BAD GUYS GONE GOOD

The Portland Trail Blazers?

Are they still in this division?

Not only in it but on top of it. By this time of year, the little scamps are usually down at the precinct, sitting for their pictures, but happily (for some), things change.

The Lakers imploded even earlier and more spectacularly than usual. The Seattle SuperSonics, who won or shared division titles four of the last five seasons, misplaced their coach and threw themselves onto the junk heap of history. Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers romped home, winning the Pacific Division title for the first time since the days of Clyde Drexler and Kevin Duckworth.

Whatever happened to the “Jail Blazers”? Where have all the felons gone, long time passing?

Darned if they know.

“I wondered about the chemistry,” says Brian Grant, the young power forward who has made such a move as a leader, he’s now compared in Portland to the sainted Buck Williams.

“I knew we had the talent, but I was just wondering how we were going to make the talent mold together.”

So how did they do it?

“I don’t know,” Grant says.

It wasn’t something you would have predicted, or, for that matter, they would have predicted.

“I’m not going to lie,” point guard Damon Stoudamire says. “I couldn’t have pictured this in my wildest dreams. . . . The one thing we tried to focus on at the beginning of the year--that we didn’t do last year when I got traded here--was win games you’re supposed to win. . . . And when I say games you’re supposed to win, you’re supposed to beat Vancouver, you’re supposed to beat the Clippers, you’re supposed to beat Denver, teams like that.

“When I was here last year, we lost to Denver, Vancouver. Denver twice!”

The Nuggets won 11 games all last season, three against winning teams. The Nuggets almost beat them a third time, after which Coach Mike Dunleavy was asked about his young team.

“If I knew the answer to that,” Dunleavy said, “I wouldn’t have just majored in psychology, I’d have a PhD by now and written five to 10 books.”

The answer turned out to be improbable enough. To all those emotional kids who were already upset enough about one thing or another, they started this season by adding two overlooked free agents, Jimmy Jackson and Greg Anthony, and going to a 10-man rotation, which figured to add to everyone’s list of complaints. . . .

But didn’t.

They finished the season with no one averaging 14 points, but they were No. 5 in scoring and No. 10 in defense. If they can make this last--they’re hopeful, even if they’re not sure--they’ll have become a team.

See? It can happen.

Trader Bob’s Back in Town

“We’re not L.A., OK? People aren’t coming to Portland because it’s sunny, it’s got the entertainment capital. . . . Guys usually don’t call up and say, ‘I’m dying to come to Portland.’ . . .

“We’ve always been willing to be aggressive, we’ve always been willing to be risk-takers. And ultimately, the players get the opportunity to show us that we’re right. But if we’re wrong, we don’t keep trying to force the round peg into the square hole. We make a change and we move on.”

Trail Blazer General Manager Bob Whitsitt

****

In the Pacific Division, you have your Lakers, who are in a sunny, entertainment capital, and your other teams, which are essentially guerrillas hiding in the hills.

In an era in which recruiting is everything, no one can match the Lakers, who rebuilt themselves overnight by signing Shaquille O’Neal, who was so taken with the area, he garaged a Mercedes-Benz out here for years.

None of the guerrillas, however, is as bold or clever as Whitsitt, who built the SuperSonics into a power before falling out with owner Barry Ackerley and fleeing to Portland. Now Trader Bob has Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s billions to play with. Even Laker officials fret about that parlay.

The Trail Blazers, who never had a lottery pick, have acquired seven from other teams, even if the more talented the new guys were, the louder they were ticking.

In his early days with J.R. Rider, Whitsitt compared him to Wyatt Earp, noting, “The legend sometimes is bigger than the reality.” Unfortunately, the reality soon caught up to the legend.

Kenny Anderson, whose glow was dimming, got a seven-year, $47-million contract, in the hope he’d thrive away from New York and expectations. “We just said, ‘Come out, be Kenny Anderson,’ ” Whitsitt said after signing him. Unfortunately, Anderson took them at their word.

Rasheed Wallace, a 6-11 gazelle with shooting range, was great until he got six years at $80 million and was paired with Grant ($55 million), a tough, inside player. On paper, they looked like a good fit but not on the court.

There were Rider’s arrests and suspensions; the night he left early, pointing to his girlfriend in the stands to come with him; brushes with the law for traffic violations, busting up an airline terminal, etc. Throw in a few sundry arrests for such as Gary Trent--nothing major, only enough to make the police blotter--and an image was born.

In Portland, which once doted on its heroes, it didn’t play well. Their 18-year sellout streak in their 12,666-seat arena ended as soon as they moved into the 21,000-seat, state-of-the-art, interactive, etc., Rose Garden. After three seasons, Allen gave up and pulled out 2,000 seats.

