THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : These Days, the Rookies Hardly Ever Act the Part

They don’t make rookies the way they used to: Remember when Michael Jordan showed up at his first All-Star Game in his signature-line Nike warm-ups and all the veterans’ noses got out of joint for five years?

Jordan would be a monk compared to today’s young guns, who arrive with $20-million contracts, start complaining they can’t get a referee’s call their second week and, in their third, say they have to miss practice to do a commercial, a movie or a rap CD.

Item: Isaiah Rider of the Minnesota Timberwolves shoots a Converse commercial, is too tired to practice. Coach Sidney Lowe says it’s OK.

“That will be the only time we do that,” Lowe says. “As a coach, I understand what endorsements mean to a player. For me to not let him take care of that would be unfair. But a player only gets that consideration once.”

Obviously, he’s a disciplinarian.

Item: The Timberwolves’ Christian Laettner, who offended most he met as a rookie, says he still can’t get any respect from the officials as a second-year man.

“Because I’m young, I guess they feel I don’t have anything to say,” Laettner says.

Maybe it’s because he says things to them like “Shut up!”

He said it to referee Ron Olseiak recently, prompting hair-trigger Joey Crawford to tell Laettner to shut up. When Laettner told Crawford to shut up, too, Crawford tossed him, a lesson in the difference between a player and an official.

Said Crawford: “He may have been able to get away with that in college, but not here.”

Laettner, a graduate of prestigious Duke, may actually get the point one of these days.

Item: Alonzo Mourning of the Charlotte Hornets, thorniest of the young guns, fouls out and snarls at referee Jack Madden: “You’ll see me again.”

Of course he will, and Madden will be wearing a whistle next time, too. “I told him I’d see him again,” Mourning explained later, after a friend pointed out referees have memories longer than elephants: “That means I’ll give him another chance to call a better game.”

Item: Mourning uses a day off to fly from Charlotte to Phoenix to shoot a commercial for Nike, then grabs a red-eye home and flies all night to make practice the next day.

“I give a day off for rest,” Coach Allan Bristow says. “At some point, they have to say no. That’s what the summers are for.”

Item: Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic says he can’t get a call, is fined $5,000 for complaining, promises to reform, but is ejected because of another complaint.

Heaven knows how many calls Shaq expects to get. Only David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs and Mourning have shot more free throws. O’Neal is No. 3, followed by Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz. Laettner, who can’t get in a word edgewise, is No. 5.

Of course, they are young and they will settle down in five years or so, when another generation will enter with styles and temperaments so outrageous, Dennis Rodman, by then retired and doing commentary for TNT, will shake his head and say: “Man, they couldn’t have gotten away with that stuff in my day.”

ISIAH THE GM, DEREK THE KNICK

In a week filled with power struggles and intrigue, Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons became a general manager-to-be and Derek Harper of the Dallas Mavericks a New York Knick, but it took some doing.

In Detroit, team President Tom Wilson wanted Coach Don Chaney to launch the rebuilding program in earnest by playing Thomas behind rookie Lindsey Hunter.

Thomas, upset at hearing this, was sitting out because of a minor injury, the kind he used to shrug off.

The Knicks, in need of a point guard to replace the injured Doc Rivers, wanted Harper.

Harper, at odds all season with Coach Quinn Buckner, wanted the Knicks, but Maverick General Manager Norm Sonju didn’t want to deal with Knick boss Dave Checketts, who screamed insults at Dallas execs when they got hung up trying to make the Rolando Blackman deal two years ago.

Also, Sonju was in no hurry to trade the popular Harper to bail out Buckner, who had made clear his own disdain for Dallas execs.

Meanwhile, back in Detroit, a story came out that Thomas would be traded to the Knicks. The source is believed to have been Thomas, seeking to pressure his longtime sponsor, Piston owner Bill Davidson, to intercede for him.

The Knicks played along, although they had talked Thomas down in recent years. One theory is they wanted to pressure the Mavericks, who were still shopping Harper all over the league.

Davidson met with Thomas and gave him all the assurances he wanted: a balloon payment, a chance to buy into the team and the general manager’s job when he retires.

Back in Big D, Buckner passed the word to owner Donald Carter that Harper had to go immediately. Accordingly, the Mavericks made the deal with New York. The Knicks had a point guard, the Pistons had a new direction and everyone else could get some rest.

CHANEY, THE FALL GUY? LAIMBEER, THE COACH?

No one in Detroit has said anything on the record since the Thomas-Davidson meeting, but there has been a lot of conjecture.

