Ethics Go Out the Window for Few Points or Rebounds

Add forgettable quotes, or, say it ain’t so, Pat, Chuck and Dave:

“I think he’s ridiculous. The most ridiculous thing to come along in the game--ever. . . . He could only play for the Bulls. He could only play for a team that wins nine out of 10 games, a team that can win in spite of him.”

“He” was Dennis Rodman, and apparently, there were more teams he could play for, and apparently the entire statement had become inoperative because--holy clash of cultures!--Pat Riley was about to sign Rodman last week.

What’s this league coming to?

Latrell Sprewell scores 27 points in his Knick debut and gets a standing ovation. Madison Square Garden President Dave Checketts apologizes for his “self-righteous” denunciation of Sprewell for choking P.J. Carlesimo, who probably had it coming, a theory that will hold as long as Sprewell--no doubt “misunderstood” or “complex” or having “matured”--tabs 27 a game.

Meanwhile, the gallant Patrick Ewing, who gave up $4 million for a cause he believed in, however imperfectly he explained himself, was booed. Apparently, Knick fans would stone Santa Claus if he didn’t win a title, but would cheer if one was delivered by a totalitarian dictator at the head of a line of tanks.

The Knicks considered signing Rodman too, but decided not to, perhaps because Checketts had said even worse things about him when he was with the hated Bulls and didn’t relish another round of apologies.

Down in Miami, that other bastion of principle, Riley had suddenly noticed that:

* He didn’t have a new shooting guard, having run out of the money for Sprewell.

* His incumbent, Voshon Lenard, is playing with a stress fracture in his left shin.

* The Knicks look better with Sprewell.

* The Indiana Pacers look better with Sam Perkins.

Riley apparently concluded that he’s in trouble.

It would be difficult to imagine another scenario under which he would have considered Rodman, who is high-maintenance, late for everything, assuming he comes at all, and bleats constantly about being abused.

Riley runs a zero-tolerance program, having run off a slew of players--Brent Barry, Kurt Thomas, Sasha Danilovic, Ike Austin, Todd Day--who voiced reservations. After Day filed a garden-variety complaint about playing time, Riley cut him, in front of the team.

The first time the possibility of Rodman joining the Heat was broached--by Rodman, wearing shades and a huge floppy hat, which he refused to tilt back, on Jay Leno’s show--Riley took it as a joke.

Said Riley, laughing, when word was relayed to him, “Why?”

At that point, Rodman was out of offers, having been renounced, not only by the Bulls but by his agent, Dwight Manley, and reduced to calling teams, himself.

Five days later, Riley was thinking of calling back.

“I think if he wanted to come and be part of this and be equal, what he does away from the court and what his personality is are irrelevant to me,” said Riley, making sure everyone understood the ground rules.

“I would entertain that thought only on the fact that it would have to be on the Miami Heat’s terms, not Dennis’ terms.”

The thing seemed to be on tracks. The Heat stars chimed in, approvingly, of course.

“Anybody who can help us get one of those,” said Alonzo Mourning, pointing to an imaginary ring, “I’ll welcome with open arms. . . . Timmy [Hardaway] and myself would sit down and talk to him. We would tell him that we wanted you here . . . but don’t let the off-court stuff become a distraction to us.”

Of course, communication is hardly the problem. There was plenty in Chicago, considered Rodman’s last chance, where he was subjected to a battery of interviews and pronounced once again fit for human society. (General Manager Jerry Krause had also had many things to say about the great character required to be a Bull, but having lost Horace Grant, needed a power forward.)

Rodman stayed at Krause’s home, promised to follow the rules, started being late for everything as soon as the ink dried on his contract and proceeded to turn the Bulls into the Land of 1,000 Distractions.

But as in New York, these were obviously perilous days in Miami, prompting Riley to rethink everything he’d said since his incarnation as Laker coach in the ‘80s, when Jerry West once got him Quintin Dailey to score off the bench. Dailey was best known as the man whose off-court behavior had shut down the University of San Francisco’s basketball program and Riley bounced him out of the Honolulu training camp in about eight seconds.

Now, Riley was saying, hopefully, “We all know what Dennis is. Dennis is a marketing maven. But I don’t think he has any real deep-seated dislike for anything.

