THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : This Record Has More Than Passing Interest

The Big M: Between next Thursday’s game against Utah (if he’s hot) or the one against Dallas April 15 (if he’s not), Magic Johnson will break Oscar Robertson’s assist record of 9,887.

Most likely, to the delight of NBC--which is doing the game--it will happen Saturday at Portland.

You can imagine how it will go down. There will be grainy film of young Earvin with bushy haircut, running the show at Lansing Everett and Michigan State. They’ll produce the Big O, in person or on video, to bless the event. Trail Blazer fans may stop booing the referees long enough to applaud warmly.

Not only is it nice, it’s recyclable.

They may be able to do it over in eight years or so when Utah’s John Stockton, who has broken the single-season record twice in three years, could be running Johnson down.

Then they’ll show grainy films of Stockton with Beatles-style bangs at Gonzaga. Johnson, head of his own multinational conglomerate, will fly his Lear jet in from Nova Scotia where he’s gone to see a total eclipse of the sun.

That’s OK with him, too.

“I never thought a player like me would have a chance to have records,” Johnson says. “I’m not a record guy.

“Even when I accomplish them, they never stand. I got to Michigan State and set an assist record but here comes Scott Skiles. What I am, what they never can take away, is five championships.

“John is going to break it, no question about it. But till he breaks it, I’m going to feel good. However long it lasts, Earvin Johnson Jr. is going to feel good. “

One definition of a great man is one who never reminds us of anyone. The Big O, who averaged triple-doubles for his first three seasons, need never mind which smurf tracks up his records.

Nor will Earvin Johnson Jr. Whenever we think of him, we’ll feel good.

Cry me a river: General managers can’t discuss undergraduates but when Shaquille O’Neal announced that he would stay at LSU, you could have surfed to Baton Rouge on their tears.

With him, they had a great lottery.

Without him?

“We really should have a first round of eight or nine players,” says one general manager.

“Everybody else should be on the second round.”

Elder statesman: As a Michigan State sophomore once phoned his idol, Julius Erving, for advice on turning pro, undergrads now call Johnson.

Shaquille called him--or at least O’Neal’s father did--as did Georgia Tech’s Kenny Anderson and Syracuse’s Billy Owens.

“I ask them, are they ready mentally?” Johnson says. “I tell them, in college, physically they’re the best but this game is mental. Here the coach can’t protect you. The program can’t protect you. You have more games--instead of 25 or 30, you’ve got 82. You’ve got the press, the traveling.

“You have the hangers-on, what we call excess baggage, who want to get with you because you’re making $2-3 million now.

“You don’t know those things sitting in a college dormitory.”

Know when to say when: Through the loophole in the league’s substance-abuse program, Dallas’ bedeviled Roy Tarpley drove his German touring car, at 63 m.p.h. in a 35 zone, according to police, carrying three open bottles of beer and five full ones.

He refused a Breathalyzer test, claiming he’d drunk the beer at home before going out to listen to some music.

We haven’t gotten to the incredible part yet.

Tarpley has been suspended, and may be jailed, but even after two acknowledgments of cocaine use and a prior DUI conviction, this can not be the “third strike” invoking the “death penalty” in the NBA’s toughest-of-all-leagues program.

The program makes no mention of alcohol abuse. Of course, drinking is legal and drugs are not, but drinking and driving is not legal either, not to mention the grave threat that constitutes to society at large.

A program so short-sighted must answer the question of whether it was designed to combat addiction as much as for another concern--image.

Or whether the sponsorship of the Miller Brewing Company remains defensible.

Tarpley, you may remember, was once “Lite Beer Sixth Man of the Year.”

Add Tarpley: He has accused the police of lying. His lawyer produced a picture from his 1989 DUI arrest showing Roy with a puffy eye and made a reference to “seven scumbag narc officers.”

