Spurned Hawks Are Still After Fox

The brief comments came about a week ago, in Kansas City, Mo., against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The earful, that came Friday night at the Forum from the Atlanta Hawks.

So it goes for Rick Fox, not yet even into the regular season and still unable to turn around without bumping into teams he spurned to sign with the Lakers. Teams that offered him much more money, teams where he would have started for sure.

Teams that are now letting him hear it.

“Oh, yeah,” Fox said Saturday before the Lakers’ 85-79 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics, smiling in recollection of the meeting with the Hawks the night before. “Dikembe [Mutombo] gave me much abuse. Steve [Smith] gave me much abuse. And it was tough to talk to [General Manager] Pete Babcock because we developed a relationship over the summer.”

It wasn’t just the Hawk talk, either. It’s that it was a constant around the game.

“After,” Fox said. “Before. During. Shoot-around.”

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The game against the SuperSonics brought to an end a fractured exhibition schedule. Or at least a strained and bruised one.

Injuries to Nick Van Exel at the start and Shaquille O’Neal at the end, and Elden Campbell missing two games in the middle because of personal business, meant the Lakers had their preferred lineup together all of four minutes, that coming at the start of Tuesday’s game at Denver before O’Neal aggravated his strained abdominal muscle. That won’t draw much sympathy from some teams--the Bulls, the Wizards--but it’s no way for a team that spent the second half of 1996-97 to start 1997-98.

“It’s been all right,” Coach Del Harris said. “It hasn’t been too big a problem, I don’t think.”

What remains is an off-day today and then four days of practice before Friday’s opener against the Utah Jazz.

“It’s time,” Harris said. “We need the week to work on execution and such. It’s sort of a Catch-22. Everybody, players and coaches alike, got tired of practicing and wanted to play games. And then after that, teams want to play games that count.”

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Van Exel had a game-high 15 points and Fox added 14 as the Lakers concluded the exhibition season with the win over the SuperSonics and a 6-2 record. Detlef Schrempf had 22 points and 10 rebounds for Seattle, and Vin Baker had 18 points and 10 rebounds. . . . The Wizards beat the Hawks, 102-96, in double overtime in the early game Saturday. Jimmy Oliver had 30 points for Washington, and Ed Gray led the Hawks with 25. . . . All indications still point to Mario Bennett, who got off to such a great start in training camp, winning the battle for the final Laker roster spot. “We’re not going to announce who’s on the team until right to the end,” Harris said. “But we’re happy with the way Mario has performed.” The Lakers reduced their roster to 13 by waiving James Forrest after Saturday’s game. The final cut, likely Shea Seals, is due Thursday.