A LOOK AT THE 1992-93 NBA SEASON : PRO BASKETBALL

While Others Struggle, NBA Rides High

Welcome back, NBA, one of the rare major leagues that isn’t suing its players or planning to lock them out.

It’s a new day. In the 1960s, Wilt Chamberlain called it a “bush league.” It declared itself the game of the ‘70s and finished the decade awash in red ink and drug headlines.

Now David Stern counts his blessings by the dozen.

His Dream Team almost took over the Olympics.

The college game produced another megastar, Shaquille O’Neal, with huge shoulders and a smile to match. The leisure shoe manufacturers, arbiters of who’s hot and who’s not, jumped all over him. Reebok won the bidding war and plans an ad campaign bigger than Michael Jordan’s.

Jordan went all summer without embarrassing himself--that’s counting his confession that he lied about that $57,000 gambling loss as last season’s gaffe, because we didn’t believe it when he said it.

Charles Barkley was traded to Phoenix, raising the possibility of a honeymoon and a few months of peace.

Pat Riley has resurrected the Knicks, waking up New York, headquarters of the national media.

Chuck Daly moved to New Jersey, where a talented bunch of outlaws waited only for the townspeople to hire a new marshal who could make them check their guns. If it works out, the Net-Knick rivalry has finally begun.

Meanwhile, the NFL is fighting its players in court and has postponed expansion again.

Baseball toppled its commissioner while its owners prepared to lock the players out next spring. Network TV bosses, out millions of dollars for their association with the national pastime, suggested that it wake up.

CBS President Jeremy Handelman warned, “They’ve got to work at getting the younger viewers back.” ESPN’s Steve Bornstein added that baseball needs “radical surgery to bring it into the latter half of the 20th Century.”

In a Gallup poll, 16% of Americans asked listed baseball as their favorite sport, to 12% for basketball.

In 1960, it was baseball 34%, basketball 9%.

The NBA tunneled out of the ‘70s with an innovation that should serve as a model for everyone but, curiously, hasn’t. All of you football and baseball pooh-bahs with your scars from decades of labor strife, try to memorize two words:

Salary cap.

ATLANTIC DIVISION

1--New York Knicks. Riley should have been coach of the year for what he did in the playoffs. President Dave Checketts should be executive of the year for what he did this summer, adding Charles Smith, Rolando Blackman and Doc Rivers for Mark Jackson and a No. 1 pick.

2--New Jersey Nets. Daly mellows out the I’m-not-going-into-the-game gang: Derrick Coleman, Chris Morris, et al. Rookie bust Kenny Anderson is having a big exhibition season.

3--Boston Celtics. On the elevator to mediocrity.

4--Miami Heat. This expansion team has done everything right except win the lottery.

5--Orlando Magic. This expansion team invested in middle-aged pros but won the lottery for O’Neal. Look out in a couple of years.

6--Washington Bullets. Coach Wes Unseld gets too much out of his nobodies. If there were any justice, they would draw his Ping-Pong ball on lottery day.

7--Philadelphia 76ers. Doug Moe’s reputation says he can go .500 with nothing. We’ll see.

CENTRAL DIVISION

1--Chicago Bulls. Enough said.

2--Cleveland Cavaliers. A 57-game winner that is up against it. Nice guys Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance and Hot Rod Williams need physical help against the Bulls and Knicks.

3--Indiana Pacers. General Manager Donnie Walsh finds a taker for Chuck Person. Pooh Richardson takes over at point guard, but unless 6-foot-10 Dale Davis can handle power forward, they are still too soft.

4--Detroit Pistons. They’re at the patchwork stage, bringing in Terry Mills and Olden Polynice. Not far off is the back-up-the-truck stage.

5--Charlotte Hornets. Alonzo Mourning’s holdout might keep them out of the playoffs one more year.

6--Atlanta Hawks. Underrated Bob Weiss went 38-44, but the rebuilding has only begun.

7--Milwaukee Bucks. Mike Dunleavy backed up the truck.

