HAIL TO THE CHIEF : Robert Parish, at 35, Is Quietly Having Perhaps His Best Season in Nine as the Celtics’ Center

Always more visual than verbal, Robert Parish makes his most eloquent and pointed statements on the basketball court. Self-expression is a rebound forcefully snatched, a full-court outlet pass completed or his locomotive-style of running on a fast break.

No elaboration is needed. If you want glib quotes or lyrical references to Bob Dylan from the Boston Celtics, go to Kevin McHale. If you want slick moves and homespun observations, try Larry Bird. Controversy often can be found at Danny Ainge’s locker.

All that Parish has given the Celtics for the last nine seasons is a versatile and dependable force at center, an important component in the three National Basketball Assn. championships the club has won during the Bird era.

But during this atypical Celtic season, when much of the talk of the injured Bird has involved wondering which colorful sweater he will wear on the bench, Parish has been thrust into a more prominent role. He has responded with perhaps his best season.

That Parish has elevated his game at 35, an age when most big men begin to decline, is even more impressive. The NBA’s third-oldest player, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 41, and Caldwell Jones, 38, Parish comes into today’s nationally televised game against the Lakers averaging 18.8 points and 12.9 while playing nearly 37 minutes a game.

His statistics this season have eclipsed his career averages of 16.6 points and 9.9 rebounds.

Not that many have noticed. When the league’s best players gathered in Houston last weekend for the All-Star game, Parish remained in Boston. The fans voted Atlanta’s Moses Malone in as the Eastern Conference’s starting center, and the coaches selected Cleveland’s Brad Daugherty and the New York Knicks’ Patrick Ewing as the reserves.

Deserving choices, all. But so, too, was Parish, who began the week ranking second in rebounding and fourth in field-goal percentage.

While his peers spoke of the apparent injustice in Parish’s slight, the 7-foot 1/2-inch Parish, known as The Chief, typically accepted it. In fact, when he got the news, Parish flashed a quick smile. After all, he was in for a four-day vacation and no reporters.

“It would’ve been good to be in the All-Star game,” Parish said after rejoining the Celtics in Houston on Monday. “But it didn’t work out that way. I took advantage of the time off, which I needed also. I don’t have anything to prove, not at this stage of my career. I don’t need all that.”

Parish’s play, which has kept the Celtics hovering around .500 during Bird’s absence, probably will not go unrewarded by Celtic management.

Bob Woolf, Parish’s agent, said that the Celtics have agreed to discuss the possibility of extending Parish’s contract beyond next season, which currently is an option year. Should a deal be struck after this season, Parish still could be a Celtic into his late 30s.

Parish’s longevity is comparable to Abdul-Jabbar’s. But his high level of play may even be more impressive, considering that Abdul-Jabbar is a finesse center in a half-court offense and Parish is a superb defensive rebounder and is regarded as one of the league’s best running centers.

What has made the Chief such a non-perishable item in a sport in which the average productive life for centers is about six seasons?

Part of it has been the loss of Bird and the redistribution of shots and playing time. Part of it is Parish’s simply responding to the challenge of a difficult situation. And part of it is a renewed emphasis on diet and fitness and a settled private life.

Without Parish’s contributions, the Celtics would be in an even more dire predicament than they are, a fact not lost on Coach Jimmy Rodgers. “Robert has been a tremendous player ever since he’s been in Boston,” Rodgers said. “But in this particular year, we really needed someone to go a step above and beyond the norm with Larry out of the lineup. . . . He’s done a little of everything at a higher level. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”

The Celtics certainly have asked a lot.

Without a backup center to speak of, Parish once again has been asked to play close to 40 minutes a game. With more rebounds up for grabs in the absence of Bird, Parish is needed more inside. And constant help defensively on opposing forwards has become a necessity.

And no longer is Parish the last option in the Celtic offensive scheme behind Bird, McHale, Ainge and, yes, even Dennis Johnson. Under Rodgers’ system, and with Bird sidelined, Parish is second in the offensive order, behind McHale.

