IT’S ALL UPHILL FOR O : Laker Reserve Has Trouble Adjusting to L.A.

When it all becomes too much and even group therapy cannot completely reduce the pressures within, Orlando Woolridge occasionally drives to Santa Monica and watches people who have bigger problems, such as finding places to sleep.

One look at the homeless is all Woolridge needs. It provides a dose of reality. “I look at those people, without homes, without jobs, and my perspective changes,” Woolridge said. “I get back to a sense of being humble. Maybe my job hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to this year. But I have a job, a family, a son who loves me, good people around me.”

Woolridge, however, stopped short of saying that is all he needs from life.

A successful basketball career still is important to him, and Woolridge’s has not exactly flourished this season. He has had almost as difficult a time adjusting to a reserve role on the Lakers as coping with a life of sobriety after undergoing treatment for drug use in February of 1988.

At times this season, when Woolridge had been benched by Coach Pat Riley or had played only a few, ineffective minutes, he said basketball had been a source of inner turmoil and frustration.

But it is a barometer of Woolridge’s continuing recovery from drug and alcohol abuse that he has been strong enough to deal with those disappointments without reverting to destructive behavior.

“Once upon a time, if I had stuff happen to me like I had now, it’d be easy to deal with,” Woolridge said. “Something would happen, and I’d go out and get drunk and wouldn’t have to worry about it.

“To go through what I’ve gone through and to be sitting here today, this is nothing. A lot’s been thrown at me, and now I’m at the point where it’s just, ‘Hey, go ahead. I’m ready for it.’ ”

That is precisely what Riley, looking for an edge heading into Thursday night’s first-round playoff opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, has done.

Evaluating the Lakers’ chances of closing out the 1980s with a third consecutive National Basketball Assn. championship, Riley said it will not happen without a significant contribution off the bench from Woolridge, whose first season as a Laker was significant only in its disappointment.

“We don’t win the championship in ’82 without Bob McAdoo,” Riley said. “We don’t win it in ’87 or ’88 without Mychal Thompson. And we won’t win it this year without Orlando giving us a good performance.

“He is something we desperately need. He could be the difference. He really could. If he can handle the pressure, he can supply us with a lift more than anyone on our team. That’s what I expect from him, and that’s what I hope he delivers.

“Am I putting too much pressure on him? Yeah, I guess so. I guess that makes me the bad guy.”

That could just be another example of Riley’s motivational strategy. After all, the Lakers won 57 games and their eighth consecutive Pacific Division title without a significant contribution from Woolridge, who averaged 9.7 points and 3.6 rebounds and was benched for six games.

Or, maybe a strong effort from Woolridge, a prolific scorer with the Chicago Bulls only a few seasons ago, really could prove the playoff difference in a season in which no NBA team has truly dominated.

In either case, Woolridge says he is strong enough now to handle the challenge. He does not necessarily want to be, as Riley prophesied, a playoff hero. Nor does he want to be set up as a possible scapegoat.

Woolridge said he just wants to help the Lakers win, and perhaps definitively prove to the public that he is free of drugs and the same player who averaged more than 20 points for three consecutive seasons with the Bulls and New Jersey Nets.

That may be asking a lot, given Woolridge’s inconsistent play this season. As late as two weeks ago, he was firmly affixed to the Laker bench. But in the last six games of the season, Woolridge averaged 12.6 points, prompting a surge of confidence.

“The way I’m approaching it is, I’m just going to go out there every game and do the things they need me to do,” Woolridge said. “I’m going to go with the style of play that made me a player to begin with. The Lakers got me because I’m a scorer. They’ve wanted rebounding and defense. I concentrated on those, but I neglected what I do best, which is scoring.”

But, does Woolridge think it fair of Riley to heap so much of the Lakers’ expectations on him?

“What’s fair in life?” Woolridge asked, smiling. “I don’t know. I think I’d rather be out there with the pressure on me than be sitting on the bench. I’m not going to worry about it.” It is an attitude Woolridge has cultivated. As unrewarding as his first Laker season has been, it pales in comparison to his disappointing efforts to stay clean after admitting to drug use as early as 1981-82, his rookie season in Chicago.

On that point, indications are that Woolridge has kicked drugs. He spent 51 days last spring in the Adult Substance Abuse Program in a Van Nuys hospital and attends meetings and group therapy sessions as part of a rigidly prescribed after-care program. He also submits to league-imposed urine tests twice weekly. If, in his quest for on-court excellence, Riley has been disappointed with Woolridge’s play, the Laker coach said he is heartened by the progress he has seen Woolridge make in his personal life.

“From what I understand, after admitting to being an addict, that first year is very traumatic,” Riley said. “The whole priority is to get healthy. So, he’s had something that is more important than basketball. I don’t blame him. I think it should be more important.

“That may have had something to do with (Woolridge’s erratic) play this year. He has to go through therapy and deal with the pressure (in basketball), too. If there was anything he needed taken care of, hell, he could miss a practice or something. But he’s never missed a practice, never been late for anything.”

