Smith Is Back in the Middle : Pro basketball: Knick reserve says he was misunderstood when he said he did not want to play center.

Watch Charles Smith play center tonight at the Sports Arena. Watch him arrive early to visit fans and friends, including former teammates.

Watch people look confused.

The same Smith who said he did not want to play center for the Clippers? The same Smith who said last summer he did not want to stay with the Clippers beyond 1992-93, prompting the trade that sent him to the New York Knicks along with Doc Rivers and Bo Kimble?

“No doubt about it--everyone will notice if I play center,” Smith said. “People still say to me, ‘You didn’t want to play center.’ I never said that’s what I wanted. I said I didn’t see myself as a full-time center in this league. But that message kept getting twisted.”

As he and Rivers head into their first game at the Sports Arena since being traded--Kimble is on the injured list and not traveling with the Knicks--Smith has split most of his minutes between power forward and center. Playing time at small forward has been minimal, but so has time in general.

A starter all four seasons with the Clippers, he is averaging 21 minutes as a Knick and has yet to start. Sometimes he is the first player off the bench, sometimes the third.

But he comes to the Sports Arena feeling good about New York and Los Angeles.

“This game will be different,” said Smith, who is averaging 7.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. “I established a lot of relationships in L.A. that I miss, some with the team and people in management. There are a lot of fans and other people that were always around the arena who I look forward to seeing. These are the things I miss.”

Rivers, New York’s starting point guard all seven games, can relate. He went through the same thing last season when the Clippers returned to Atlanta, his first NBA home.

Now Rivers returns to his pseudo-home--his wife and three kids remain in Santa Monica until their house in the New York suburbs is ready--with memories.

“It will be a game with unique feelings,” said Rivers, who is averaging 8.6 points and 4.1 assists and has 12 steals in the last five games. “But there are no hard feelings. It’s just that whenever you play against someone you know and someone you shared a year with, it’s different. This is nowhere near the feelings I had when I went back to Atlanta, I’ll tell you that, but I did get some nice friendships with the Clippers.”

Will the emotional lift be worth something on the court?

“I’m sure we’ll be motivated,” Rivers said. “On the other hand, I’m sure the Clippers will be just as motivated.”

Kimble was put on the injured list because of bursitis in the right hip last Sunday, the day the Knicks needed his roster spot to sign free agent Herb Williams. He had yet to play in seven games, so the extent of his playing time as a Knick is four exhibition appearances.

“I’m not frustrated,” Kimble said. “With the Clippers, I had been drafted high and expected ‘X’ amount of support, and then I did not get that. Here, I was like the third guy thrown in on the trade. People asked if it bothered me. I’m not happy about it, but at the same time, I realize there are six guards ahead of me.

“It’s a different philosophy, a different approach. I knew the obstacles coming in. At first, people told me I wouldn’t even make the team. I knew I could make the team, and now every day is a building process. But realistically, I know there’s a bunch of very qualified guys ahead of me, and that unless something happens--a slump or injury--that I won’t be getting a lot of minutes.”