IS IT TIME TO CELEBRATE? : Reggie Williams Doesn’t Lose and Hopes to Turn Clippers Into Winners, Too

Reggie Williams, the Clippers’ standout rookie swing man, likes to party after victories. But he hates to go out after a loss.

Williams, a 6-foot 7-inch, 190-pound forward-guard who was the fourth player picked in last summer’s National Basketball Assn. draft, was able to go out about as often as he liked during the four years he played for Georgetown.

But he may become as reclusive as Howard Hughes if he maintains his policy, now that he has joined the Clippers. They have the NBA’s worst record over the last decade.

A few days before he signed his $2.4-million, three-year contract, Williams was spotted at Paradise 24, a trendy Hollywood dance club frequented by Magic Johnson, Prince and Janet Jackson, among others.

He hasn’t been back since.

Before the Clippers beat Utah Tuesday for their first win this season, Williams was spending a lot of time in his hotel room, contemplating last weekend’s embarrassing blowouts.

“It’s hard for me to go out when I’m losing,” Williams said. “If I get beat by 40, I’d rather stay in my room, watch TV and have a sandwich.

“It’s tough. I can’t accept losing. But I have to deal with it. I’ve got to get it off my chest.”

Being new to this, Williams still doesn’t have the glazed stare that seems to come with playing for the Clippers.

Potentially, Williams is the best player the Clippers have drafted in their lackluster 18-year history.

His nickname is Silk, as in smooth as, and he wears a heavy gold bracelet with his nickname written in diamonds. Actually, Williams would probably blend in better with the defending NBA champion Lakers than with the Clippers. In any event, he will get a close look at them tonight when the Clippers play the Lakers at the Forum.

Playing for a losing team is the biggest adjustment that Williams, 23, has had to make since he became one of California’s newest instant millionaires.

“I love the NBA,” Williams said. “It’s easier than I expected. In college, teams would use zones to stop me. But they’ve got to play man-to-man in the pros.”

Williams would seem to have a good chance to become rookie of the year, since he figures to play a lot for the Clippers, who have four other rookies on their 12-man roster.

“I want to win it,” he said of the MVP trophy. “My goal is to win it. But if I don’t, I won’t be upset.”

He was a hit in his NBA debut, scoring 16 points off the bench in the Clippers’ 46-point season-opening loss at Denver. He started at forward the next night and had a team-high 25 points in a 25-point loss to Portland.

Williams was the leading rookie scorer in the NBA after those two games, averaging 20.5 points, but that average fell when he scored just nine points off the bench in the Clippers’ 100-88 win over Utah Tuesday night.

That isn’t because he is shy about shooting, though. In fact, he may shoot too much.

Although he is tied with Mike Woodson for the Clippers’ scoring lead with a 16.7-point average, he is shooting only 36.4% from the field. He has made just 20 of 55 shots in his first three games.

“Reggie Williams has got to learn how to play,” Denver Coach Doug Moe said after seeing Williams’ first pro game. “But he’ll get better as he goes along.”

His defense needs some work, too.

Portland forward Kiki Vandeweghe scored 33 points against Williams last Saturday and Denver forward Alex English had 22. They are, of course, a couple of noted scorers.

“Alex English is a great player,” Williams said after his first game. “He always looks like he’s not doing much but he’s always there on the scoreboard. The big difference between college and pro ball is that you can get away with a lot of fouls in the NBA.

“The main difference is the physical play. Guys are bigger and stronger. But also defense is man to man, which gives a guy like myself a lot more freedom to do what he wants to do.”

Williams figures he is behind schedule because he missed the first two weeks of training camp and the Clippers’ first five exhibition games while holding out.

He still hasn’t mastered Coach Gene Shue’s play book, which is about as complex as a law book.

And Shue is still trying to determine where best to play Williams, who played every position except center in college.

Although no one has ever questioned his intensity or toughness--ask Woodson about the bump on the head that he got from Williams in practice Monday--Williams may be too thin to play inside in the NBA.

