Portland on Trail Full of Trouble

Blazermania, catch it and die: With things looking ragged in Lakerdom, you fans could probably stand some cheering up, so here goes.

Things look just as shaky in Blazerdom.

The players are upset at Coach Mike Dunleavy, who can’t find playing time for all of them. General Manager Bob Whitsitt is unhappy with Dunleavy, because Whitsitt assembled this $81-million asylum and could be in trouble, himself, if it turns out the inmates aren’t good enough.

The Trail Blazers were 35-15 at the All-Star break with a favorable schedule. They’re 10-9 since with five home losses, including defeats against the Boston Celtics and Vancouver Grizzlies.

Rasheed Wallace, the human technical foul, is on a binge unprecedented even for him. He just tied his NBA record with 38 technicals. He has been ejected four times--just since the break--besides having been suspended for two games for throwing a towel in a referee’s face.

“It’s a major problem,” teammate Detlef Schrempf said of Wallace’s temper. “I think it should have been addressed a long time ago, but it hasn’t been. [Now] it’s too late.”

Feelings were already fraying when Whitsitt tried sprinkling gunpowder on the campfire, acquiring Rod Strickland, taking minutes from Damon Stoudamire, one of the few Trail Blazers who wasn’t already unhappy.

Said Whitsitt, “I’m not a chemistry major. I’m a sports major. Rod fits in great and you’ll find that Rod and the fellas get along really well.”

Rod and the fellas went 0-5 before notching their first victory together.

During a loss at Seattle, when Dunleavy took out Scottie Pippen, who’s supposed to be the glue that holds things together, Pippen slammed a water bottle on the court and snarled, “This . . . can’t coach!”

Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee . . .

You might be wondering what Milwaukee has to do with this, but that’s where George Karl is.

Whitsitt restarted Karl’s career, hiring him in Seattle. Karl is now the toast of Milwaukee but despite being near all that beer and bratwurst, he’s stalling Buck owner Herb Kohl, even though Kohl has offered him a $7-million-a-year extension that includes 1% of the team, meeting Karl’s grandiose request for “Phil Jackson money.”

What’s Karl waiting for?

How about an invitation to leave the Wisconsin tundra for the relatively balmy Pacific Northwest?

By convention, Karl shouldn’t comment on, much less drool all over, another coach’s job while the other guy’s still in it. Not that it slowed Karl down.

“I’d love to share the coaching moments with Gurg [Portland assistant coach Tim Grgurich, who was on Karl’s Seattle staff] again,” Karl told ESPN.com’s Frank Hughes.

“Bob Whitsitt--I owe my career to Bob Whitsitt. He gave me a chance when I was coaching in Spain that nobody else would give me.”

Said Dunleavy, who has enough troubles, “As I understand it, George is under contract next year so that would be an interesting scenario. . . .

“I work hard and I do what I have to do. It’s management’s decision, totally, about who coaches the team.”

Dunleavy has walked a tightrope above triumph and termination, antagonizing the players by splitting up minutes, even as Whitsitt added more players.

Last summer’s ballyhooed acquisitions made them even deeper--six Trail Blazers have been all-stars--and unhappier.

Shawn “Shamu” Kemp, surely embarrassed by the spectacle he has become, is upset at playing 16 minutes a game.

Dale Davis signed a two-year, $19-million extension in Indiana, demanded a trade, was dealt to the Trail Blazers for Jermaine O’Neal, then skipped a practice and stomped off to Las Vegas to protest coming off the bench.

Last week they dropped to No. 6 in the West and Dunleavy shortened his rotation, in essence telling Kemp, Schrempf, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony he didn’t care who was upset, he was going down with his best players.

Since, they’re 3-1, including wins at Dallas and Utah.

Of course, the Lakers have their own suggestions of disharmony, especially between Jackson and Kobe Bryant, even though Jackson’s job is safe and Bryant insists he’s a Laker for life.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, all their foes can’t fall apart. Things look good in San Antonio and OK in Salt Lake City. Today, they play Jackson’s favorite rednecks and can check out the Sacramento Kings, personally.

