THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Try to Remember Lakers From Their Magic Days

It would be nice if Byron Scott’s Laker career could end gracefully, but things don’t always work out that way. So there are hurt feelings and little snits like last week’s with Randy Pfund over the division of playing time with Anthony Peeler.

Scott, an unrestricted free agent-to-be, would love to be asked back, but there’s no chance of the Lakers re-signing a 32-year-old with a $1.1-million salary. For three summers, the ultimate Laker homeboy endured the rumors he was headed elsewhere; this is the summer it comes true.

He never became the star people thought he would when he was a high-kicking kid out of Arizona State in 1983. He settled into his role as Magic Johnson’s sidekick and rarely transcended it. He was never the same after he popped that hamstring the day before the ’89 finals.

But he has three championship rings and he earned them. By the back-to-back years, he had become a fine shooter and made some big ones: the 13-footer with 52 seconds to play in Game 6 of the ’88 finals with the Lakers three points behind the Detroit Pistons; the long jumpers in the final seconds that beat the Houston Rockets in Games 1 and 3 in ’91.

The Lakers were arrayed around Johnson like planets around a sun, complements in style and personality. When Magic left, their universe collapsed.

Players who knew what it took to win discovered what it took to be .500. James Worthy, the most professional and dignified of them, buckled under his load and has become persona non grata in his own organization. The days that will try souls locally are upon us and may last awhile, so let us remember Scott and Worthy and the rest the way they were all those years.

BOOBY PRIZE

If the inmates are running the asylum in Detroit, they are doing a good job of it.

Coach Ron Rothstein’s authority is a joke--he tried to send in plays from the dressing room after his ejection against the Chicago Bulls and was ignored--and Dennis Rodman blows off a shootaround a week, but the Pistons have won 10 of 15.

With Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Rodman injury-free, they are 33-17. However, Dumars isn’t sound (he has a sore knee, a hiatal hernia and three ulcers) and the schedule is against them (games at Cleveland and Chicago to start the week).

As unlikely as it sounds, with the New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets fading, the Pistons are probably the fourth-best team in the East but, should they sneak into the playoffs, would meet the No. 1 team.

After last week’s game at Auburn Hills, Mich., in which Bill Laimbeer hit Scott Williams with a two-handed slap to the face precipitating a melee, and Rodman jolted Michael Jordan out of the air, Chicago Coach Phil Jackson was wondering if finishing second and letting the New York Knicks stand in would be so bad.

“I think everyone fears playing them in the first round,” Jackson said of the Pistons. “This game will tell you why.

“We beat them a lot in the last two years, but every game has been like this one. They’d be more difficult for the Knicks. They play Knick-style ball. It would be another of those brutalizing series.”

Ask Jackson. That’s entertainment.

CRIME, PUNISHMENT, LAIMBEER

Despite the recent hue and cry about violence, the NBA usually errs on the side of action in disciplining players for fighting.

There have been no more fights this season than last, although more marquee names have been involved--Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Ewing. Over the last decade, fighting is down 50%.

However, fining Laimbeer only $12,000 for slapping down Williams is far too light. Laimbeer has a rap sheet as long as Manute Bol’s arm and is cheerfully unrepentant (“I committed a flagrant foul, so what?”)

There has been a lot of discussion that trash-talking provokes fights, but talking pales in comparison to the “hard foul,” which guys such as Hubie Brown still defend all over TV and most referees call delicately.

If you can’t make a basketball play, it should be called a flagrant foul, and that includes grabbing guys in the backcourt to prevent breakaways. A cumulative total of flagrant fouls should be kept and players should be suspended for repeat violations.

When in doubt, call it flagrant. If there’s an error, it should be in favor of the player, not the thug.

