The NBA / Sam McManis : Vandeweghe’s Back Injury Still a Sore Point With Trail Blazers

His back pain temporarily alleviated, Kiki Vandeweghe is practicing again with the Portland Trail Blazers, although he is uncertain about his place on the team.

Vandeweghe, who played in only 37 games last season because of the chronic back condition, has been working out for about 10 days, scrimmaging with the team but avoiding contact. He said he hopes to return to action by the end of December, pending clearance from back specialist Robert Forsythe, his physician.

If it were the Trail Blazers’ decision, however, Vandeweghe would have been playing long ago. In what has become a sore point, Robert Cook, the team doctor, said that Vandeweghe was fit to play and that X-rays were negative. Forsythe disagreed.

“I’ve seen doctors in San Francisco, Seattle, Indio, a lot of places, and there have been different opinions,” Vandeweghe said. “But the bottom line is that it’s time off that will help the back. It’s a pretty common thing. A lot of people have it.”

Not every National Basketball Assn. player, however, has gone through the turmoil Vandeweghe has. There was the controversy over the severity of the injury and the Trail Blazers’ desire to make Vandeweghe play. And the specter of a trade also has made life difficult for the former UCLA star, who has averaged 23.7 points in his 8 professional seasons.

“It isn’t easy, I’ll tell you that,” Vandeweghe said. “I know they were trying to trade me all summer. I told them if they wanted to trade me, do it before the season started.

“I’m maybe just a little disenchanted, not bitter. I guess I understand the Trail Blazers’ position of wanting to get me to play. That’s their concern. My concern is my health.”

Speculation is that Portland management is eager for Vande-weghe to return so that he can be traded. The trade talk has alternately hurt and encouraged Vandeweghe.

He said he had seen how the Trail Blazers made Darnell Valentine and Jim Paxson, players they deemed no longer part of their plans, do time on the bench before they were shipped out. But he also brightens at the prospect of a fresh start away from Coach Mike Schuler.

“Mike and I got along until I hurt my back,” Vandeweghe said. “When I came back, everything was different with him. He gave my job to somebody else (Jerome Kersey). I didn’t get a chance to get it back.”

So now, Vandeweghe waits for medical clearance to play and wonders where that will be. The New York Knicks tried to get Vandeweghe last summer, but it is believed that their interest has lessened. The Knicks reportedly offered a first-round draft pick in 1992 for Vandeweghe, then reduced it to two second-round picks. Now, the teams apparently are not talking.

“The latest I heard, they were trying to trade me to San Antonio,” Vandeweghe said. It has been reported that San Antonio has offered Frank Brickowski for Vandeweghe.

And, where would Vandeweghe like to resume his career?

“I hesitate to say, because then that probably would be the last place they’d send me,” he said, laughing.

Add Portland: Schuler’s problems extend beyond dealing with Vandeweghe. He reportedly is not rating high in popularity polls among other Trail Blazer players.

It may have started when he held a Thanksgiving Day practice, that turned into a screaming session. Clyde Drexler avoided practicing--but not playing in games--with a variety of injuries, irking teammates and Schuler. Other Trail Blazers are envious of Kevin Duckworth’s lucrative contract, and reserve forward Steve Johnson has asked to be traded.

Other than that, everything is peaceful with the Pacific Division’s second-place team.

Every bead of sweat on Larry Bird’s brow, each tentative step he makes in his cumbersome walking casts during his rehabilitation from Achilles’ tendon surgery, every sweater he wears on the bench at games, has been duly reported in Boston.

This is what Bird watching has become, as Celtic followers count the days until his return, probably sometime in February: “Bird says casts itch; film at 11!”

So, for the edification of West Coast Celtic fanatics, here was Bird’s week when the Lakers were in town.

He rode a stationary bicycle (once Bill Walton’s domain), lifted weights, rode the bicycle again, shot free throws, rode the bicycle some more.

“I don’t know what the outcome of this will be,” Bird said. “But I do know 3 days after surgery I felt a big difference in my ankles. So you have to figure how much better will it be 3 months after surgery.”

One form of rehabilitation Bird’s doctors probably won’t like hearing is that Bird removed his casts and walked--without pain--on his own.

“The doctors tell me not to, but I’ve been doing it a little,” Bird said. “It feels really good, but the doctors keep telling me it’s too early to tell anything. I think I’m a little ahead of schedule, but the doctors keep telling me to wait a month to see.”

Last week, guard Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls said that he would not defend his slam dunk title during All-Star weekend because the event simply is too physically draining. And now, Jordan has indicated that he would like to be included in the 3-point shooting competition, because Bird will not be able to defend his title.

The only problem is that Jordan doesn’t have the credentials to be selected among the league’s best 3-point shooters. He is a 16.4% 3-point shooter.

Leader in the clubhouse for trade of the year is the Knicks’ acquisition of forward Charles Oakley from the Bulls for center Bill Cartwright.

Oakley has been a rebounding force, lauded by the Knicks for his work ethic. Cartwright, however, has been his inconsistent self.

Jordan recently expressed frustration over Cartwright’s play.

“I know we’re not getting the passes in to Cartwright,” Jordan said. “But he’s got to do more when he gets them.”

After the Atlanta Hawks had pounded the Bulls last week, Moses Malone was quoted as saying: “Bad deal for the Bulls.”

A controversy erupted at Atlanta last week. Coach Mike Fratello reserved a suburban country club for the team’s Christmas party. What he wasn’t aware of, until it was too late, was that the club does not accept black members.

Because of the policy, Hawk guard Doc Rivers, who is black, refused to attend the party. Other Hawk players who are black, including Malone, Dominique Wilkins and Reggie Theus, chose to attend, believing that their presence at the club would be a better statement than staging a boycott.

“If the place ain’t integrated, let’s integrate it now,” said Malone, who reportedly sought a membership application.

With Mark Jackson, last season’s rookie of the year, assuming most of the playing time as the New York Knicks’ point guard, rookie Rod Strickland has had to fight to get in the game.

But when Strickland does play for an extended period, as he did in last week’s Knick blowout of the New Jersey Nets, he has been productive. Strickland had 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals in that victory.

So impressed was Knick Coach Rick Pitino that he compared Strickland to Detroit’s Isiah Thomas.

“He has great quickness, like turbocharged,” Pitino said. “I don’t even see him take off. It was like when Isiah first came into the league. And there aren’t many players who have it like Rod. There aren’t many guys who can guard him. Rod has an ability to get to the rim and get hit and maintain his control.”

New Utah Coach Jerry Sloan is finding it difficult to replace Frank Layden. Not so much in the mechanics of coaching, but in the personality category.

“If Frank was just another guy, so to speak, this might have been a little easier,” Sloan said. “Frank already told me he’s going to sit up in the stands in Salt Lake and yell at me to get Mark Eaton out of the ballgame. That’s what the fans used to do to him.”

Trade rumor of the week: Piston forward John Salley told reporters over the weekend that he was going to be traded to the New Jersey Nets, along with Michael Williams and Darryl Dawkins, for Buck Williams.

Mangement of both teams denied that they have discussed a trade.

Cleveland guard Mark Price has been admired for not getting rattled no matter what is thrown at him. At a recent game at San Antonio, a bat flew down from the rafters headed straight for Price, who ducked out of the way without missing a dribble.