NBA PREVIEW : A New Age for Sport of the ‘80s : Basketball: After a decade of remarkable growth, here’s what to expect as America’s winter game turns the corner into the 1990s.

As a new decade beckons, sentimentalists abound. Even those forward-thinking corporate types in the National Basketball Assn. might be tempted to look back wistfully at the 1980s and recall with pride just how far the league has come.

Ten years ago, the NBA was more destructive than productive, if anyone noticed or cared.

The fiscal condition of its teams suggested consolidation, not expansion. Drug use was so rampant that a “high-five” could have been the starting lineup of any number of teams, not a congratulatory handshake. The only marketable gate attractions were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving, although rookies named Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had just arrived. Television ratings, as a result, ebbed.

Now, on the cusp of the ‘90s, the league has never been more popular.

Financial stability has been achieved through a self-imposed salary cap. Profits have soared from both network and cable television. The NBA is the only professional league to add expansion teams, four in two years, during the decade. While drug use still is a problem, it has been greatly reduced through the enforcement of a strict drug policy that mandates the suspension and even banishment of players for substance abuse. And there are stars aplenty, including Johnson, Bird, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas, etc.

All of this has given the NBA a reputation as the most progressive of professional sports leagues.

At the start of the ‘80s, the NBA had only two black head coaches and one black in upper management. Now, there are five black head coaches and five blacks in management. And a group headed by two black businessmen recently purchased the Denver Nuggets, the first minority-operated ownership in major pro sports.

The league also has gone global. In what might be called a foreign exchange program, five of Eastern Europe’s best players will be in the NBA this season, while two first-round picks--Danny Ferry and Anthony Cook--and one first-round pick from 1988--Brian Shaw--are playing in Italy and Greece.

Although many believe that the NBA has reached a saturation point in terms of popularity and growth, this season figures to be as unpredictable and entertaining as ever.

Three teams--the Lakers, the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers--dominated the ‘80s, but the ‘90s will begin with a new champion, the Detroit Pistons, and several teams that could possibly win the championship.

What follows is an informal preview of the NBA’s new season, at the start of a new decade:

Best reasons why the Pistons will repeat as champions--They still have arguably the league’s best backcourt trio in Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas and Vinnie Johnson; the best bench in John Salley, Dennis Rodman and Johnson, and the best team airplane in Roundball One.

“We have a lot of talented people,” Thomas said. “We have more talent than we’ve ever had before.”

Best reasons why the Pistons will not repeat--They have lost Rick Mahorn and some of their “bad boy” image, as well. There is a chance that journeyman Scott Hastings will start at power forward. Either that, or Salley will start, but that weakens the bench. Only one champion in 20 years has repeated, and besides, Mark Aguirre’s influence will be felt for a full season now.

Fourteen teams Laker Coach Pat Riley truly believes can win the NBA title--In no particular order, they are the Lakers, Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix, Golden State, Portland, Utah, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and Denver.

“Hey, if things break well for them, any of those teams can win it,” Riley said. “You have to respect all those teams.”

Reason to take the Celtics seriously--Bird is back and has this to say about his healing ankles: “I think I’ve got new ankles. They feel like new ankles. I feel like I’m learning basketball all over again.”

Reasons not to take the Celtics seriously--Age. Bird will be 33 in December and is coming off major surgery. Robert Parish is 36, Dennis Johnson 35 and Kevin McHale will be 32 in December. Also, they have replaced Shaw with John Bagley, who will start at point guard.

Biggest assist of the season, so far--To Robert Wussler, chief executive officer of Comsat Video Enterprises. Just when it appeared that Bertram Lee and Peter Bynoe, the black businessmen trying to buy the Nuggets, would fail to gather investors, Wussler’s corporation became the majority stockholder, though Lee and Bynoe will be managing general partners.

Most exclusive hotel-room service since the minibar and mints on pillows--Wussler wants to make Nugget games available on hotel pay-per-view systems that provide first-run and soft-porn movies for guests. Comsat currently is in 300,000 hotel rooms nationwide, and Wussler is hoping that by midseason, travelers will be able to pay $5.95 and watch that exciting Denver-Indiana Pacers game.

