THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Suns Were Loose on Town as Bulls Tightened Up

Chicago is adding up the bill for all that police overtime.

Phil Jackson, who planned to be at the Grateful Dead concert in Soldier Field, is 1,500 miles away watching videotape of Richard Dumas.

The Suns?

They’re doing what they always do. Party on, Charles. Party on, Dan.

Not since Joe Namath has a major sporting event been treated to such revelry. The Suns arrived in Chicago trailing, 2-0, freeing them from what few inhibitions remained.

Within 36 hours, Charles Barkley had been spotted at five different night spots.

Chicago newspapers kept up minute to minute, breathlessly.

“Charles Barkley, the Phoenix Suns’ basketball ace, was spotted drinking Long Island iced tea at Michael Morton’s bar, Drink, late Saturday night and Sunday morning,” wrote the Sun-Times’ Page 2 gossip columnist.

“To wit:

“Barkley arrived with teammate Frank Johnson at 11:30 p.m. and (they) were accompanied by several females who said they were friends of the team’s owner.

“They ordered 16-ounce buckets of the deadly brew; exited at 1 a.m. and continued to cabaret until the wee hours at Shelter and the China Club.”

The pace never slowed. At 1 a.m. several days later, Barkley, leaving one club, heading for another, told a reporter: “Why observe a curfew that doesn’t exist?”

Game time came, but no game faces.

Barkley, introduced before Game 3, hit Benny the Bull with a left jab to the inflated snout.

Before Game 4, he decked Benny with a roundhouse punch.

In Game 5, the triple-overtime thriller, Tom Chambers took off a shoe during a timeout. Johnson picked it up and stuffed paper into it so it wouldn’t fit.

Then there were the off-day interview sessions with Barkley reflecting on:

Michael Jordan’s $240,000 Ferrari: “That’s just a couple rounds of golf.”

Enduring values: “I have money. I don’t need friends.”

The media: “I hope I brightened up y’all’s day. I know y’all have no lives. You’ve got to speak to me.”

And, with the Bulls up, 3-1, the pressure on the Suns: “Money time? I’m going to get paid regardless.”

In case you hadn’t noticed, you don’t need to take everything Barkley says literally.

In Bulls-mad Chicago, however, he represented a lonely voice of sanity.

After the upset in Game 3, “31-9!” became a local rallying cry, protesting the discrepancy in free throws.

The Bulls had dominated the last three postseasons, but in Chicago, the reckoning seemed to be 43 victories, 12 times we were cheated.

Various Chicago media pieced together a web of conspiracy implicating the NBA in everything back to the Chicago Fire and the death of Cock Robin: the suspicious draw of Patrick Ewing by the New York Knicks in the first lottery in 1985; the longshot in the last lottery that delivered the No. 1 pick to Orlando; the strange appearance of supervisor of officials Darrell Garretson to work Game 3.

One local TV anchor, WMAQ’s Mark Giangreco, went so far as to say on the air: “Sometimes it looks like the fix is in.”

NBA officials screamed bloody murder, so Giangreco apologized the next night.

There’s nothing like a deeply held conviction.

What happened was surprising, but not incomprehensible.

The Bulls are still woefully dependent on Jordan.

Scottie Pippen, who seemed to arrive once more in the conference finals against the Knicks, is back to being Scottie again.

A Dream Teamer should be able to handle Dumas, who is averaging 17 points and shooting 59% in 27 minutes per game. Pippen is averaging 21 and shooting 44% in 45 minutes.

In Game 5, Pippen made one shot longer than five feet. Of his 22 points, three came in the fourth quarter, when he took only three shots.

How long can it be before we start hearing about Pippen’s ankle (or back or knee or internal organs) again?

The Bulls also lost another edge. The best thing the Bulls do, aside from getting out of Jordan’s way, is play pressure defense. But the best thing the Suns do, aside from meeting their public after midnight, is spread the floor, move the ball and attack the basket.

Barkley advised “tapping” Jordan when he came down the lane, but it wasn’t the Suns who stopped him from driving in Game 5.

It was Jordan, deferring to his teammates. He will be back today in earnest, with or without them.

If the Bulls win today, the Suns will be quickly forgotten, which would be too bad. They have broken the mold, attacking the axioms that defense rules in postseason and size is all important, proving principles don’t play the game, people do.

Best of all, they have been fun. Party on, all of you.

Signing Harper Was the Right Play. However . . .

I don’t like to miss a chance to compliment the Clippers, because, let’s face it, one doesn’t come up every day.

So congratulations on stepping up and exercising that $4-million option on Ron Harper. It’s a lot of money, but you don’t gain anything by letting front-line players walk.

However, the week was young.

A day later, the Clippers called the media to volunteer the information they had been denied permission to talk to Pat Riley and John Lucas.

Knick General Manager Dave Checketts then denied having been asked anything.

What happened?

Elgin Baylor called New York personnel director Ernie Grunfeld, who apparently thought so little of it, he didn’t mention it to Checketts.

Meanwhile Danny Manning, who indicated his willingness to negotiate six weeks ago, is still waiting to hear from the Clippers.

You would think the thing to do would be to find out if they can sign him, and if they can’t, trade him before the June 30 draft.

After that, activity falls off until the February deadline, when an unsigned Manning would be only months from free agency and unmovable.

The Clippers could hire the respected, if not charismatic, Del Harris today. However, if they want to pursue more coaches they have no shot at, here are some new candidates: Bob Knight, Dean Smith and John Wooden.

And as long as they’re looking for a TV outlet, why not Comedy Central?