The Other Summer Games : NBA Players Can Make a Name for Themselves in the Off-Season and L.A. Is the Place

For the first time since he became the Clippers’ coach, Larry Brown is sitting through a basketball game without yelling at the referee or diagraming a play.

No tie. No mousse.

His assistant coach, R.C. Buford, in a denim shirt with rolled-up sleeves and loafers without socks, is in charge, even if he looks as though he had stepped in from the patio.

That’s the great illusion of the Southern California Summer Pro Basketball League. It looks so relaxed. In warm-ups, the players joke and dunk whenever possible.

Still, it is the most important summer job most will ever have.

It’s potentially worth millions of dollars, and there are no free layups.

It’s also the best basketball one can see in a high school gym, as well as the best coaching and officiating, and the most active scouting.

“Every team I’ve had, we’ve always come out here,” says Brown, who has had a few. “It’s good quality basketball. For guys who might not make your team, it’s a good opportunity to have other people watch them play, which I love. For guys who have a chance on your team, you get to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully you can help.”

The league was started in 1970 by Dick Marquis, then was taken over by Larry Creger in 1980 to help hone professionals’ skills and, in effect, let them audition for the NBA. Similar leagues are active in Miami, Salt Lake City and New York.

Author Raymond Chandler once said Los Angeles has the most of everything and the best of nothing, but when it comes to summer basketball, this city is an exception.

“L.A. is by far the most in prestige and maybe that comes with longevity,” says John Hammond, a Clipper assistant who shares summer coaching duties with Buford.

“The thing that you have in L.A. that doesn’t happen in other summer leagues is the players. Only three roster players participate on each (NBA-sponsored) team. Then we come to L.A. and you play the NBA Stars and you can play Pooh (Richardson) at point, (Byron) Scott at two (shooting guard) and (Danny) Manning at three (small forward). Certain nights, you go against five or six NBA players, and some are All-Stars. The competition in L.A. is a lot tougher.”

Each NBA team has only three players under contract to the team, while the corporate teams may have all free agents--foreign players, Continental Basketball Assn. players and undrafted collegians trying to be noticed--or they may have an indefinite number of NBA players. However, NBA players tend not to be at every game with their corporate teams because of other obligations. As a result, there can be a pickup-game flavor to many of the contests.

This season, the Clippers, Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz have teams in the league, with 16 other teams sending players for the combined teams that are corporate-sponsored.

Mainly, it’s a place for rookies to start making the adjustment to the NBA level and for reserves to improve their status.

For Randy Woods, the Clippers’ top pick in the recent NBA draft, the league is also a place to learn the point-guard position. But it’s not as easy as merely practicing.

“There are much bigger guys, and it’s a much more physical game than in college,” Woods says. “I was the shooting guard (at La Salle) and I’m transferring right now into the point-guard spot. In college, it was easier for me to get my shot, but now I have to get everybody else involved plus look for my shots.”

For Sean Higgins, the former Fairfax High star, his summer league play meant a contract with the Lakers.

For Duane Cooper, the Lakers’ second-round choice from USC, it’s his best shot at making the team--a prospect that improved greatly with Terry Teagle’s departure for the Italian League.

“I think the approach to the game seems a little more laid back (than in college),” Cooper says. “But I approach every game the same way. For the most part, it’s a lot more laid back in the locker room. But in the games, the pace is a little faster, it’s a little more physical, and you have a lot more 7-footers who are able to block shots. Everyone can jump and everyone can shoot.”

Although, individually, the defense is played at a fairly high level, there are no well-coordinated team defenses, as in the NBA. As a result, the average team scores more than 120 points a game.

Cooper has averaged 12 points and 8.6 assists while getting his first taste of playing against NBA starters. Two weeks ago, he had the best view in the gym of Richardson scoring 38 points.

“I get up for games like that (against top players such as Richardson),” Cooper says. “Those are the games where people want to see how you play. You live for that. You want to be able to play against the people who play your position, and show that you can play with them.”

Cooper played well, scoring 20 points with 11 assists in 29 minutes.

Why do established players enter these games?

“To stay in shape,” Richardson says. “(Minnesota) doesn’t want me to do anything. I don’t think I’m going to be there (next season), so I just go out and play on my own. I’m just trying to work hard and trying to practice and work on some things that I need to work on, and use this summer league as a chance to do so.”

NBA affiliations often don’t mean much this time of year. The Clippers’ Ron Harper scored 45 points for the Europeans, a team of mostly European players, with players such as Richardson and Harper joining in from time to time.

“By playing on two teams, I can get good runs, because playing on one team, you’re only playing maybe once a week or twice a week, and that’s really not enough for me to get back into the form that I want to be in,” Richardson says. “I like to practice and play maybe three or four games a week.”

Bo Kimble is another who plays on two teams. Unlike Richardson, he has spent the better part of his professional career on the bench, and critics say it is because he does not create his own scoring opportunities. Whether or not that criticism is fair, Kimble has gone to work this summer to improve his skills.

He went to Utah for the Clippers’ minicamp and played in the league there, which he said was a priority for him, and is on the Clippers’ Los Angeles summer team to get more comfortable with Larry Brown’s passing-game offense. But Kimble also plays with a team called the Michigan Stars to work on his scoring.

Scoring has been no problem for Richardson, who is second in the league with averages of 34 points and 13 assists, and leads the league with 26 three-point goals. However, he says he is not trying to show off for a possible trade. The rumors are that both the Clippers and the Lakers are trying to deal for him, but Richardson dismisses the thought.

“That doesn’t cross my mind at all,” Richardson says. “When my time comes--it will happen and I’m not impatient--then I’ll just have to play. I just want to play and win. Even in the summer league, I play hard and I play to win.”

And so do the coaches. It’s not a stretch to say that you have to pay your dues in the summer league to become an NBA coach. The Lakers’ Randy Pfund is one of the best examples.

“No question,” Hammond says, “there’s probably more than one guy. This is kind of ‘head coaching.’ It gives us a chance to sub, call timeouts, to say how much each player plays. It’s fun. No assistant coach would tell you that it’s not.”

Beyond that, it proves the budding coach can handle professional players.

“It’s part of the process (to become a coach in the NBA),” Brown says. “The game coaching (in the summer leagues)--it’s all a process that helps them.”

Whether a player or a coach is part of an NBA-sponsored team, the process is still an opportunity. Mark Iavaroni is one player who competed for two years in Europe and, after one summer in the league, ended up starting across from Julius Erving on the Philadelphia 76ers in 1982. That is why more than 80% of the players are free agents. There are 198 current NBA players who have played in the summer league. Of these, 73 played last summer.

“There are half a dozen scouts sitting across the floor,” Hammond says. “Larry (Brown) is sitting in the stands, and Elgin (Baylor) is in the stands. So, players benefit even if they haven’t been with us.”

The league concludes with division semifinals today and finals Sunday at Redondo High in Redondo Beach.