The NBA : League Waits to See If Family Friction Takes Fight Out of SuperSonics

With the Seattle SuperSonics’ wives at war, will the team be in any shape to do battle with the Lakers in the playoffs this spring?

“Sometimes turmoil brings out the best in a team,” Laker guard Michael Cooper said.

And sometimes it doesn’t, which is why the Lakers--and the rest of the National Basketball Assn.--are eagerly awaiting the fallout from last week’s fistfight between Monique Ellis and Bobbie Jo Lister, the wives of SuperSonic guard Dale Ellis and center Alton Lister, after Seattle’s win over the Lakers last Tuesday night in the Seattle Coliseum.

Such a public display of friction among teammates’ families is unknown to the Lakers, according to Wanda Cooper, whose marriage to Michael is the longest on the team. “Can you believe I’m the Kareem of wives?” said Wanda, whose marriage to Michael is in its 10th year.

“We’ve really been a close group--there’s never been anything between us on that level. For us, if there was anything, it would be so trivial, it would be funny.

“And if there were any tension, most of us would know enough to see it through.”

Wanda was reluctant to talk about the Seattle situation. “Since we’re probably going to play them in the finals, I should stay out of this,” she said. “What business is this of mine?”

She did acknowledge, however, that such a situation could tear a team apart.

“It should be more important to them to beat us than to beat up on each other,” she said of the SuperSonics.

Police had to break up the Seattle scuffle, which also involved Ellis’ sister and one of Mrs. Lister’s friends, outside of the team’s dressing room. SuperSonic president Bob Whitsett called the incident a “total embarrassment,” and league officials are considering barring both wives from future games.

This was not a spontaneous act of aggression. There has been bad blood between the women ever since Lister received a four-year, $4.2-million offer sheet last fall, about the time Ellis was involved in a contract dispute with the SuperSonics. Bobbie Jo reportedly told Monique: “Who does Dale think he is, Michael Jordan? Asking for all this money.” Mrs. Ellis reportedly responded by striking Mrs. Lister with her purse, and battle lines were drawn.

Bobbie Jo Lister had stopped coming to games, according to an acquaintance, because of mounting tension, and the Laker game was her first in almost a month.

If contract negotiations are the kindling for such disputes, this summer could conceivably put a strain on the close friendship the Coopers have with Byron Scott and his wife, Anita. Scott is playing on a one-year contract of $600,000 this season, slightly less than the $612,500 Cooper is making, but Scott stands to receive a substantial raise--not to mention an offer sheet--after his extraordinary performance this season.

And what will Wanda Cooper’s reaction be?

“If Byron goes in and grabs a bigger contract,” she said, “we’ll probably go out for dinner and celebrate together. We’ll say, ‘Good for you.’ He’s had a phenomenal year. He deserves whatever he gets.”

Don’t think for a moment that Red Auerbach took the Boston Celtics’ recent three-game losing streak, which included a Boston Garden loss to the New Jersey Nets, in stride. Auerbach said he plans to address the team at practice today, something he said he hasn’t felt compelled to do in three or four years.

“I don’t like what I see lately, and I’m going to talk to them about it,” Auerbach, the Celtics’ president, told Will McDonough of the Boston Globe.

“To let New Jersey score 117 points against us on our own court is a joke. It seems to me like our players are more concerned with offense. I don’t see the hustle and the work at the defensive end that I want to see. The effort on defense just isn’t there, and we’re going to get that straightened out.”

Auerbach may just be sending up a smoke screen, but he responded negatively to the suggestion that center Bill Walton--who recently began some practice drills with the team--might be able to return in time for the playoffs.

“To me, that is a lot of bull,” Auerbach said. “I don’t plan on Bill being there. We’re thinking of him for next year. For him to come back and help us in the playoffs would be a miracle. Even if he were healthy, Walton is the kind of guy who needs to play a lot of ball before he would be playoff sharp, and we’re running out of games to play.”

He should enjoy the honeymoon while it lasts: The Nets are 3-1 for Coach Willis Reed after Monday night’s 105-81 loss to the Jazz in Utah. They won just a dozen games in the first four months of the season.

“Ever since he’s been here, we’ve had more emotion, more commitment,” guard John Bagley said of Reed, who had been Bill Russell’s assistant with the Sacramento Kings.

“You see more guys now with the great effort every minute they’re on the floor. What Willis has done is stress defense and dedication to the game. Since he’s been here, we’ve all buckled down on defense and given all we have.”

Add Reed: One of the reasons he was hired by New Jersey is his relationship to Nets forward Orlando Woolridge, his cousin. Woolridge is undergoing drug rehabilitation. Asked how he would treat Woolridge, Reed said: “I’ll deal with Orlando as a member of the team, one who has the responsibility and commitments of any other player. If he needs to be hugged, I’ll hug him. If he needs to be kicked in the butt, I’ll do that, too--just as I’d do with any other player.”

Denver Nuggets Coach Doug Moe, asked if he were a good coach because he doesn’t do a lot of thinking during games, replied: “I am one of the great thinkers of the world. Me, Thoreau, Socrates and a few other boys are in a class by ourselves.”