THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Webber Wasn’t Trying to Shoulder Responsibility for Breakup

Let’s look at the bright side of last week’s meeting in Oakland between the Washington Bullets and Golden State Warriors:

Someone had to win.

This was nice, because they each had two victories since trading Chris Webber and Tom Gugliotta . . . five weeks before.

Aside from that, it was more like two ambulances colliding than a basketball game. Warrior Coach Don Nelson was already hospitalized, having all but announced this will be his last season on the sideline. Webber, making his return to the Bay Area, dislocated a shoulder and will be out six weeks.

Warrior fans booed Webber all night. When ex-teammate Latrell Sprewell hugged him, they booed that.

Of course, some fans had also chanted “Nellie must go!” in a Dec. 13 loss to Sacramento. The next day Nelson entered the hospital. Viral pneumonia was the announced diagnosis but despair was the cause.

Said Nelson after that game: “I .jprobably agree with the fans. I understand the business. I told my staff the day we made the trade, I didn’t think I’d survive this.”

He suggested he’d remain as general manager because “that’s the most enjoyable part anyway, gathering talent and putting it together.”

Actually, he had already gathered the talent but couldn’t keep it together. His failure to pick up the phone and call Webber may have turned a farce into a disaster and he still has a problem with his new franchise player, Sprewell.

The day the Bullets arrived in town, Sprewell mysteriously missed practice. The Warriors were unable to find him, although he claimed to have been home, oversleeping.

Sprewell, in a funk, rumored at odds with Tim Hardaway, still wearing Webber’s No. 4 and Billy Owens’ 30 on his sneakers, suggested he might be the next ex-Warrior.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be here or not,” Sprewell said. “It depends on a lot of things, how the team does. I don’t want to be part of a losing organization. We’ll just have to see.”

For his part, Webber had been talking nonstop since the trade.

Remarkably, because he is an intelligent young man, he never said the words “Maybe I made a mistake, too,” although he tacitly acknowledged it.

His next contract, he said, will be negotiated face-to-face with Bullet owner Abe Pollin, a suggestion he wasn’t happy at the performance of his agents, Bill Strickland and Fallasha Erwin, and all the advice of his many friends back in Detroit.

Instead, Webber gracelessly suggested Nelson was hiding from him.

“I just have felt that Nelson was scared to look me in the eye for a long time because he knows he’s done a lot of wrong things,” Webber said. “I just knew something would happen. I’m not saying he isn’t sick. I just knew he and I would never get a chance to meet face to face and I don’t think we ever will.”

He turned a cold shoulder to former teammates.

“It’s going to be great to see Sprewell,” Webber said. “And Chris Mullin. Keith Jennings. Those are the only ones on the team that I really respect and want to see. They still have my back, even now.”

Before the game, Webber refused to shake hands with Rony Seikaly, who had publicly advised Sprewell his period of mourning had lasted long enough.

“Before the game,” Seikaly marveled, “I was thinking about all the good times and great things we could have done here together. Then I walked out on the court and that comes out of nowhere.

“He’s got to get over the thought that the whole world is against him.”

On the other hand, Webber probably won’t be given the key to any Northern California city soon.

The Warriors won, 107-87. Webber finished it in street clothes with his left arm in a sling, having fallen early in the third quarter after scoring 14 points with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

The teams meet again in Washington Jan. 30. Imagine the possibilities.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM EX-DYNASTIES

Chicago Coach Phil Jackson, who used to complain about having to play a TV game against the barbaric New York Knicks on a holy day, has more important things on his mind this year.

Like where he’ll be working next season.

Despite the commentary you can expect on the telecast (“blah, blah, great character on both these teams, blah, blah, can’t ever count them out, blah, blah, they’ve both been there”), the Bulls, like the Knicks, are running on fumes.

Jackson has railed at referees and speculated at the impact of a new arena, quieter fans and distractions on the scoreboard video screen, but he simply has too few players. Insiders think he may bail at season’s end.

Meanwhile, in Gotham . . .

Pat Riley’s reign of terror produced home losses to New Jersey and Cleveland. Clearly taken back, he proclaimed a kinder, gentler Riley.

“I could continue to show my anger, which isn’t what this team needs right now,” he said. “Enough has been said, enough guys have been railed on. I’m not going to humiliate them, yell and scream at them, point fingers in their face. Everyone else is doing that.

“There’ll be another time this year when I’ll do that, but I have a Christmas party today and I’m not doing that. They won’t come.”

Of course, after the loss to the Nets, practice ran long and Anthony Mason, who was supposed to make an appearance as Santa Claus (!), had to scratch.

What the Knicks need more is good health but constant pounding isn’t likely to help Patrick Ewing’s knee or Charles Oakley’s toe. The bold move would be to rest Ewing and let Oakley have his surgery, hoping to have them at 100% by the playoffs.

There’s no reason to burn them up pursuing the leaders. That ship has already sailed.

At its current pace, the Orlando Magic would finish 59-23. The Knicks would have to go 47-12 to catch up.

The Indiana Pacers are on a 55-27 pace. The Knicks would have to go 43-16 to catch them.

The Cavaliers, for heaven’s sake, without Brad Daugherty and Gerald Wilkins, are on a 54-28 pace. The Knicks would have to go 42-17 to catch them.

