Losing the Captain Isn’t Good, but Things Could Be Worse

The Lakers will miss Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center, but they don’t appear to be in the same straits as the Washington Bullets.

Writes Jan Hubbard of Newsday: “The Bullets have a bleak center situation with Mel Turpin (a mere 264 pounds of blubber) and rookie Doug Roth, who is legally blind in one eye.”

On the Houston Rockets: “They have three recovering drug users on their team--John Lucas, Mitchell Wiggins and Lewis Lloyd. And the team has announced that immediately after the final game of each road trip, they will charter a plane home, obviously to try and limit the temptations of the road.”

And the Atlanta Hawks apparently have a sleeper in Soviet forward Alexander Volkov. Hubbard reports that Volkov “has demonstrated excellent technical skills and may move ahead of Cliff Levingston in the forward rotation. ‘The dude is incredible,’ is how Dominique Wilkins put it. An unidentified Hawk told an Atlanta newspaper, ‘Volkov is kicking Cliff’s butt. He’s too good for him.’ ”

Add NBA: Peter May of the Hartford Courant didn’t see a lot of hope in the Charlotte Hornets. He saw less in the league’s decision to shift expansion franchises to different divisions “to let all of the teams have their licks.”

Writes May: “So the Hornets go from the Eastern Conference to Western Conference. Their frequent-flier miles will multiply.

“Problems: The Hornets were the worst rebounding team last season, but rookie J.R. Reid might help in that area. They’re also saying nice things about (UCLA product) Stuart Gray, whose last overpowering effort came in the 1981 Sports Festival in Syracuse, N.Y.”

Last add NBA: The Chicago Tribune quotes Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley, upon hearing that Quintin Dailey had missed the team flight for the opening of the Lakers’ training camp in Hawaii: “There’s got to be something wrong with him. If I went from the Clippers to the Lakers, I’d swim to Hawaii to be on time.”

Barkley on the return of the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird: “I’m just slobbering from the mouth because (Bird) is going to have to guard me this year. And as long as Larry Bird is around, I’ll only be the second-worst defensive player in basketball.”

Trivia time: What school has won the most National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division III lacrosse titles in the 1980s?

Off on right foot: John Steadman of the Baltimore Evening Sun quotes Joe Hairston, an assistant superintendent of the board of education in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on his playing days with Raider Coach Art Shell at predominantly black Maryland State: “Back then, in the mid-1960s, life had certain demands that would not allow us to become discouraged or get down on ourselves. We had a wholesome environment at Maryland State. We realized we had to go beyond potential. We had to actually be the best.”

Wrong number: The Chicago Sun-Times’ Terry Boers, on “Monday Night Football’s” vote-on-great-plays-by-phone feature, which costs 50 cents per vote: “Who cares? Those callers have to be the same nitwits who dial the Jose Canseco Hotline.”

Trivia answer: Hobart College of Geneva, N.Y., won all of them.

Quotebook: Pam Shriver, before the Virginia Slims of Moscow, the Soviet Union’s first pro tennis tournament: “If I hold my serve and stay away from the vodka, I’ll be OK.”