DAN ISSEL

THE BELOVED LONGTIME NUGGET DIDN'T LOOK THE PART OF A TOP-FLIGHT CENTER, BUT THOSE WHO WENT AGAINST HIM KNEW JUST HOW TOUGH HE COULD BE

- DOUGLAS S. LOONEY

ON A RECENT plane trip to New York, Denver Nuggets coach Doug Moe was talking about his veteran center, Dan Issel. "I call his overall game ugly," Moe said. "He's my 6' 9" stiff." Had Moe been speaking of any other player, his comments might have been considered downright nasty, but compared with what other folks say about Issel, his words were actually sort of kind. University of Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall, who was a Wildcats assistant under Adolph Rupp when Issel played there, says, "The thing I remember about Dan is that he fell down all the time."

And if you judge Issel by standards of NBA excellence, you'll find that he's widely considered deficient in the following aspects of the game:

He's three to four inches too short for a center; he can't jump; at 35, he's too old; he's too white ("For his birthday, we're giving him a tan," says teammate Danny Schayes); he isn't strong enough; he doesn't rebound the way an NBA pivotman should, his career average of 9.1 points per game says "forward" rather than "center"; he can't clog up the middle; and he can't block shots. In fact, everyone in the NBA waits breathlessly for Issel's Annual Snuff, and seeing that he slapped one off the fingertips of the Nets' embarrassed Albert King last month, people can relax for the remainder of this season.

Pat Williams, general manager of the 76ers, says of Issel, "He's not a pro-type center, not defensive-minded, not an intimidator, and you can't win a title with him. But when his career is over, he'll be an immortal."