CHASING A DREAM : Laker Newcomers Go to Desert With a Desire to Join the Champions

He sat on a bench outside the lobby of a five-star resort here, a worn suitcase at his feet. There was a sticker on the suitcase: “If It Ain’t Dutch, It Ain’t Much.”

Soon, a bus arrived to take Ron Vanderschaaf back to Los Angeles. Eventually, he will return to a farm in Onalaska, Wash., and the family that took him in as an 18-year-old foreign exchange student who wanted to get away from his parents.

And someday, Vanderschaaf might even return home to Leeuwarden, the small Dutch city about an hour north of Amsterdam, an unlikely jumping-off place for a career in the National Basketball Assn.

But for three days, Vanderschaaf--the 161st and last player chosen in last June’s college draft--was a member of the Lakers, a team that has four players--Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Mychal Thompson--who had been No. 1 picks overall in the draft.

He’ll never play in the NBA--”This guy might not even make it to lunch,” was Chick Hearn’s comment on the first day of training camp--but how many guys in Holland can walk around wearing practice jerseys and sneakers issued by the Lakers?

If he hadn’t gotten in an argument with his coach when he was 15, Vanderschaaf might still be playing soccer, as most of the boys in his country do. Instead, he turned to basketball, wound up playing at Central Washington University, a small school delighted to have an imported 6-foot 8-inch, 215-pound center, and later found out on TV that he’d been drafted by the best basketball team in the world.

It really didn’t matter to him that no one from the Lakers bothered to call until two weeks after the draft. And it didn’t matter that everyone got a good laugh when his face was cut out of the Laker media guide and pasted on the cover as a joke.

“I don’t pick ‘em, I just coach ‘em,” Pat Riley said in mock protest when asked how Vanderschaaf had been invited here.

And it didn’t even matter when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took one look at Vanderschaaf’s severe haircut--cropped high above both of his prominent ears--and called him Bosworth.

For Vanderschaaf, it was just enough to be here, even though he found out that being sandwiched between 7-footers Abdul-Jabbar and Mike Smrek was like “being caught between a tank and a wall.”

“I was surprised by the physical level,” he said. “I knew the Lakers run a lot, but my legs were not used to going that fast.”

On the third day of camp, Bill Bertka, a Laker assistant coach, informed Vanderschaaf that he had been cut. Before he left, Vanderschaaf collected autographs from everybody.

“I got drafted by the world champions,” he said. “I got to play with these guys. To hang out with these guys, even for a little bit, is the greatest feeling in the world.”

Vanderschaaf was the first player cut, and so far the only one, as the Lakers wound up their weeklong training camp Thursday night with an intrasquad game. Of course, there will be others. The only jobs open on this team involve the privilege of sitting on the far end of the bench.

“I don’t like to change,” Riley said after Wednesday’s workout. “I have a hard time moving guys out of here unless someone comes in and just has a great camp.”

Against such prohibitive odds, the survivors continue, hoping to win Riley’s favor while General Manager Jerry West, team President Bill Sharman, assistant general manager Mitch Kupchak, and scouts Gene Tormohlen and Ronnie Lester watch from a row of folding chairs along one sideline of Wright Gymnasium at College of the Desert.

In the end, despite much gaudier credentials--college All-Americans from high-powered programs, Final Four appearances, high draft picks--their chances aren’t much better than those of a Dutch dreamer.

“What we need down here are psychiatrists,” said Steve Warshaw, general manager of the Rockford (Ill.) Lightning in the Continental Basketball Assn.

“There are guys here who one week are on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and the next week they’re in Biloxi, Miss., dying.”

Milt Wagner can tell you all about magazine covers. A consensus All-American, a star guard on the University of Louisville team that won the national championship in 1986 and went to the Final Four two other times, Wagner was a certain first-round draft choice until he broke a bone in his foot in the second game of what should have been his senior year.

Instead, Wagner sat out the year, then returned the next. But what should have been a personal triumph--the Cardinals won the national title over Duke--turned into a disaster. In a match-up of what many believed to be two of the premier college guards in the nation--Wagner and Duke’s Johnny Dawkins--Wagner appeared to have been badly outplayed.

Dawkins went in the first round to San Antonio, Wagner in the second to Dallas. The Mavericks told Wagner they saw him as a backup to Rolando Blackman, but instead traded for Al Wood and cut Wagner, who wound up in the minor-league CBA. Even there he was traded--from LaCrosse (Wis.) to Rockford.

Now, after a full season in the CBA, Wagner is here as a free agent with the Lakers, trying to catch on as a backup shooting guard, a position currently occupied by Adrian Branch.

Wagner said he was invited to other camps--he mentioned Boston and Chicago--but thought this would be the situation for him. West followed Wagner in college and gave him encouragement again at the CBA All-Star game last winter.

Wagner admits the game against Dawkins hurt his chances a year ago, but still wonders why everyone believes Dawkins got so much the better of it.

“I guess everybody expected big things,” he said. “Dawkins scored a lot of points, but he lost. I did all the other things--running the ballclub, playing some defense--and we won. Scoring doesn’t say everything.”

Rockford’s Warshaw said that unlike many big-name players who don’t make it in the NBA, Wagner was not shattered by his minor league experience.

“He had a great attitude,” Warshaw said. “He wanted to be a good soldier. He’s the kind of a guy you need on a team.”

Wagner said he actually grew to like Rockford. “As long as there are crowds, I like to perform,” he said. “And we had good crowds.”

Wagner is listed at 6-4, but weighs only 180. His frailty is a concern to the Lakers.

