The NBA : Kareem’s Farewell Tour Begins Where It Should--in New York

Fitting, isn’t it, that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s farewell tour should start at the beginning--in New York, the place of his birth. It’s no longer home to him--that is a title he says he now reserves for Los Angeles--but it is still special.

“I once dreamed of coming back here,” he said. “But it didn’t work out that way.”

The Madison Square Garden of his youth--the one in which he played as an awe-struck 14-year-old for Power Memorial Academy in a high school game before the New York Knicks took the floor--is no longer standing.

When he plays his final National Basketball Assn. game in the rebuilt Madison Square Garden tonight before a sellout crowd of 19,591, it will be where he made his New York pro debut 19 years ago last Nov. 1. On that night, as Lew Alcindor, he scored 36 points and grabbed 27 rebounds while playing a full 48 minutes for the Milwaukee Bucks in a 112-108 defeat.

“It was definitely long ago and far away, I can say that,” he said Monday.

How to say goodby? Obviously, as much as Abdul-Jabbar might love to, it won’t be with as stirring a performance as his first one. But, it was equally obvious Monday at a press conference in his honor, that Abdul-Jabbar has chosen to say farewell with humility and grace, humor and honesty that he admits would have been absent 10 years ago, when even the idea of a farewell tour would have been anathema.

“Totally inconceivable,” he said. “I probably would have just stepped out the back door.”

That idea has given way, at age 41, to occupying center stage comfortably and without apology. A man who once shunned the attention of his public now apparently embraces whatever affection that same public might send his way, with his personal publicist and book collaborator in tow.

Monday night, there was a team party thrown by comedian Eddie Murphy. And before the game tonight, there will be plenty of pomp and circumstance: His parents will be there, and some of his high school teammates, and other faces from his past, a couple of surprises and what will almost certainly be an ear-splitting standing ovation of memorable length.

“It’s probably going to be a distraction,” he said Monday. “I just hope it’s not detrimental to the ability of the team to play through it.”

Certainly it would be nice, he said, if Laker Coach Pat Riley would turn back the clock somehow, go out of his way to make the Laker center a focal point again instead of virtual spare part. But Abdul-Jabbar said that’s something he would never ask for.

“This is a year where I am being phased out, so Pat has to do the things he needs to do for the future, on top of what is at hand right now,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I don’t envy him.

“It’s tough on me. There are times when I would like the ball more and I’m being waved to the other side of the court. That’s just something I’ve got to live with. I don’t take it personally. I’m hoping it’s best for the team.

“I can subdue my desire to compete for the team. That’s no problem for me. I don’t always like it, but it’s no problem.”

Abdul-Jabbar was generous in his praise of others--Jack Donohue, his high school coach, for teaching him the game; John Wooden, his college coach, for being such an example of integrity; Guy Rodgers, Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson, for the chance to play with three of the best point guards.

And he reflected on his own achievements, not with wonderment, but with respect.

“We have the banners, we have the rings, we have the professional benchmarks of ultimate success and we’re very pleased with that,” he said.

“I’ve gotten to do everything I’ve wanted to do in this profession. I can walk away from it very satisfied. I’ve probably had success for a couple of lifetimes.”

What does it feel like, knowing the curtain is about to drop?

“In a way, it’s fun, but it’s also hard to take,” he said. “It’s something that is coming up. I don’t think it’s something that’s come too soon. I hope it hasn’t come too late. I think it’s right on time.”

Incentive clause: If Larry Bird returns in 3 months--which is the most optimistic estimate after his surgery for bone spurs in both feet--guess who the Celtics will play in his first game back? You got it: The Lakers at the Forum, Feb. 19.

That’s Smrek as in (nervous) wreck: It has been tough going in San Antonio for Mike Smrek, the former Laker third-string center traded to the Spurs in the first week of the season.

Smrek was bypassed for forward Greg (Cadillac) Anderson when starting center Petur Gudmundsson went down with an injury, and Coach Larry Brown has been less than impressed by the 7-footer’s showing so far.

“What are you, on Valium or something?” Brown yelled at Smrek in practice one day last week.

The nights pass slowly for the Sacramento Kings, who remain the worst shooting team in the league.

Injuries, particularly to Jim Petersen, coming back from knee surgery, and Joe Kleine, who has broken ribs, did their part to make the Kings one of three winless teams in the league after 7 games. But the woes of Coach Jerry Reynolds can be traced directly to a 40.1% shooting percentage.

“Everyone is trying real hard, but you don’t want to dwell on it,” Reynolds said. “The best thing to do sometimes is say the hell with it and just try to hang tough.”

Not that Reynolds is able to take his own advice.

“It’s something that really bothers me,” Reynolds said. “I don’t know what to do, and that’s what makes it really frustrating. Like most coaches, I always figure the team will take care of it and break out of the slump. But I’m running out of ideas.”

Concerned fans, however, are not. Many have called the Kings’ office, offering remedies to cure what has become common cold shooting, suggesting psychologists, transcendental meditation and similar cures. One even tried to direct the team to a juggler, saying something about how improved hand-eye coordination might be the answer.

“Hell,” Reynolds said. “We juggle the rebounds now. Why do we need someone to teach us?”

Danny Manning, whose scoreless performance in the semifinal loss to the Soviet Union in the 1988 Summer Olympics has dogged him into the National Basketball Assn. with the Clippers, was asked if he would like to play in the 1992 Games, when professionals might be accepted.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I want to go back for selfish reasons, to play a good game. But I don’t know if it will be fair to the amateurs.

“I think people will realize ultimately that the best basketball is played in the NBA and the United States, so maybe we should send some (pros) over in ’92 just to make a point. But I don’t think it should be an ongoing thing.”

Darryl Dawkins has been doing his best to keep a low profile with the Detroit Pistons, but sometimes the Chocolate Thunder in him breaks through. Sometimes, it’s as though he never left Lovetron.

“I’m still capable of creating things in my mind and saying outrageous stuff, but I’ve toned it down,” he said. “It could reoccur at any moment, though. I still have a lot of boy in me, but there comes a time when you have to say, ‘Boy out, man in.’ ”

No sooner did he finish saying that than he broke out in a chorus of, “I don’t want to grow up, but if I did, I’d be a Toys R Us kid.”

Boy out, huh.

Add Dawkins: He played in only 6 games last season because of personal problems, including the suicide of his former wife, so he wasn’t with the Pistons when they won the Eastern Conference title against the Celtics and lost the NBA championship to the Lakers.

But his impact this season was immediate.

On the first day of training camp, he took a lob pass from Isiah Thomas and dunked over James Edwards.

“Damn, Dawk,” Thomas said. “You owe me a ring. If you would have played 5 minutes in the playoffs (last season), we’d all be wearing championship rings now.”