In the wake of the Rodney King beating, the lawyer noted that Dallas Police Chief William Rathburn is newly arrived from the LAPD and that all the arresting officers in this case were white.

At least one Dallas resident backs his local police force.

“I feel we have a pretty dadgum good police department and I support them,” said Maverick owner Donald Carter.

“I don’t think they deserve any smudging by any of our players or anyone else who makes their livelihood off the city of Dallas, I’ll tell you that.”

NBA Notes

Portland’s Jerome Kersey, after the Trail Blazers had opened a lead on the Lakers: “It’s either Magic Johnson or James Worthy. They used to have more go-to guys. Of course, they used to have Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), too. Now it’s different. They don’t have the kind of team everybody’s afraid of.” From everyone in Laker management, a hearty “Thank you, Jerome.”

The race in the Pacific has cooled down, with 2 1/2 games separating each of the big three powers from one another at the start of the weekend. This could allow the coaches to rest their players, as the Eastern powers are doing--unless the race tightens or they start “making statements.” . . . Meanwhile, the big three in the Midwest Division started the weekend all within one game. They’re obliged to go all out, since the winner opens with Golden State, while the runners-up start on the road against the Lakers and Phoenix Suns.

Latest from the rebuilding project in Denver: Co-owner Bertram Lee is out, having failed to kick in $5 million, his share of this season’s $10 million loss. Here’s a brief history: Lee and Peter Bynoe announced they were buying the team last summer, becoming the first black owners of a big league team. When the deal fell through, Commissioner David Stern, eager to save the pilot program, brought in COMSAT’s Bob Wussler, who had done business with the league as sports director of CBS and Ted Turner’s WTBS. Lee and Wussler wanted popular Doug Moe out so he left--with the Nuggets obligated to pay off his $1.5 million contract. Lee was evicted from his $3,000-a-month Denver apartment, with his furniture confiscated to pay back rent and his silverware and china thrown in the street. Wussler wants General Manager Carl Scheer out. COMSAT is in trouble and wants to sell. Moe wants to put together a group to buy the team--with another former Nugget, Larry Brown, as co-owner and coach.

Trevor Wilson, a No. 2 draft choice of the Atlanta Hawks, skipped a pregame shoot-around last week, then surfaced in Italy, where he was to sign a contract after getting clear of the NBA. Mindful that he couldn’t be waived from the injured list, Wilson left this message on GM Pete Babcock’s answering machine: “I’m OK. I’m healthy now.” Said Coach Bob Weiss: “I’ve had players miss practice. I’ve had players who didn’t know the plays. I’ve had players who didn’t know the plays when they were supposed to shoot the ball. But I’ve never had a guy in the wrong country.”

Owner Harold Katz of the Philadelphia 76ers on speculation that Charles Barkley might be traded: “I’m sure any team would trade any player for the right deal. Any team, including us.” . . . Stacey King pierced the Chicago Bulls’ brief era of good feeling, skipping practice and getting suspended for one game--which cost him $12,195. King was incensed that Coach Phil Jackson hadn’t played him in a double-overtime game at Boston because “I didn’t feel he was into it.” Said King, “The coach didn’t have the guts to come to me. That was hypocritical. He put a gag order on the team and said we shouldn’t go to the newspapers and now he does.” King again demanded a trade, adding, “I don’t care if I have to go to Minnesota.” Comment: That’s two of us.

.Houston’s Vernon Maxwell has threatened to take a walk if his $200,000 salary isn’t renegotiated to something closer to $1.5 million. Said Mad Max, “Right now I feel like walking away from it. I’ve been broke all my life so what’s another four or five months if I walk out?” Comment: That will be four or five months the Rockets will be without the worst shot selection this side of World B. Free. . . . Detroit started the weekend 12-12 since the All-Star break, the same record as Orlando’s. . . . The Golden State Warriors, unhappy at site discussions about a new arena, are hinting they could move to Anaheim. Comment: Don’t hold your breath.