NBA NOTEBOOK : Blackman’s Homecoming Missing Something

Rolando Blackman should be getting excited about returning to New York, where he moved from Panama when he was 7. On Tuesday, he will stop by Rolando Blackman Park in Brooklyn, see old friends, then play the Knicks, the team he idolized during his childhood.

He knows, however, that despite the Mavericks’ recent record -- five consecutive victories and 12 victories in their last 14 games prior to Thursday night’s game at Milwaukee -- a lot is missing: Excitement. Fear. Respect.

The Mavericks, very simply, are not an attraction, and Blackman knows it. But that does not prevent him from dreaming how it could have been. If not for two drug-related suspensions of star forward Roy Tarpley, and if only Mark Aguirre had been as dedicated to basketball as Blackman, it could have been different.

“We would have had a viable basketball team,” Blackman said. “We could have whupped anybody. Anybody.”

And that would have made the Knicks-Mavericks game special, particularly for Blackman, a 6-6, 200-pound prototype shooting guard who graduated from William Grady High School in Brooklyn and patterned his game after his favorite Knicks.

He loves to twirl and spin when driving in the lane. “That’s Earl Monroe,” he says. He utilizes quick footwork and a variety of head and shoulder fakes to free himself for jump shots. “That’s Walt Frazier.” And the picture-perfect jump shot delivered after he is freed by a screen? “That’s Bill Bradley.”

But instead of focusing on Blackman, whose career shooting percentage of .503 makes him one of the most accurate outside shooters in NBA history, most of the attention has been on the Mavericks’ problems: Aguirre, who was traded to the Pistons, and Tarpley, who has drained Blackman of patience.

“We’re not emotionally married to the (Tarpley) situation anymore,” Blackman said. “We’re not married to Roy where if he’s gone, we’re going to die. We’re not going to be shocked.”

Blackman admits he sometimes wonders about how it would have been without the distractions.

“With a scorer like Mark in a good mood and ready to play, with Roy Tarpley next to him, we could have been one of the top four basketball teams in the league,” Blackman, a four-time All-Star, said. “And when we came to the Garden, or every time we’d go into an arena, people would have hated us and booed us, which is an honor. They would come in, buy their popcorn, and give us hell. That’s what you want.

“But with us, it’s been like a soap opera. When you talk about us, it’s not that we have a six-game winning streak, it’s who’s missing and who’s not; who wants this and who wants that. It was just terrible.”

The Mavericks received a lot of credit for building their franchise from an expansion team in 1980 to a conference finalist in 1987, but they never have been an attraction. Blackman has to wonder what it would have been like if, instead of drafting talented losers, the Mavericks would have drafted more winners like himself.

Magic General Manager Pat Williams is a part-time comic, so it’s not surprising he had a few observations on the reported five-year, $27.5-million contract recently awarded to Commissioner David Stern:

--”One of David’s sons asked his father if he could buy a chemistry set. David went out and bought the Dupont company.”

--”David is now about to move into a neighborhood where the Girl Scouts go door-to-door selling croissants ... Every spring, kids sign up for Little League polo ... The Salvation Army band has a string section

--”David sends his kids to an exclusive camp where they tell stories sitting around the microwave.”

--”David is going to have to get a new 50-foot yacht. The other one got wet.”

--”All I know is that on airplane trips, David’s wallet will be considered carry-on baggage.”

Mark those calendars. In September, the made-for-TV movie starring the Laker Girls will be televised, and it promises to be exciting -- that is, if your idea of entertainment is watching a two-minute dance routine for two hours. But the Laker Girls have big aspirations. Singer Paula Abdul was once a Laker Girl, so who knows?

The strangest part of the movie, however, is the site. It’s being filmed at the Clippers’ home, the Sports Arena, instead of at the Forum, which is booked. Hopefully, that doesn’t mean one of the Laker Girls will suffer a major knee injury.

It was already going to be difficult taking a film starring the Laker Girls seriously, but filming anything to do with the Lakers in the Sports Arena gives it even less credibility. It’s a little like filming the Walt Frazier story at Meadowlands Arena.

Spurs forward Zarko Paspalj of Yugoslavia recently told Hawks forward Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union he would not return to play for the Spurs next season. Paspalj, who has played in fewer than half the Spurs games and averages seven minutes when he does play, is unhappy with his playing time. Last summer, he turned down a lucrative offer to play in Spain. According to Volkov, he said he wants to go play somewhere where he is respected.

That’s understandable, but leaving America and the NBA is a little radical. All he has to do is ask for a trade to the Nets, a team that obviously has a great deal of respect for anyone who resembles a basketball player.