“And I’m sure somewhere along the way, we could have a little fun too.”

Someone would have had a little fun, but it wasn’t likely to have been Riley. Luckily, in the middle of this reenactment of “Death Wish,” came word that Rodman was no longer interested--must have been those stern Riley warnings--and now intended to rejoin his old coach, Chuck Daly, in Orlando, where negotiations were ongoing.

If you aren’t familiar with the Magic under owner Rich DeVos, the Amway magnate and author of a book titled “Compassionate Capitalism,” it’s formally dedicated not only to victory but virtue, promising to be socially responsible, a proud emblem of the city, etc., in a pledge embossed on team stationery.

How will it look if Rodman, who has been losing interest on championship teams, nods off, decides this is it and carries out his oft-repeated pledge to tear off his uniform and walk off naked in his last game?

How’s that going to go down with the old family-values crowd in central Florida?

Of course, the Magic might wise up too, but like the other poor schnooks in this story, lost credibility just by considering it.

We have finally discovered a socially useful role for Rodman, roaming the country, unmasking pomposity wherever he goes, sort of like Chance the gardener in the movie, “Being There.”

We close with these moving words from Checketts’ ongoing mea culpa, in which he suggests what part principle really plays in your modern sports league:

“I adjusted my thinking, I admit it. I’ve been through a process. It has not been easy but I adjusted my thinking. It’s worth it. . . . I don’t want a team that nobody likes. But I certainly don’t want a team that never wins because, I guarantee you, no one will like that team.”

In other words, none.

FACES AND FIGURES

First Clipper of the season demands to be traded: It usually happens in October or November, was delayed this season because of the late start, then delivered by agent Robert Fayne on behalf of Lorenzen Wright, who reportedly wants a $60-million extension, starting at $9 million. Unfortunately, most teams have spent their cap money and few are expected to be

$9 million under next summer. In other words, there’s going to be a market price for Wright, a nice young prospect, but it won’t be $9 million.

There’s a lot of eye-rolling around the league about Minnesota General Manager Kevin McHale’s re-invocation of the Celtic-Laker rivalry, which was thought to have died in the ‘80s. It reared its head just in time to cost the Timberwolves Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell in the ‘90s. That was the Lakers’ offer for Tom Gugliotta, who wound up going to Phoenix as a free agent, with Minnesota getting nothing. Said an Eastern general manager to Newsday: “If you’re going to lose a player, you might as well get value. If it was me and the option was losing him to Phoenix and getting nothing or doing a sign-and-trade, I don’t think it would be a tough decision.”

Good to see he learned his lesson, kind of: Christian Laettner has decided he won’t be so outspoken in Detroit, lest he be misunderstood, as he was at Atlanta, Minnesota, Duke and Nichols Prep in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. “I am sure I opened my mouth one or two times and people didn’t like it,” Laettner said. “That might have gotten me in trouble. The same thing happened in Minnesota. I have to be careful. I really hope this is the type of team that will take that kind of energy and use it the right way and not let it rip a team apart.” Said former teammate Dikembe Mutombo: “Sometimes he wouldn’t speak to us for two, three days. He would practice and leave and he wouldn’t even shower.”

Laettner, starting to rip the Pistons apart, on the coolness between him and Grant Hill: “Grant might still have a chip on his shoulder from when we were at Duke. I know Bobby Hurley did and Cherokee Parks did and everybody who was younger did. Just like I had a chip on my shoulder about Danny Ferry because I was younger than he was. That’s the way it was at Duke. We were tough on each other, the older guys showing the younger guys the ropes.” . . . Laettner says he has “much love” for Hill, will never forget waking up from his recent operation to see Grant at his bedside and calls him the best he has ever played with, adding: “He still can’t shoot very much. We’re working on that though.” . . . OK, we get the idea now. He goes months without talking and when he breaks his silence, says the wrong thing.

Indiana Pacer President Donnie Walsh, acknowledging reports he had bid for Sprewell to boost the price to the Knicks or Heat: “My job is to protect our franchise and put it in the best position. That doesn’t always add up to forthrightness.” . . . Good luck: Scottie Pippen on joining the Houston Rockets: “A dominant center inside is a little different than I’m accustomed to. But I want to make Hakeem [Olajuwon] as great as Michael Jordan.”