“It’d help if I could get stronger,” Wagner said. “(Riley) underestimates my strength--he wonders if I can handle it. Even though it’s brutal out there--going through picks by Abdul-Jabbar--I have to show him I can take it.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence. I know I can play with these guys. I just need to get in the door.”

For now, however, part of Wagner’s routine each morning is to deliver a newspaper to the door of Magic Johnson’s hotel room. Each newcomer has been assigned a veteran to wait on.

If he doesn’t make the Lakers, Wagner said he’d be willing to return to the CBA. It won’t be with Rockford, though. About a month ago, he was traded to the Albany (N.Y.) Patroons.

On Frank Ford’s first morning in Los Angeles, he was watching cartoons on TV when the bed in his hotel room began to shake.

“I thought I’d hit a button on the bed that made it vibrate,” Ford said. “Then the drawers started flying out and the hangers came out of the closet and I said, ‘Oh, Lord, I’m in L.A. and we’re having an earthquake.’ I didn’t know whether to run or stay.”

Two days later, when a major aftershock hit, Ford was prepared. “I had my clothes ready, at the side of my bed,” he said.

A sixth-round draft choice from Auburn, Ford made an impact at camp during the team dinner, in which rookies are instructed to perform their school songs for the entertainment of the veterans. Not only did Ford do a credible Auburn war whoop, which brought calls for an encore, he broke into the Energizer TV commercial performed by the crazed-looking Australian.

At Auburn, the 6-5, 220-pound Ford played with Charles Barkley and Chuck Person, both bona fide NBA stars. He is realistic about his own pro chances, with some help from Edna Mae Ford, his mother.

“My mom told me, ‘Hey, you can play basketball, but you’re not really that gifted,’ ” Ford said. “That’s why I worked just as hard in the classroom.”

Ford is one quarter shy of earning his degree in business education. If he doesn’t make the Lakers, he’ll return to Auburn, finish the requirements for his degree, and work as a graduate assistant coach. He also has opportunities in real estate and a car dealership.

“This has been like a dream come true,” he said of his week with the Lakers. I was only 1 or 2 years old when Kareem started playing basketball.

“Just to be on the same court is like a fantasy to me.”

“My whole career has been a little strange,” Jeff Lamp said. “You could say it hasn’t followed a normal course.”

This might be the strangest turn of all: After running into West at the health club to which they both belong, Lamp was invited to training camp.

A one-time All-American at Virginia, where he used to go head-to-head with James Worthy of North Carolina, Lamp has been through this before: The Lakers are his fourth NBA team.

He was a first-round draft pick of Portland, but languished there for three years, playing little. Then he tried out with the Indiana Pacers, made it to the last day, was dressed, taped and ready to go--and was told right on the floor that he had been cut.

He sat out that season, returned to Portland and got his real estate license. Four months of working in real estate, and he got the itch to play basketball again. Why?

“The mere fact that I still enjoyed playing,” he said. “I didn’t want to give it up.”

He signed as a free agent with Milwaukee, was released, then caught on with San Antonio, where he finished the ‘85-86 season.

Last season, after failing to come to terms on a new contract with the Spurs, Lamp went to Italy for a season, playing with Rimini.

“That was like a paid vacation,” he said. “We only played once a week.”

Now, at 28, he’s back for what is probably his last shot at the NBA. After having already bought one house in Portland, broken a lease in Milwaukee, and borrowed another player’s apartment in San Antonio, Lamp would be delighted to call L.A. home--even at the NBA minimum salary of $75,000.

“I knew what to expect coming into camp,” said the 6-6, 205-pound guard “This team is very well defined in what they want and what they want you to do.

“Hopefully, they still think I’m young enough. If they think I’m too old, they may prefer to go with a rookie who’s younger and develop him.”

They grew up in Atlantic City, a couple of blocks away from each other. Willie Glass lived on Pennsylvania Ave., Ralph Tally on Virginia Ave. The playground was in back of Glass’ house, Tally said, which is where they first played as grade school kids.

Later, they played together at Atlantic City High, then went their separate ways--Glass to high-powered St. John’s, Tally to Norfolk (Va.) State, a Division II school.

Now, they’re reunited, high school teammates drafted by the same NBA team. Tally drove to New York to attend the draft. Glass said he stayed home and washed his car. The Lakers took Glass in the third round, Tally in the fourth.

UCLA fans may remember Glass. He shut down high-scoring Reggie Miller twice in consecutive years.

“Reggie doesn’t like me,” Glass said with a small smile. “After I held him to about eight (points) the first time, he said, ‘You ain’t going to do that again this year.’ But it was the same thing.”

It isn’t likely that anyone on the West Coast other than an ESPN junkie would have heard of Tally, who had never been west of Chicago until coming to camp here. For two summers, Tally worked at the Golden Nugget casino as a food runner, making sure the kitchen was stocked.

Tally’s size--he’s 6-1 and 165--works against him, but the Laker coaches have been impressed by how hard he works.

The other rookie point guard in camp is fifth-round pick Kenny Travis, who had to do everything last season at New Mexico State after two of his teammates were arrested for shoplifting.

So far, the 6-6 Glass, who West likened to Michael Cooper when he drafted him, has not been impressive. Riley said he didn’t even notice Glass the first couple of days, and remains mystified at his lack of fundamental skills.

Glass played in the Baker League in Philadelphia and was MVP of the All-Star game, scoring 35 points and grabbing 20 rebounds. That should have answered those critics who say he can’t score.

But if he doesn’t make it?

“I can go to the CBA or overseas,” he said. “I haven’t made my mind up.

“Who knows? I might just go on back home.”