MIDWEST DIVISION

1--Utah Jazz. Without fanfare or major-market resources, Frank and Scott Layden keep finding players: Jeff Malone, David Benoit and now Larry Krystkowiak and Jay Humphries. They still have problems playing with Mark Eaton (nobody guards him) or without him (they are too soft), and they’re dependent on one play, John Stockton throwing the ball to Karl Malone, who causes a collision and needs a call from the official.

2--San Antonio Spurs. Owner Red McCombs let Rod Strickland walk. If Jerry Tarkanian thought the situation at Nevada Las Vegas was fluid, wait until he tries to play without a point guard.

3--Houston Rockets. Recipe for trouble: owner Charlie Thomas, yet another member of the Ross Perot school of management, and Hakeem Olajuwon, star center, are still together after a summer of public recriminations.

4--Denver Nuggets. Good young nucleus, but a long way to go.

5--Minnesota Timberwolves. Chuck Person and Christian Laettner--no, he’s not Danny Ferry II--propel them out of the cellar. Question: Where will Person, 28, be in three years when the Timberwolves are really ready to rumble?

6--Dallas Mavericks. Last year’s No. 1 pick, Doug Smith, is a bust. This year’s, Jim Jackson, is unsigned. Coach Richie Adubato can time the rest of his tenure with a stopwatch.

PACIFIC DIVISION

1--Portland Trail Blazers. Still no Einsteins, but they’re even deeper with Strickland and Mario Elie. Coach Rick Adelman will try three-guard lineups, searching for that elusive chemistry.

2--Phoenix Suns. Here’s where we find out who this Barkley guy is. Jerry Colangelo pulled off a coup, getting Barkley; keeping his best two players, Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle; and signing Danny Ainge to replace Jeff Hornacek.

3--Seattle SuperSonics. They can only go so far with Benoit Benjamin and Gary Payton, but George Karl, the Don Nelson protege, turned them into a big version of the Warriors. Now he unleashes Shawn Kemp, budding superstar.

4--Golden State Warriors. It’s tough to be a good little team in a big bad division.

5--Clippers. People are scratching their heads after last summer’s moves, but they will be back in the playoffs.

6--Lakers. It’s all over, Forum blue. They are in that dangerous netherworld: neither very good nor very bad.

7--Sacramento Kings. Why draft swing man Walt Williams when their two best players are big guard Mitch Richmond and small forward Lionel Simmons?

NBA Notes

Buddies: Horace Grant, the only Bull starter required to practice twice a day with injuries after exceptions were granted Olympians Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, groused so much that Coach Phil Jackson threw him out of a session, whereupon Pippen, Horace’s best friend, criticized Grant publicly. “I couldn’t believe after all the times I’ve stood up for Scottie--the headaches, the ankle sprain, whatever,” Grant said. “I was always in Scottie’s corner. I didn’t believe it until I saw it in the papers and on TV. . . . I understand we win because of Michael. Scottie thinks we win because of Mike and Scottie.”

Jordan spent his week off shooting Nike commercials. “That’s his business and my business,” Jackson said. “That was taken care of, and we had an understanding. It wasn’t so much a commercial for commercials’ sake. Do you understand?” No. . . . Charles Barkley was ejected from the first exhibition in the Suns’ new arena. His second technical foul was merely for hanging on the rim, though.

Seattle Coach George Karl, dismayed at Benoit Benjamin’s conditioning and all-around attitude, bounced him out of a practice. The SuperSonics want to trade Benjamin and his $3.5-million contract with four years left. Says Karl, looking at the bright side: “Seventy-five percent of the teams we play, we don’t need a big center.” . . . Dominique Wilkins, back from last season’s ruptured Achilles’ tendon, scored 39 points in 58 minutes of back-to-back exhibitions. “I guess I’m getting old,” said Wilkins, 32, “but I still got some rise.”

They are fam-i-ly? Houston’s Otis Thorpe has the longest current streak of games, 542, but will sit out the first month because of a bruised kidney. New Coach Rudy Tomjanovich says he wants a family feeling on the team, but only one Rocket called Thorpe in the hospital. . . . As if to demonstrate the challenge facing Tomjanovich, Vernon Maxwell punched out teammate Carl Herrera in the dressing room and was suspended.