Kareem Left Unprotected but Untouchable : Laker Deals Assure He Won’t Be Taken in Draft, Allow Team to Protect Another

Laker General Manager Jerry West, maneuvering to keep from losing a player in today’s National Basketball Assn. expansion draft, has traded a second-round draft choice to the Charlotte Hornets and has worked out a similar deal with the Miami Heat.

In exchange, the expansion franchises agreed not to select the biggest--and most surprising--name on the list of players eligible for the draft: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. West made the trade with the Hornets on Wednesday, while Abdul-Jabbar and the rest of the Lakers were taking part in post-championship festivities in downtown Los Angeles.

By dropping Abdul-Jabbar from the list of eight players each team was allowed to protect in the draft, West made it possible for the Lakers to protect the following players, in addition to the team’s core: backup center Mike Smrek and, most likely, forward Billy Thompson, the 1986 No. 1 draft choice who missed almost all of last season with a knee injury.

There’s an outside chance that the Lakers would instead protect Tony Campbell, the Detroit Pistons’ No. 1 pick in ‘84, who signed with the Lakers from the Continental Basketball Assn. in March.

The Lakers did not have to protect Kurt Rambis and Wes Matthews because they are unrestricted free agents, giving them the right to sign with any team. Thus, it would appear that rookie guard Milt Wagner and forward Jeff Lamp, who missed the entire season with a shoulder injury, are the only players the Lakers could lose in the draft.

Smrek, because of his size (7-foot 1-inch) and his potential to develop, figures to be protected. Thompson, who has been working out regularly with the team for some time, appears to be almost fully recovered from the hyperextended left knee and bone bruise he suffered in a collision with the Denver Nuggets’ Maurice Martin a year ago last April. If he is healthy, the Lakers would appear eager to keep him, despite some reservations about his mental commitment to the game.

Abdul-Jabbar, who will be 42 next April, is signed through the 1988-89 season, for which he is to be paid $3 million. After the Lakers won their fifth NBA title in the 1980s with a 108-105 win over the Detroit Pistons Tuesday night, Abdul-Jabbar said he planned to return next season, which would be the 20th of his professional career.

He told one reporter that he didn’t believe the Lakers would leave him unprotected in the draft, and assumed he would be told if the Lakers did so.

West refused Wednesday to disclose the Lakers’ plans for the expansion draft, or for next week’s college draft, when the Lakers have the 25th pick in the first round.

Asked if he might be contemplating some moves, West said: “We’re always looking to improve our situation. We’ve talked to some people.”

Team officials in both Charlotte and Miami were still meeting Wednesday night, planning their strategy for today’s draft. No team can lose more than one player in the draft.

The Lakers aren’t the only team to do some pre-draft manuevering. The Boston Celtics cut a deal in which they reportedly left Dennis Johnson unprotected, under similar terms. If the Heat or Hornets choose either Fred Roberts or Dirk Minniefield, the Celtics also will compensate those teams with a draft choice or a home exhibition date.

In other business, West said he has until July 1 to tender a new contract to guard Byron Scott, who is seeking a multiyear deal that will make him the Lakers’ fourth millionaire, joining Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy. West said he anticipates no problem in signing Scott, although earlier he had expressed the hope that negotiations would be concluded by the end of the playoffs.

According to one source, the Lakers have told Rambis--who was paid $525,000 this season--that they have an interest in re-signing him. Rambis, of course, has the option of not only shopping around for the best offer, but going to a team that will play him more than the Lakers did this season.

Matthews, who was paid $175,000 and played sparingly in the playoffs, probably has spent his last day in a Laker uniform, his role having been reduced to cheerleader.

Also, Laker owner Jerry Buss said that West will assume the title of president as well as general manager. Bill Sharman, who had been the team’s president, announced his retirement earlier this season.

“I wish I had no title,” West said.

Mitch Kupchak will remain assistant general manager, Buss said.

After running out of champagne to spray in their dressing room, the Lakers celebrated their championship Tuesday night with a private party at On the Rox, the private club on the Sunset Strip that was also host of last year’s victory party. The club is owned by record executive Lou Adler.

Bartenders for the occasion: Jack Nicholson and Darryl Hannah.

“That was the highlight for me, having Darryl Hannah serve my drink,” Mychal Thompson said. “Cranberry juice, on the rocks.

“And Jack was playing bartender, advising me for a change. I usually advise him: How to be more natural on the screen, how to project a bigger image . . . “

If Magic Johnson was tired after playing 115 games this season--9 exhibitions, 82 in the regular season and 24 in the playoffs--he didn’t show it. Onlookers said that Johnson came in the front door, walked directly to his favorite spot on the dance floor and danced nonstop for three hours, without so much as pausing to get a drink.

Johnson, playoff most valuable player James Worthy and Byron Scott all had to leave early because of appearances on the network morning news shows.

“At the end of the party, we all got in a circle, put on James Brown’s ‘I’m Real,’ and we danced, as individuals and as a group,” Scott said. “It was like, ‘The Laker show has come to an end.’

“We were all dancing--Me, Coop, Milt (Wagner), Riles (Pat Riley), Bill Bertka, and Billy Thompson. And we were real.”

Jerry West and team owner Jerry Buss, meanwhile, were part of another small party that went to a private club in Beverly Hills.

Another team dinner was scheduled for tonight at a club in Westwood, but the Lakers have decided, for the second straight year, not to go to the White House. Team publicist Josh Rosenfeld said that White House officials called Wednesday and said President Reagan couldn’t meet with the team before next Tuesday, by which time most of the players will have scattered.

“The players voted for Rambis to be their representative,” Rosenfeld said, tongue in cheek.

Summer plans: Abdul-Jabbar is going to Disneyland, or at least that’s what he says in the TV commercial for which he received $35,000. After that, the Laker center plans to head to the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Pat Riley is heading to southern Italy. Scott has a cruise planned to St. Thomas, followed by a trip to Italy. When does he next plan to pick up a basketball? “September,” he said.

Cooper is headed for Australia, then to Italy and New Mexico. Worthy is flying to New York for a dinner honoring him as playoff MVP. Mychal Thompson plans to go to Portland first, then the Bahamas.

“I’m going to work on my tennis game, develop a backhand topspin just like Ivan Lendl’s,” Thompson said.

“Then Byron, Coop, Tony Campbell, Wes and the Laker girls are coming down to the Bahamas. I’ve got to get Diesel (Smrek) to come down, too, and scare some of the sharks out there.”

Magic Johnson, as usual, has his summer fully booked. First, however, he is stopping in Indiana to play in Larry Bird’s all-star charity game.

Less than 24 hours after the Lakers won Game 7, all of the cubicles in their dressing room had been cleaned out. And the basketball court had been taken down and replaced with a volleyball court.