“I’m a strong believer in pay-per-view,” Wussler said. “The opportunity to put the Denver Nuggets’ games and other NBA games into these hotel rooms is tremendous.”

Team you would least like to see on pay-per-view--The New Jersey Nets. They aren’t an expansion team, so they don’t have that excuse. They have two big men, Sam Bowie and Joe Barry Carroll, who could break down or lose interest at any moment. And new Coach Bill Fitch already is losing what little patience he has.

Team most likely to go from 21-61 to 61-21--The San Antonio Spurs? Nah, they won’t make that big a turnaround, but 50 victories and a Midwest Division title are possible. They have David Robinson in the middle, Terry Cummings’ scoring at forward, Sean Elliott’s scoring at guard and point guard Maurice Cheeks’ leadership.

Coach with the best chance of being fired first--Larry Brown at San Antonio. If the Spurs falter, look for Brown to go quickly. There was talk he would be fired after run-ins with several players last season, but instead the feuding players were traded.

Coach with the second-best chance--Mike Fratello of the Atlanta Hawks. Moses Malone has already spoken out against him.

Riley’s list of Western Conference darkhorses--San Antonio and the Portland Trail Blazers. “I think Maurice Cheeks is the key to San Antonio’s whole deal this year,” he said. “Portland made some great moves. They got Buck (Williams, an All-Star power forward from New Jersey), (center) Wayne Cooper, (swingman) Robert Reid and (draft pick) Cliff Robinson. We’ve got to watch out for them.”

Happiest player in the league--It has to be Buck Williams. “I’m happy to be out (of New Jersey),” he said. “People said (the Nets) couldn’t win with (me). That’s ridiculous. They made a lot of bad decisions. I should’ve spoken out a lot more on the players they brought in. I was too diplomatic.”

The official language of the Golden State Warriors will be--(a) German, for Uwe Blab; (b) Lithuanian, for Sarunas Marciulionis; (c) Sudanese, for Manute Bol; (d) Brooklynese, for Chris Mullin; (e) Cliche, for the rest.

Vlade Divac’s scouting report on the other chips off the Eastern Bloc in the NBA this season--On Zarko Paspalj of San Antonio: “Best player in Europe last year. Good shooter. Left-handed. Very quick, very strong. Smokes too much cigarettes.” On Drazen Petrovic of Portland: “Very good shot. Technically, a complete player.” On Marciulionis: “Good type of player for the NBA. I think he’ll play very good this season.” On Alexander Volkov of Atlanta: “Quick and strong but not a good shot. That will (hurt) him.”

European happiest to be in America--Paspalj, who told a San Antonio reporter: “I love Pizza Hut. I want to open a Pizza Hut in Yugoslavia. I want to see Eddie Murphy and Whitney Houston and Jack Nicholson. I want to buy a Mitsubishi. I love Marlboro cigarettes. I want to play in the NBA. I come to America with hope.”

Call him anything but Al--Volkov wants to go by Sasha, apparently a popular nickname in the Soviet Union. He said he does not mind Alexander, but when he was introduced before an exhibition game as Al Volkov, he bristled.

Don’t call him a guard--Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins, always the team player, has agreed to move from forward to off-guard because of injuries. But he still wants to be announced as a forward. His reason?

“If they put me down as a guard, no way I make first team All-Star,” Wilkins said. “No way I can beat out Michael Jordan. But I’ve got to believe I’m one of the two best forwards, so I know I can make it if they call me a forward.”

Boldest prediction since Riley’s guarantee of repeat championships--Washington forward Bernard King guarantees fans that the Bullets will make the playoffs. Will season-ticket refunds come out of King’s paycheck if they don’t?

Best rule change--It concerns the 24-second shot clock. On inbounds plays with fewer than five seconds remaining, the 24-second clock will no longer be automatically reset to five seconds. If one second remains, a team will have one second to inbound the ball and shoot.

Most confusing rule change--There will be stricter enforcement of the illegal defense rules, whatever they are. Teams now must double-team aggressively in half-court defenses, rather than playing off the ball and basically guarding an area. The rules now state that trapping defenders must be close enough to get a held-ball call.

Got that?

