Notes on a Scorecard - June 12, 1990

I’m amazed that people are asking me if Pat Riley was a good coach. . . .

The answer: Four NBA championships in nine seasons, seven Western Conference championships, a record 102 playoff victories, a record .733 regular-season winning percentage. . . .

Sure, he coached immensely talented teams. For eight of his nine seasons, he had both Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But a lot of coaches wouldn’t have been able to harness those egos or would have cramped their styles. . . .

Riley got out of Magic, Kareem, James Worthy and Byron Scott what director Francis Ford Coppola got out of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall in the first two “Godfather” movies. . . .

“Anybody can coach ordinary players and get them to overachieve,” a prominent college basketball coach told me recently. “It’s much tougher to work well with stars. Riley did a remarkable job.” . . .

Riley didn’t win any popularity contests with his players, but neither did John Wooden, Vince Lombardi or Casey Stengel. I mean, did Lombardi ever do lunch with Max McGee? . . .

Under Riley, the Lakers accomplished what had been considered impossible in Los Angeles. A recent Times poll showed that more people cared about them than the Dodgers. . . .

So why the departure now? Nine years is long enough. People get on other people’s nerves. Who knows, Coppola might not direct “Godfather X.” . . .

At 45, Riley is only three years younger than Red Auerbach was when he moved upstairs to the general manager’s job at Boston after the 1965-66 season. . . .

Riley was merely Chick Hearn’s yes man when he did color on the Laker broadcasts, but was exceptional as host of the recent HBO special, “The History of the NBA,” and would figure to work well with either Marv Albert or Bob Costas at NBC. . . .

NBC is going to televise Magic’s annual summer benefit game at the Forum. What better way for Riley to debut? . . .

I trust that Jerry West is as good a judge of young coaches as he is players and that he has made a wise choice in Mike Dunleavy. . . .

Better an eager guy with excellent credentials as an assistant than some retread. . . .

Dunleavy gave all the right answers at the Riley-out, Dunleavy-in press conference Monday at the Forum and was poised for somebody who hadn’t been through this kind of thing before. . . ..

The first proper move he can make is to keep assistant coaches Bill Bertka and Randy Pfund. . . .

Clearly, Dunleavy’s challenge is enormous. Trades, perhaps a free-agent signing and the maturing of Vlade Divac could make the Lakers a better team than last season, when they had the best regular-season record in the league. But nobody will be able to dominate the Western Conference in the 1990s as the Lakers in the ‘80s because the competition is so much better now. . . .

Magic as player-coach was a lousy idea. He’s got enough to do on the court. . . .

Look-alikes: Dunleavy and Billy Cunningham. . . .

The Detroit Pistons never were more convincing than on Sunday, when they beat the Trail Blazers by 15 in Portland without the services of Dennis Rodman. . . .

I could have sworn Steve Wynn’s $32-million purse bid for the cooled-off Buster Douglas-Evander Holyfield fight was a mirage. . . .

Bill Shoemaker, Tony Gwynn, Charles Smith, the Loyola Marymount basketball team, Don Drysdale, Jim Hill and the late Gene Klein will be honored Saturday night at the annual Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular at the Century Plaza. . . .

Chris Evert was the better tennis player, but Mary Carillo is the better tennis commentator. . . .

Jerry Tarkanian, who has never lost a game in Long Beach, will coach a team of celebrities against the Los Angeles Rams in a benefit for the Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired Friday night at Cal State Long Beach. . . .

I’ve seen quicker knockouts, but never a quicker cut than Paul Gonzales received 30 seconds into his International Boxing Federation bantamweight title bout against Orlando Canizales Sunday in El Paso. . . .

What Paul has to do now to get another title shot is become more active. Sixteen fights in six years aren’t enough. . . .

It’s time for lightweight Todd Foster, who has 12 knockouts in 12 fights since the 1988 Olympic Games, to step up in class. . . .

Joe Carter is making San Diego’s trade with Cleveland look good. . . .

Would Roger Clemens have clunked Stanley Jefferson on the elbow if American League pitchers still batted and were personally subject to retaliation?