THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Piston Fans Have Spoken: Isiah’s an All-Star Again

All-Star follies: Detroit’s Isiah Thomas might have lost a point or two off his shooting percentage, but he can still pack ‘em in.

Ballot-wise.

He again rallied in the last week of fan voting and, for the 10th time in 11 seasons, will start in the All-Star game.

This time he was 90,000 votes behind the Philadelphia 76ers’ Jeff Hornacek with a week to go. A year ago he was 120,000 behind the Washington Bullets’ Michael Adams.

The Pistons say it’s because they wait until the last week to send in their ballots.

Dodger fans remembering Cyndy Garvey’s account of then-hubby Steve’s write-in campaign--she and Steve punched out computer cards personally--can relate.

Maybe it takes the Piston secretaries time to punch out that many.

Thomas’ selection by the fans, although not wholly without merit, is fortunate because he was unlikely to make it otherwise. On the downside of a great career, smarting from his Dream Team snub, missing that Magic Johnson-Larry Bird knack for talking himself up without coming off as ego-drunk, Thomas has a gratuitous honor or two coming.

Who’s in and who should be:

East starters--Shaquille O’Neal, Scottie Pippen, Larry Johnson, Thomas and his old buddy, Michael Jordan.

The coaches should fill out the squad with:

Center--Patrick Ewing. Next in line: Alonzo Mourning and Brad Daugherty, in that order.

Forward--Dominique Wilkins, Dennis Rodman and Derrick Coleman, who is finally zipping it up and teeing it up. Just barely missing: Detlef Schrempf and Larry Nance.

Guard--Mark Price who deserved to start, Hornacek and Joe Dumars. Just missing: Drazen Petrovic, whose defense doesn’t measure up to Dumars’.

West starters--David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler and John Stockton.

The coaches should fill out the squad with:

Center--Hakeem Olajuwon. Just missing: no one.

Forward--Shawn Kemp, Chris Mullin and Danny Manning, whose failure to make the top 10 is either a joke or proof that L.A. fans have too much panache to get involved in this farce. Next in line: Cliff Robinson.

Guard--Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, who’s been due for three seasons and finally makes it, and Mark Jackson, a tremendous Clipper acquisition. Just missing: Dan Majerle.

Now, turning to the biggest farce of all . . .

TRASHSPORT SATURDAY

It used to be called All-Star Saturday before people ran out of good new dunks, the legends’ bodies started breaking down and Bird wasn’t around to terrorize his three-point opponents.

Now we get:

1--Joe Blow is upset because he wasn’t invited.

2--John Smith, last year’s winner in the ---- competition, is insulted that people thinks that’s all he can do and won’t come.

3--Dominique Johnson, who pulled out of the ---- competition years ago, is back at the behest of his sneaker company.

Just to catch up on the latest:

Sacramento’s Jim Les, second in last year’s three-point competition, is miffed because he wasn’t invited back and defending champion Craig Hodges, who is no longer active, was.

“From what I understand, he did a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff,” Les said. “To me, comparing his situation to Magic (Johnson’s) is a little bit of a stretch.”

Added King General Manager Jerry Reynolds: “A couple of years ago they let a Russian (Rimas Kurtinaitis, actually a Lithuanian) in the shootout. This is just a reminder it’s hocus-pocus kind of crap.”

Dee Brown, who won the ’91 dunk contest after a shoe-inflating exhibition that--yes!--won him a sneaker commercial, says he has no more to gain and is out of here.

Said Brown, alluding to his TV ad: “It’s opened a lot of doors, but how many buildings can you jump over?”

Chris Jackson, the 5-foot-11 Denver Nugget guard, is in, although he says he has never dunked in an NBA game.

Before this season, the reason was obvious--he was too fat. Now he has trimmed off 30 pounds to 158 so anything is possible, including a layup exhibition.

Vernon Maxwell, who has made more three-pointers than anyone else in the last two seasons--OK, he has tried twice as many as anyone else--is a non-invitee once more.

Said Mad Max, laughing: “They don’t want me. I’m a villain.”

FACES AND FIGURES

Who’s hot: General Manager Jerry West (“All I’m interested in is youth”) is threatening to burn out the Laker switchboard, calling around to see if anyone is interested in his players. . . . Who’s not: West. To date, nada. . . . Who’s also not: The Clippers, underwhelmed by cut-rate offers for Manning, sound as if they intend to pass in this trading period. Guess what? The offers won’t go up as Manning advances toward free agency.

