Wooden Award 'Special' to Jamison

By ROBYN NORWOOD

April 4, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There is more suspense about which top players will leave early for the NBA than there was about the identity of college basketball’s player of the year.

But Friday at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, North Carolina’s Antawn Jamison graciously accepted yet another trophy, calling the John R. Wooden Award “special.”

“You cannot confuse them at all,” said Jamison, already named the player of the year by at least eight other organizations. “I’ve gotten some prestigious awards, but this award right here is the best any player can get.

“This one is very special, when you look at the names on the trophy, and especially, the one the trophy is named after.”

A junior forward who averaged 22.2 points and 10.5 rebounds for a Tar Heel team that reached the Final Four, Jamison received 5,041 points in the Wooden voting by 993 sportswriters and sportscasters, well ahead of Kansas senior forward Raef LaFrentz, who was second with 3,901.

Wooden is known for guiding UCLA to 10 NCAA championships, but long before that, he too was a national player of the year, at Purdue in 1932.

“Antawn, 66 years ago, I was named player of the year, but I didn’t get a trophy or anything like that,” Wooden teased. “Times have changed.”

They certainly have. So much so that the biggest questions of the day were whether Jamison and Arizona guard Mike Bibby, another finalist, will return to college next season or turn professional.

“Right now, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do,” said Jamison, indicating he will consult with his parents, former coach Dean Smith and Coach Bill Guthridge and probably wait until after exams this month to decide. Players have until May 10 to declare for the NBA draft.

Bibby isn’t quite ready to announce his decision, but the Arizona Republic cited an unnamed source close to him as saying he is expected to forgo his final two years of eligibility, and Friday he seemed to stop just shy of saying he is ready to turn pro.

“I need to talk to Coach [Lute] Olson still, and my mother, and we’ll make a decision,” Bibby said, adding that he has an “appointment” next week with Olson, who was also at the banquet.

“The decision has to be his and his mother’s,” Olson said. “I’m just a sounding board for them.”

“In my opinion, there’s no question Mike is ready to play at the next level,” Olson said. “The biggest thing he has to decide is if he’s ready for all the other things.”

Bibby, who averaged 17 points, five assists and two steals a game as a sophomore after helping lead Arizona to a national title as a freshman, finished third in the Wooden balloting with 3,629 points.

Kansas forward Paul Pierce, who announced Thursday at Inglewood High, his alma mater, that he will forgo his senior season to turn pro, was fourth with 2,756 points, and Bibby’s backcourt partner, senior Miles Simon, was fifth with 2,592.

North Carolina’s team next year depends largely on the decision of not only Jamison, but junior forward Vince Carter.

“Me and Vince have probably been the best of friends ever since we lost to Utah,” Jamison said. “We know we’ve got to make probably the most difficult choice of our life.”

Jamison acknowledged he is concerned about the possibility of an NBA lockout curtailing the season, but he will have to make his decision before the labor situation becomes clear.

“If I do leave school early, I would like to be able to play,” Jamison said. “There are a lot of negatives to staying and a lot of positives to staying.”

Olson said the factors for players who are projected, as these are to go in the top five in the draft, have more to do with life off the court than on it.

“Damon Stoudamire made the point that he’d like to talk to Mike,” Olson said. “He would want to make sure Mike is aware it’s not all glamour. There’s a lot of loneliness and time to yourself.”

Kansas Coach Roy Williams said he counsels players to follow their own counsel.

“My only advice is do what you want to do,” Williams said. “Don’t allow anyone to pressure you to go, don’t allow anyone to pressure you to stay.”

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Winners

Player, School: Year

Marques Johnson, UCLA: 1977

Phil Ford, North Carolina: 1978

Larry Bird, Indiana State : 1979

Darrell Griffith, Louisville: 1980

Danny Ainge, Brigham Young: 1981

Ralph Sampson, Virginia: 1982

Ralph Sampson, Virginia: 1983