THE BENCH MARK : Eddie Johnson Sets the Standard for Reserves While Keying Suns’ Resurgence

Time was when Eddie Johnson would have been frustrated by his role as a reserve. Time was, too, that he played on lousy teams. Some coincidence.

But coming off the bench doesn’t feel so bad any more, not since being traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Phoenix Suns, a championship contender.

The Kings won 27 games this season, finished sixth in the seven-team Pacific Division and were thrilled to win the draft lottery.

The Suns will play the Lakers Friday night at Phoenix in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, the winner in the best-of-seven series getting a shot at the National Basketball Assn. title.

No wonder Johnson joked that he should send a thank-you card to Joe Axelson, the Kings’ executive vice president who played a major role in the June, 1987 trade.

The topper was Johnson being selected as the league’s best sixth man this season.

“That was definitely a goal,” he said of the award. “I believe whatever situation you’re in, you should shoot for the highest goal. The highest honor for someone coming off the bench is to be named the best sixth man.”

Johnson went beyond making the best out of it. He made it a career year, his 21.5 points a game having led all NBA non-starters in scoring. That was also good for No. 19 overall and second best on the Suns.

“The two guys I think create the most havoc coming off the bench are (Detroit’s) Dennis Rodman, with his rebounding and enthusiasm, and Eddie Johnson, with his outside shooting,” said Phoenix Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, who also coached the player known simply as E.J. with the Kansas City Kings.

“Those two really typify what a coach looks for, someone to come in and change the tempo of a game. Eddie Johnson’s outside shot can (do just that). He can bury a team.”

Johnson, a 6-foot 7-inch, 215-pound shooting guard, averaged 9.3 points as a rookie out of the University of Illinois with Kansas City in 1981-82, but since then has never scored fewer than 17.7. That includes back-to-back seasons of 21.9 and 22.9, shortly before the franchise moved to Sacramento in 1985.

He spent the first six years of his career with the Kings. That he spent the last two primarily as a reserve as the team won 37 and 29 games, respectively, and took a large portion of the blame for the poor records in the process, made it particularly difficult.

Johnson thought he might get traded after 1986-87, which was fine with him. He simply didn’t expect to find out in such an unusual manner: During a game.

He was introduced to the crowd at the Illinois Institute of Technology as a member of the Sacramento Kings. But when the phone rang at courtside during the second quarter of the summer league game, Johnson came out. It was his mother, calling with the news that he had been sent to Phoenix for Ed Pinckney and a second-round draft choice.

Johnson went back into the game soon after, re-introduced by the public address announcer as a Phoenix Sun. He played poorly the rest of the day, but didn’t mind a bit. Even though it was strange to be traded for the first time in his career, it was a happy moment.

“I wanted to leave,” he said the other day. “If I had my choice, sure it would have been to go to the Lakers or the Celtics, because they were winning teams. But I still liked the Suns because of their track record. I knew they were having troubles at the time, but they were consistently in the playoffs and had a lot of potential.”

Acquiring Johnson was the first move Fitzsimmons made as director of player personnel. It has turned out to be one of many good ones that transformed Phoenix from 28-54 doormats last season, when Johnson averaged 17.7 points, into Western Conference finalists.

At 30 the oldest member of the Suns, Johnson played in 70 of 82 games, starting only seven. And hasn’t balked at the same role that used to bother him.

“If we were losing and I was coming off the bench, I might try to justify why I wasn’t starting,” he said. “But this is a team game and you have to be a team player. It’s not important who starts but who finishes, and I think I’m usually in the game at the end.”

“Cotton knows my game and how to get the ball to me. I get 16 or 18 shots a game, more than most starters who play 30 minutes a game.”

Johnson is still getting his shots, but has fallen into a slump at the wrong time--he has made only eight of 28 shots (28.6%) against the Lakers. The Suns have lost the first two games of the series by eight and six points, so any contribution from their sixth man could have made a big difference.

“Hopefully, it’ll be there Friday (for Game 3),” Johnson said of his shooting touch after the Lakers won Tuesday night at the Forum.

That would be nice, for the Suns’ sake. His success in accepting the role as sixth man has been a key to their rise this season, and now they’ve lost two important games as he has gone bad. Some coincidence.