Blazermelancholia: A pall settled over Portland after the county attorney in Salt Lake City insisted on pursuing a statutory rape case against four still-unnamed Trail Blazers. Said Drexler, who isn’t among the four: “I wish the players would come out and say who they are. It can’t be helping the club. This is all part of the responsibility of being an NBA player. . . . If you can’t deal with it, you should get out.” The Trail Blazers promptly nose-dived, losing by 22 at Seattle, then by 13 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Crisis of arrogance: This was supposed to be the time the Bulls, playing badly and facing a long trip, fell out of the No. 1 spot in the East. Right on schedule, they lost three of four, including a game at Denver. Said Horace Grant, “The confidence is still there, but I don’t know about the arrogance right now. We are definitely not the Bulls.” Said Jordan, “It’s human nature that when we come ‘round, everybody’s fat and everybody’s independent, where before guys were supportive, connected and tight. All championship teams go that way. That’s going to be the ultimate destruction of this team.”

Hold that ultimate destruction: Two days later, Jordan led an amazing fourth-quarter rally as the Bulls rallied from 20 points down and beat the Utah Jazz.

Take that man’s temperature: Darrell Walker, all 180 pounds of him, challenged 255-pound Karl Malone to fight, in the sure knowledge that the Mailman already had one technical foul and there were three officials and several police officers nearby who wouldn’t let things get too far. You might suspect that Walker, on a 10-day contract, was trying to impress the Bulls, but last season, when he was a Piston and Malone decked Isiah Thomas, Walker went after him, too. “I’m not a big Karl Malone fan,” Walker said from the safety of the dressing room. “I was going to kick his butt.”

Dream weaver: UC Irvine’s 5-11 Scott Brooks, nominal backup to Houston Rocket point guard Kenny Smith, has played the entire fourth quarters of 12 games, of which Houston has won 11. “It’s not me,” says Brooks. “When we’re going good, it’s no secret that everything starts and ends with the Dream (Olajuwon).” . . . Two heads to every story? Not completely caught up in the team’s surge is Smith, rated a formidable clubhouse lawyer by Houston observers. “As players, we wonder if (Coach Rudy Tomjanovich) has confidence in us,” Smith said. “It’s a two-headed sword.”

Pat Riley says his successive All-Star coaching appearances in the ‘80s inspired the rule change against repeats. Riley now stands to benefit, since last season’s East coach--Chicago’s Phil Jackson, Riley’s archrival--can’t return. Riley says the whole thing took him by surprise: “I was already out at Malibu. I was basking in the sun.” . . . Chris Mullin, on Golden State’s slide: “I wouldn’t say it’s like a bad dream because my dreams don’t last that long. I don’t sleep that much. I wish I could sleep so I could have a dream.”

Search for Derrick (Cont.): Seattle’s Derrick McKey, whose 15-point average seems to be made up half of sensational 25-point games and half of dazed five-point games, is at it again. “I have no idea what happens to him,” Coach George Karl said after the laid-back McKey totaled 30 points and six rebounds in three road defeats last week. “Sometimes it just looks like all the energy drains right out of his body.”

Out-takes from Larry Bird’s retirement bash: Kevin McHale said he doesn’t remember much specific about Bird--”just the feeling of sitting in a locker room, the feeling of how good we were, that cockiness, that kind of arrogance we took on the road. It was a feeling you can’t buy, beg or borrow, man. It’s a feeling you have to earn. This was Larry’s team and we didn’t have any question about that.” . . . Celtic official Jeff Cohen, on being called at 1 a.m. in Bird’s rookie season to rescue him from a tough bar: “I got down there and I almost got killed. He was up with these guys wearing his Mack cap and his overalls and having a great time. He was fitting in with them beautifully. He was making fans.”

Bird to Magic Johnson: “You’re not coming back, are you?” Johnson: “N-o-o-o.” Bird: “Then get the hell out of my dreams.” . . . And, lest we forget the real essence of the man: Bird, introduced after a Dream Team game last summer to Shannon Miller, the starry-eyed 4-foot-6 gymnast who had just won five medals: “That all you win?” . . . Boston assistant coach Jon Jennings on last week’s Celtic-Laker game: “When these two teams meet, I think of it sort of like what would happen if the Beatles got together. You know there’s still excitement but without John Lennon, it’s going to take something out of it.” Try, without Lennon and Paul McCartney.