THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : All-Star Weekend Great, but Game Another Story

All-Star Weekend was tremendous. TV ratings were third-best ever, 1.9 points behind baseball’s 1995 game, once the unchallenged kingpin of all-star competitions.

Huge crowds watched All-Star Saturday, the Fleer Jam Session and the All-Star Youth Celebration.

Corporate sponsors snapped up everything the NBA put on sale: the Schick Rookie Game, the Foot Locker Million-Dollar Shot, the AT&T; Shootout (no, they weren’t downsizing by shooting employees), the Nestle Crunch Slam-Dunk.

The league even sold sponsorship of the room where reporters typed their stories: the AT&T; Media Work Room, presented by Fleer.

Still, there was this uneasy feeling that something was missing.

Oh yeah, a game.

It was a snoozer, but then it always is. Before we charge headlong into the 21st Century of commercial hoops, which promises to be a doozy, we should remember what we have lost.

Fun.

Ten years ago, when nobody capitalized the W in weekend, Magic Johnson always started for the West and Isiah Thomas for the East. It was still a goof but they went out to put on a show, show each other up, win and enjoy themselves. There was Isiah trying to rattle Rolando Blackman on the free throw line and Magic pushing him out of the way at the end of the ’87 game in Seattle; Magic making hometown hero Tom Chambers the most valuable player.

Finally, there was Isiah embracing Magic before the 1992 game at Orlando, breaking the ice, leading all the East players over. Johnson and Thomas were no longer the inseparable buddies they had been, but no All-Star game ever had a moment like that and none is likely to.

Now, we’ve got a bunch of players who don’t want to be there, trotting gingerly through a few paces, content just to show off their megastar selves.

Michael Jordan skips media day, as he always does, and is fined $10,000, as he always is.

Charles Barkley is with him, playing golf in Las Vegas.

Barkley shows up on game day with bronchitis, a hangover or both.

Jordan, the man everyone wants to see, plays 22 minutes, sits down for good with 3:55 left in the third quarter--and wins the MVP award. In his defense, he doesn’t expect it or want it. He just wants to go home.

Dallas’ Jason Kidd, who has the flair and the game to wake everyone up, gets only 22 minutes as West Coach George Karl makes nice with his own player, Gary Payton, which is like replacing Monet with a finger-painter.

Shaquille O’Neal, who should have been the MVP, loses by a 4-3 vote of . . . writers. Of course, Shaq deserves this dishonor too, having thumbed his nose at the press for the four privileged years he’s been in the league. Not only is he a lively young man who turns into a mumbling, monosyllabic mummy whenever he consents to be interviewed, he brags about it, even inventing a name for it: “Shamming.”

O’Neal has now been dogged at this event by a coach (Pat Riley who played his own Patrick Ewing more in 1993 at Salt Lake City), by players (1994 in Minneapolis) and by writers. Who’s left?

That’s your basic All-Star game these days: 24 players, of whom about 20 don’t want to be there, and about 20 players back home who are mad because they weren’t picked.

Where have you gone, Earvin and Isiah? A weekend turns its jaded eyes to you.

“I think it’s a different feeling now,” said Karl Malone, old-timer and fellow nostalgia fan. “When you’ve got guys like that, they’re competitors, they want to win, they want to play hard. Nowadays in the business, you don’t know who really wants to play hard and who doesn’t want to play hard.

“The All-Star game is kind of like second nature now. All the sideshows are more important than the game.”

O’Neal, his feelings hurt, says he won’t be at any more All-Star games. There will be a pall in the boardrooms at Reebok and Pepsi if that happens and America will miss its Shaq, but the gang in the AT&T; Media Work Room will be OK.

NIGHTMARE: WORLD ACCORDING TO FALK

David Falk, the agent who keeps denying imperial designs, has a salary structure in mind for the top free agents next summer, all figures per season:

Jordan--$25 million-$30 million.

O’Neal--$20 million.

Alonzo Mourning--$15 million.

Dikembe Mutombo--$14 million.

Juwan Howard--$13 million.

Kenny Anderson--$7 million.

