Harris’ Laker Difficulties Are More Than Idle Talk

Del-hunting season heats up: Buzzards are wheeling in slow circles over Del Harris’ head. It isn’t fair but the NBA runs on wins, not justice.

Last week the New York Daily News said he was “on the verge” of being fired, touching off a local feeding frenzy and unleashing Fox Sports’ Keystone Kops who disclosed the players had voted, 12-0, to dump Harris.

The next day, Fox ran interviews with half the squad, all of whom hooted at that one. Fox neglected to mention one of its anchors was the source of the report.

Nevertheless, when the smoke cleared, it was clear that it may be a long “verge” but something’s up. People close to top Laker management say it is, indeed, exasperated. Should the season end badly, Harris is in trouble.

The complaints are familiar: the players aren’t responding . . . he’s too professorial, too long-winded . . . they don’t run enough . . . he was right for them once but he’s wrong for them now.

Actually, firing Harris would be little more than scapegoating and wishful thinking, something else the NBA runs on. If he’s too scholarly, he’s the same person he was when they hired him. What, they just noticed?

Don’t run enough? The Lakers average 107 points. The No. 2 team is at 102.

Harris has done a professional job. Meanwhile, Nick Van Exel refused to enter a game; Magic Johnson returned, after Del signed off on it enthusiastically; Cedric Ceballos went boating and was suspended; Nick bumped a referee and was suspended; Magic bumped a referee and was suspended; Magic ripped Del for not properly delineating his role in the ’96 Houston series; Magic ripped Nick; Magic retired again; Shaquille O’Neal arrived; Shaq missed 31 games in his first season; Nick and Del went at it in last spring’s Utah series; Shaq went out for 22 games this season; Nick turned it around but started having knee trouble in December and left in February; and Kobe Bryant, hyped to absurd heights, splattered against the proverbial wall after appearing on MTV, “Meet the Press” and Jay Leno’s show within a week.

The Lakers are not only spectacular but overrated. The four all-star thing was a joke, on them. Three--Bryant by the fans, Van Exel and Jones by the coaches--were courtesy selections. None was undeserving but any of them could have been left off. Nevertheless, Jerry Buss seems to think it meant something.

In real life, Harris can play a spindly power forward or a lethargic one. In crunch time, without Van Exel, he can give the ball to a 49% foul shooter or a 19-year-old.

Now Harris has a dark cloud following him around and his players already are stepping gingerly away, to avoid getting rained on.

With the sky darkening, if not falling, Jerry West stayed in Las Vegas, scouting the WAC tournament, resorting to sending the players a letter, letting them know his wrath was great enough to embrace them too.

West may have been loath to lower himself into the frenzy but the players must have thought, “What, he didn’t care enough to fly back here for a day and kick our butts in person?”

At this point in West’s stellar career, he hates this stuff. Haunted by disappointment, he also finds little joy in terminating Laker careers. If it wasn’t so hard for him, Eddie Jones might already be in Sacramento. This is a man who thought about quitting after landing Shaq, the coup of the decade.

The bald truth is, the road to greatness isn’t strewn with rose petals. Rough and tumultuous as the Great Rebuilding has been until now, that was the easy part.

It’s coming down to the real crunch time and it won’t be as simple as pensioning off ol’ Del.

THERE ARE NO DOG DAYS LIKE DENNIS’ DOG DAYS

Remember when the Chicago Bulls insisted on “good people” and said Dennis Rodman would have to follow their rules?

That was three years ago. Now they’ll take any Dennis they can get.

Rodman just blasted Coach Phil Jackson for starting Toni Kukoc, saying, “Toni can’t handle coming off the bench. What I want to know is, are we more interested in winning games or kissing somebody’s . . . ?”

Jackson said he was happy to hear Rodman still cared, after having been late recently for all the practices he hadn’t blown off. Forgiving Phil has been covering up for Rodman for years but now may be trying to embarrass him back into the fold, an old Jackson tactic.

Two weeks ago, Rodman skipped a practice, claiming he had lost his car keys. Of course, he lives 10 minutes away and could have walked. Jackson says the Bulls sent someone over. Rodman, eating his breakfast cereal, said he couldn’t make it.

This prompted Jackson to pay his own visit.

“He had some guys hanging out with him,” Jackson said. “He sleeps on the floor on a thin mattress. His TV is as big as the wall, eight feet from him. It’s almost too big for the wall. Next to the TV were probably 150 videotapes. He always has to have something to distract him. I would say he has attention deficit disorder and he’s hyperactive.”

Well, it’s always good to see how your players live, anyway.

With four days off last week, Dr. Jackson let Rodman fly to Los Angeles and, presumably Las Vegas, saying he could skip Friday’s practice--oddsmakers had Rodman at 20-1 to show, anyway--and join the team in New York, where it will play the Knicks today. By then, Rodman might have dropped $20,000 or so at blackjack and could need his paycheck, and Jackson will have thought of something else.

FACES AND FIGURES

Fable for the ‘90s: Washington Wizard stars Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Rod Strickland won’t appear in a team video, having missed the taping session. They earlier skipped an autograph session and were fined $1,000 apiece. The video originally was scheduled to be shot Jan. 20--but Webber was late that day, having just been arrested and charged with three misdemeanors and six traffic violations.

Score another one for the skeptics: Among the people wondering why Rick Pitino gave Travis Knight $22 million is Knight, demoted to third string--and told to bulk up and work on his inside game. “Sometimes I can’t help but think if that’s what they wanted, then why did they sign me?” says Knight, averaging 6.7 points and 5.1 rebounds. “But Coach is a smart guy. I have a lot of confidence in him. He must have a plan in mind.” . . . Pitino’s “plans” usually consist of grasping a player, finding he acted precipitously, dumping the player and grasping someone else. At $3 million a season, Knight won’t be easy to dump, but you can bet Pitino’s working on it.

Where did the love go: New Jersey’s John Calipari, who raved about Pat Riley, changed his tune after Miami’s Keith Askins hammered Keith Van Horn with an outrageous flagrant foul, saying the Heat plays rugby. Said Riley: “Everyone talks out of two sides of their mouth.” . . . Insiders say Michael Jordan would only play for the Bulls next season, since no one else can pay him $33 million. Jayson Williams invited Jordan to join the Nets, noting they’ll be under the salary cap. Replied Jordan, “You’ll never be that far under the cap.”

Wince if this sounds familiar: Ceballos, unchained from the Phoenix Suns’ bench, averaged 20 points in three games as the downtrodden Dallas Mavericks went 2-1. Ceballos, who called himself ‘Chise--short for franchise player--when he joined the downtrodden Lakers in 1994, wants to stay in Dallas when his contract runs out this summer. “Right now, I’m definitely looking to put myself in a position where they ask me back,” Ceballos said. “It’s an opportunity. They might make me one of the franchise players here.” And if it doesn’t work out, Texas has lots of lovely lakes.

As worn out as the Houston Rockets look on the floor, they look worse off it, where they seem like 12 grumpy old men who don’t like one another. “I kind of wish Sacramento would win eight or 10 in a row and put some pressure on us [for the last playoff berth in the Western Conference],” Eddie Johnson said. “I’m embarrassed.” Said Mario Elie, “If we want to call it a season, let’s call it a season. I’m tired of hearing about how much talent we have. We’ve got to compete. And if we don’t, you can look for us wherever they’re having the lottery at this summer.”

Referee Joey Crawford, seeing Boston’s Dontae’ Jones make a rare appearance: “For two years, I thought Dontae’ was a male model. I didn’t know he played.”