Laettner, Powell, Yamaguchi Head Field of 10 for Sullivan : Keyword: Bill Walton (in 1973) is the last athlete from a team sport to win the prestigious amateur award.

Christian Laettner helped Duke win a game it wasn’t supposed to win against UNLV in the NCAA semifinals last year.

Now maybe he can win an award athletes from team sports aren’t supposed to win.

Laettner is one of 10 finalists for the 62nd Sullivan Award, presented Monday to the best amateur athlete in the nation.

But the last athlete from a team sport to win the Sullivan Award was another basketball player, Bill Walton of UCLA basketball for 1973.

And the only other basketball player ever chosen in the voting by media, athletes and officials involved in amateur athletics was Bill Bradley of Princeton, now a U.S. senator from New Jersey. The award hasn’t gone to a football player since Felix (Doc) Blanchard and Arnold Tucker, who both played for Army, won in 1945 and 1946.

And Laettner, 21, would have to beat some tough competition to win the award, which an athlete can win only once.

Long jumper Mike Powell, 28, and swimmer Michael Barrowman, 23, are the favorites this year, both because of their performances in 1991 and because of the way voters have gone most years.

Track and field performers have been the most successful in the voting with 35 winners, followed by aquatics with 12.

Laettner, voted USA Basketball’s male athlete of the year, didn’t anticipate being one of those being considered by the estimated 2,500 voters.

“It’s an award which I’m very surprised to be nominated for,” said the sociology major from Angola, N.Y., who led the U.S. team in scoring with a 14.1 average at the Pan American Games last summer.

“I didn’t think this award was really considered to be given to a college basketball player. I thought it was usually saved for the track people or the swimming people,” he added.

Still, the most valuable player of the NCAA Final Four last year when Duke beat top-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas in the semifinals and Kansas in the title game is proud to be a finalist.

“It tells me and people at Duke that I have been doing a very good job at Duke in the past few years, and I’m just very happy with it,” said Laettner, who is finishing his college career this year among Duke’s all-time leaders in points, rebounds, steals and blocked shots.

The 6-11 center began this week third on the scoring list with 2,162 points and needed only 24 rebounds to move past Mike Lewis (1,051) into third place in that category.

He already has the school record for career free throws made with 642 and was second on the all-time Duke list for blocked shots (128) and was third with 210 steals. He’s also among the Top 20 on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time scoring and rebounding lists.

Powell, an Olympic silver medalist in 1988, broke the long jump record that Bob Beamon set in the 1968 Olympics at last year’s World Championships when he jumped 29 feet 4 1/2 inches--ending a streak of 65 victories in the event by 1981 Sullivan winner Carl Lewis.

Barrowman, who also will be competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials here beginning today, is a finalist for the second consecutive year. The former University of Michigan swimmer from Potomac, Md., was nominated again after twice lowering the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke last year.

Boxer Eric Griffin, 24, a three-time amateur world champion at 106 pounds, and skier Donna Weinbrecht, 26, the Olympic gold medalist in mogul skiing from West Milford, N.J., are also finalists for the second consecutive year.

Other finalists are:

--Kent Ferguson, 28, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the U.S. Diving male athlete of the year.

--Michael Johnson, 24, Waco, Texas, who was undefeated at 200-meters in 18 races last year and also won all six 400-meter events in which he competed.

--Sara Josephson, 28, Concord, Calif., a 1986 finalist for the Sullivan, who captured 42 gold medals in a 21-year career of synchronized swimming competition.

--Kristi Yamaguchi, 20, Fremont, Calif., who followed up her 1991 women’s world figure skating championship with a gold medal in the recent Olympics.