“I think (Bird’s injury) has a lot to do with this,” Parish said. “I haven’t had this much offensive freedom in at least four years here. With Larry being out, I’m getting more shots, which I hadn’t gotten in quite some time. Also, there are more rebounds available without Larry. I’m just taking advantage of the opportunities.”

Actually, Parish is averaging only one more shot per game than his career average, but perhaps the difference is the type of shot, since the Celtics are now going to him. “He’s definitely getting more responsibilities now,” said Ainge, now the Celtics’ sixth man. “Robert’s always been there when we’ve needed him, every year. But, a lot of the times, we haven’t needed him. We could always get by with just him doing his usual thing, because Larry did so much.

“But (Parish) is different this year. I can see a difference. He’s a better player now than before. You can’t say that about many 35-year-olds. I think Robert now has to work harder than he did when he was younger. The change I’ve noticed is in offensive rebounding. That’s been a big improvement. And that’s just hard work.”

Opposing centers certainly notice Parish on the court. Malone, a long-time nemesis, said he has detected rejuvenation in Parish’s play this season.

“He’s definitely pushed up his game,” Malone said. “I thought Parish should’ve made (the All-Star team). He’s playing well, doing the right things. I love the fact that a guy his age is playing that well, because it shows that guys our age can still do it.”

Ewing, nine years Parish’s junior, found that out in a Celtic-Knick game in December at Madison Square Garden, when Parish had 34 points, 15 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots against Ewing.

“Robert’s tough to play against, I know that,” Ewing said. “He’s a good running center, but so are Akeem (Olajuwon) and myself. Robert just does it by working harder than everyone.” During his tenure with the Celtics, no one has accused Parish of loafing. That was the rap he carried with him when he left Golden State in 1980, but he soon shed it in Boston.

Parish, it seems, has been the ideal center for the Celtics during the Bird era. He has been content to feed the guards with well placed outlet passes and score, from outside or inside, when his shot was there.

And the Celtics have been appreciative. Parish reportedly earns about $1.5 million. He is a seven-time All-Star and, statistically, has never ranked worse than the NBA’s fifth-best center.

When K.C. Jones retired as the Celtics’ coach after last season, he was asked to pick the player who best exemplified his coaching tenure. He chose Parish.

“I said that because he’s the total team player,” said Jones, who holds a front-office position with the Celtics. “He was the backbone of my teams. Without him, I don’t think we would’ve won. He sacrificed his individual play for the good of the team. He could’ve shot a lot more some of those years. He could’ve easily averaged 20 points.

“Since ‘81, Robert’s shown he’s one of the dominant centers in the game, and I don’t see him slowing down yet. In the games I’ve seen this year, he’s running the floor like he’s 22.” That is at least a little surprising, since there were indications last season that Parish was on a downward spiral. His scoring average dropped to 14.3, his rebounding average to 8.5, and he failed to play in at least 75 games for the first time since 1979-80.

There was talk that the increased floor time for Parish and other regulars, a necessity because of a depleted bench, sapped the regulars’ energy by playoff time.

But this season, Parish is nearing his career high in minutes and has never played better. “I don’t think anybody is fresh when the playoffs come,” Parish said, laughing. “But I don’t think that’s a major problem. That’s what we get paid for, to play. I’m not worried about the minutes I’m logging now. Of course, anybody’d welcome a backup center. But, until that situation changes, I’ll be out there 35 to 40 minutes a game, and I won’t complain.”

Parish said he has not varied his off-season conditioning program with advancing age. “I always take a month off, then I start training again,” he said. “I use Kung Fu. That really helps my flexibility and coordination.”

Still, teammates have noticed a change.

“Robert’s taken good care of himself and, this season, he really came in in great shape,” McHale said. “A chronological age is how old you are, not how old you feel and play.

“I think he rededicated himself during the off-season. You can tell. At 35, you can still physically play. I think some people mentally lose it. He’s been able to retain that fire, that consistency, everything it takes to be a player at 35.”