Most confusing rule change to players and coaches--Scoreboards will show 10ths of a second during the last minute of each quarter. It already has befuddled a few players and coaches. In an exhibition game, Miami Heat Coach Ron Rothstein yelled to his players that eight seconds remained. Actually, only .8 of a second remained.

Said Dallas Maverick rookie Randy White of the new clock: “You look up there and the 10ths are running and it confuses you. You look at the 10ths, not the seconds.”

Team with the most serious problem at center--No, it’s not the Lakers’ task of replacing Abdul-Jabbar. The Seattle SuperSonics will use 6-foot-9 Michael Cage, making him the smallest starting center in the league. “I’m just trying to make teams pay the price for putting a big man on me,” Cage said.

Most appropriate nickname coined this season--It goes to Bob (Hard Line) Stein, president of the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves. Stein reportedly promised big men Rick Mahorn, Steve Johnson and Tyrone Corbin that he would rework their contracts before the start of training camp. Then he amended that to after the players had “proven themselves.” All three players have been holdouts, Mahorn finally being traded to Philadelphia for draft picks last week.

Reason No. 1 why expansion should be stopped--Tony Campbell, former Laker sub, figures to be the Timberwolves’ leading scorer. And the Orlando Magic won’t be much more competitive than the Wolves.

Reason No. 2--Miami and the Charlotte Hornets, last season’s newcomers, don’t look much better than in 1988.

Reason why the Cleveland Cavaliers might look like the Cadavers of old early in the season--Center Brad Daugherty has been slow to recover from foot surgery, and forward Larry Nance also had left ankle surgery and probably won’t play until December. Other than that, the Cavaliers are in fine shape.

Most popular contract stipulation--Weight clauses. Among the hefty players who have such weighty provisions are the Clippers’ Benoit Benjamin, the Bullets’ Mel Turpin, the 76ers’ Barkley and Jay Vincent, and the Mavericks’ Sam Perkins. Aguirre should have one.

Biggest reason why the Houston Rockets might not win the Midwest Division--Center Akeem Olajuwon has been diagnosed as having thrombophlebitis, for which he was hospitalized eight days in July. Until recently, Olajuwon had been taking blood thinners to prevent clotting in his left calf, and doctors are worried that a blow to the calf will cause hemorrhaging.

Most probable successors to Bill Walton as the league’s most frequently injured player--A tie between Ralph Sampson of the Sacramento Kings, and Kiki Vandeweghe of the New York Knicks. Sampson’s knees, of course, still flare up every other game, and he recently strained his left hamstring lifting weights. Vandeweghe’s back problems have traveled from Portland to New York, and he recently was sent to a specialist in California who diagnosed his condition as an “arthritic process.”

Quickest recovery by a player--James Donaldson, who ruptured the patellar tendon in his right leg and underwent major surgery last spring, will start at center for the Mavericks in their season opener Friday night against the Lakers at Dallas.

Player most likely to inspire opponents--Jon Koncak, who signed a six-season, $13.2-million contract with Atlanta, already has drawn both scorn and thank-yous from other players. Scorn has come from the Utah Jazz’s Karl Malone, who earns $1 million less than Koncak and who thoroughly outplayed the Hawk forward in an exhibition game.

Said Malone: “Every night, he’s going to run into it. A lot of guys will say, ‘Look at all his money. Look at what this guy’s making.’ Then, they’ll go out and try to kick his (rear).”

Team most likely to suffer from an identity crisis--Under new Coach Stu Jackson, the Knicks no longer will emphasize three-point shooting and their half-court defensive trap. Jackson said the Knicks’ offense will revolve around center Patrick Ewing.

Player who believes most in winning through intimidation--It is Barkley, who believes that the 76ers can win the Atlantic Division with 55 victories, nine more than last season. “Johnny Dawkins, Hersey Hawkins and Kenny Payne can help us win nine more games,” Barkley said. “If they don’t, I’ll kill them.”

Next stop for nomadic Benoit Benjamin should life with the Clippers prove unbearable--How about the Canary Islands? A team there has an opening after the 76ers signed journeyman center Kurt Nimphius, who had played in the Canaries last season.

Number of times Riley will tell his Laker players that the upcoming game will be the most important of the season--82.