NOTES : The Chicago Question: Where to Hold Parade?

Although the Bulls have yet to clinch the NBA title, Chicago politicians are already arguing over the route of the Bulls’ planned victory parade Friday.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley wants the parade downtown, but several aldermen want it on the city’s west side because Chicago Stadium is located there.

“If we do have a rally for the Bulls, why don’t we have them go through minority neighborhoods, where the people who can’t see the games live and work?” Alderman Lawrence Bloom was quoted as saying.

Replied Daly: “I know aldermen want it in their own wards. But you can’t have 50 celebrations. It’d be a mess.”

The Bulls, meanwhile, are trying to focus on tonight’s game.

“Everybody from Chicago has probably already got the parade started,” guard Michael Jordan said before Tuesday’s practice. “But we just have to go out and concentrate on the game.”

The Lakers, who have been honored with five victory parades through downtown L.A. in the ‘80s, are amused by the controversy in Chicago.

“Those people are like rookies,” Laker guard Byron Scott said. “It’s like a rookie when he first comes in the league, he doesn’t know how to accept being in the NBA. Those people don’t know how to accept being in the championship series. It’s all new to them. Of course they’re excited, and they have a right to be.”

The Lakers will compete against three European teams in the 1991 McDonald’s Open in Paris on Oct. 18-19, NBA Commissioner David J. Stern and Boris Stankovic, secretary general of FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, announced jointly.

Pop 84 Split of Yugoslavia, the three-time European Cup champion, Liomges, a perennial French League contender, and Spanish League champion Joventut Badalona will also compete in the event.

Although an NBA team has never lost a game in four previous McDonald’s Open tournaments, the games have steadily become more competitive. The New York Knicks defeated Scavolini Pesaro of Italy by four points in overtime last year in Barcelona.

Although Laker center Mychal Thompson hasn’t been used much in the NBA finals, he could play an important role in tonight’s game because of injuries to forward James Worthy and Byron Scott.

“Sure, I’d like to be out there, trading elbows with (Chicago center) Bill Cartwright,” Thompson said. “Of course, I’d lose that battle like everybody else.”

Not all of the visitors are happy campers. Dennis Hopson, who cost Chicago its 1990 No. 1 draft choice in a trade, and Stacey King, the team’s No. 1 pick in 1989, are riding the bench, contributing little.

Hopson said after the four-game sweep of Detroit in the Eastern Conference finals: “I broke down and cried. I’d never done that in my life, but that’s the way I felt. I felt that I wasn’t a part of this anymore, that my own team doesn’t need me.”

King, meanwhile, wonders about his future with the Bulls.

“If this year was any indication, I don’t think I have a future,” he said. “I don’t want to go through another season like this again.”

Magic Johnson says that Boston’s Dennis Johnson was the toughest defender he ever faced but that the Bull tandem of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen has impressed him. “They’ve been the best I’ve ever played against at pressuring you,” Johnson said.

Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy says the Lakers’ fall has prompted callers from all over to phone in advice.

“I do hear some unbelievable things which I won’t even mention,” he said. “It’s too embarrassing (to those giving advice).”

Where does he hear them?

“Everywhere. Media people. Some people from rest homes calling up. They sound about the same.”

Times staff writers Mike Downey, Mark Heisler and Scott Howard-Cooper contributed to this story.