NBA PLAYOFFS : IT HAS TAKEN TIME, BUT IN INDIANA, THEY ARE . . . Smitten by Smits : Pacer Center Has Gone From Almost a Bust as No. 2 Overall Pick to a Force in NBA

Rik Smits started out as a soccer goalkeeper in his native Holland. What the heck, he was 7 feet 4 and covered most of the goal.

Then he was a basketball center. What the heck, he was 7-4 and someone always needs a player like that, even if it isn’t Georgetown or UCLA but little Marist College. A start is a start. A career is a career.

Of course, some careers develop faster than others.

“In your early years, you were basically a big flop,” a reporter said the other day, beginning his question to the Indiana Pacer center.

“Flop?” Smits exclaimed in surprise.

“A bust,” said the reporter, helpfully, thinking Smits might not know the slang.

“Bust?” Smits said.

“Who says I was a big flop? I had several good years. My rookie and my second year were pretty good. I had some injury-prone years after that, but I’ve never heard about a big flop.”

OK, then this will be an education for him.

“Big flop,” as in a No. 2 overall pick whose teammates wouldn’t throw him the ball, whose coaches whispered he was a bow-wow, whose sponsors almost paid the NBA’s ultimate price--unemployment.

“Rik was taking major [flak], and I was taking major [flak],” says Pacer President Donnie Walsh, who drafted Smits. “And it’s to his credit he got through that.

“Because it’s the worst I ever saw. It was coming from everybody--fans, writers, TV people, his coaches and some players. He was making some money because he was a No. 2 pick and I really thought there was a chance, at the end of his contract, he’d say, ‘I’m gone.’ ”

Of course, it didn’t start right away. Everyone knew Smits would need some time.

When it got past a couple of months, however, patience began running out.

“He was very passive, very shy,” says former Pacer star Mel Daniels, who worked with Smits from his arrival in 1988.

“Nonaggressive, offensively and defensively. Always had played mostly because he was 7-4. Always had an offensive game but settled for jump shots. Didn’t have any moves in the paint. Great, fantastic touch. Good hands.

“And I mean, 7-4! So he had a hell of a foundation.”

Smits was a double-figures scorer from the start. But he was so slow, it looked as though he needed tugboats to tow him into position. No Flying Dutchman, he once averaged 4.7 rebounds to Reggie Miller’s 3.4. As a defender, he looked more like a statue in the park.

Coaches Dick Versace and Bob Hill bulked Smits up to 296 pounds and his knees turned achy. The Pacers, a free-spirited group of gunners, stalled out at .500. The effervescent Versace, who now brags on television he helped Smits develop his jump hook, sang a different song then. The uptight Hill tried bringing him off the bench. Players such as Chuck Person and Detlef Schrempf muttered about slowing the offense down for you-know-who.

“Point guards, two-guards, small forwards,” sniffs Daniels, a center in his day, “are very particular teammates. If you can’t help them, they have a tendency not to help you.

“If they pass the ball to you and you don’t do something with it, if you fumble it or throw it to the wrong person, it’s tough to get the ball back.”

Larry Brown arrived two seasons ago to find a big slow lug with a great touch and an improved offensive repertoire. Person and Schrempf were gone, so Brown had to salvage Smits.

“When I got here,” Brown says, “the word was, you went to him early and if he didn’t get anything, he went to the bench. But Donnie always told me he thought [Smits] was the key to our team.

“When I got the job, I wanted to get Dale Davis and Rik on the court. When I first saw [Smits], I was a little disappointed. I didn’t think he was mobile or athletic. He was way too heavy. He’d been hurt a lot. So I asked him to lose weight. I thought he’d be better. I thought it’d be easier on him, as far as injuries. And I thought he could be more athletic.”

Smits’ average climbed to a career-high 16 points. Last spring against New York in the playoffs, while Miller gave Spike Lee the choke sign, Smits neutralized Patrick Ewing. The Pacers led the series, 3-2, but the Knicks rallied to win.

This season, Smits’ average increased again to 18. While Miller was calling the Knicks “choke artists,” Smits was outscoring the hobbled Ewing, 158-135.

In a genuine vote of respect, Orlando Magic fans rooted for the Knicks to win Game 7. An Orlando Sentinel headline said: “Smits Poses Tougher Matchup for Shaq.”

Maybe, but Smits hasn’t stopped the Magic from taking a 2-0 lead going into Game 3 today at Market Square Arena.

These days, the ebullient Pacers rank Smits No. 4 among centers--”[Hakeem] Olajuwon, [David] Robinson, Shaquille [O’Neal] and probably Rik,” said Miller, which will amuse fans of Ewing and Alonzo Mourning. Let’s just say the big Dutch boy has come a long way.

Still shy, no longer passive, Smits now gets asked if he thinks he can be an elite center.

“Maybe,” he said. “I think I have the capabilities to do it. Reggie Miller is our all-star and he’s still our guy. Those guys [top centers] are all-star centers, which I’m not.”

But he’s close. He’s not a big flop any more.