Woman Referee Draws Opinions

The Lakers got their first look, exhibition or regular season, at one of the two new women referees when Dee Kantner worked Sunday’s game against the Vancouver Grizzlies at the Forum.

“She did pretty good,” Nick Van Exel said. “Except that bad call she called on me.”

So the two briefly discussed the foul.

“I guess she wanted to test me, to see how I would react,” he said.

He reacted well.

“I had a trick for her.”

The crowd greeted Kantner, who made history along with Compton’s Violet Palmer by becoming the first women to officiate in a major men’s professional league, with light applause during pregame introductions. The Lakers did the same before.

“That’s fine,” Coach Del Harris said. “Refereeing is judgment. I don’t think any man can support any theory that shows a man has better judgment than a woman. I think we would like to make that claim, but I don’t think anyone can substantiate it.”

But what about the seamier side of the NBA, the cussing and things?

“Well,” he said, “I hope she keeps a clean mouth.”

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Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon was not injured or sick Friday. He was simply out of sync, then pretty much out of the game, playing only a combined five minutes in the fourth quarter and two overtimes in favor of Kevin Willis at Olajuwon’s request in the Laker victory. On a trip of strange happenings, his performance--four points, tying his second-worst output, eight rebounds and five fouls in 32 minutes--was definitely one of them, as poor a game as anyone could recall.

“I can only remember one time,” said Laker Robert Horry, an Olajuwon teammate for five seasons. “We played Washington in Washington once and Charles Jones held him to about four points. And that’s the reason we got him on our team the next year.”

Said Shaquille O’Neal, who respects Olajuwon like he respects few others: “Olajuwon is still the greatest center in the game.”

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Thursday at San Antonio and Friday at Houston marked only the third time in franchise history that the Lakers won consecutive overtime games. It was also the seventh time they played two overtime games in a row. . . . Five Lakers are on the all-star ballot, released Friday: O’Neal, Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Kobe Bryant and Elden Campbell.