The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 43

Cos Atiflelcs Sllmea Sunday, March 28, 19K2I'art III 3 in Moses Maone, the NBA Mas Met the Irresistible Force By ALAN GREENBERG, Times Staj Wrilcr Malone's lawyers tried to gel the Knicks to lake him, but they were gun-shy, having just been burned trying to steal George McGinnis from Indiana. The Trail Blazers, picking fifth, took him but only for trading purposes. After all, they had what seemed to be a healthy Bill Walton. The Nuggets bought him from Portland, but backed off at the last minute and picked up Paul Silas, a proven NBA veteran. You see, Malone in those days bore a stigma, only some of it of his own making.

For one thing, he was a former ABA player. To most NBA people, the ABA was a can Basketball Assn. and the NBA. "But he's capable of being overwhelming. He's so quick, has so much desire.

can be everywhere." Said Abdul -Jabbar: "If people said I'm almost as good as he is, I'd be flattered." Said teammate Robert Reid: "His style of play is like wool. Wool looks good, but at times, it's rough." Professional athletes have enormous pride and usually are extremely reluctant to attribute their success and their franchise's hopes to any one player. But the Rockets don't hesitate to say that their success is wholly Moses. The only one who disputes that is Malone. "We don't win without Moses.

It's that simple," said 12-year veteran guard Calvin Murphy. "He's the hub of everything." Someone asked reserve Rockets forward Major Jones what the Rockets would have without Malone. Moses Malonc won the National Basketball Most Valuable Player award for the 1978-79 season. So when the 1979-80 season began, the Houston Rockets' proud public address announcer introduced him as such. For the Rockets' first two home games, that is.

Malone then told the trainer to tell the announcer to can the superlative. Which he did. Malone doesn't like people making a big deal of his accomplishments. "People knew I won the MVP," Malone said. "That's enough.

You don't have to bury it into people's heads." But that's exactly what the 6-10, 245-pound Malone, who turned 27 Thursday, is doing again in this, his greatest season. The two-time NBA rebounding champion again leads the league in rebounding (averaging 14.4) and is second in scoring (31.3) to San Antonio's George Gervin as he bids to become the first player in 10 years to lead the NBA in both categories. Ih fr i ft "I W. 4S tLrr' ill I inTirminM-m-rT-1 'If he had the hands, I think he might be the greatest player of all time. He'd be a 6-10 Dr.

J. -TOM NISSALKE, former NBA coach UV Malone also leads the league in minutes played points in one game (53), rebounds in one game (32), offensive rebounds for the season (964) and in one game 21 The last is an NBA record. Malone held the old one 19. In February, Malone played some of the greatest basketball in the history of the league. He averaged 38.1 points and 17.3 rebounds, scored 40 or more points six times and 30 or more in 13 of the Rockets' 14 games.

He had 20 or more rebounds six times, and when he got his high of 32 against Seattle the entire Sonics team got only 29. "I was helpless against him," Sonics center Jack Sikma, the NBA's second-leading rebounder, told the Washington Post. "We were all helpless." That's a common plaint of Malone opponents these days. Not coincidentally, the Rockets in February were 11-3, the best month in their 15-year history. "He's not as slick as (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar was in his prime," said Tom Nis-salke, who coached Malone in the Ameri- "A dispersal draft," Jones said.

It's happened before. So exceptional was Malone's talent that in 1974 he became the first basketball player to go directly from high school (Petersburg, Va.) to the pros, joining the Utah Stars of the now defunct ABA. The Stars folded in Malone's second season, while he was out with a broken foot. To this day Nissalke, who coached Malone at Utah and later at Houston, contends that if the Stars could have stayed afloat for another 10 days until Malone returned, the franchise might have survived. "I'm convinced the Utah Stars would have been in the NBA if he hadn't been injured," Nissalke said.

"That took the stuffing out of the franchise." As it was, Malone was consigned by lot to the Spirits of St. Louis, and when the ABA went out of business at the end of the 1975-76 season, he was put in the dispersal draft. It would be nice to report that the NBA was thrilled by his availability. It would also be a lie. league of showoffs and gunners compiling meaningless statistics.