Still, Williams is considered the cornerstone of the Clippers’ three-year rebuilding plan.

And they gave him the richest rookie contract ever, other than for a center.

Williams will receive $800,000 a season for the next three years, with a $1.2-million option for the fourth season.

His agent, David Falk of Pro-Serv International, rejected a longer contract, gambling that Williams’ market value will increase quickly.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are counting on Williams to help them rebound from last year’s 12-70 record, third-worst in NBA history.

Williams said he doesn’t mind playing for the Clippers, because he can get in on the ground floor and help them develop into a playoff team.

Although he likes to celebrate victories, Williams said that basically he leads a quiet life off the court.

For now, he still is living in a hotel near the airport because he has been too busy to go house hunting. But he hopes to settle in somewhere soon.

“I can’t live in a hotel all season,” he said. “I like L.A. I’ve always wanted to live in California, ever since I was a little kid. It was a dream of mine.”

And he may be the only millionaire in L.A., where almost nobody walks, without a car. “I’m getting around on my size 14s for now,” Williams said.

Williams rarely shows any outward signs of emotion but he has impressed his new Clippers teammates.

“I like his game,” forward Michael Cage said. “He’s got a nice touch and he can get in and rebound.”

Guard Larry Drew said: “He’s going to be a real good player because his body is really smooth. He’ll be that much better once he’s been in the league for a while.”

Woodson added: “He’s a good young player. He’s got all the talent. He can play two positions and he’s got good range on his jumper.”

If history can be trusted, the Clippers may turn things around with Williams. Since high school, he has played on nothing but elite teams.

He led Dunbar High of Baltimore to the mythical national prep championship in 1983 and a year later helped Georgetown to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title. Williams scored 19 points and was named most valuable player in Georgetown’s win over Houston in the NCAA final.

“It was exciting,” he said. “I had just won the national championship in high school and then we won the NCAA my first year in college.”

Dunbar, a perennial national prep basketball power, was 59-0 during Williams’ final two seasons and he was named the top high school player in the country as a senior. Dunbar lost only three games in Williams’ first season there, two in triple overtime and the other in double overtime.

Two of Williams’ high school teammates were also drafted in the first round this year--5-3 guard Tyrone (Muggsy) Bogues of the Washington Bullets and forward Reggie Lewis of the Boston Celtics. It was the first time that three players from the same high school team were picked in the first round.

According to Lewis, Williams really does have strong feelings about things, he just doesn’t share them with strangers.

“He doesn’t say much around people he doesn’t know,” Lewis said. “But he was pretty open around people on the team (at Dunbar). He smiles a lot. He just doesn’t smile around people he doesn’t know.

“I thought he’d always be good, but he never had one of those cocky attitudes.

“It feels really good to have three guys from one high school drafted in the first round and one guy the year before that. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”

David Wingate, a second-year guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, also played for at Dunbar before going on to Georgetown.

Bob Wade, who coached Williams and the others at Dunbar before moving on to the University of Maryland, said of the 1982-83 team: “A lot people say it was the best (prep) basketball team ever assembled. We had a wealth of talent. And Reggie was the guy we looked to.

“He had a lot of physical talent and court awareness and he was cool under pressure. He had all the characteristics of a promising pro.”

Williams chose Georgetown over UCLA, Louisville, Kentucky and Georgia Tech. “I thought UCLA was too far from home and Georgetown had a great program with (Patrick) Ewing and Coach (John) Thompson,” Williams said.

Williams says he enjoyed playing for Thompson. “He was very demanding,” Williams said. “He’s not only a basketball coach, he’s a philosopher. He’d stop practice and talk about life for an hour and a half. When I need advice, I call Coach Thompson.”

Many NBA players leave school before graduating but Williams took a sociology degree with him when he left Georgetown.

Georgetown lost only 22 games during Williams’ four years there and he left as the school’s third-leading scorer, behind only Eric (Sleepy) Floyd and Ewing, with 2,117 points.