Of those players, only O’Neal is represented by another agent, Leonard Armato. Rival agents think Falk has already agreed to deals with the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets for Mourning and Anderson, respectively.

The Washington Bullets, afraid they will lose Howard, leaked word last week that they have penciled him in for $7 million next season, the first in a seven-year, $78.4-million contract.

Falk’s reply: Cheapskates.

“That’s a good place to start,” he said. “I’ve said before, Juwan Howard is going to be the most highly sought-after free agent this summer. He’s younger than the others and with a lot of the others, you don’t expect them to move.

“I think it’s probable that Dikembe will stay in Denver, Alonzo will stay in Miami and Michael will stay in Chicago. Juwan will be the best player on the open market.”

Falk isn’t recruiting college players because of the rookie wage scale but is pursuing more free agents. He just got Golden State reserve Chris Gatling.

If his scale holds up, he should be able to get $5 million a year for Gatling, no sweat.

OUR GRANT HILL CONSPIRACY THEORY

How does Grant Hill beat Jordan in All-Star voting but only 10,288 show up to see him and the Detroit Pistons in Philadelphia last week? When Jordan was there, the 76ers sold all 18,168 seats.

The Pistons are only No. 9 in the league in road attendance. The Bulls, of course, are first, followed by the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, Lakers, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, Heat and Utah Jazz.

It doesn’t seem likely a young man as gracious and humble as Hill, who has expressed his own disbelief at the voting, would have anything to do with stuffing the ballot box but how about one of his commercial partners, who have millions tied up in him?

Just asking.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

This week will tell us if the Bulls can win 70. Chicago is at Indiana today, home to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, at Atlanta on Thursday, at Miami on Friday, home to the Magic next Sunday. Having started 45-5 (.900), they need only finish 25-7 (.781) but would have to endure a media circus all April to do it. For that reason, some insiders expect Coach Phil Jackson to ease off. . . . About that $8-million annual extension for Commissioner David Stern: Even if it seems like they baste him in snake oil for his state-of-the-league address, you’ve got to give him his due. He’s the last commissioner who actually runs anything, he has the only major league that hasn’t lost a game to a work stoppage, and he wriggled out of a real mess last summer. Of course, $8 million is a bit pricey for one’s due. In the future, perhaps, he’ll have the good grace not to complain about escalating salaries.

Karma highlight of the week: With former coach Rick Adelman and forward Jerome Kersey returning to Portland for the first time, the Trail Blazers told their public address announcer to breeze through the Warriors’ pregame introductions to cut off ovations. “We’ve gone both ways with it,” Coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “When Clyde [Drexler] came back, he was announced last and the fans went crazy. I don’t think that’s fair to our players. We’re the Portland Trail Blazers and this is our arena and we shouldn’t be setting it up for fans to root for the other team.” The Trail Blazers, who had won three in a row, then blew a 16-point lead and lost.

Mourning, on re-signing with Miami: “The way things are going, the chances of my staying in Miami are very great, very, very great. I’m pleased with the organization, pleased with the city, I’m pleased with the coach. I can envision big things to come.” A few days later, the Heat lost at home to the Toronto Raptors. Advice for Mourning: If you want to play on a winner, go back to Charlotte. Except for a big man, they’re loaded. . . . The Warriors’ cobra and mongoose, Latrell Sprewell and Tim Hardaway, went at it again last week during a game against the Celtics, Sprewell calling Hardaway a ball hog, Hardaway trying to fight him on the floor. Both will be free agents. Golden State is trying to trade Hardaway but he isn’t the same old Timmy. The Warriors want to sign the younger Sprewell, but he isn’t the same old Spree, either.

Payton, another free agent to be, says he knows where he will sign next season but won’t tell anyone--which suggests that he has decided to stay in Seattle. Quickly moving to preserve Payton’s leverage, his agent, Aaron Goodwin, assured a Miami writer, “He has not decided anything. That makes it sound like he has decided to stay in Seattle, and that is not the case. Miami has an opportunity at this point to have Gary Payton a year from now.” . . . Barkley, kidding Phoenix teammate Michael Finley on losing to Brent Barry on All-Star Saturday: “The NBA is in disarray--a white man won the dunk contest. We need another Million Man March.”