There were also doubts about Malone himself. He was still quite young 19 then), lacked college background and fundamentals, and was said to be monosyllabic. There was also his contract. It was for $300,000 a year, none of it deferred, exceptional money in those days for a starting center, let alone one destined to be Walton's backup. In the final analysis, it did not matter that Portland scout Bucky Buckwalter, who had coached Malone in the ABA and Please see MALONE, Page 8 Los Angeles Times Moses Malone takes the ball to the basket against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Lakers.

Abdul-Jabbar says he is flattered to be compared to Malone. obby Steps Out of Cockpit and into the Pits A new team to be reckoned with in auto racing is the combination of rising starjosele Garza (left) and Bobby Unser, the veteran star who has a new role as Garza's team manager. But in all those years Unser was developing cars that he would drive. This year he is developing a car for a 23-year-old who has run only 12 Indy car races, finished only five and has never finished better than sixth last October here at Phoenix "So far I've done nearly all the driving in the car." said Unser. "One problem is that he doesn't fit in the car when it's set up for me.

We've only tested four times, all at Phoenix, and that's not enough. "The only time Josele is in the car is at the end of the day when I've finished testing. He gets in to get the feel of what I've done, but it's not the answer. It will be a happy day when he can do the testing himself. He'll be a better race driver for it, but for now I have to do the work because it's all developmental." Garza, who has spent more time in Albuquerque with Unser than home in Mexico since the team was formed in January, understands why he isn't getting more time at the wheel.

"Bobby knows the different things that need to be tested, things like wing settings, suspension, things he understands from experience. When he makes a change, he knows if it's better or not in two laps. If he says it's better, I get in and take 10 laps to get the feel of how it handles. "It's not easy to work with Bobby Unser unless you're prepared to go 24 hours a day. It's all work, work, work, day and night at Albuquerque.

His garage is right in front of his house so if he's not working on the chassis, he's testing the engines on his own dynomometer." The car is a British-built March, which Garza purchased from A. J. Foyt after Unser said it was the one he wanted. Foyt won the Pocono 500 with it in its only start. Please see UNSER, Page 12 By SHAV GLICK, Times Staff Writer PHOENIX Every year since 1964, Bobby Unser has come here from Albuquerque twice a year to race at Phoenix International Raceway.

In those 18 years he hasn't missed a race. Bobby has four wins, nine seconds and two thirds on the odd-shaped mile track 20 miles west of Phoenix. He is such a fixture in the area that he built a Bobby Unser Chevrolet agency a couple of miles from the track. Today all that changes. For the first time since 1964, Bobby Unser won't be driving a race car when the Kra-co 150 first of CART's PPG Indy Car series-is flagged away.

He'll be here, all right, but in the pits, giving orders as team manager, crew chief and racing professor to Mexico's Josele Garza, Rookie of the Year in last year's Indianapolis 500. Not since Sam Hanks retired after winning the 1957 Indianpolis 500 has the champion retired voluntarily but Bobby Unser is 48 and he has tied his future to Garza and Garza's Mexican banking and supermarket fortune. Will he miss not driving? "Damn right I will," Unser replied as he watched his protege qualify 12th Saturday for today's race. "It's gonna take some getting used to, but I knew that when I made my commitment to this team. I reckon I'll have some frustrating moments watching instead of driving.

It won't be an easy task, but I never thought it would be." Unser has no plans to drive this year even at Indianapolisalthough he says many teams want him to drive their cars. He's the defending champion at the Speedway. "My only commitment this year is to get this team operating," he said. "Until that happens I won't make any commitments for Indy or anything else." Mears is another who appreciates the Unser work ethic. Now that Bobby is gone, Mears is the test pilot.

Earlier this month he was commuting between here and Indianapolis, testing new Penske PClOs at both tracks. The work apparently paid off as Mears obliterated Bobby U's qualifying record Saturday with a one-mile lap at 150.143 m.p.h. Unser's old mark, set in 1977, was 148.699. "I know we can't beat Bobby's 15 years of development experience," said Mears, "but I feel we can get the job done. Doing all the testing will help me in the race.

