Parks Finally Becoming a Front Man : Basketball: After two ho-hum seasons at Duke, former Marina star is now a driving force.

In his freshman year at Duke, Cherokee Parks admits he was “along for the ride,” a wide-eyed youngster who took a back seat while Christian Laettner, Blue Devil patriarch, drove Duke to the NCAA championship.

Parks moved up to the passenger seat as a sophomore, but with Bobby Hurley at the controls and Grant Hill and Thomas Hill navigating, Parks could pretty much roll down the window and enjoy the scenery.

Now Parks is a junior, and while the 6-foot-11 center is not in the driver’s seat--that role clearly belongs to super swingman Grant Hill--there are days when Coach Mike Krzyzewski hands Parks the keys and lets him take the Blue Devils for a joy ride.

Like last Saturday, when Parks had 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 106-79 victory over Florida State. Or Jan. 15, when Parks had 19 points and 14 rebounds to lead a 66-58 win over Virginia.

Then there was Jan. 10, when Parks scored 25 points and had 14 rebounds in an 89-71 victory over Brown, and Dec. 11, when Parks had 23 points and nine rebounds in a 73-63 win at Michigan, and Dec. 4, when Parks had 20 rebounds in an 82-60 victory over Xavier.

Get the picture?

Parks, the former Marina High standout, has gone from a bit player as a freshman to Duke’s best-supporting actor--and sometimes leading man--as a junior.

An almost timid freshman, Parks spent his first college season as Laettner’s practice punching bag and averaged five points, 2.4 rebounds and 12 minutes. He is now the dominating, All-American candidate that most expected when he was tabbed “the next Bill Walton” coming out of high school.

After Wednesday’s 74-72 victory over Notre Dame, Parks is averaging 15.7 points, just shy of Hill’s team-leading 16.9. He leads the team in rebounds (9.5), field-goal percentage (61.5) and blocked shots (24).

Parks has had only one sub-par game this season, a five-point, seven-rebound effort in a 69-68 loss to Wake Forest Jan. 13, but he’s one of the primary reasons Duke is 14-1 and ranked second in the nation.

“My role has increased each year, but it seems like there has always been two or three go-to guys, so there’s not that much pressure,” Parks said by telephone from Durham, N.C. “Antonio (Lang) will have a great game one night, Grant Hill the next, then maybe me. Still, it’s nice that I’m doing a little more now, getting some more recognition.”

Not if you’re an opposing Atlantic Coast Conference coach. Florida State’s Pat Kennedy saw Parks dissect his front line last weekend and came away with a new appreciation for the center known as “Chief.”

“I’ve been very impressed with Cherokee’s development,” Kennedy said. “Being able to go away from the basket and help them, I feel that’s an added dimension for that team.”

Parks has added a mid-range jumper to his repertoire, but the main reason for his emergence has been his continued development in the post.

He has a few more inside moves, he has gained strength, and a summer tour through Argentina and Spain with the U.S. Under-22 World Championships team helped put him in the proper frame of mind for this season.

“It was a good chance to play against quality players, and the game abroad is very aggressive,” Parks said. “That whole experience helped me out. I’ve been trying to be more aggressive from block to block. If you’re aggressive on defense, it all translates to offense.”

When you regularly butt heads with the likes of 7-foot North Carolina center Eric Montross, there’s no room for timidity. Parks and Montross will renew their rivalry next Thursday in Chapel Hill.

“This whole Duke-North Carolina thing gets pretty wild here,” Parks said. “Last year, our school papers were lashing out at each other weeks before the game. On the front page of ours, there was this huge, white block of nothing, and the caption read, ‘This empty white space is here to remind you of Eric Montross.’

“They said something about my hair, that it was too long or bushy, that I needed a haircut. I can live with that. It’s unbelievable how up the students get for this game, and I’ve never seen anything as intense as the rivalries between schools here.”

Some thought Parks wouldn’t be able to handle that ACC atmosphere and pressure. They thought his laid-back, California attitude--Parks once said his idea of a perfect day would be to sleep past noon and spend the rest of the day at the beach--would shape his on-court persona.

But Parks has dispelled that myth with his aggressive play.

“All I heard when I got here was that I’m from California, I’m real laid back and I don’t try hard,” Parks said. “It’s not like that at all.”

Actually, Parks heard a lot more that freshman year. As if the transition from the Sunset League to America’s best college conference, from Beach Boulevard to Tobacco Road, wasn’t tough enough, Parks had to do it with Laettner screaming in one ear and sticking his elbow in the other.

Laettner, the former Duke All-American and All-Obnoxious Team selection, decided to take Parks under his wing, but this wasn’t your typical veteran-tutors-rookie relationship. It was more of a military academy plebe assault, complete with hazing of the physical and verbal variety.

“He was always coming down on my game,” Parks said in 1992. “I’d have a good game and he’d tell me, ‘Oh, you just got lucky,’ or ‘Yeah, but their best player fouled out,’ or ‘You’re lucky I got in foul trouble and you got some minutes.’ . . . He tells you exactly what he thinks, and a lot of it’s negative.”

What was this, Duke or The Citadel? Parks wondered at times, but looking back on that freshman year, he realized Laettner was just trying to make him a better, tougher player.

“He was on me hard, but he was like that with everyone--that’s just his personality,” Parks said. “He beat me a lot in practice and rubbed it in, but it eventually wore off.”

It took Parks almost a whole year to fully escape Laettner’s shadow. Parks had a solid sophomore season--a 12.3-point, 6.9-rebound average, a .652 shooting percentage, third best in the nation, and 65 blocked shots.

But an eye injury sidelined him for eight weeks in the fall, slowing his early season progress, and he didn’t come on until midway through the conference season.

Parks injured his ankle in the first half of Duke’s NCAA second-round game against California and didn’t play in the second half of the Blue Devils’ loss.

“There were a lot of games early on where I didn’t show up, and people expected more,” Parks said. “Christian had a great sophomore season, and they were expecting the same from me.”

That was not fair to Parks. Laettner was an all-around talent who was as effective shooting three-pointers as he was in the post. Parks is more of a traditional center who rarely wanders beyond the key, yet Duke fans expected him to do the same things Laettner did.

“Last year, people said I needed to do this and that, but I haven’t heard that this year,” Parks said. “I’ve established myself down low. Christian did more on the perimeter, but I’m more of a center than he was.”

And less. Parks may not possess all of Laettner’s skills, but, lucky for Duke’s two 6-10 freshmen, Joey Beard and Greg Newton, Parks doesn’t come with Laettner’s sound track.

“I’m not nearly as hard on them as Christian was on me,” Parks said. “I’m non-confrontational, laid-back. I let them do their own thing. And I won’t be hazing any freshmen next year. I may mess with them, but I won’t come down on them that hard. Thank God they won’t have to go through what I went through.”