THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Schuler Tries to Survive Rough Ride

In this season of Thanksgiving, it is proper to count your blessings.

Here’s one: Give thanks you’re not Mike Schuler.

They’re oiling up the revolving door in Clipperdom, where a top official says, “If there’s no improvement, we will have to take appropriate action.”

Action, appropriate or otherwise, claimed Schuler’s two coaching predecessors within three seasons.

You have to go back to Don Chaney in March, 1987, to find one who celebrated his second anniversary on the job.

Of course, Chaney was axed a month later.

Schuler now dangles over the precipice by a thread. Having thrown him over, the organization is now described as eager to avoid repeating its history and is hoping he can reel himself back in.

Let’s put it this way, it will be a challenge for him.

Do you suspect something’s wrong here?

To put it simply: owner Donald Sterling doesn’t want a strong man running his organization, either as general manager or coach. He doesn’t want to pay the money or surrender the control.

Schuler was chosen over Mike Fratello, a heavyweight who wanted big money--$700,000 a season--and input in personnel matters.

Schuler was willing to work for less and take orders.

For this organization, it was love at first sight.

The Clippers then loaded Schuler down with old baggage: Benoit Benjamin in the final year of his contract. BB put on a salary drive, screeched to a halt when he wasn’t chosen for the All-Star game and welcomed his trade to Seattle, which of course gave Schuler a revamped nucleus in mid-season.

This season, there was Doc Rivers’ holdout. Maybe it wasn’t the organization’s fault but it sure wasn’t Schuler’s.

You could throw in the fact that Ron Harper missed 43 games last season and needed the last 39 for on-the-job rehab.

Or that Charles Smith hasn’t played yet this season.

Or that Rivers, the hoped-for answer to the leadership-point guard gap, has been hurt off and on.

The problem is, key figures in the organization are now unhappy that Schuler isn’t the type to get funky with the troops.

Does this make you wonder if some of the troops have filed upstairs to complain? They did it--in a formal meeting with Sterling--to Don Casey, who was far funkier. They could certainly drop a dime on the strait-laced Schuler.

It can’t be coincidence that all this blew up two days after Harper said: “It’s early in the season and the guys don’t want to call it quits but this is frustrating.”

The Clippers were 5-7 at that point, practically a high-water mark in their history.

Super. When Schuler looked cheap and malleable, the organization overlooked the fact that his players had balked in his one previous post.

Hint for Sterling: You have a $12.6-million players’ payroll. It’s time to pay the tab for a coach who has demonstrated that he can command respect. Give him input in personnel matters and an ironclad five-year contract.

If players mutter about him, remind them they’re paid to play, period.

Then sit back and hope for the best.

At least, for the first time, you’ll be able to say, “I did everything I could do.”

Heaven knows, you’ve got the horses. A jockey who could stay aboard would be nice.

MODESTY, IT’S GREAT

Dikembe Mutombo, Denver’s rookie sensation, faced off with Charlotte’s better-known and better-paid Larry Johnson last week.

It was a standoff but an impressive one.

Mutombo had 21 points and 20 rebounds.

Johnson went 25-16.

Johnson, perhaps more familiar with woofing, laughed about it.

“Hey, when I signed my contract (the day before the season started), I started talking about how he had a head start and I was going to come in and steal his candy,” Johnson said. “We’re just having fun.”

Mutombo, wasting no time in acquiring a superstar’s prerogatives, declared before the game:

“He’s not my contender (in the rookie-of-the-year race). I don’t know who is my contender. I think I’m by myself.

“Some of the guys who came with me in the draft got much more publicity than I did. All of them got A-plus and the critics said I couldn’t do this and I couldn’t do that. I’m doing those things now.”

Whatever happened to: “He’s a fine player and I welcome the competition. The season’s only six weeks old. I haven’t exactly proven I’m the second coming of Bill Russell yet.”?

ADD ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

Mutombo was drafted fourth, behind Johnson, Kenny Anderson, New Jersey, and Billy Owens, by Sacramento, since traded to Golden State.

There can be no doubt if they were doing it today, Mutombo goes first or second.

Mutombo said he was especially peeved at the Hornets.

