs, winners of just 28 games last season, are clearly on the NBA’s poverty line, talent-wise. Factor in a massive dropoff in attendance, and you can understand why San Antonio sees Robinson as a franchise player. Without him, it might be the Alamo all over again.

First, however, the Spurs must sign him, which might turn out to be as easy as navigating a leaky raft through shark-infested waters.

Robinson, you see, is in a unique position: If he chooses not to sign in the next two years, he will become a free agent, at liberty to sign with the suitor of his choice. And you can be sure if that happens, Jerry Buss and Red Auerbach and Ted Turner will come calling, with each man carrying enough cash to sink an aircraft carrier.

“We’re going to sign David Robinson,” Drossos said. “If he’s going to play pro ball, he’s going to play in San Antonio. That’s the attitude we’re taking.”

Drossos says he hasn’t met Robinson yet; he said he wanted to wait until Robinson had selected an agent, which he did publicly last Thursday, picking Lee Fentress of Advantage International. On that same day, Fentress was sued for $28 million by the family of Len Bias, the University of Maryland star whom Fentress was representing until Bias died of a cocaine overdose on June 19, 1986, two days after the Boston Celtics had made Bias their No. 1 pick.

Drossos says that in the next couple of days, he plans to invite Robinson for a visit to San Antonio.

“We’ll be like two dogs, smelling each other,” Drossos said. “See if he likes San Antonio, and if we like him.”

The Spurs can’t sign Robinson before Oct. 1 because of a moratorium between the players and owners while they hash out a new collective bargaining agreement. There’s also a question of whether Robinson--if he doesn’t sign in the next year--goes back into the draft next June, or whether the Spurs still have another shot at him, because of a league by-law which allows a team to retain the rights to a player until his military commitment has ended. It may take an arbitrator to decide that one.

Drossos, of course, could avoid that whole headache by trading the rights to Robinson now. Yes, he said, there already have been offers. No, he added firmly, there’s no way the Spurs would make a deal.

“We would not trade him for anybody in professional ball,” Drossos said. “And when I say anybody, I mean exactly that.

“Even if one of the so-called big teams offered an unconscionable amount of money, we wouldn’t take it.”

Drossos proceeded to offer a hypothetical deal he would turn down.

“I would not trade Robinson for Magic (Johnson) and (James) Worthy,” he said. “ . . . People would be saying, ‘You and San Antonio are too small to sign him.’ That would be bad for my market.”

What Robinson would mean to the Los Angeles market, of course, is incalculable. The Lakers are petrified that even the slightest amount of interest they show in Robinson would be construed as tampering, but it shouldn’t take Chick Hearn to explain that signing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for two more years at $5 million fits nicely into a scenario in which Robinson checks in just when Abdul-Jabbar bows out.

By signing Abdul-Jabbar for an estimated $3 million (some of that money is deferred) for the 1988-89 season, the Lakers--under the salary cap--would then be able to offer half that amount to Robinson.

Drossos vows to do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

“This may come as a shock but even if he was able to play for us right now, I wouldn’t want him to,” Drossos said. “I want him to play for the Olympic team. That’s very important to me, as a citizen of the United States.”

As an NBA owner, however, seeing Robinson wind up in a Laker or Celtic uniform would be as bad for Drossos as seeing Robinson playing for the Soviets in Seoul.

On July 1, Robinson--who, incidentally, is too tall to go out to sea--will report to the naval base in King’s Bay, Ga. In the meantime, the rest of the NBA will be drafting from a pool of talent top-heavy in shooting guards and power forwards.

The Clippers, with three first-round picks, have a chance to help themselves most. Seattle, Chicago and the Spurs all have two first-round picks.

There are five teams with no picks in the first round: the Lakers, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, and Denver.

The Lakers surrendered their No. 1 choice to San Antonio in the Mychal Thompson deal last February. They also gave up their No. 2 in the same trade. Their first pick, in the third round, will be the 69th player chosen in the draft.

The top six choices are expected to be, in order: Robinson (San Antonio); Armon (Hammer) Gilliam, 6-9 forward from Nevada Las Vegas, by Phoenix; Dennis Hopson, 6-5 Ohio State guard, by New Jersey; Derrick McKey, 6-9 Alabama power forward, by the Clippers; Reggie Williams, 6-7 Georgetown swingman, by Seattle; Kenny Smith, 6-3 North Carolina point guard, by Sacramento.

“There are players out there,” said Marty Blake, the NBA’s director of scouting. “Anybody who tells you that this is a bad draft--this may not be a draft with a Michael Jordan or a Charles Barkley--but there are guys here who can play.”

Another certain first-rounder should be UCLA’s long-range gunner, Reggie Miller, who is expected to be taken by the Philadelphia 76ers--who have the 16th pick--if the Clippers don’t take him first, with their second pick (No. 13 overall).

Steve Alford, Indiana’s All-American guard, could star in a sequel to “Hoosiers,” but it’s unlikely he’ll wind up playing in his home state. The Indiana Pacers, who choose No. 11, are resisting local pressure to take Alford, who may last until the second round.

If Robinson is the biggest catch of the draft, Wake Forest’s 5-3 Tyrone Bogues may be the smallest. One NBA general manager said if you discount his height, Bogues ranks among the top three draftees in talent.

In a postseason tournament in Chicago, Bogues had the best vertical leap of all participants: 44 inches. He should go in the first round, perhaps to Dallas, which picks 20th.

Other prospective first-rounders include:

Centers: 7-0 Chris Welp, Washington; 6-11 Olden Polynice, who played in Italy last season after being kicked out of the University of Virginia after his junior season; 7-0 Ron Moore, West Virginia State.

Power forwards: 6-10 Horace Grant, Clemson; 6-9 Joe Wolf, North Carolina; 6-9 Dallas Comegys, DePaul; 6-10 Jose Ortiz, Oregon State.

Small forwards: 6-7 Scottie Pippen, Central Arkansas; 6-8 Ken Norman, Illinois; 6-10 Tellis Frank, Western Kentucky; 6-5 Ronnie Murphy, Jacksonville; 6-7 Reggie Lewis, Northeastern.

Shooting guards: 6-4 Jim Farmer, Alabama.

Point guards: 6-3 Mark Jackson, St. John’s; 6-1 Kevin Johnson, Cal.

THE FIRST ROUND 1. San Antonio

2. Phoenix

3. New Jersey

4. Clippers

5. Seattle (1)

6. Sacramento

7. Cleveland

8. Chicago (2)

9. Seattle

10. Chicago