Robinson Clear Choice For Nba’s Top Honor

David Robinson wasn’t ready to celebrate after winning the National Basketball Association’s most valuable player award Tuesday.

The San Antonio center said he’s too busy focusing on the Spurs’ playoff series against Houston and last year’s MVP Hakeem Olajuwon in the Western Conference final.

“We’re in the middle of this battle and it’s going to be hard to celebrate anything right now,” Robinson said. “This is an incredible honor and I don’t think it’s going to sink into my head for some time.”

In a league where centers have emerged as the dominant players, the 7-foot, 1-inch Robinson was the most consistent as he led the Spurs to a league-best 62-20 record.

“If he wouldn’t have won it, that would have been a big surprise,” teammate Sean Elliott said. “The NBA would have had the legitimacy of Don King Productions.”

Robinson, who averaged 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, beat runner-up Shaquille O’Neal of Orlando by a wide margin. Robinson received 73 first-place votes and 901 points, while O’Neal got 12 firsts and 605 points from a nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.

Utah’s Karl Malone was third, followed by New York’s Patrick Ewing, Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley of Phoenix, Chicago’s Scottie Pippen and Utah’s John Stockton.

Drexler’s nemesis banished

NBA referee Jake O’Donnell, who had a run-in with Clyde Drexler of the Houston Rockets two weeks ago, may not work any more playoff games this season, the Houston Chronicle reported.

O’Donnell hasn’t been assigned to a game since ejecting Drexler from a playoff contest against Phoenix on May 9. Following an investigation, the NBA rescinded all fines against Drexler, including the automatic $1,000 that comes with an ejection.

The Chronicle, quoting unidentified sources, said O’Donnell’s absence is a clear sign the NBA disapproved of his conduct in the Houston-Phoenix game.

“There’s no reasonable explanation why one of the league’s best refs like Jake wouldn’t be doing games,” a source told the newspaper. “It’s obvious the league didn’t like what happened in that game.”Another source said there’s a chance O’Donnell won’t work any more games during the playoffs.

Neither the NBA nor Rockets executive vice president John Thomas would comment.

During Game 1 of the HoustonPhoenix series, O’Donnell refused to shake hands with Drexler at center court when captains from both teams met with the officials.

Then, after Drexler was called for a borderline foul against the Suns’ Dan Majerle, he threw up his hands and said something to O’Donnell.

O’Donnell, regarded as an even-tempered official, hit Drexler with two technical fouls, resulting in automatic ejection. Drexler charged O’Donnell and had to be restrained.

Strife of Riley

New York Knicks coach Pat Riley said lack of harmony, not lack of talent, caused his team’s secondround playoff demise.

“It makes my stomach turn,” Riley said after a season-ending meeting with his players. “It’s the end-of-year, divide-up playoff shares, exchange phone numbers, all that stuff you don’t want to do until June 23, we did today. We had a team that was good enough to win. It was built to win.

“You can blame finger-rolls being missed, you can blame free throws, a lack of rebounding, losing close games in overtime. But we should have been on the upswing this year as a team that was totally together. For the majority of the season, we were pulling apart. And you can’t put that stuff behind you.”

Riley, as he did Sunday when the Knicks lost 97-95 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Indiana, refused to comment on whether he will return as coach for a fifth year. He has one season left on his contract, and the Knicks have offered a five-year, $15-million extension.

More breaks for Barkley

Charles Barkley said he can’t take the tedium of another regular season just to get back to the playoffs, so Phoenix coach Paul Westphal intends to do something about it.

If Barkley changes his mind and returns for a 12th season, Westphal said he will play the star forward about 30 minutes a game to reduce the wear and tear on his body.

“That was our plan this year but because of injuries we very seldom had everybody that we planned to have, and he had to carry the load more than he wanted to,” Westphal said. “If we had (Danny) Manning, A.C. Green and Wayman Tisdale, I’m sure we could cut Charles’ burden.”

Barkley has been preoccupied with his health since he collapsed at training camp in October 1993.

The diagnosis was a bulging spinal disk, which bothered Barkley throughout the next season and led to the first round of retirement talk.

Pippen must pay

Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen was ordered to pay $10,000 to a former girlfriend who has filed a paternity suit claiming he is the father of her 1-year-old daughter.

Circuit Judge David Delgado ordered the payment to cover birth expenses of Taylor Roby Pippen, daughter of professional model Sonya Roby, the basketball star’s former girlfriend. Pippen did not attend the hearing.