NBA NOTES : No Word Yet on Knicks’ Personnel Boss

Knicks President Dave Checketts said he has received more than 50 inquiries about the Knicks’ opening for vice president of player personnel. He said he plans to offer the position in the next week and a half. But he maintained Thursday night that he still has not made up his mind.

But executives from several NBA teams said they will be surprised if the position is not offered to Ernie Grunfeld, the Knicks’ current director of administration.

“His chances are the same as everyone else’s,” Checketts said. “But I am continuing to interview people. I’m right on schedule and I hope to have someone by the end of the (regular) season.”

Grunfeld said he is happy in his current position, but if he is offered a promotion, he would accept.

“But I haven’t heard anything,” Grunfeld said. “And so I really can’t talk about it.”

Grunfeld, Checketts and Knicks director of scouting Dick McGuire are here to scout players in the Orlando Classic, a pre-draft camp that features 37 college seniors.

“The fact that he is relying on Ernie to scout here would seem to say something,” one NBA GM said.

Some of the other candidates for the job say they have not been contacted. Among those are Jazz player personnel director Scott Layden, who said he is not interested in the position and former Timberwolves player personnel director Billy McKinney, who says he has not been contacted.

Checketts apparently still is interested in former Celtics coach Jimmy Rodgers. But Rodgers also has been mentioned as a candidate for the Minnesota head coaching job if Bill Musselman is fired.

Eleven players will be selected in the June draft lottery, and most of them are not at the Orlando Classic. Not only are there no underclassmen, but players who are assured of being high first-round picks also turned down invitations because their draft status is secure.

Among those not here are four UNLV players -- Larry Johnson, Stacey Augman, Greg Anthony and George Ackles. Also invited but not attending are Doug Smith of Missouri, Steve Smith of Michigan State, Dikembe Mutombo of Georgetown, Luc Longley of New Mexico, Rick Fox of North Carolina and Mark Macon of Temple.

Longley, Fox and Macon may have hurt their draft standing the most. Longley, a 7-2, 245-pound center, could be a lottery pick. But one scout said, “He’s already lost money because Rich King (a 7-2, 260 pound center from Nebraska) has been playing so well.”

Also missing is 7-1 center Alvaro Teheran of Houston. Teheran withdrew because of an ankle injury.

It seldom fails that one of these gatherings produces absurd comparisons, such as someone who will become the “next Michael Jordan.” This year is no different, but in the case of Myron Brown, it’s difficult to be offended because he comes from such modest roots.

Brown, a 6-3, 178-pound guard comes from tiny Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, whose sports information department billed him as “the Michael Jordan of Division II.” Although that is excessive, Brown and 6-6 forward Steve Hood from James Madison have the highest vertical leap (34 inches) of the players on hand. It is more accurate to compare Brown with Celtics rookie Dee Brown, who was so impressive in this camp last season.

Myron Brown is delightfully blunt about his feelings of being around some of the best college players in the country.

“I’m pretty much in awe of all these superstars who played on television,” Brown said. “But they step on the court the same way I do. Once I got invited here, I figure I had as good a chance as anyone.”

Seton Hall Coach P.J. Carlesimo, one of four college coaches who are coaching teams in the Orlando Classic, says he has yet to hear from the committee selecting the assistants for the 1992 Olympic team. But within the next week, Carlesimo, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and Cleveland Coach Lenny Wilkens are expected to be named assistants to Olympic head coach Chuck Daly of the Pistons.

Other coaches in the Orlando Classic are Roy Williams of Kansas, Clem Haskins of Minnesota and Pat Kennedy of Florida State.

The best player in camp may be John Turner, who played during the 1988-89 season in Georgetown but left after a run-in with Georgetown Coach John Thompson. Turner transferred to Phillips College in Enid, Okla., where he played for Denny Price, the father of Cavaliers guard Mark Price. Turner, 6-8 and 253 pounds, was the MVP last week in the Portsmouth (Va.) tournament, a camp primarily made up of projected second-round picks. He then was invited to Orlando.