Laker Change a Smooth One : Mike Dunleavy: Former assistant for Milwaukee Bucks, 36, again manages to get a lucky break.

He has survived a plane crash, a financial crash and the crashing and burning of an entire league.

Yet Mike Dunleavy has always landed on his feet.

“I am a lucky guy,” he said.

In one week, Dunleavy has gone from a 36-year-old lower-level assistant on Coach Del Harris’ Milwaukee Bucks staff, dreaming of someday becoming a head coach, to the ringmaster of Showtime, leader of the dominant team of the ‘80s.

“He is a highly coveted coach,” said Laker General Manager Jerry West in introducing Dunleavy to a crowd of reporters at Monday’s Forum press conference. “He had played for two people I greatly admire from a coaching standpoint, and that is Don Nelson and Del Harris.”

Turning to Dunleavy, West added, “Mike, I think it’s going to be fun and challenging for yourself. Hopefully, it’ll be a marriage made in heaven.”

When it appeared that the nine-year marriage of Coach Pat Riley and the Lakers was on the rocks, West immediately thought of Dunleavy, someone he had been keeping an eye on for several years.

“He has an analytical mind,” West said. “He is extremely bright and it is mesmerizing, watching him working with kids.”

When Dunleavy heard from Harris that the Lakers had asked permission to talk to him, he already felt as though he had won the lottery.

“I was very flattered to even be considered,” Dunleavy said.

But the euphoria didn’t last.

“Once I got past that point, I got real competitive,” he said. “I felt, ‘If I have a shot for the job, I want to go for it.’ ”

His odds seemed to be about as good as they were of playing in the NBA 14 years ago, when the Philadelphia 76ers drafted him from the University of South Carolina. There isn’t a big demand for sixth-round draft choices who stand just 6-3.

Even so, by using his outside shot, playing in-your-face defense and leading the league in floor burns, the hustling Dunleavy stayed employed in the league for eight years, bouncing from Philadelphia to Houston to San Antonio to Milwaukee.

In 1981, he even managed to sink the basket that eliminated the then-defending champion Lakers from the playoffs in the first round. West didn’t care for Dunleavy much that Sunday afternoon in the Forum, when he was playing for the Rockets.

But on Dec. 1, 1984, Dunleavy’s life took a twist.

Literally.

The Bucks’ team flight into Baltimore had already landed when the pilot, taxiing to the gate, came to a sudden, jarring stop to avoid hitting a truck.

Dunleavy was never the same. A back injury left him unable to play for several years. “I felt robbed,” Dunleavy said. “I had planned on playing a lot longer.”

Instead, he traded in his basketball for a briefcase and devoted himself to his second career, as a stockbroker on Wall Street. It was rewarding, but it wasn’t basketball.

“I was frustrated,” Dunleavy said. “After a couple of years of rehabilitation from the back injury, I went back. Wall Street was work. Basketball is not like working to me.”

Dunleavy left Wall Street before the big crash of 1987 and has been a Milwaukee assistant the last three seasons. He has even cranked up the old three-pointer on several occasions when injuries prompted the Bucks to activate him.

But he knew his future lay in coaching. And he figured, whatever happened, it had to be better than his first coaching experience.

That occurred after he was waived by Philadelphia in 1977. Considering law school, he instead became player-coach of the Carolina Lightning of the All-American Basketball Alliance.

Things started off great on the court where Dunleavy won seven of his first eight games. But the club wasn’t doing quite so well in the financial department.

“We hadn’t gotten paid,” Dunleavy said. “I told the players that if we hadn’t gotten our money by the eighth game, we should probably go about getting on with our lives.”

End of Lightning.

End of league.

And end of Dunleavy’s head coaching career until Monday.

Michael Cooper likes the choice his team has made. “All I know is that the guy was one of the daggers in our heels in ‘81,” Cooper said. “Now for him to be part of this is ironic. I played against Mike and I remember he was a fiery player. Kind of like Riley was. I think Mike is more defensive oriented under those two guys (Nelson and Harris). I think the youth and enthusiasm that will come from him will be good for the team.”

Dunleavy has yet to sign the multiyear contract, believed to be for four years, that he and the Lakers have agreed on, but that is considered a formality.

One problem he won’t have this time is getting paid. But there may be others.

When Riley inherited the job from Paul Westhead, there was heavy pressure to produce. Nine years and four NBA titles later, that pressure hasn’t lessened a bit.

West is a hands-on general manager who will hanging over Dunleavy’s shoulder with high expectations. The veteran core of this team--Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Michael Cooper and Byron Scott--have expectations and ideas of their own

Because of the Lakers’ dominance in the ‘80s, everybody from owner Jerry Buss to the fans in the cheap seats have come to expect 60 wins and a trip to the NBA finals every season.

And in Riley, Dunleavy is merely following one of the most successful coaches in NBA history.

“I can’t be Pat Riley,” he said. “I can’t compete with Pat Riley. He’s a Hall of Fame coach. He may be the best ever when all is said and done. I have to be Mike Dunleavy and coach the way I coach, which is to communicate and adapt.”

Asked if he could compete on a wardrobe level with Riley, the league’s fashion plate, Dunleavy just smiled.

“I also dress my own way,” he said. “It’ll be me, like it or not.”