In a January interview with Peter May of the Hartford Courant, Parish said that one change that has helped him is a “virtual renunciation of alcohol.” Though Parish said drinking was never a problem, he said that, two seasons ago, he discovered it affected his stamina. “I basically gave up drinking,” Parish said. “Personally, I thought I was drinking too much and, over the long run, it caught up with me. . . . Now, I feel stronger, and I feel I’ll still be that way in the second half of the season.”

Parish’s four-year marriage to Nancy Saad also was recently dissolved, which Parish cited in the Courant story as having a residual effect on his improved play.

But when asked about the reported new-found serenity in his private life, Parish flatly refused to answer.

“I don’t want to get into that,” he said. “I don’t talk about my private life.”

Parish guards his privacy, which is one reason he is perceived by many as a player shrouded in mystery. He often has been called stoic, a term those close to him say is inaccurate. Still, his public posturing leads to such portrayals.

His close-set eyes and furrowed forehead make it appear as though Parish is always worried. Although he is aggressive on the court, the Chief’s expression often resembles a cigar-store Indian’s when outsiders are in the Celtic locker room.

That is, when you can find Parish in the locker room. His stated policy is that he will not give interviews before or after home games. By the time reporters enter the Celtic clubhouse at the Boston Garden, Parish is often dressed and gone, or going. He does, reluctantly, give interviews after road games. But, during the playoffs, he has made it a practice not to share his thoughts.

“I think it’s a distraction for me, personally,” Parish said. “I haven’t talked to the press much. That’s why I’ve gotten kind of a bad reputation. They look at me and think I don’t give a damn. But I’m not comfortable with the attention.”

Parish, though, is neither non-communicative nor surly, and when he does grant interviews, he usually has something to say. Occasionally, during interviews, his monotone bass explodes into a bellowing chuckle, a sound the Celtics and Parish’s friends are used to. “From what I know, everybody on the team really likes Robert, especially Larry,” said Woolf, who represents both Parish and Bird. “I remember one year (1982) Larry won the MVP of the All-Star game and he wanted me to keep the trophy for him because I live right next door. I remember Larry saying, ‘Next year, I’m going to make sure (Parish) wins it.’ ”

Ainge said that Parish quietly has assumed the role of elder statesman, counseling younger players Ramon Rivas and Reggie Lewis on how to maintain a positive attitude during a rocky season.

Former Celtic Greg Kite, now with the Clippers, said he never had a problem coexisting with Parish.

“He’s very easy to get along with because he has a good sense of humor,” Kite said. “People have a different perception of him because of his stoic expression on the court.”

Parish said he imposed a flexible media gag order on himself after enduring criticism in the Bay Area during his first four seasons at Golden State. Then, he was mainly a perimeter center who did not run the floor as he now does.

“I was blamed for a lot of things that weren’t my fault, and I just shied away from the media after that,” Parish said. “And because I don’t talk to the media a lot, that may have something to do with the fact I don’t get the (recognition).”

Jones said Parish still carries scars from his Golden State days. “He was stung very badly,” Jones said. “When (the Warriors) didn’t win, it was his fault. The sensitivity of that he still has.”

Added McHale: “Robert can take it or leave it. I think you get to a point, if you play long enough, where you almost get immune to the media. Robert’s at that point. When they write good things, he doesn’t believe it. When they right bad things, he doesn’t believe it. He’s got a good perspective on everything.”

Parish has also kept his improved play in perspective. Bird is due back by March 1, and the calendar keeps creeping up on Parish, who will be approaching his 37th birthday by the time his option year runs out in 1990.

He says he would like to play another three seasons. “But I still take it one year at a time,” he said. “You don’t know whether they are going to go with youth, or stick around with the same guys they’ve got. Only time will tell. I’d definitely entertain the thought of playing as long as (Abdul-Jabbar), if I had the type of cast he has around him. People don’t realize how much wear and tear Larry and those guys save me. Larry and those guys get the attention, but they help me be a better player.”