THE NBA : Campbell Gets Shot(s) With Timberwolves

Dissatisfied in a job that many players would have coveted, Tony Campbell left the Lakers after last season and went looking for a team where his talents would be used and appreciated. He went to Minneapolis, where he has become the leading scorer and inspirational leader of the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves. The formerly seldom-used Laker is averaging 24.8 points and six rebounds in 39.2 minutes a game.

Of course, the 2-7 Timberwolves are struggling, as expansion teams do, and they need someone to score. They have found their man in Campbell. It is not that Campbell’s game has dramatically improved over the summer. He still is basically the same player who was pressed into the starting lineup in last June’s NBA finals when Byron Scott and Magic Johnson were out with hamstring injuries.

It is just that, now, he is playing and shooting more. Boy, is he shooting! Campbell is averaging 21.8 shots a game, making 45.6% and has totaled only 20 assists in 353 minutes. But scoring is what Minnesota signed free agent Campbell to do. The man Laker players used to call Top Cat really lives up to that name in Minnesota.

“Regardless of all the losing, I’m happy to be a pioneer with this franchise,” Campbell said. “I feel that now, with the opportunity to play, I have come into my own. The only reason I’m getting the points now is I’m getting the minutes. I knew I could always do it, even if other people didn’t.”

Campbell, who left the Lakers on bitter terms, said he feels vindication. He said that, given an opportunity at Michael Cooper’s sixth-man role last season, he would have scored more than 6.2 points a game and shot better than 45.8%.

“My No. 1 complaint with the Lakers was playing time,” Campbell said. “I felt I deserved to play more. In the playoffs, when they had no one else to turn to after Byron and Earvin got hurt, they finally let me play and I did well.”

Days before the Lakers were swept in the NBA finals, Campbell made his demands public. If he were to re-sign with the Lakers, Campbell said, they would have to promise him significant playing time.

Jerry West, the Lakers’ general manager, was not happy with Campbell’s public request. Plus, the Lakers reportedly were not that impressed with Campbell’s play. He averaged 6.2 points in 12.5 minutes a game last season, but lacked a well-rounded game that included defense and passing.

Bolstered with confidence now, however, Campbell said he could have been a major part of the Lakers’ future. Right or wrong, it is what he believes.

“I’m young (27), enthusiastic, and I work hard,” Campbell said. “I feel, for the future, I would’ve been the one to keep the Lakers’ tradition going on, like, you know, when Earvin and James (Worthy) and Coop started getting older. It would have been nice to be one of that circle.

“It’s sad that Jerry West took what happened (in negotiations) so personally. I wasn’t trying to threaten him. I said what I said because I believe in myself.”

In five previous seasons with the Detroit Pistons and Lakers--not counting a 38-game stretch as an Albany Patroon in the Continental Basketball Assn.--Campbell had averaged only 6.4 points.

Campbell said he made only two adjustments in his new role.

“The weather (in Minneapolis) is already getting cold,” Campbell said. “I would’ve loved to have been in Hawaii (the Lakers’ training-camp site) with those guys.

“It also took me some time to get in shape to play 40 minutes a game. Being a starter is a different world. I used to be able to go out on the town after a game, but now I got to go to bed early because I’m so tired. Because I know, the next game, they are going to be saying, ‘Hey, Tony, you got to shoot more.’ ”

The Berlin Wall might have fallen, but do not expect waves of East German basketball players to infiltrate the NBA next season. Soccer, not basketball, apparently is the sport of choice in that part of the Eastern Bloc.

“Within the next couple of years, no, there aren’t any quality players from there,” said Donnie Nelson, the Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach who persuaded Lithuanian guard Sarunas Marciulionis to come West this season. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe, and there aren’t any more (Arvidas) Sabonises left, if that’s what you’re asking.

“After Sarunas, (Alexander) Volkov (now with Atlanta) and Sabonis (playing in Spain) left, the talent is pretty down in the Soviet Union. I don’t know of any East German or Czechoslovak players of NBA caliber.

“But I think a couple years down the line, you’re going to see a lot of East Germans dribbling basketballs.”

Add East Germany: Uwe Blab, the West German who starts at center for the Golden State Warriors, said he expects the emigration of East Germans to West Germany to affect his life back home.

“I’m from Munich, and from what I understand, a lot of East Germans came through in the south, through Czechoslovakia,” Blab told the San Francisco Chronicle. “From what I gather, the main effect is going to be on the academic people, the professional people.

“Most of the people coming West from East Germany are academic people, but in the West, there are already too many academic people who can’t get jobs. There are already too many dentists, too many doctors, too many nurses.”

NBA Notes

Larry Bird update: After his 50-point explosion early last week, the Boston Celtic forward’s production has dropped considerably. In his last four games, Bird has scored 10, 12, 11 and 22 points. Last Friday night, while scoring all 11 points in the first half against the Timberwolves, Bird shot only nine times.It apparently is part of Coach Jimmy Rodgers’ offensive scheme, in which no player dominates. It reportedly has not pleased Bird.

“It’s the coach’s decision,” Bird said. “I’m going to have to live with it. I’ll just have to pick my shots when I’m open and shoot them.”

After Bird had made a game-winning shot--but finished with just 11 points--to beat Philadelphia early last week, 76er forward Charles Barkley ripped the Celtic forward. “I don’t think he did anything,” Barkley said of Bird. “He made one shot, but I’m not going to sit here and say he played great.”

Rookie mistake: Charlotte Hornet rookie center J.R. Reid left his sneakers in the Forum visitors’ locker room after a game against the Lakers on Nov. 10. Instead of asking trainer Jerry Kofler for a new pair to wear for the next game at Golden State, Reid frantically asked players what size they wore, in hopes of borrowing a pair.

“He was afraid to tell anybody about it,” Kofler said. “He didn’t know that trainers keep a supply of shoes in all sizes. He was going to take care of the problem himself. That’s a sign of maturity.”

Add trainers: When the Sacramento Kings’ trainer had to miss a recent game because of a personal problem, Coach Jerry Reynolds took over taping ankles and doling out ice bags. “The players said I taped ankles about as well as I coached,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t think it was a compliment.”

Team player: Anthony Bowie, the Houston Rockets’ third-round draft choice in 1986, was cut twice by the club. But late last season, he returned as the assistant equipment manager. He watched practice and worked out on his own. It has paid off. Bowie has made the Rockets this season. “I was basically there to get a head start in learning the system,” Bowie said. “I didn’t mind it. I was there to help any way I could.”