NBA MEETINGS : Nelson, Daly Still Lead Race to Be Olympic Coach

Among the handful of NBA coaches who could lead the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, there is Golden State’s Don Nelson and Detroit’s Chuck Daly and then the rest.

That is not so much a knock on the other candidates, all of whom can provide impressive portfolios of their own, as a consensus among coaches and general managers at the NBA meetings that ended here Sunday.

But there are options. Here are the most probable, without the odds:

Nelson. He has as close to unanimous respect from players and colleagues around the league as anyone and makes no secret that he would like the job. More than a few observers noticed that he paid his way to Buenos Aires this summer to watch the U.S. entry in the world championships.

Daly. He has blended his players’ divergent styles into one of the best teams in NBA history. Like Pat Riley, Daly probably doesn’t get enough credit for taking a team that is supposed to win and keeping it on top.

Larry Brown. He has had recent success working with college players and pros, winning the national championship at Kansas and now as coach of the San Antonio Spurs, and was a 1964 Olympian himself.

But during a weekend when timing and visibility could have been important, Brown picked the wrong year to be the only unexcused absence among coaches at the mandatory league meetings.

Lenny Wilkens. His low-key manner makes it unlikely he will lobby for the job, but there is little doubt the Cleveland Cavaliers’ coach is emotional about the Olympics. He is said to still be angry that he didn’t make the 1960 team as a player. This weekend, however, he said he would like to be working in Barcelona in the summer of ’92.

Riley. Had he stayed with the Lakers, would have been a much more viable candidate. Now, as an NBC employee, he has entered that grey area of possible disqualification based on potential “conflicts” with the Olympics.

“That something we would have to consider, obviously,” said C.M. Newton, chairman of the games committee for USA Basketball. “But we did not discuss individual candidates.”

The choice is expected to be made by the spring of 1991.

The league competition committee announced the following recommendations to the board of governors:

--Starting in 1992, no one will coach the all-star game two consecutive seasons. Repeaters would be avoided by taking the coach from the conference team with the second-best record.

--Playoff tiebreakers have been altered so that a team’s record in its conference has been eliminated, the factor that gave Detroit the home-court advantage over Portland in the finals even though the Pistons played fewer games against the Eastern Conference because of expansion. The first tiebreaker will remain head-to-head play. The second will be record vs. the opposite conference.

--A tougher stand on flagrant fouls. Plays such as the block by the Philadelphia 76ers’ Charles Barkley on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Craig Ehlo in the 1990 playoffs will now be worth two free throws, the ball out of bounds and an ejection.

The key seems to be whether the defender is making a play on the ball or going for the opponent. Referees can still award the two free throws and possession of the ball for flagrant fouls only.

NBA Notes

Ron Harper remains on schedule to return to the Clippers from knee surgery in January. All signs are positive so far, with Harper able to cut and run on the court close to 100%. Three other Clippers to undergo surgery since February--Gary Grant, Jay Edwards and Winston Garland--will be be ready when training camp opens Oct. 5. . . . Clipper center Benoit Benjamin weighed in at 263 a month ago, a weight that, if it holds anywhere close by the beginning of camp at Cal Poly Pomona, would easily be his best showing yet. That would leave about 10 pounds to be lost for the season, instead of the 40 last season after a holdout.

Former UCLA forward Trevor Wilson drew upbeat reviews during Atlanta’s summer league play in Rock Hill, S.C. The Hawks are planning to use him to backup Dominique Wilkins at small forward. . . . Alton Lister, coming back at age 31 from a ruptured right Achilles’ tendon that caused him to be sidelined for the final 79 games of 1989-90, moved well and without pain during full-court scrimmages at Golden State’s mini-camp Sept. 4-11. The Warrior inside game, an obvious problem area last season, received another boost when first-round draft choice Tyrone Hill took part in the workouts despite not having a contract.

In 1987, the NBA moved its league meetings from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Industry Hills after Evan Meacham, later to be impeached as Arizona’s governor, rescinded the state’s Martin Luther King Day holiday. Now, a measure to return King Day to the calendar is on the ballot in Arizona, and the Phoenix Suns are taking an active interest in its passage. Owner Jerry Colangelo has donated an undisclosed amount of money and players are expected to be involved in upcoming radio and TV spots advocating the proposition. . . . Brad Sellers, the former first-round pick of the Chicago Bulls, will play in Greece this season after playing for the Seattle SuperSonics and Minnesota Timberwolves in 1989-90.