Actually, Woolridge had missed part of a day earlier in the month. But it apparently was an excused absence that, as events unfolded, led to a distinct change for the better in Woolridge’s play.

Upset over his benching, Woolridge apparently received Riley’s permission to take a later flight home from Oakland on April 9. The next night, the Lakers had a home game against the Clippers before leaving early the next morning for a game in San Antonio.

But Woolridge also missed the morning shoot-around and an on-court strategy session in late afternoon--both reportedly with Riley’s permission. When Woolridge finally arrived at 6 p.m., the reporters were waiting and Riley also summoned him to his office for a meeting.

Woolridge says that he knew what people were thinking that night. Because he admittedly fooled co-workers and fans into believing he was not using drugs last season in New Jersey, when in fact his problem had worsened, Woolridge still had not gained back complete trust.

“We had just come back into town, and that was the only time I had to meet (with the counselors),” Woolridge said. “Everybody went, ‘Uh-oh, he’s back on drugs.’ But that was the only time we had, and I needed to meet with the group.”

Feeling better after working through his frustrations in therapy, Woolridge made what had been a low point a turning point later that night.

Early in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ blowout victory over the Clippers, the Forum crowd chanted “O! O! O!” an obvious plea for Riley to play Woolridge. He played the final eight minutes, and scored eight points.

Since then, he is off the bench and back in Riley’s substitution pattern.

Woolridge still is grateful for the fans’ support that night. He said it was something he desperately needed.

During his benching, Woolridge said, all sorts of thoughts ran through his head. He said he had second thoughts about having signed a five-year contract, believing he might be stuck on the bench for the duration.

“It was a tough time,” he said. “I was at a point where I was trying to do all the right things, but it’s like I was stuck in a situation where I had no control. I was coming to practice early, working probably harder than I ever worked. But the results weren’t coming.

“I got to a point where I just wanted to throw my hands up and say, ‘What’s going on here?’ People close to me just said, ‘Hold on, your break is gonna come.’ But when?

“It’s incredible how fast it turned around--that same night. It’s like, you can’t go any lower than this.”

Woolridge admitted that, at times, he wished he had accepted an offer from Philadelphia or other interested teams instead of signing with the Lakers.

“I’ve said that to myself a lot of times,” Woolridge said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I turned down a lot to be here.’ Then, I’d look at my situation, and I wasn’t being patient. I was thinking I’d rot on the bench the rest of my career.

“Things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. One part of being mature and accepting responsibility is that, once you make a decision, you stick to it.

“I felt I had enough talent that this wouldn’t be a permanent thing. Pat and I are still trying to get to know each other as player, coach and as people. I know I’ve had trouble adjusting. I tried to force it.”

Woolridge’s regular-season performance certainly was not what either party expected after the Lakers signed him for $3 million over five seasons.

When Woolridge looked strong in training camp, Riley said he saw Woolridge as a reincarnation of McAdoo, even though Woolridge scores mainly on drives to the basket and does not have McAdoo’s outside shooting touch.

But Riley said he expected the same kind of point production.

“When we got McAdoo in ‘82, he was points off the bench,” Riley said. “He averaged 15 points and shot 50%. His defense wasn’t that great . . . but what he was was so efficient a scorer, night in and night out, that we didn’t have to worry about that other stuff from him.

“That’s the thing with Orlando. When he came here, that’s what I expected, 15 points off the bench. That he hasn’t done that consistently waves the red flag at his other area (defensive and rebounding deficiencies).

“His performances were so down--I think for 37 straight games I played him he shot 30%--that I could not continue to play him. He had to take stock of his game. He could not take playing every night for granted. And, I think he did take it for granted.”

Countered Woolridge: “The way I had foreseen the season going just didn’t work out that way, and I was frustrated. I put too much pressure on myself, tried to change my game more than I was physically or mentally able to do. Now, when I go out there, I’m just going to let it flow.”

At 29, Woolridge says he has not detected many physical shortcomings, even though he used cocaine for several years. But he admitted that missing most of last season because of injuries and rehabilitation was a setback he still is trying to overcome.

“You lose that mind-body fluidity,” Woolridge said. “It just was not there. I’d get the ball, isolated in the corner, and plays that I used to make without thinking, I wouldn’t do. I’d lose the ball or something.

“You have to go on instinct in basketball, and my instinct this year (was terrible). I’d hesitate. It’s taken me this long to get that rhythm back. What you lose is that uninhibited, free-lance, forget-it attitude. You get passive, almost. You think, ‘I don’t want to make a mistake here.’ ”

But Woolridge said that his tentativeness has lifted in the last two weeks.

“I think I’m back now,” he said. “After I made that 360-degree dunk one recent game, my wife told me, ‘O, you’re back.’ I hope so. This thing has been a growing experience for me.

“I’ve tried to deal with these things outside of basketball with some sanity and keep a smile on my face. Sometimes, it was just a mask I’ve worn.”

The Lakers, no doubt, hope Woolridge will wear a Bob McAdoo mask during the playoffs and fulfill Riley’s lofty expectations.

“It’s up to O now,” Riley said. “He’s got to put the pressure on himself. I think he can handle it now.”