Parks Finds Time Hasn’t Helped Things : Basketball: Former Marina star and UCLA Coach Jim Harrick still haven’t spoken.

for four days.

After that, Parks, one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation, made his way to Duke University, breaking the heart of Bruin Coach Jim Harrick, who desperately wanted the former Huntington Beach Marina High star to remain in Southern California.

Instead, Harrick and Bruin fans will have to settle for watching Parks in the U.S. Olympic Festival, which is being played at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. It is an interesting twist of fate, considering Harrick’s public displeasure with Parks’ choice of scholarship offers. Remember, it was Harrick, who after Parks canceled his official visit to UCLA and later decided to attend Duke, said: “I felt he and his family owed us more than a phone call.”

Some eight months later, Parks still finds Harrick’s remarks annoying.

“It was real immature for him to say that,” Parks said. “I don’t owe him anything more. I wasn’t disrespectful.”

Parks, a 6-11 center/forward, said he phoned coaches from Arizona, Arizona State, Kentucky and UCLA with the news of his decision. Unable to reach Harrick, Parks spoke with Bruin assistant Brad Holland. In fact, Parks and Harrick have yet to speak to each other, despite repeated attempts by both parties.

“Mostly, people didn’t know the situation,” Parks said. “They figured I was a local boy, that UCLA’s got a good basketball team and that I should go there.”

What they didn’t know is that Parks had made up his mind to attend Duke on the flight back from North Carolina. Nor were they aware of Parks’ admiration for Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils, who later won the NCAA national championship.

Actually, it was Krzyzewski, Team USA coach at the 1990 World Championships, who suggested Parks accept the invitation to play in the Olympic Festival. No dummy, Parks did as he was told. Krzyzewski was in attendance Saturday night.

Of course, Parks, who was busy playing in a twice-a-week summer league, didn’t realize the Festival would be held in Los Angeles. “I had no idea,” he said. “When I first heard, I thought, ‘Why couldn’t it be somewhere else?’ But I’m home now, so I’m kind of glad.”

Saturday night, he scored 11 points and had eight rebounds and three assists in helping the West defeat the South, 105-81.

Wilt Chamberlain was among the spectators at the basketball competition. He said he was there to watch his niece, Lisa Tate, a 6-3 center from the University of Kansas and member of the North team.

Tate said she was not aware Chamberlain was her uncle.

After Saturday’s game, in which Tate helped the North beat the East, 70-62, by scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds, Chamberlain posed for photographs with Tate.

Asked about what it was like to have someone of Chamberlain’s stature for an uncle, Tate said Chamberlain was simply a friend of the family. But then she turned to her mother and asked if the two were actually related.

“It’s Uncle Wilt to you,” she said.

Said Tate: “Now I get to go back to school and say he’s my uncle.”

Chamberlain, whose sister played college basketball, watched both women’s games Saturday and immediately offered his seal of approval.

“These girls are good basketball players,” he said. “I can see a great deal of improvement in women’s basketball. They’re quicker, bigger, come off picks . . . they’re playing the game the way it’s meant to be played.”

Heidi Gillingham doesn’t call her shots anymore, not since the day in high school she promised to dunk during a game, didn’t feel up to it, decided against it . . . and got booed.

But, given the right situation, she will show the right stuff. Such was the case in practice Friday, when South teammates, doubting her despite the advantage of being 6-8, got the proof at Pauley Pavilion.

“They all got excited,” the sophomore-to-be at Vanderbilt said. “They didn’t think I could do it. So I did.”

As simple as that. What’s not so cut-and-dried is where Gillingham fits into the United State’s future on the international scene. Because of her size, most are quick to make a comparison to Anne Donovan, the former Old Dominion star, but those who have been around long enough and now watch Gillingham say that lofty status is premature.

“Anne was a little bit more skilled at this age, a little bit more polished than Heidi is,” said North Coach Andy Landers, also coach at Georgia, a Southeastern Conference rival of Vanderbilt.

“She has the abilities to develop into that kind of player. No question. I expect to look up one day and see her on the national team. But that will be totally dependent on her desire to do so.”

Gillingham, 19, began her second Olympic Festival with two blocked shots and six rebounds in the South’s 71-57 victory over the West. Gillingham and the South face Landers and the North tonight.

Point guard Nicole Collins, a member of the South team from Louisiana Tech, will sit out the rest of the competition after suffering what doctors said appears to be torn ligaments in her left knee during Saturday’s victory over the West.