FACES AND FIGURES

Williams, asked to donate the jersey he had torn in his fight with Laimbeer for a charity auction: “Knowing the Bulls, they’ll just sew it up and make me wear it against Cleveland.” . . . Laimbeer, comparing the Knicks to the Piston championship teams: “We had much better scoring at all positions.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’d give Ewing an edge over Laimbeer. . . . Magnificent Six: With Billy Owens and Tim Hardaway sidelined, Tyrone Hill ejected and Chris Gatling conked on the head, the Golden State Warriors had only six players for last week’s second half at Denver. The only other player there, Chris Mullin, was doing radio, so the Warriors didn’t even have enough players on the bench to carry Gatling off. It would be nice to report they won, but they didn’t. . . . The lone bright spot for the Warriors has been Latrell Sprewell, the rookie guard and 24th pick in the draft, averaging 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds since March 1. “He’s incredible and he’s all ours,” Coach Don Nelson says. “We just love him to death. There’s no question he was the steal of the draft.” . . . Utah’s John Stockton is the only player to record 1,000 assists in a season. He has done it the last five seasons--but he needs a 15-assist average over his last five games to do it again.

Meeting the challenge head on: Seattle’s Shawn Kemp, bristling at being benched by George Karl, fouled out in his first three games as a reserve. “Hell no, I’m not going to commit to coming off the bench,” he said. “It’s not a permanent thing and I’m not used to it. I come in energized and when I get into the game, I make contact.” . . . Terry Cummings, sidelined all season because of a knee injury, is trying to come back, but San Antonio Coach John Lucas isn’t optimistic that he is the cavalry riding to the rescue.”He’s dragging his leg,” Lucas said. “He thinks he’s 100%. He thinks he isn’t dragging his leg, but he is.” . . . Phoenix Coach Paul Westphal, after the team bus to the Sports Arena was involved in a collision and arrived 45 minutes late: “That’s better than (Pat) Riley’s excuse about getting lost, isn’t it?” . . . New Jersey General Manager Willis Reed, after Cleveland’s Danny Ferry’s shot at the buzzer beat the Nets: “Ferry can’t do much, but he can shoot the ball.”

Larry Johnson, who said he would score 80 points the next time he saw the Knicks to get even for Riley’s short-timing him in the All-Star game, settled for 22. “Eighty?” Charles Oakley said before the game. “He may get 80 stitches.” . . . Brian Shaw was a 13% lifetime three-point shooter before he went 10 of 15 against Milwaukee last week, breaking the single-game record for most three-pointers. “They say I can’t shoot the ball,” he said, “but this will go down as one night that I could.” . . . Several days later, Orlando’s Dennis Scott made nine three-pointers against the Milwaukee Bucks but took himself out with three minutes left. “Todd Day came up to me and told me they weren’t going to let me get it,” Scott said. “I could hear Fred Roberts telling people to foul me. . . . I just didn’t think it was worth it.”

And people--be careful out there: The Nets lost Kenny Anderson and Chris Dudley for the season and Drazen Petrovic for a month. Then Coach Chuck Daly slipped and fell in the runway on his way to the dressing room, bruising his hand badly. . . . Search for Scottie (continued): Worn-out Scottie Pippen scored 22 points and shot 31% in three games last week. If he has lost it, color the Bulls dead. . . . Bull General Manager Jerry Krause went to the European Final Four to scout Toni Kukoc once more. Said Michael Jordan, never missing a chance to needle his general manager, after a fan hit a three-quarter-court shot to win $1 million: “I don’t think Toni Kukoc could have done that.” . . . Denver Coach Dan Issel, on Dikembe Mutombo’s late-season kick: “Dikembe is playing his tail off. Last year he was kind of a puddle on the floor at this point.”

Taps for a doofus: The Washington Bullets fired Jim Pogue, the man inside their goofy Hoops mascot, which somehow manages to be dumber than all the other mascots. Pogue hit a teen-ager over the head with an inflated bat and the kid swung back. . . . Now the bad news: The Bullets say they will get someone else to play Hoops. . . . Dominique Wilkins, 33, is about to become the oldest player to average 30 points. Only two men have done it: Jerry West (31.2 at age 31) and Rick Barry (30.6 at 30). Wilt Chamberlain averaged 33 at 29 but took 27% fewer shots the next season and averaged 24 points in leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an NBA title. . . . Dan Schayes, asking for a trade after Mike Dunleavy told him he didn’t fit into the Bucks’ future plans: “Mo (Moses Malone, an unrestricted free agent-to-be) is back and all of a sudden I’m behind him, too. How does Mo fit into their future? I’m waiting for them to have a fans’ promotion, Be a Buck for a Day. That guy will be ahead of me, too.”