A Fine Mess : Van Exel’s Penalty: 7 Games, $188,000

“The Lake Show.” This week’s episode: “Crime & Punishment.” A Nick Van Exel/Rod Thorn production.

What Van Exel started Tuesday night with a forearm that sent referee Ron Garretson flying, Thorn and the league office finished Wednesday when they suspended the Laker point guard for the final seven games of the regular season and fined him a record $25,000. At $23,170.73 a game, the total bill, counting another $1,000 for the double-technical ejection in the fourth quarter, is $188,195.11.

Van Exel, prohibited from attending games but allowed to participate in practices and shoot rounds as long as he is out of the arena two hours before tipoff, was not taking calls at the team hotel here before his first absence, choosing to stay mostly silent for the second day in a row on the incident that has made him the focus of nationwide sports attention. He is, however, expected to hold a news conference today at the Forum.

Laker management, meanwhile, came down in the strongest of terms on the side of the league, much like Magic Johnson had criticized his teammate’s actions the night before in the wake of the incident in Denver.

“We agree with and support the league’s decision 100%,” Vice President Jerry West said in a statement. “I’ve dedicated 35 years--my entire adult life--to this game and this league, and I think it is imperative that the NBA address the incredible number of incidents that are undermining the professionalism of this league. Personally, I am embarrassed and apologize to our fans.”

It is the third-longest suspension in NBA history for an on-court incident, behind only the 26 games that Kermit Washington got in 1977 for punching Rudy Tomjanovich and the 10 games that Vernon Maxwell got last season for going into the stands and hitting a fan. The fine surpassed the $20,000 penalty assessed to Dennis Rodman last month for head-butting an official.

In a brief interview with the Copley Newspapers on the Laker charter flight from Denver to Minneapolis late Tuesday night, a few hours after a forearm shot sent the smaller Garretson into the air and on to the scorer’s table at midcourt, Van Exel said he didn’t hit the veteran referee that hard: “He jumped on to the press table.” Garretson’s reaction of shock, to the extent that he cussed at Van Exel and took a few steps in his direction before regaining composure, would indicate otherwise. No need to ask at this point who the league believed.

“It was something that we obviously cannot condone,” said Thorn, the NBA’s senior vice president in charge of operations. “The ref’s got his back turned and Van Exel went over and hit him from behind in the back when he wasn’t looking.

“He had a chance to think what he was doing. He had already gotten two technicals and been ejected and was walking off when he came back.”

Rodman also got a six-game suspension for making contact with Ted Bernhardt. Wednesday, that became a guideline as the NBA brass tried to determine Van Exel’s fate.

They interviewed all the parties involved, Van Exel speaking to director of security Larry Richardson. Then they handed down a stiffer sentence, even though Van Exel, with one prior ejection this season and now three total in his three-year career, does not have anything close to a Rodman-like rap sheet.

“Rodman was the only thing we had to go on,” said Thorn, who could not recall any other time in his 11 years there that a player or coach had done anything more serious than bump an official. “And our feeling was, this was a little worse than that.”

So they started at Rodman and added, finally deciding on the seven games and $25,000. That the Lakers had seven games remaining at the time was a coincidence.

“If the Lakers had four games left in the regular season, he would have been suspended for seven,” Thorn said. “If that was their last game of the regular season, he would have been suspended for seven. And if the Lakers did not play seven games in the playoffs, then we would have carried the suspension over into next season. So that had nothing to do with it.”

For the Lakers, this has a lot to do with timing, what with it being late in the season during a race with Houston for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. And it’s bad timing, with Magic Johnson’s playing time limited to about 25 minutes because of tendinitis in his left Achilles’ tendon. Now they have no starting point guard and no third-leading scorer the rest of the way.

That it comes as the Rockets are finally about to be back at full strength, with Hakeem Olajuwon having returned Tuesday and Sam Cassell expected in another few days, only magnifies the Laker predicament.

Said Laker Coach Del Harris, having already seen his team stay together during the hectic days following Johnson’s return and again later when Cedric Ceballos disappeared: “Given my choice in life, it would all be downhill, all be ice cream and lollipops.”

By the time the playoffs start, Van Exel will have gone a little more than two weeks--16 or 17 days, depending on when the Lakers open--without playing in a game. Then, almost immediately, he has to be in sync with teammates, and that’s when everyone finds out if there was a harsher penalty to this episode than $188,195.11.

* LAKERS WIN: Threatt fills in nicely in victory over Timberwolves. C5

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Bad, Bad Boys

NBA’S LONGEST SUSPENSIONS

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G Player, Team Reason Yr 26 Kermit Washington, Lakers Punching Rudy Tomjanovich 1977 10 Vernon Maxwell, Rockets Going into stands, hitting fan 1995 7 Nick Van Exel, Lakers Shoving referee Ron Garretson 1996 6 Dennis Rodman, Bulls Head-butting referee Ted Bernhardt 1996 5 Greg Anthony, Knicks Fighting 1993

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NBA’S BIGGEST FINES

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Fine Player, Team Reason Yr $25,000* Nick Van Exel, Lakers Shoving referee 1996 $20,000 Dennis Rodman, Bulls Head-butting referee 1996 $20,000 Vernon Maxwell, Rockets Hitting fan 1995 $20,000 Charles Barkley, 76ers Fighting 1993 $20,000 Greg Anthony, Knicks Fighting 1993 $20,000 Bill Laimbeer, Pistons Fighting 1990

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* Will also lose $163,000 in pay during suspension