How About Minnesota Anteaters?

You can’t always get what you want, so for the next basketball season, Orange County’s NBA expansion seekers will have to content themselves with the Bill Musselman Compromise, which specifically states:

1. Orange County will be granted an NBA franchise.

2. It will play its home games in Minneapolis.

Starting at one forward will be Tod Murphy, formerly of UC Irvine.

Coming off the bench at another forward will be Johnny Rogers, formerly of UC Irvine.

Checking in at backup point guard will be Scott Brooks, also formerly of UC Irvine.

And, filling out the roster as designated three-point pistol--final cut willing--will be Leon Wood, formerly of Cal State Fullerton.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 1990-91 Minnesota Timberwolves.

Or, as Brooks calls them, “The Orange County All-Stars.”

A quick background check of Musselman, the Timberwolves’ head coach, indicates no just cause for regional prejudice. He did not graduate from UC Irvine. He does not owe Bill Mulligan money.

But if they ever peeled off a rebound or knocked down a bank shot in some Orange County gymnasium, Musselman had them coming to his summer rookie camp.

Wayne Engelstad (UC Irvine, 1984-88) showed up. So did Richard Morton (Cal State Fullerton, 1984-88). Ronnie Grandison (UC Irvine, 1983-84) impressed Musselman enough to get invited to the Wolves’ September training camp, where he was cut two weeks ago.

“And now there are rumors of a trade for Bob Thornton (UC Irvine, 1982-84, and Philadelphia 76ers, present),” says Bill Robertson, the Wolves’ director of public relations. “People keep asking me, ‘Where is this UC Irvine?’ They’re starting to call us ‘the UC Timberwolves.’ ”

Robertson, by the way, is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton.

Of course.

Musselman has succeeded in updating Horace Greeley. “Go North, West man,” is the new rallying cry for the Have Jump Shot, Will Travel crowd--and has been ever since Minnesota rejoined the NBA and named Musselman to head the talent search.

An expansion team in Minnesota meant more work for those on the play-for-pay periphery and Musselman as coach meant good news for anyone who played for or against him in the Continental Basketball Assn. As veterans of Musselman’s old Albany Patroons, Murphy and Brooks had easy ins. Once aboard, Murphy and Brooks told Musselman about Rogers.

And Wood?

He’ll play anywhere anyone will have him. Last season, that took Wood from one coast (the CBA’s Santa Barbara Islanders) to the other (the NBA’s New Jersey Nets). Now, he’s attempting to find the middle ground.

In Minnesota, Wood is a long shot, which is both his blessing and his curse. The Wolves need a three-point shooter and Wood fits the bill, but he hasn’t played much in the exhibition season and has just three more days to persuade Musselman to keep him and not Tim Legler or Doug West or Anthony Bowie.

The Anteaters III appear in better standing.

Murphy played in all 82 games of the Wolves’ inaugural season--starting most--and averaged 8.3 points and 6.9 rebounds. His job is all hard hat--guard the other guy’s best big man, trade some elbows, count those bruises--and he’s expected to keep it until he requires traction.

Brooks, beginning his third NBA season, came over in a June trade with Philadelphia, in exchange for a No. 2 draft choice. He’s a mini-Murphy--he doesn’t mind diving on the floor and at 5-11, he’s a lot closer to it--which Musselman has admired since their days together in Albany.

And, no, Brooks insists, it has nothing to do with looks and, no, he is not Musselman’s long lost son, an ongoing tease since his arrival in the Twin Cities.

“It’s an insult,” Brooks says, feigning outrage. “I’m sooo much better looking than he is. He’s a feisty little guy and he’s blond, like me, but I’m too tall to be in his family. He’s only 5-7.”

Rogers, just off the plane from Spain, is closing in on the sixth and final forward position. His competition is Gary Leonard, a Wolves holdover, but Leonard lacks Rogers’ outside shooting touch. Rogers averaged 23 points while playing last season for Valencia in Spain’s top division of professional basketball.

“I expect to make the team,” Rogers says, but adds, warily, “although with Musselman, you never know. He could go out tomorrow and bring in three new guys.

“I’m on the fringe, but right now, it looks like I’m going to make it. From there, I’d like to get into the top eight or nine. Musselman plays eight men deep and I’ve got to get into that top eight.”

The simple fact that all three are this close, still teammates after all these years, is, in Brooks’ words, “pretty incredible. It’s mind-boggling.”

“Irvine is not a powerhouse. But here we are-- three Irvine guys on the same professional basketball team. You could see that happening with Vegas or Georgetown, one of the big schools, but UC Irvine?”

One question begets another.

How come this triumvirate couldn’t manage more than a 17-13 record and a second-round NIT ouster when it was assembled in front of Mulligan during the 1985-86 season?

“It’s hard to say,” Rogers admits. “We had a lot of talent. Besides us, there was Wayne Engelstad, JoJo Buchanan, a top guard, and Mike Hess. It was a real frustrating year. We beat Las Vegas twice, we beat UCLA, but we lost three times to Fullerton and we lost to Oral Roberts at home. We were very inconsistent.”

Brooks has a theory.

“John and Tod were just not very good then,” he deadpans. “I hate to admit it.”

But seriously . . .

“John, Tod and myself were not half the players then that we are now,” Brooks says. “We have to be. You can’t make the NBA any other way.

“I don’t think you can bad-mouth Mulligan. We all could’ve played better. We could’ve played better defense. We were fun to watch, we ran up and down the court, but we could have done a much better job on defense.”

Brooks thinks a moment.

“Then again,” he continues, “we might not have been capable of playing better defense.”

Now, they stand to hold Anteater reunions all over the country, from Seattle to San Antonio to Charlotte, 82 nights over the next six months.

They don’t stop in Anaheim or Santa Ana, but there’s always cable. At long last, Orange County has an NBA team to call its own, even if it has to call long-distance to do so.