For Van Exel, Rookie Game Fun After All : All-Star festivities: Not scoring doesn’t bother Laker guard. Rider wins slam-dunk competition; Price takes three-point shooting contest.

It could have been worse, Nick Van Exel said after missing all eight shot attempts. It could have been what he expected.

Instead, the strangest thing happened to the Laker guard Saturday at the Target Center in the inaugural rookie all-star game.

He had fun.

“The best time of my life,” Van Exel said. “I’m not being sarcastic.”

He noted that because this is the same Van Exel who said recently he wasn’t excited about playing because too many people want to have fun at all-star games and not enough want to win.

So he arrived Friday, did some interviews and ran up the room service tab, then went scoreless in 20 minutes and had a game-high six assists in a 74-68 loss. Somewhere in between, he became one of those people who have fun.

Orlando’s Anfernee Hardaway, the other starting guard on Van Exel’s team, the Sensations, led all scorers with 22 points and was named most valuable player.

Chris Webber of Golden State had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the victorious Phenoms.

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Another rookie, Isaiah Rider of the Minnesota Timberwolves, made good on a draft-day prediction and won the annual slam-dunk championship in his home arena and the $20,000 prize.

“I don’t feel like I did my best dunks, though,” he said. “I was kind of indecisive. I didn’t really get into the really wild, crazy dunks that would have made the crowd go crazy.”

Denver’s Robert Pack, the former USC guard, finished second in his first dunk competition on any level, and Shawn Kemp of Seattle was third. Harold Miner of Miami, the defending champion, was a late scratch because of injury.

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Mark Price of the Cleveland Cavaliers successfully defended his three-point shooting title, easily beating Philadelphia’s Dana Barros in the finals for the $20,000 prize.

Price made 20 of 25 shots, including 20 of his first 22, for 24 points in the scoring system. That put the pressure on Barros, who won a coin toss but elected to go second. Barros then hit 13 from behind the stripe, for 13 points.

“When you’re out there shooting and get a score of 18 you know you’re shooting pretty good,” Price said. “And if you get 20 you know that you’re really shooting the ball well. I wanted to go for the record (25 points by Craig Hodges in in the final round in 1986) in the final round, but I missed a few balls at the end of the last rack. But I knew that I had hit enough shots to make it tough for Dana.”

NBA Notes

As expected, the Clippers were one of four teams named to play in a two-day exhibition tournament in Mexico City this fall. Houston, San Antonio and Seattle will also take part Oct. 28-29. Meanwhile, the Clippers’ trip to Japan to open the regular season with two games against the Portland should be finalized soon. The site is will probably be Tokyo or Yokohama. . . . Danny Manning of the Clippers has been elected secretary-treasurer of the National Basketball Players Assn. Buck Williams of the Trail Blazers replaced Detroit’s Isiah Thomas as the union president with negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement set to begin sometime in early March.