THE PICK OF PACK : Joe Wolf Is a Player in Clippers’ Clothing

Basketball Coach Dean Smith of North Carolina thinks the Clippers got a bargain in former Tar Heel forward Joe Wolf.

Wolf signed a reported $1.2-million, three-year contract with the Clippers last October.

Smith said he had advised Wolf to ask for a one-year contract because his value would rise dramatically after his first season in the National Basketball Assn.

It’s too early to evaluate Wolf, but Smith just might have been right.

“I think we’ve had six NBA rookies of the year,” Smith said of his North Carolina program. “I had no doubts about Joe.

“I bet all the teams that didn’t draft him would be sorry. I’ve known him since he was 7 and I coached his brother. Joe is just a great competitor.

“His only weakness is guarding the man on the ball outside. That’s Larry Bird’s only weakness, too.”

Wolf has made a bigger contribution to the Clippers than has Reggie Williams, their top pick in the NBA draft last June. Williams, a star at Georgetown, was the No. 4 pick overall. Wolf was the 13th.

The development of Wolf, a 6-foot 11-inch, 230-pound player from a suburb of Sheboygan, Wis., has been perhaps the most positive development for the Clippers, who have won half as many games in the first month of the season as they did all of last season.

The Clippers started winning when Wolf became a starter and have a 4-5 record in the nine games since. He has already made an impression around the NBA.

“I think Wolf’s going to be a great player,” said Laker forward James Worthy, who also played at North Carolina.

Said Atlanta Hawks Coach Mike Fratello: “I like Wolf a lot.”

The Clippers touted Williams for rookie-of-the-year honors before the season. Maybe they should have pushed Wolf.

Wolf has been more consistent than Williams, who, despite flashes of greatness, has been erratic. And Wolf has displayed a work ethic previously foreign to most of his teammates.

Said Clipper Coach Gene Shue: “Reggie is going through a tough period. And Wolf has been more consistent than he has. Reggie’s an open-court player who is used to running up and down the court. We’d like to run but we don’t have the players who can do it.

“Wolf has made the most of his chances. What difference does it make if we drafted Reggie 4th and Joe 13th? It’s the player who can produce.

“One of the problems we had is rebounding, and Joe Wolf helps us in that area. When Reggie was starting, we were getting killed on the boards. I expect Joe to develop into a good post-up player.”

Williams got off to a promising start, starting four games, but has been in a slump since scoring a season-high 33 points in a 122-121 overtime loss at San Antonio Nov. 17. Williams was slow to recover after missing two games because of the flu, and, a starter since high school, has had trouble adjusting to a reserve role.

“I started out faster and (Wolf) started out slower and now he’s begun to catch up,” Williams said. “When I got sick and they put me on the bench it was a tough adjustment. I’ve never been on the bench. I’ve always been a starter.

“I’m going to come out of it. Players go into slumps every day. It’s up to me to come out of it. Great players go into slumps. I’m human, too.”

Wolf said he thinks Williams will come out of it soon. In the meantime, though, Wolf, who’s averaging 10.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists, is making the most of his opportunity.

His shot selection is good and his shooting touch has been excellent, none of which surprises Smith.

“I think Joe is as close as there is to being a pure shooter,” Smith said. “I’ve seen him go around the horn and make every shot. I think his shooting will surprise people. And he’s a very good passer.

“He played three positions for us up front. He’s 6-11 1/2 and getting stronger.”

The Clippers drafted Wolf specifically because of his versatility, but it might have hurt him at first because they couldn’t decide where to play him.

He appears most comfortable at small forward, his current position. He played power forward during the exhibition season, then was shifted when Michael Cage, last season’s power forward, ended his holdout one game into the season.

Cage, the NBA’s third-leading rebounder, likes the way Wolf goes to the boards.

“He makes my job easier,” Cage said. “I didn’t do the things this early in my career that he’s doing now. I like his game.”

Clipper guard Mike Woodson said: “I think he’ll be a great player in this league eventually. He played in a great program at North Carolina. All the guys who have come into the league from there have played well.”

Wolf, who will turn 23 a week from today, is the only rookie in the Clippers’ starting lineup but it appears that success hasn’t gone to his head.

He comes across as the most down-to-earth player on the team. He’s the only Clipper starter, for instance, who doesn’t own a Mercedes.

“People in Wisconsin have good old-fashioned values,” Wolf said.

One of his is saving his money.

He hasn’t gone on a spending spree since he signed with the Clippers, his biggest purchase having been a new Jeep. And it doesn’t even have a radio.