These days, if you’re a Laker, you take what comfort there is where you find it.

FACES AND FIGURES

Like Southern Californians (hooray!), Canadian taxpayers don’t like building facilities for teams. Says Peter Ufford, head of a group trying to keep the Grizzlies in Vancouver, of offers to put up buildings by Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn.: “Down there, they see it as economic development. Here we see it as subsidy.” . . . Endangered Denver Coach/General Manager Dan Issel, sounding as if he knows his end is near as he watched fans give Nugget great David Thompson a standing ovation: “Would the fans do that for me?” . . . You know you’re in trouble when: Before the season, Issel cut No. 2 pick Dan McClintock, trying to soften it by inviting him to camp next fall. McClintock thanked Issel but noted he had heard Issel might not still be there. . . . Rick Pitino’s legacy lives: Boston’s Kenny Anderson, who has played 33 games because of injuries, averaging a career-low 7.5 points: “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way and write up a crazy article and say Kenny Anderson is unhappy, things like this. But I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror at the end of the season, the general manager, the [people] running this thing, and be like, ‘Is Kenny Anderson in our best interest?’ If not, get me up out of here where I can be productive, somewhere where I can be Kenny Anderson.” . . . This would be easier if Kenny Anderson didn’t have two more years worth

$17 million on his contract. . . . The most valuable and least publicized of the Dallas Mavericks, point guard Steve Nash, is playing despite hamstring and hip injuries, after captaining the Canadian Olympic team last summer. Nevertheless, Coach Don Nelson, trying to sneak up into home-court advantage in the first round, is keeping him in. “I don’t think we can afford to rest Steve Nash, to be quite honest,” Nelson said. “We’ve been kind of walking on eggshells with Nash for a month now. He’s been able to play, we’ve kept him healthy with a lot of therapy, a lot of days off. But it finally caught up with us.”

Utah’s Jerry Sloan, on 6-foot-8, 235-pound Detroit center Ben Wallace, who’s No. 3 in the league in rebounds and No. 11 in blocks: “Anybody who has the desire to work as hard as he does and make himself a better player, that’s what I admire. There are a lot of guys in this league who start off, play 10 years and are still the same players they were when they started. Guys like Ben who come in and work and make themselves better, that’s what it’s all about.” . . . Memories: Lorenzen Wright, reminiscing about the day former Atlanta Hawk teammate J.R. Rider blew up at teammates on the bus: “Man, he went off against all of us. Me, Deek [Dikembe Mutombo] . . . all of us. It was amazing because nobody had done anything to him. We were going to do a Fanny Mae [charity] project and he wasn’t happy about it. But when we got there, he apologized to all of us. He told us sometimes he just has to do that and it’s nobody’s fault so he can come back and say he’s sorry.” . . . Mutombo called then-Coach Lenny Wilkens’ attempts to look the other way when Rider was late “Operation Cover-Up.” Mutombo says Wilkens would keep the players in the dressing room under the pretext of watching videotape until Rider was ready. “As soon as the tape went into the machine, I would look at Alan Henderson, and we would say, ‘OCU,’ ” Mutombo said. . . . Cleveland Cavalier management, which watched silently while Kemp ate himself out of town, is standing up to 300-something-pound Robert “Tractor” Traylor. The third-year forward was averaging 17 minutes and 5.9 points when they put him on the injured list for “overall conditioning.” Said General Manager Jim Paxson: “He could have helped us. At some point, the light bulb has got to go on.” . . . Replied Traylor: “I think my light bulb has been on. I always play as hard as I can when I’m out there.” . . . Wrote the Cleveland Plain Dealer in a St. Patrick’s Day limerick: “The Cavs were looking too slim/So they signed Chucky Brown on a whim./He wanted to stay/For more than 10 days/But feared Tractor Traylor might eat him.”