“Charlotte owes me something,” he said. “They came in the last day before the draft to work with me. They say they might get me so I work with them.”

One thing our big guy is leaving out: His agent announced that Dikembe wouldn’t participate in any individual workouts, relenting only at the last minute for the Hornets.

Thus, if nobody knew the full range of Mutombo’s skill, it was partly because he hid it.

LAST ADD ROOKIE WAR

How intense is this?

After the Nugget victory, Charlotte Coach Alan Bristow was asked what effect Mutombo’s presence had had.

Said Bristow: “Zero.”

Mutombo blocked four shots. Charlotte shot 38%.

“Well, after he blocked three of my shots, I wasn’t taking it in there anymore,” Hornet guard Kendall Gill said.

FACES AND FIGURES

Before we forget that Laker streak: It was more than surprising. In terms of effort, they made the remarkable ordinary on a nightly basis and should be saluted for it. . . . Add rookies: The Portland Trail Blazers are delighted with USC guard Robert Pack, who was undrafted and playing on a team of free agents in the L.A. summer league when scout Brad Greenberg spotted him. Says Blazer Coach Rick Adelman: “Robert has a lot of guts.”

Further decline of the Bad Boys, or is this fun or what? Detroit Piston General Manager Jack McCloskey had a meeting with the players. “You could call it motivational,” he said. “I expect them to play hard. I expect them to play hard all the time.” . . . Said a Piston player to the Flint (Mich.) Journal: “I guess it was supposed to be motivational but I really wasn’t listening.”

Pat Riley update: No new edicts this week from the Knicks’ coach. I’m as surprised as you are. . . . Here’s Riley on the post-Magic Johnson Lakers; “All of us who were there in the ‘80s were part of a great decade but there have been great changes. You go back to (Jamaal) Wilkes, (Bob) McAdoo, (Mitch) Kupchak, (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar, Coop (Michael Cooper), myself and Magic, it’s not the same. . . . Jerry West has always stayed ahead of the posse but I think that’s going to be hard to do for the rest of this season.”

76er owner Harold Katz passed up a chance to draft Brad Daugherty, traded Moses Malone for Jeff Ruland, who was quickly finished off by injury, acquired Mike Gminski and traded him, too--all within six years, creating what Charles Barkley calls the team’s “seven-foot hole.” . . . Now Katz is down on his latest center, Charles Shackleford. Shack, back from Europe after a brief but checkered NBA career, took down 18 rebounds against the Nets but against everyone else, averages five. Said Katz: “I think he’s trying but sooner or later, he’s got to show us he can do it.” . . . Not everyone thinks he’s trying. Said Barkley: “We’ve got to get better production at the center position, that’s a no-brainer. I wouldn’t mind if it was a lack of talent. That doesn’t bother me. But having a lack of effort isn’t fair.”

David Robinson looked like a spoiled brat, complaining publicly that San Antonio Spurs’ owner Red McCombs makes them fly commercially but the fact is, this is now a two-tier league--those who charter and those who don’t. The grind is tough enough with a charter. Without one, a team may play, get back to the hotel at 11 p.m., arise at 6 a.m. to catch an 8 o’clock flight and play later the same day. With, the team plays, flies out at midnight, sleeps late and plays.

The Seattle SuperSonics, in trouble financially, booked four games into the Kingdome--against the Bulls, Lakers, Celtics and Blazers. Chicago drew 38,067 last week, the NBA’s season high. . . . Seattle’s Shawn Kemp, on stealing the ball from Billy Owens: “To finally get to play against somebody my own age--I’ve known Billy since eighth grade.” Kemp, 22, is starting his third NBA season.

Michael Jordan on repeating: “Some teams have been arrogant after winning a championship. The Celtics were one of those and they were good at it. Whatever they said, they backed it up.” . . . Most of the talking was done by Larry Bird. However, to prove that Celtics get on each other too, here’s Robert Parish, joking about injured team clown Kevin McHale: “He’s done. Write that down. He’s a dead horse.” . . . Sacramento’s Jerry Reynolds on newly-arrived Dennis Hopson’s run-in with Coach Dick Motta: “He and Dick have had some difficulties that have to be settled. If this were Lionel Simmons, it would have been a major issue but this is Dennis Hopson.”