NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : NO REGRETS : Finish Disappoints Abdul-Jabbar, but He’s Not Sad His Time Ran Out

And so it ended . . .

After 20 seasons and 1,815 National Basketball Assn. games, counting the regular season, playoffs and All-Star appearances, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came out for the last time.

Nineteen seconds remained in the final game of the NBA finals.

The fans stood and applauded.

The Pistons stood and applauded.

Abdul-Jabbar showed little expression. He kept his goggles on. After a while, he nodded his head and said, “Thank you.

“I just tried to enjoy the moment and take it all in and receive the crowd,” he said later. “I gave my teammates one last hug. That’s the last time I’ll be able to do it on the hardwood.”

Play resumed and time ran out. Game, series, season and career.

Thus did Abdul-Jabbar pass into basketball history, after 20 NBA seasons, four more than anyone has ever lasted, and 37,639 regular-season points--44,149 altogether--and most of the important records in the game. Love him, hate him, don’t give a damn about him, but where he walked, no one will soon follow.

Now, at 42, he passes over into civilian life.

How will he begin it?

“I really don’t know,” he said. “Probably sleep ‘til 1 o’clock.”

His passing was awkward. The Pistons, who’d played him with one man and watched him go for 24 points and 13 rebounds Sunday, paid him the compliment of double-teaming him, as in days of yore.

Abdul-Jabbar sagged to seven points and three rebounds.

He tried six last skyhooks--five actually, with one impromptu jump hook thrown in--and missed them all.

He took down only three rebounds. Late in the game, with the Lakers still within 100-96, he couldn’t react fast enough to pick up Joe Dumars’ miss one step away and John Salley got it, instead. Moments later, Dumars knocked in a 17-footer, effectively putting the game on ice.

Maybe, someone suggested, Kareem would have preferred to have it end after Game 3?

“No,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “I wish it was Game 5, 6 or 7. Like I said, I just wish we could have lasted longer. The other numbers are unimportant.

“I’m disappointed. I’m not sad. We knew we were going uphill, without our best team.

“I’m going to wonder about it (how a healthy Laker team would have fared). I already have wondered about it. But I can’t dwell on it. That’s the way the hand was dealt.”

In the end, what did he have to complain about?

He had a long, distinguished professional career.

He got his wish, to be traded back to Los Angeles, where he’d gone to college.

He was already a 10-year veteran when the Lakers picked up Magic Johnson to go with him, kicking off a run of five titles and three more trips to the finals.

“It couldn’t have been any better,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Not when I can remember growing up on the streets of Manhattan and hoping I got to play one pro season. I outlasted everybody. I got to play with the greats of the game.”

How did he think he’d done?

“Well, I did pretty good.”

How did retirement feel? Perhaps with a surging crowd of people bearing pens, tape recorders, minicams and sound booms bearing down on him, he didn’t feel so retired quite yet.

“It really hasn’t set in, as far as deeper meanings,” he said. “I’m just thankful I’ve been able to last this long and walk out the door. I thank the Almighty for that. After that . . . we’ll see what it’s all about.”

A couple of days ago, Abdul-Jabbar said he wouldn’t get involved in basketball in another capacity, that he had had enough competition for a while.

How about working with kids?

“Yeah, my kids,” he said, laughing.

“I’ve got some things in the fire,” he said Tuesday night. “I’m going to try to do some acting . . . I have four little people I have to find out what they’re doing, get more involved in their lives. I think it’ll keep me pretty busy.”

It was about then that Magic Johnson brought one of his sisters through the media melee to kiss Kareem goodby.

“Any time you work with a guy whose whole objective is to get you the ball, you gotta love him,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

Did he plan to say anything to Johnson about the passing of the torch.

“Magic knows what to do with it,” said former Laker great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.