Clippers Try to See if Roberts Can Love L.A. : Pro basketball: Brown, Baylor meet with center as three-team deal stays alive--barely.

The Clippers’ pursuit of Stanley Roberts got closer, at least geographically, Friday when the Orlando Magic center arrived in Los Angeles for what figures to be a weekend stay.

Three teams on two ends of the country are hoping he will like what he sees. If he does, and rescinds his earlier veto of the trade among the Clippers, Magic and New York Knicks, the deal could be completed by early next week and one of the strangest, most prolonged transactions in the NBA in years will finally be done.

If not, it might be dead. Again.

Roberts met with Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor and Coach Larry Brown, but neither would--or could--gauge how the meeting went. Baylor declined comment. Brown, who once unsuccessfully tried to sign Roberts for the University of Kansas, stressed that this was not another recruiting trip.

“I just sat down with him and talked about how we thought he would fit into our team,” Brown said. “I told him I don’t want to influence him one way or another, but that we would be real happy if he came out. I know it’s a big decision.

“I don’t want to put any extra pressure on him on something like this. It doesn’t make any sense for me to beg a kid and then have him be sorry at the end.”

That Roberts, who has the right for a year to negate any trade, would come to Southern California, and maybe even attend a team party Sunday, indicates that he is at least considering the deal. He had previously refused the move, so this can be regarded as a softening in his stance.

The trade has been in place since Aug. 28. It would bring Roberts from Orlando and Mark Jackson from New York to Los Angeles. The Clippers would send Charles Smith, Doc Rivers and Bo Kimble to the Knicks. The Magic would get a first-round pick from the Clippers and first- and second-round choices from the Knicks.

The Clippers are eager to make the trade, because it would bring them a starting center, Roberts, and a starting point guard, Jackson. Just as important, it would allow them to get something for Smith, who will become an unrestricted free agent after 1992-93 and has already said he will not return for another season.

New York would be one of his first choices, which is why the Knicks are willing to deal for somebody they could lose after a season.