NBA Teams Like What They See in Kimble : Basketball: Loyola Marymount star shows he can handle all the attention as well as he handles a full-court press.

Life has been hectic for Bo Kimble since he was thrust into the public consciousness after the death of Hank Gathers, his boyhood friend, last March during a Loyola Marymount basketball game.

Since capturing the heart of the nation as he led Loyola Marymount into the NCAA West Regional final, the marketing of Kimble has begun in earnest.

Kimble has signed with Management Plus Enterprises, which represents such high-profile sports stars as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Laker center, Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets, Ronnie Lott of the San Francisco 49ers and Ahmad Rashad, the former pro football player turned sportscaster.

Kimble’s agents have kept him so busy that he conducts interviews from his mobile phone as he scurries to his appointments.

“I’ve been incredibly busy,” Kimble said. “Opportunities have really come to the forefront. I even have more offers now that what’s been published.”

His earlier appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show” will soon be followed by another, during which he and Hall will discuss Kimble’s role in “Heaven Is a Playground,” a basketball movie to be released next spring. Filming begins next month.

Or maybe he’ll be talking to Johnny Carson about his book, which is in the preliminary stage. Kimble was in New York last week to negotiate with a publisher for the rights to his story about his friendship with Gathers.

From New York it was off to Boston, where he was interviewed by Celtic officials. That was followed by a trip to New Jersey, where he spoke to the Nets, who have the top pick in Wednesday’s NBA draft.

Willis Reed, Nets’ vice president for basketball operations, was impressed with Kimble.

“I think he’ll be a lottery pick,” Reed said of Kimble. “Exactly where he’ll go, I’m not sure. I know we like him. But probably based on where we are and what our needs are, we’ll probably end up taking a big player instead of a shooting guard.

“But he’s an excellent player. He’s got good quickness and he’s got a pro body. He’s very good around the basket and he’s got good range on his shots.”

Reed said that Kimble’s NBA value rose after his performance in the NCAA tournament.

“I think he proved to people that despite all the problems, in terms of going through the tragedy of losing a close friend and teammate, he was still able to handle that and still stay focused on his basketball,” Reed said. “You have to be proud of him for that.”

Kimble agreed.

“People knew that I had a fantastic year and was very consistent, but they learned about me as a person,” Kimble said. “Now that they understand me as a person, it has made my value as a basketball player go up as well.”

Kimble has also met with the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Clippers.

“The Clippers have a group of great young talent and it would be wonderful to be a part of that and to develop into a really good team,” Kimble said. “I want to stay in L.A. It would be a fantastic situation for me. I would be tremendously happy with that.”

What with meetings with NBA teams, book publishers and movie executives, does Kimble have trouble staying focused on basketball?

“Oh, no,” Kimble said. “The only difficult thing has been all the traveling and all the obligations. But I always have time for basketball. Basketball is by far the No. 1 thing in anything I do.”

Kimble will compete in the One-on-One Collegiate Challenge on Monday in Atlantic City.

Other players entered are Lionel Simmons of La Salle, Sean Higgins of Michigan, Travis Mays of Texas, Chris Jackson of LSU, Willie Burton of Minnesota, Gary Payton of Oregon State and Bimbo Cole of Virginia Tech.

The winner gets $100,000, the runner-up $50,000.

Next on Kimble’s calendar is Wednesday’s NBA draft. The NBA has asked him to attend because he is expected to be one of the top selections.

“Yes, he’ll go in the lottery somewhere,” said Marty Blake, NBA director of scouting,

calling Kimble one of the top shooting guards in the draft.

“He shoots the ball well,” Blake said. “I feel he’s like Jeff Malone of the Washington Bullets. He looks like he’s not really playing hard, but he’s an intense player and he can pass the basketball. I just don’t think that he’s the type of player who’s a problem evaluating.”

A 6-foot 5-inch guard, Kimble led the nation in scoring with a 35.3-point average last season, and had four 50-point games.

His shooting has impressed NBA executives.

“To me, guys who can shoot the ball are like home run hitters,” said Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president. “And home run hitters can always make a living in the league. He’s a long-range shooter who wants the ball in tough situations.”

His value already established in the NCAA tournament, Kimble could have bypassed the NBA’s evaluation camp and All-Star game in Orlando, Fla., without hurting his draft value. Still, he chose to attend.

“I wanted to know one thing,” he said. “I wanted to know the level of competition that was there.

“They had a lot of doubts about my defense and I wanted to make sure that there were no doubts about the way I played defense and I didn’t want to hide anything. I wanted to put myself in the best possible position come draft day.”

NBA scouts were impressed with Kimble’s performance at Orlando.

“I think he helped himself by coming to Orlando and playing in the All-Star classic,” Blake said. “He played very well, especially in view of the fact that he showed up at a time when he was getting over a tragedy.”

Because Kimble played in Loyola Marymount’s fast-break offense, NBA scouts think he’ll have no problem adjusting to pro ball.

“Kimble is showing that he’s a coachable player who can fit in with whatever system you use,” said Brad Greenberg, director of scouting for the Portland Trail Blazers. “He and Kendall Gill (of Illinois) are at the top of the list for off guards.”

Rick Sund, vice president of the Dallas Mavericks, agreed.

“He can score inside or outside, and obviously, since he led the country in scoring, you know he is talented offensively,” Sund said. “He played a lot of forward but did play some guard. Most of the NBA seems to see him as an off guard. He’s an excellent free throw shooter and a good competitor.”

Jerry West, Laker general manager, is impressed with Kimble, but Kimble probably won’t be around by the time the Lakers draft.

“He’s really a very fine prospect,” West said. “He had a great career at Loyola and obviously, because of the system they use, he proved that he can play in a game where there’s a lot of room and where his individual skills really show. Those are things in an open game where a kid either prospers or he fails completely.

“I think it tells you he’s pretty good because he can do things when there’s some room out there. He doesn’t need one specific kind of a system for him to prosper in.”

Does Kimble have a down side? Is there anything he doesn’t do well?

“He’ll have to learn to play a little different than the way he played at Loyola Marymount,” said Reed of the Nets. “If he’s going to play (shooting) guard he’s got to learn to defend people off screens. Most guys, I don’t care how good a program they come out of, they have to learn to play in the NBA, where they set two and three screens for the shooters. But I don’t think he’ll have any problems learning to defend off screens.”

Whatever he has to learn, it doesn’t figure to be as difficult for Kimble as surviving the death of his closest friend.

“I’m going to miss Hank not being part of the excitement of the draft,” Kimble said. “But I still think about him a lot.”