THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : After 86-12 Run, Cracks Showing in Bulls’ Armor

“What, me worry?”

--Chicago Cub Manager Leo Durocher, 1969

OK, it was really Alfred E. Neuman but you get the idea. In Chicago, Bulls fans are thinking the unthinkable:

What if we l-l-l-l-ose?

Of course, Game 6 is in the United Center tonight and the Seattle SuperSonics are dead meat, or salmon, or whatever. But what if Scottie Pippen’s slump continues? And Michael Jordan keeps playing like he’s 33, which he is? And Dennis Rodman is as bad he wants to be?

Oooh, it’s too painful to think about. It’s all they can think about. It’s so . . . Chicago.

“A city is starting to come undone,” wrote the Sun-Times’ Jay Marriotti. “A city is beginning to have a ’69 Cubs flashback. A city wants to reach for the flask, learn Heimlich techniques and overturn taxis out of angst. It isn’t time for that yet.”

Yet?

They take this stuff seriously around here, and no one more than Bulls players and coaches. They’re still in good position but, in the way of the ultra-competitive who can’t tolerate the thought of losing, they take it badly.

That was not a merry band of would-be immortals who sank slowly out of sight in Game 5.

They almost lost it early when they spotted their least favorite referee, Hue Hollins. Godzilla on the horizon would attract less attention in Chicago than Hollins. Before his last Bulls game, the Sun-Times actually reported he had been seen on an inbound plane.

Within minutes, Jordan disagreed with a call so vehemently, he ate his shirt to keep from getting a technical. Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson raged. You’d think a team that went 86-12, led by a superstar who shoots 10 free throws a night and would have to drive his car over a referee to get ejected, would be beyond persecution complexes, but the Bulls love a good conspiracy theory in which the league tries to draw out their series, etc.

Then they started in on each other.

Jordan yelled at Rodman and later talked about his “antics.” Jackson pulled Rodman late in the game and Dennis did his plaintive, palms-up “Why me?” gesture.

Jackson told Pippen, who had one shot in the first quarter, to start firing. After that, Pippen took more shots than Jordan, though he missed 15 of his last 19.

A curiously passive Jordan took only four shots in the fourth quarter when it was still close. Was he upset Jackson was balancing the offense? Once when Coach Doug Collins did that, Jordan took eight shots in a playoff loss to the Detroit Pistons as if to say: OK, we’ll just see what they can do.

Jackson was asked in the postgame news conference if he could describe how the SuperSonics took the ball out of Jordan’s hands.

“No,” he said, stalking off for the second game in a row.

Jordan, of course, put the rap on his teammates.

The amazing thing is, the Bulls’ chemistry has always bubbled over like this, Pippen has rarely played well in the finals, and they’re working on their fourth title in six years.

If an offensive explosion seems unlikely at this point, the Bulls are as good a defensive team as the SuperSonics and they’re capable of slowing the game down, choking Seattle’s offense off and ending this thing.

Of course, it’s a quick turnaround for the old guys, and with Ron Harper out, Jordan has to run around guarding Gary Payton, so, just to be on the safe side, stay out of taxis for a while.

THE UNION FROM HELL WANTS EASY DAVE AGAIN

Are you ready for Son of Lockout?

Nine months after NBA players accepted the owners’ deal, the two sides are arguing about language in the final draft. NBA Commissioner David (“Call me Easy Dave”) Stern claims the union is trying to repudiate the agreement and won’t rule out locking it out again.

This is no surprise since the union now leans heavily on legal counsel Jeffrey Kessler, one of the leaders in last summer’s revolt by the stars against the very same union. How this came about is a mystery to the players, even staunch labor loyalists, and explains why this union is a joke.

“I’m not sure how he got there,” says Seattle player-rep Frank Brickowski. “I don’t know much about it, and neither does Detlef [Schrempf, a member of the executive council].

“I think the guys on board with the union all this time with [former directors] Charles Grantham through Simon Gourdine never were really given a legitimate explanation of why and how he got to be where he is.”

Here’s how it happened.

Grantham resigned mysteriously during negotiations, reportedly because his players thought he was living too well at their expense, possibly for taking too hard a line. Gourdine, the legal counsel, took over on an interim basis.

Sensing no backing, Gourdine agreed to a deal but angered the powerful agents’ committee, who revolted and knocked it down.

The league sweetened the deal and players voted for it. Loyalist leaders, led by union president Buck Williams, then offered Gourdine the job full time.

At the same time, however, several revolutionaries such as Patrick Ewing became new player-reps. Soon there was another problem: The Dallas Mavericks said they weren’t consulted on Gourdine and would stop paying dues. Gourdine was sacked--but demanded and got all the money due him.

The union tried to pick a new leader but couldn’t. Former player Alex English took over on the now-familiar interim basis and hired Kessler’s firm as counsel.

Kessler is considered a front man for superstar agent and coup mastermind David Falk, so we’re back where we were a year ago, with one difference. If Stern declares another July 1 lockout, Falk’s greatest star, Jordan, can’t negotiate the contract he has been dreaming of. That was Jordan that Easy Dave was talking to, when he refused to rule out a lockout.

Of course, if all these lawyers can confine their wrangling to the summer, as they did a year ago, fans can go right on ignoring them and everyone will be grateful.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

The Indiana Pacers became front-runners in the Charles Barkley derby, trading unwanted Mark Jackson (they think rookie Travis Best can play point guard) and old Ricky Pierce to Denver for Jalen Rose, Reggie Williams and a flop of No. 1 picks. The Pacers now have the Nuggets’ No. 10, which will be offered to the Phoenix Suns along with a power forward, Dale Davis or Antonio Davis. . . . Meanwhile, Barkley claimed his rip of Sun owner Jerry Colangelo had been taken out of context. Since he said it on national television, it goes down as his lamest denial since he said he had been misquoted in his autobiography. . . . The Nuggets also traded Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, too hot to touch in Denver after his anthem-snubbing, to Sacramento for Sarunas Marciulionis. Nugget boss Bernie Bickerstaff, who had an awful season with what used to be considered a rising young power, wants some veterans. He looks like he has a 35-win team on his hands, unless Dikembe Mutombo leaves and makes it a 30-win team.

Pudgy, longtime disappointment Walt Williams, in scant demand, may not opt out of his Miami contract as he said he would, disappointing Coach Pat Riley, who was counting on losing him. . . . San Antonio Spur Coach Bob Hill went in to ask General Manager Greg Popovich for a raise, only to be told he was being held responsible for the team’s postseason swan dive. Hill is on next season’s endangered list, with speculation that Popovich, a former Don Nelson aide, will ultimately bring in Nellie. . . . New Philadelphia 76er General Manager Brad Greenberg hired Johnny Davis as coach, hoping the personable former Portland assistant can reach Derrick Coleman. Davis, a Clipper assistant under Bob Weiss, is one of the nicest people in the game, so pray for him. . . . Chris Ford gets the Milwaukee Buck job. He’s a good man but a shrill one, which makes you wonder how he’ll reach the Big Sensitive Dog, Glenn Robinson, who withdrew into a shell under softer-spoken Mike Dunleavy.