I want a win here. This track has not been good to me. Or to Roger (Penske)." Mears is 0-7 at Phoenix and Penske is 0-19. going back to the late Mark Donohue in 1971. If Unser does race May 30 it will probably be either in Garza's backup March, or in Roger Penske's third car.

He drove for Penske last year. Over the years Bobby has been one of racing's finest developmental drivers. He teamed with chief mechanic Jud Phillips to develop Dan Gurney's Eagle into a winner for Bob Wilkie in the 1968 Indy 500; then went to work for Gurney in 1971 to develop an entirely new Eagle, a 200 m.p.h. performer that set records at every track and eventually won at Indianapolis in 1975; and then did all the test work on the Penske cars that led to Rick Mears winning the 1979 Indy race and Unser winning last year. It was Bobby U's developmental skills that enabled Penske to finish 1-2-3 with Unser, Mears and Mario Andretti in the 1979 California 500 at Ontario.

Morning Briefing Ileathcote Raises the Ante on Illegal Payments Issue and Stands on His Record i i i the last few years. He can throw a Softball now and runs well, but doesn't try to beat opponents. His fun is in running, not winning." Champ Summers, now with the San Francisco Giants, on how he got his name: "The story my dad tells me is that I was so ugly when I was born he thought I had gone 10 rounds already. He stuck it on me at birth and I've had to live with it all that time, like a boy named Sue." Among the coaches in the NBA complaining that there is one set of rules for the Boston Celtics and another for the rest of the league is Milwaukee's Don Nelson. "He's full of.

and you can quote me on that," Celtics Coach Bill Fitch said. Nelson, of course, used to play for the Celtics. Billy Martin, after seeing all the golf carts in the retirement community of Sun City, said: "This is a town Earl Weaver could live in. He wouldn't need a driver's license to gel around." ichigan Stale basketball Coach Jud If Hcathcotc doesn't agree with Digger Phelps that some colleges, in order to lure top players, arc offering $10,000 under-the-table payments. "It's higher than that," Heathcotc said, offering no estimate.

What can be done about the cheating? "I think Digger has been quoted as favoring the death penalty for any form of cheating in college basketball," Ileathcote said. Asked if Michigan State has ever offered under-the-table payments, Hcathcotc said: "We do not get into any form of illegal inducement. that's why we're losing." The people sitting in the cheapest scats at the Superdomc Saturday were the equivalent of 19 stories up and about a city block away from the floor. "They didn't warn me I'd need an oxygen mask and mountain-climbing equipment," said Dorlorcs Batts of Houston after taking an endless number of escalators and then walking up the final 72 steps to the top. "If you think people on Bourbon Street are high, they ought to be sitting in my scat," said Jerry King of Easley, S.C.

Even with binoculars, the players looked like ants on a hot sidewalk. But complaints were minimal. "I'd be here if I hud to wear a blindfold," said Nevin Rice, a North Carolina graduate from Spanish Fort, Ala. "I can brag that I was one of the 61,000 to see a basketball championship." One fan, nursing a whiskey sour, said, "After a few of these, nobody will care where he sits." Coach Sonja Hogg of Louisiana Tech, which faces Cheyncy State (Pa.) in today's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball championship game (9 a.m., PST, Channel 2) has an unusual concern. Her Lady Techstcrs are unaccustomed to playing in a close game.

Tech (34-1) has a winning margin of 34 points. Its one loss was to Old Dominion last January, and that came after 54 straight wins. It has won all but one of its other games by at least 10 points. Yankees pitcher Hon Guldry, speaking about his brother Travis, 14, who is mentally retarded: "What I have done in baseball is nothing compared to what Travis has done Quotebook Amot latfd I'rran Philadelphia Eagles Coach Dick Vermeil, when asked if he was a Rolling Stones fan: "Nah. I've never heard their music.

But my sons get their magazine you know, The Rolling Stones." First Rose of spring Pete Rose, 40, making his spring debut after being out with a back injury, takes a throw at first base Saturday. He had two hits in Phils' 4-2 win over Dodgers..