Wolf said the Jeep will come in handy when he goes hiking and helps out on the family’s new farm in Wisconsin.

He’s investing the big money he’ll earn from his three-year Clipper contract so that he will be financially secure when his NBA career is over.

Wolf will have a long career, however, if he continues to play as he has in the first month of his first season.

Kohler, Wis., about 60 miles north of Milwaukee, is a town of only 1,600 but it’s hard to miss if you’re in the neighborhood.

Kohler is a company town, the home of Kohler Plumbing, the world’s largest manufacturer of sinks, bathtubs and plumbing fixtures.

“Everyone in Kohler works for Kohler Plumbing,” said Wolf, whose father, Leo, a former truck driver, is the company’s fleet manager.

Wolf grew up in Kohler, but his family recently moved to a 60-acre farm west of town.

Since coming to California, Wolf has undergone a radical change in life styles.

He leases a small two-bedroom house in Manhattan Beach on the Strand, a three-point shot from the beach. It’s nice, but hardly fancy. Decor is early bachelor. Wolf sleeps on a mattress on the floor, and the walls, so far, are bare.

The view from Wolf’s second-story bedroom balcony, though, is spectacular. On a clear day, he can see the coastline from Malibu to Palos Verdes.

“The ocean puts me to sleep,” he said. “I love to go to sleep to the waves.

“I was looking out at the ocean the other day and I saw a school of dolphins swim by. I like to walk on the beach or go down to the pier when I get stressed out.”

Still, Wolf is at least a little homesick for the snow. He’d prefer a white Christmas to Christmas on the beach.

“I love the sun and the beach,” he said. “But my heart is with winter. I love snow and the outdoors.”

Wolf’s parents are flying out to spend Christmas here with him. His girlfriend, Spencer Barnes, is also coming out for a visit. She is a North Carolina junior who plays on the tennis team.

Joe Wolf developed his basketball skills playing against three older brothers on the family’s outdoor court.

“We had a court in the backyard, and they used to beat me up when we played,” Wolf said. “They always beat me just because they were older and taller. But I think it helped me. I had to learn how to handle the basketball and shoot from the outside because I was smaller.”

His brothers were pretty good at basketball, too. They all played in college.

John, 34, a 6-10 center, played at St. John’s of Collegeville, Minn., and Lakeland College in Sheboygan; Jeff, 29, a 7-foot center, played at North Carolina, and Jim, 24, a 6-6 swingman, played at Penn.

Jeff, a fourth-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks, played in Europe and Japan for five years after failing to make it in the NBA. He’s now a banker in Durham, N.C.

“I still don’t admit that Joe is better,” Jeff Wolf said. “He’s gone the furthest, though. He kind of surprised me by the way he has progressed. But once he got to college. I knew it was just a matter of time until he made the NBA.”

Said Jim Wolf: “Joe was chubby and kind of awkward as a kid. But he grew into his body, and his understanding of the game of basketball developed. We don’t use the term best in our family. We’ve all been pretty successful.”

The Wolf brothers, in fact, helped make tiny Kohler High a force in the Wisconsin Class C state basketball playoffs.

Kohler won three state titles during Joe’s four years there. He was the sixth man on the 1980 team, which won the title when he was a freshman. Brother Jim played on that team.

Kohler was upset in the regional playoffs in 1981 but won consecutive championships in 1982 and 1983.

Kohler High, which had 50 students in Wolf’s 1983 graduating class, didn’t have a losing record while he was in school, but the Blue Bombers did lose a backboard.

Wolf shattered it while he was fooling around, practicing dunks. He was supposed to be at track practice, working on his high jumping when it happened.

Kohler went 24-2 in 1980 and posted a 19-2 record in 1981. The team finished 22-4 when Wolf was a junior and 23-3 his senior season, after which he was voted Wisconsin prep basketball player of the year. He averaged 31.7 points and 18.7 rebounds that season.

He was heavily recruited but quickly narrowed his choices to Notre Dame, Indiana, Marquette, Wisconsin, Virginia and North Carolina.

“I decided between Marquette and North Carolina and I chose North Carolina because I wanted to get away from home,” Wolf said. “I wanted to be my own person with no strings attached. Going away to school helped me grow up quickly.”

Wolf, who played with Sam Perkins and Brad Daugherty in college, eventually became a star at North Carolina, averaging 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 128 games as a Tar Heel. He earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors last season.

He values the lessons he learned from Smith at North Carolina.

“He prepares you for life, not only on the basketball court. He teaches you to become a better person,” Wolf said. “He made me do all the things I didn’t want to do, like going to class and practicing, but I’m a better person because of it.”