For Some, It’s More Than Cool to Stay in School

Dear J.R., Jelani and Toby,

If you think it’s time to declare for the draft, better check your watches again.

You might all be No. 1 picks and if you can’t find three agents who’ll swear you have great chances at the lottery, you’re not trying. But there’s more to it.

Draft day won’t be the culmination of your pro career, merely the start. Squeezing yourselves onto the bottom of the first round--where NBA execs say you’d probably go--is fine, if that’s all you can be. But it’s another thing if it isn’t.

“I don’t think kids and the people around them understand how precarious a career can be,” says Miami Heat personnel director Chris Wallace. “And I’m not one who says you have to stay in school four years.

“Young players think the rookie cap means you put in your three years, become a free agent and then, boom! They give you a big check. You have to do something in those three years.

“Say you don’t go in the top 20 and you go to one of the teams with playoff aspirations. If the coaches have any options at all, they’re going to go with veterans. When they get into the playoffs, they’re going to shorten their rotations. Young players aren’t going to get as many minutes or as many plays run for them. . . .

“I hate to see a kid come out when it isn’t his time and start his career behind the eight ball. Last year, Ronnie Henderson left [after his junior year at Louisiana State], went No. 55 in the draft and got cut. Then he got cut by Rockford in the CBA. Then he got cut in Australia.

“I hate to see kids come out because they were restricted by the system or not appreciated or just because they don’t want to go to school.”

Nor is the process geared for departing undergrads, who sit around until the Chicago draft camp in June--two months after the college season--by which time many are out of shape.

Meanwhile, there are camps at Portsmouth, Va., and Phoenix--closed to undergrads by agreement with the NCAA--where darkhorse seniors can impress scouts, as Georgetown’s Jerome Williams did last spring. At Chicago, desperate prospects such as Arkansas Little Rock’s Derek Fisher chop up anything in their path. An undergrad might jump up--as Wright State’s Vitaly Potapenko did--but it’s unusual.

Then there are the individual workouts with teams. Put it this way, if you’ve got Antonio McDyess stuff or Kobe Bryant stuff, you’ve got no worries.

If you stay in school, you can get your game down and go through a weaker 1998 draft, where you should go higher, presumably to a worse team offering more opportunity.

If you can’t think of anything you need to work on, read on. . . .

OUR EXPERT PANEL COUNSELS PATIENCE

J.R. Henderson--People who know you say you’re really a nice young man. This is a revelation, since in games you look like a whiner who complains about every call. If you see yourself as more of a Scottie Pippen than a power forward, it’s your toughness that you need to prove. If you can’t play inside at this level, you don’t have enough.

NBA people like your size and skills, but four of them, asked if you should stay in school or go, voted 4-0 for stay.

Jelani McCoy--You’re bigger, you block shots, so you have a bigger upside, but you’re younger and less polished. Some NBA guys say they began to see some growth under Steve Lavin. If so, it needs to continue.

Stay wins again, 4-0.

Toby Bailey--You’ve said you’ll stay, but if you’re wondering, it’s a good idea. Your athleticism is breathtaking, but you struggle when the pace slows. Against Iowa State, it looked as though you forgot how to play, although you fought your way through it admirably. If nobody has told you (today), you need a consistent shot, you need to stop jumping in the air on passes and, if you see a sliver of daylight between defenders the ball just might fit through, forget about that one.

Stay, 4-0.

If you want to see what an extra season can mean, look no farther than teammate Charles O’Bannon.

After getting the Big Treatment as a prep--Rick Pitino at the Artesia High banquet his senior year--Charles said he intended to stay at UCLA for two years. It’s a good thing he got over that one because he’d have sunk without a ripple.

Had he left after his junior year, he might have had to start his career in Rockford or Australia too. Now the NBA guys say he’s a solid first-round prospect and he’s going in on a roll.

It could happen to you too.

CELTIC DREAM TEAM: BIRD, PITINO--WHO DID WE MISS?

Larry Bird, ending his Florida hibernation, says he’s “antsy” and suggests he’d finally like to take over the Celtics’ basketball operation.

For a coach, Bird would love Pitino. “Rick Pitino and Pat Riley are the best I’ve seen,” he says.

Let’s see, if Larry Legend is general manager and Pitino is coach, where does that leave M.L. Carr, now shepherding the team to its worst finish ever in his dual role?

How about . . . back in the community relations department, whence he came?

“M.L. is one of my friends and he’s running the organization,” Bird says. “I respect M.L. and I think he’s doing a good job. Maybe I’ll have the opportunity to take a position like that [GM] some day, but right now M.L. is the guy doing it. The plate is full.”

Landing Pitino will require millions and heaven knows what else, but presiding doofus Paul Gaston, Carr’s sponsor and still-fervent defender--on the few occasions the owner sets foot in Massachusetts--has to decide to make a change.

In case Gaston didn’t notice, Bird just informed Celtic fans there’s a superstar available.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Dennis gets a well-deserved vacation: The Bulls actually looked relieved when Dennis Rodman hurt his knee, sidelining him till the playoffs. Now he can’t get in any trouble leading to suspension. Besides, he was only there between trips--to South Carolina to manage pro wrestler Hollywood Hulk Hogan, to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards--and muttering by the rest of the troops was getting louder. . . . With Coach Phil Jackson finishing a one-year contract, General Manager Jerry Krause, normally secretive to the point of paranoia, is advertising his admiration for Iowa State’s Tim Floyd, presumably to let Jackson know he won’t be missed. Krause attended nine Iowa State games this season and, breaking a years-long vow of silence, tells heartwarming stories of going fishing with Floyd.

Karl Malone isn’t really having his best season, it just seems that way. Utah’s Mailman has exceeded his 27.7-point average four times, but he’s not just a low-post scorer anymore. He’s one of the best shooting big men and he’s averaging a career-best 4.6 assists. “If you didn’t have to sit and watch it for 48 minutes when you’re trying to beat them, it would be a pleasure to watch,” Denver Coach Dick Motta said after Malone had gone 12 for 14 against the Nuggets. . . . The Detroit Pistons are wearing black uniform patches in memory of Detroit Free Press reporter Corky Meinecke, who died of cancer at 44 after a long, valiant fight, a rare and touching tribute in this adversarial age. To have known him is to know why they’re doing it.

Houston’s Charles Barkley, out 27 games and counting, insists his age, 34, has nothing to do with it. “Dennis Rodman got hurt because somebody rolled on his knee, not because he’s 35 years old,” Barkley said. “If I had moved out of the way on that charging situation [when Shawn Bradley kneed him in the hip], people would have said I don’t play defense, which I don’t. But they would have said it. These things just happen.” Yeah, especially when you’re old.

Not only did New Jersey Coach John Calipari call Newark Star-Ledger reporter Dan Garcia a “Mexican idiot,” he also told him, “I should punch you in the face,” before publicist John Mertz broke them up. At Massachusetts, Calipari could schedule breathers, refuse to rehire referees and spin the press like a ball on a seal’s nose, but so far, he can’t handle rough-and-tumble NBA life. His problem with Garcia? Garcia gave him a D on a published report card. . . . Net star Jayson Williams, angling for a trade, and not one to let a straight line go by in any case: “No wonder Cal doesn’t like me. He thinks I’m Mexican.”