King for a Day, King All Season : Pro basketball: Sacramento’s Richmond leads the West to All-Star victory and wins the game’s MVP award.

PHOENIX —  Sacramento King guard Mitch Richmond embarrassed himself at the NBA All-Star game in Minneapolis last season, missing 11 of 16 shots.

Richmond said he felt he was headed for another poor performance after missing his first two shots in the 1995 game on Sunday.

“When I missed the first two shots I said, ‘Oh, no, not again,’ ” he said.

But Richmond found his touch, making 10-of-13 shots and scoring 23 points in 22 minutes as a reserve to lead the West All-Stars to a 139-112 victory.

Richmond became the first reserve to be named the most valuable player of the All-Star game since Nate (Tiny) Archibald in 1981.

“I’ve been watching this game on TV for the last 10 or 12 years,” Richmond said. “You always dream of being up there (being voted the MVP), but it’s just overwhelming. I don’t think it will hit me until tomorrow.”

Phoenix’s Paul Westphal, who coached the West All-Star team, wasn’t surprised.

“Mitch plays like that pretty much all the time,” Westphal said. “Richmond was super. I don’t think any of the players feel that it’s a big surprise that Mitch Richmond had that kind of a game.”

Pretty good for a guy who feared he might not even make the All-Star team because he didn’t finish in the top 10 in fan balloting.

Voted onto the team as a reserve by the coaches, Richmond made four of six shots and scored eight points in the first half as the West took a 72-56 lead.

“Mitch played terrific,” said All-Star forward Charles Barkley of the Suns. “He really shot the ball well. I can’t believe how everybody in Sacramento is talking about how unappreciated he is. Anyone who makes an All-Star game three years in a row (Richmond missed one All-Star game because of injury) is obviously appreciated.”

Richmond got hot in the third quarter, making all four of his shots--including two three-point attempts--and scoring 10 points as the West pulled away. Westphal ran plays for Richmond in the fourth to help him clinch the award.

“With about seven minutes left in the game they told me to go back in there and wrap it up,” said Richmond, who made two of three shots in the final quarter. “Coach Westphal was running some plays for me, and my teammates were looking for me to shoot the ball every time.”

The best player on what has been until recently one of the NBA’s worst teams, Richmond might not get the credit he deserves because he’s in Sacramento.

“We definitely don’t play on NBC,” Richmond said. “We’re not on TNT. We’re not on anything. No one really knows about Sacramento. Some people think it’s a team that just came into the NBA.”

Richmond, who spent the first three years of his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors, was depressed after being traded to Sacramento for the draft rights to center Billy Owens on Nov. 1, 1991.

One of the Warriors’ most popular players, Richmond thought he would be a Warrior for life.

“It was a very low time because I thought I’d never leave Golden State,” Richmond said. “It was tough because I always wanted to be known as a winner, and the past two or three years we weren’t winning many games in Sacramento.”

But Richmond has helped to turn the Kings around this year, averaging 22.6 points to lead them to a 25-20 record.

“It’s no fun at the bottom,” Richmond said. “But this year is so much better than what it was the year before because I think our team is playing better. It’s nice to be able to have fun on the court again.

“It felt good to just come to the All-Star game and hold my head high and say ‘I’m a Sacramento King.’ ”

And he doesn’t long to be back with the troubled Warriors, who have endured a season of turmoil after trading forward Chris Webber to Washington. Coach Don Nelson is reportedly set to resign today.

“I’d glad to be a King, put it that way,” Richmond said.