THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Happy Days Return to League That Really Works

The League has come here for its annual weekend advertise-in and schmooze-off. It’s a fat and happy NBA too, with its Michael back and its Magic too. If these aren’t the good old days, they’re close enough.

This league doesn’t have work stoppages (at least not by players during the season).

The teams don’t move (or haven’t lately).

You don’t need a computer trick to follow the ball.

TV ratings are booming. TNT, your Bulls’ network, is up 53%. The league’s TV contracts run out after two more seasons and Michael Jordan recently said he intends to play three more.

“I was delighted to read that,” said Kevin O’Malley, head of programming for Turner Sports and a prospective bidder. “That didn’t just make my day. It made my month.”

Even if it doesn’t run itself the way it did in the ‘80s, this is still “the league that works,” the one that invented the salary cap and taught the others the principles of sports marketing: If it doesn’t move, sell it to some corporate sponsor and slap a logo on it.

Almost 15 years after the NBA put in its salary cap, only the NFL has been able to follow suit but seems to have a loophole problem. Every year the San Francisco 49ers’ Carmen Policy or the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones figures out a way to pay Deion Sanders something like $35 million while having it count $2.5 million against the cap and wins another Super Bowl.

The NFL Experience that wows them at the Super Bowl is a copy of the NBA’s Jam Session, which, in turn, grew out of the American Basketball Assn.’s all-star festival.

Of course, All-Star Saturday is calcifying rapidly. The NBA had to discontinue the old-timers’ game before cardiac arrest claimed a Hall of Famer. The three-point contest hasn’t been the same since Larry Bird and his mouth left. No one has invented a new jam in years and the best part of the dunk show is watching the stars invent excuses to get out of it. Grant Hill came up with a wrist too sore to dunk with but will be all right by today’s game. Meanwhile, just who was that Darrell Armstrong, anyway?

Unfortunately, absolute riches corrupt absolutely. The charm of the ‘80s is already gone, despite this Magic Johnson interlude, and things are changing fast. The earth will move this summer when dozens of big-time free agents hit the market, rearranging competitive balance. This may be good news in Los Angeles, or at least Inglewood, but won’t be as popular in Denver and Charlotte.

NBA owners, although not as rapacious as their NFL counterparts (let’s face it, basketball teams aren’t in the same demand), have learned those magic words--revenue streams--and are happily blackjacking their communities into new arenas, renovations, tax abatements and other forms of welfare for the rich. The SuperSonics’ Barry Ackerley, until recently as hated in Seattle as Ken Behring, dropped Orange County’s name to get the renovation he wanted. The San Antonio Spurs used this weekend to announce that their arena, the Alamodome, has bad sight lines and too few luxury boxes and should be retired to white elephanthood--even if it opened only last season. Local TV and radio stations are reporting the Spurs as interested in New Orleans or Austin, Texas.

The players’ union is still under siege from hard-line agents who want to really get it on with David Stern when this contract is up. That’s not until 2002, thankfully.

Enjoy it, it may never be as good again.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Don’t cry for him, America: Dennis Rodman, first in rebounding, third in voting among East forwards, but cheated out of an All-Star appearance by coaches, is spending his break in Las Vegas, where all friends of Mr. Rodman are guests of the house. “The Mirage takes extreme care of us,” says his buddy, Jack Haley. “We always stay in penthouse suites. They take care of everything as they would for any big gamblers. We play for quite a bit of money. Generally we play right out with the public. We just have security guards with us to keep people back.” Haley says he and Rodman go to Vegas about 20 times a year. . . . The New York Knicks made 6-foot-10 Charles Smith a small forward and wrote him off totally when he couldn’t pull it off, dumped him for never-arrived J.R. Reid, journeyman Brad Lohaus and a No. 1 pick to get out from under the four years and $16 million left on Smith’s contract. The Knicks now have about $6 million to offer free agents. The hard part will be convincing a star they’re not over the hill. Smith isn’t the physical power forward the Spurs needed, but they were starting Will Perdue and Chuck Person, so he’s an improvement.

The Phoenix Suns were so desperate, they compared the impact of Danny Manning’s return to Magic Johnson’s. Kevin Johnson made a bigger difference, returning to practice and snapping back to form under his old sponsor, Cotton Fitzsimmons--then pulled a hamstring late in the victory over the Chicago Bulls. “This frustrates Kevin,” Fitzsimmons said. “It doesn’t just affect his leg, it affects his mind. He works hard to come back. And when you have as many muscle pulls as he does, it’s tough psychologically.” . . . Ron Harper, after the Bulls, 41-3 at the time, lost at Denver: “We were winning so many games we felt dead. It was getting boring here.” . . . Lost in the Bulls’ wake is the Orlando Magic, pulling its homer act again, 25-0 at home, 9-14 in the road, worse (15-7) with Shaquille O’Neal than without him (19-7). “Our focus when he was out was defense because we knew we couldn’t win with offense,” Jon Koncak said. “I think there was this huge sigh of relief when he came back. We had this feeling, ‘Now that he’s back, we can lay off on defense.’ ”

Pat Riley, still hard on rookies even though he’s supposed to be building a franchise now, slashed Kurt Thomas’ minutes as soon as the Miami Heat starters got better. Said Thomas, whose attitude was questioned at Texas Christian, “He said at the beginning of the year he’s a veteran coach. I don’t feel I have to come in here fired up. My attitude is, once I step on the court, it’s time to play. Pat Riley wants concentration from guys before and after. We might differ on that.” Hint for Kurt: Riley doesn’t really want to argue the point. . . . The Detroit Pistons, 17-29 at the break last season, are 23-22 under Doug Collins. “I think you can project him as coach of the year,” says former Piston Coach Chuck Daly, who recommended Collins for the job.

Washington Bullet fans are booing the five finalists for the new team name--Wizards, Sea Dogs, Dragons, Express and Stallions. Owner Abe Pollin, thought to favor Wizards, is even suspected of putting in the fix by choosing four other names that are so bad. The Bullets are dismayed that local papers keep noting Wizard has a Ku Klux Klan connotation. Team officials asked the Washington Post’s Tony Kornheiser not to mention “the Klan stuff.” . . . Of the established teams, only the Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves have worse records than the Dallas Mavericks, who have all but officially written off the season. “Half the league is going to be free agents at the end of the season,” Jason Kidd said. “There are a lot of big men who will be free agents. That’s what we’re looking for, a couple of big men.” Kidd’s 21 points, 16 rebounds and 16 assists against the Clippers last week gave him his fourth triple-double in nine games and ninth in 53, going back to last spring. In 1 1/2 seasons, Kidd is tied for 12th on the all-time list with Indiana’s Mark Jackson.

Seattle Coach George Karl, doing one of those stick-up-for-your-guy numbers, said John Stockton and Gary Payton are “a hell of a lot better” than All-Star starter Kidd. Kidd clipped the quote, taped it to his locker and scored 36 points with nine rebounds and eight assists against Payton in a 103-100 Maverick victory. “I came in at halftime and reminded myself,” Kidd said. “I can’t help it if they’re in the Northwest and don’t get good recognition.” Said the SuperSonics’ Detlef Schrempf, “I guess he proved he should be starting in the All-Star game.”