Lack of Respect for Lakers Is Very Surprising to Jerry West

What do Rodney Dangerfield, Aretha Franklin and Jerry West have in common?

They’re all concerned about respect. And with the Lakers beginning defense of their second consecutive National Basketball Assn. title with their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, West thinks they have been getting less respect than any other defending champion ever has.

“Not any that I know of anyway,” West said. “But I don’t think it would be very smart to sell this team short.”

West listed one reason: The Lakers had the second-best road record in the league, behind the Detroit Pistons, during the regular season.

“For some reason, that doesn’t seem to impress anyone,” he said.

I want my MVP: Who is the most valuable player in the National Basketball Assn.? The Lakers’ Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls? Utah’s Karl Malone or Tom Chambers of Phoenix?

West proposed another candidate: guard John Stockton of the Jazz. “What that guy does for that team is fantastic, great, uh, . . . “ West said.

Magic?

How the West was weak. Said West: “If the Western Conference is so weak, how come that’s where the last two NBA champions are from.”

Trivia time: What is Roundball I?

Celtic prize: By hanging onto their playoff berth by the threads of their green shirts, this is the reward the Boston Celtics get--the Detroit Pistons. Wait, there’s more. The Celtics were 0-23 on the road this season against teams with winning records.

Celtic mistake: Getting the eighth and last playoff spot in the East may have been a pretty big blunder. No eighth-seeded team has ever reached the second round.

But Alice doesn’t live here anymore: Tell Alice Mahorn that her son, Piston forward Rick Mahorn, is a bad boy and she will tell you a thing or two. Mahorn, who has been fined $11,000 by the NBA this season for brawling, is not the bad one, according to his mom.

“The people at the top are rotten people, the people who are handing out the fines,” she said.

And who was the boss at home? “In his mother’s house, his mother was the only one who beat up people,” Alice said.

Beef barons: The New York Giants’ top four draft picks in the last four years weigh nearly 1,200 pounds. If they wanted an exact figure, though, they would have to report to the truck scales at a nearby loading dock. After getting 290-pound Eric Moore and 305-pound John Elliott last year, the Giants added 580 more pounds when they took Minnesota’s Brian Williams at 295 pounds, and Iowa’s Bob Kratch at 285.

These guys weren’t drafted, they were rounded up.

Trivia answer: The Detroit Pistons’ team plane.

Quotebook Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post on the National Football League draft: “Did you notice that in the first round, picks 3, 4, 5 and 6 were named Sanders, Thomas, Sanders and Thomas? I wanted the Steelers to take Col. Sanders at 7, and the Chargers to go for Duane Thomas at 8, then Doug, Danny, Marlene and Marlo.”