Riley isn’t famous for throttling down--just the opposite--but he has never been in a hole like this.

A NIGHT AT CLIPPERS, ORANGE COUNTY-STYLE

Heading down the 57, 6:45 p.m., stuck in Clipper traffic . . .

Clipper traffic?

That’s a problem they don’t have at the Sports Arena, where they’ve drawn one crowd of more than 10,000 this season, the 12,498 who came out to see Shaquille O’Neal last week.

This was more than 3,000 bigger than their second-biggest crowd . . . and the smallest ever to see Shaq in the NBA.

Angelenos are not famous for their support of losing teams, but Orange County has support just waiting to be mined. This would come in handy for an organization that might have another 60-loss season or two coming after this one but wants to convince present and prospective players it’s serious.

“That’s short-sighted thinking,” says Pat Morello of Huntington Beach, sitting in a $50 seat at The Pond of Anaheim.

“This year they might have a bad team, but they’ll get a good draft pick at the end of the year. With the right leadership, they can turn it around.”

In Los Angeles County, children have grown to adulthood waiting for that leadership. In Orange County, there are pluses every way they look at this.

“I look at it as NBA basketball, more than a home-team situation,” says Peter Prescott of Capistrano Beach.

Nor would the Clippers face great resistance from their old fans.

“I wouldn’t follow them,” says Scott Braun of Marina Del Rey, who has had season tickets at the Sports Arena since the Clippers arrived and came down to see what the fuss is all about.

“I wouldn’t come here. It’s ridiculous. But for some bizarre reason that defies the law of economics, Donald Sterling doesn’t move here. You don’t have to be from the London School of Economics to see the bodies in the building.

“This is the NBA experience. We don’t get it.

“You don’t seem to have to have a good team here. You just need 10 live bodies.”

The Clippers have 12 bodies, so think what they might do in a new venue.

“I keep telling you,” Sterling said last week, ever courtly, sitting with a group of writers, “we’re interested in wins, not money.”

Said one of the writers: “Better take what you can get.”

FACES AND FIGURES

I guess we can forget all those quotes about how the critics’ lack of respect fired up the NBA champs: The Houston Rockets started 9-0 but are 6-8 since. Hakeem Olajuwon, suffering from wrist and leg injuries, has been posting lower numbers and the long-range bombers, who took a league-high 16 three-pointers a game last season, are taking 25% more. . . . Here’s a sociological perspective on Shawn Kemp’s showboating, from Seattle Coach George Karl: “If you spank in school, it’s child abuse. You can’t pray in school any more. Our society is getting ridiculous. Now it’s overlapping into sports.” . . . Here’s another manifestation of a society in decline: The Nets lead the league in three-point attempts, are No. 22 in makes at 30.5% . . . Add perspectives: Pat Riley told TNT’s Doug Collins that if more coaches stood up to players, as the Dallas Mavericks’ Dick Motta did with Roy Tarpley, there would be two players per team suspended--per week. . . . Said Dennis Rodman on the same subject: “A forward got suspended and it wasn’t even me!” . . . Here comes his 19th physical breakdown: The Boston Celtics said they wouldn’t play Pervis Ellison until his knees were 100%, but after coming off the bench to score 29 points with 14 rebounds in his first two games, he went out again.

New Jersey assistant coach Paul Silas, on his time on Riley’s Knick staff: “Pat is a very, very deep thinker. He tends to solve problems himself instead of relying on input from his assistants or confidantes. He tells his assistants to make their suggestions in writing, that he has a million things to think about and becomes too involved in games to digest what anyone else is saying.” . . . They forgot to pound a stake through his heart: Philadelphia 76er owner Harold Katz, who promises annually to give up operational control, popped back on the scene to rip Shawn Bradley, despite his progress, and Scott Williams, a free agent signee who had been injured. “What he (Bradley) has been doing doesn’t warrant the money that I’m paying him,” Katz said. “He wanted the money. Now he’s got to perform. Scott’s not performing either. He’s not doing the job he was brought here to do.” . . . 76er scoring ace Clarence Weatherspoon is trudging along at 42% from the field, having been switched to small forward. When he snarled at Coach John Lucas, Lucas benched him for the last seven minutes of a victory over Detroit.

Not exactly the response we were hoping for, big guy: O’Neal, down to 56% on his free throws, after missing 11 of 15 against the Clippers: “I’m trying my hardest, but I can’t have everything. I can’t have the looks, the rapping ability and the scoring ability--and shoot free throws. But I’m going to hit them one day.” He’ll certainly get enough attempts, since opponents will grab him every time he moves. . . . Runaway leader in the first All-Star tally: Grant Hill, most gracious rookie star to enter the league since Magic Johnson, at 83,169, putting him 33,305 ahead of the next-highest player, Olajuwon. . . . Comment: Hooray! . . . Tune in next week for the divorce: Vernon Maxwell, running third among West guards: “I knew the fans liked me.”

Sonic assistant Bob Weiss, fired as Clipper coach, after which the team sued him over the last two years of his contract before settling out of court: “It’s not like I was there four years. In fact, I never got a California driver’s license. If I ever got stopped, I was going to tell the cop, ‘I’m the Clippers coach, I’m not going to be here that long.’ ”