“It definitely was a concern,” Whitsitt says of the wild days. “We don’t like that image. We don’t like the reputation.

“I’m sure it still lingers out there, but if you really look at the roster, we’ve got great guys. Brian Grant could run for mayor. Jimmy Jackson has won humanitarian awards. Damon, all these guys do great things in the community. Arvydas [Sabonis], he’s building a school for children in Lithuania.

“The only guy--and I’ll be positive--with a track record, and it’s not going to jail, is J.R. I’m not going to deny what he’s done in the past, but on our watch, in three seasons, he has gotten better each season. That’s the good news. The bad news is, he’s still not perfect, like a lot of them aren’t.”

When Whitsitt traded Anderson to Toronto for Stoudamire last February, it would have taken a miracle to pull the Trail Blazers back together. Stoudamire was a leader on the floor, an engaging elf off it, but only a 40% shooter.

Besides, whatever surprise Stoudamire was to them, this was nothing compared to what they were to him.

“Man, it was hectic last year,” he says. “It was just too hectic. It was definitely not what I expected when I got traded.

“At times, I ain’t gonna lie to you, I would have been back in Toronto sometimes because it was just--everything might look rosy but within the lines, it was kinda ugly, know what I mean?”

Not really. It didn’t look rosy at all.

The Prisoner of Milwaukee

Whitsitt also has an eye for distressed coaches, having turned the SuperSonics around in a single stroke by hiring George Karl, then in virtual exile in Spain.

In Portland, he spotted another exile, if in a colder climate: Dunleavy, who had moldered for a year in Milwaukee’s front office after owner Herb Kohl fired him as coach but couldn’t agree on a settlement of his contract.

Like Karl, Dunleavy had once been considered a comer, after taking the Lakers to the 1991 NBA finals as a rookie, before stumbling in Milwaukee, more on personnel decisions than coaching. He arrived, determined to give his new players a chance, insisting that whatever problems they’d had, he hadn’t seen any of that.

So, they showed him.

Rider missed seven games on various suspensions (five ordered by the Trail Blazers, two by the league, $395,000 worth.) Wallace went home for his grandfather’s funeral and stayed for a week, neglecting to inform the team when he’d return. Not only were they temperamental, they couldn’t shoot and the pieces didn’t fit.

When the lockout ended, Whitsitt, going for broke, as usual, offered Grant for the Warriors’ Latrell Sprewell and the Bulls’ Scottie Pippen but was turned down. (Even if you’re good, it helps to be lucky.)

All they did was sign the lightly recruited Jackson and Anthony. If outsiders missed the significance of the moves--especially Jackson--the Trail Blazers didn’t.

Jackson had been through four teams in two seasons, but, Whitsitt noted, “He seemed to always be part of these major trades where four guys are going here and three guys are going there. Which doesn’t necessarily mean, ‘Gee, we don’t like Jimmy.’ It means, ‘We’re on a bad team and we’re just loading up the truck and starting over.’ ”

With a single stroke, Rider’s blowups had become irrelevant. If he played well, he would play and if not, they’d go to Plan B--Jackson.

That was what Dunleavy had in mind for all of them, even Stoudamire, since Anthony proved a great backup. In a compacted season, with four or five games a week, depth was even more important, as everyone soon discovered.

“Where’d they get all those players?” the Suns’ Cliff Robinson asked late in the season after the Trail Blazers plowed them under. “I thought there was a salary cap.”

After the Trail Blazers toasted the Lakers by 27, Robert Horry said L.A. needed more depth. The Trail Blazers must have liked that, the Lakers looking to them for a blueprint.

“Our whole deal, our whole existence, is very fragile in my mind,” Dunleavy says. “Obviously, I’m pleased about it to this point, but I don’t take it for granted. . . .

“Things could change tomorrow, today. It’s really trying to stay on top of it, talk to players, head things off at the pass.”

He’d better stay in touch with Stoudamire, then, because the little guy can’t handle watching Anthony finish even the occasional game.

“It’s happened a lot, man,” Stoudamire says. “That’s frustrating, though, I can’t lie about that. That’s frustrating, regardless of whether we’re 27-7 or 7-27.

“I don’t think I’ll ever accept that. I gotta accept it, but in my mind, I can’t ever accept it. . . .”

When the schedule turned tough at the end, the Trail Blazers finished 8-9, including two crushings in the Forum by the Lakers, who no longer seemed as intimidated by Portland’s great depth.

So you wouldn’t say the Trail Blazers have turned it all the way around yet. On the other hand, as their fans could tell you, things could be worse.