Is Wilson out, or will he merely go back to running the business end?

How is Chaney supposed to handle his future boss: “Uh, Mr. Thomas, would you mind if I rested you a little?”

Is Thomas’ buddy, Bill Laimbeer, next in line to coach?

Is Sean Elliott, whom Thomas scorned, on his way out?

Is Joe Dumars, whom Thomas respects, off the trading block?

Thomas is sure to leave it up to Dumars, and Dumars doesn’t want to go anywhere. Thus, for what used to be its three most marketable players--Thomas, Dumars and Rodman--the Pistons will have gotten only Elliott.

On the other hand, Thomas’ new standing might reverse his falling popularity around the league.

“I love Isiah,” said free-agent-to-be Horace Grant of the Chicago Bulls. “I’ve never said a word against him. He’s the perfect guy. He’s my man. My door is open.”

HERE COMES HIS 19TH NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Chuck Daly, coach of the New Jersey Nets, is sniping back and forth with General Manager Willis Reed about not using 275-pound load Benoit Benjamin.

Daly’s star, Derrick Coleman, handed out T-shirts to teammates bearing a crossed-out 69 to commemorate the $69-million offer he turned down. Coleman also scored a total of 19 points and missed 15 of 23 shots in losses against the Miami Heat at Miami and at home to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Last week, Daly and former starting small forward Chris Morris argued on the bench.

“They want me to do the little things,” Morris said. “I can do the big things, too. . . . I can’t sit at the top of the key while they bang the ball inside to Derrick.”

Said Daly: “At least we didn’t throw punches like Buddy Ryan, so far.”

FACES AND FIGURES

How desperate are the Knicks to win now? After acquiring Harper, seven of their 12 players are 30 or older. The youngsters are Charles Smith, 28, John Starks, 28, Anthony Mason, 27, Greg Anthony, 26, and Hubert Davis, 23. . . . Democracy is fine, in its place: The weekly All-Star voting tallies are meaningless because teams hold back their ballots until the last moment to help campaign for their players. The league should be thankful it means nothing. If last week’s totals stood, Elliott, B.J. Armstrong and Brad Daugherty would start for the East, Chris Webber, Clyde Drexler and Antoine Carr for the West. . . . Assuming the top five guards and forwards and the top two centers made the team, All-Star reserves would include Bill Cartwright, Harvey Grant, Calbert Cheaney and Stacey Augmon. . . . Staying home would be O’Neal, Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Malone, Scottie Pippen, Mark Price and John Stockton.

The Boston Celtics have had their hearts set on Danny Manning, even bringing back Robert Parish for an extra year at $4 million to save a slot for him, but the team’s decline is ruling them out of the picture. “We don’t want to wait five, six or seven years for the chance to win a ring,” Manning’s agent, Ron Grinker, told the Boston Herald American. . . . The Seattle SuperSonics and Houston Rockets started the weekend above the record .841 percentage of the 1971-72 Lakers, who were 69-13. “There are so many teams that are average and below average--the Lakers included--there just are not enough good teams out there to consistently test the top teams,” says Jerry West, a ‘71-72 Laker. “I think you’ll definitely see the record challenged.”. . . Whatever happened to the home-court advantage? In the last six seasons, visiting teams have gone from a .321 winning percentage to this season’s .415. . . . O’Neal, after Anfernee Hardaway’s 20-point, 10-assist, four-rebound, four-steal game against the Bulls: “Me and Penny are going to be the Magic and Kareem of the ‘90s. We’ve got to get a few years under our belts, but when we do, we’re going to be unbeatable.”

Nice season: Alvin Robertson, dumped by the Bucks last spring because of a troublemaker reputation, got into a fight with Piston General Manager Billy McKinney, was traded to the Denver Nuggets, went on the injured list because of altitude sickness and has now been sidelined for the season because of back trouble. Among his options is a back fusion operation that would end his career, with the Nuggets owing him $6.9 million for this season and the next two. “I’m going to hoop for Denver,” Robertson said. “Don’t bury me yet.”

Rodman, fined $18,000 for carrying on after he was ejected against the Lakers: “(Coach John) Lucas made it clear, I can’t hit anybody, can’t scuffle, can’t do anything. It’s like walking on pins and needles. . . . It’s crazy. I can’t say a word. I’m supposed to be the best thing since Charmin, so soft and clean you can’t mess it up. . . . If I went over the edge, that means you’ve got to come and get me, put me in a straitjacket, take me to a hospital. I didn’t do that.” . . . Comment: As Daly might say, so far.