A Tough Man In A Scramble

Ruland was so nervous on his first preseason road trip that he tore down a backboard during warmups, and then during the game he rattled one of his layups off the glass so hard that he almost ruined another backboard. Gene Shue, the Bullets' coach, worked Ruland into the lineup gradually. "Jeff is always around the ball," Shue says, "and he can come in off the bench and contribute right away, which not many players can do. If he had long arms he'd get every rebound."

Ruland's most effective move is a simple post-up play in which he spins in the lane and pins his man on his hip, then turns and drives to the basket. "Last year everybody was talking about Tripucka, Isiah and Buck Williams," says Detroit Coach Scotty Robertson, "and I said that they were all good players but that Ruland's a hell of a player. When they go to him, everybody knows what they're going to do, but he's so good and so smart that you can't stop him. There are guys who go through their whole careers without ever learning how to do that, and he came in as a rookie and did it."

As a rebounder, Ruland works hard for position and then moves with an instinctive quickness to the ball. At the end of last week he was 11th in the league in that category, with 10.3 a game, his ratio of rebounds to minutes played was 10th best in the NBA and his ratio of offensive rebounds to his total (34%) was third best. "Ninety to 95 percent of all rebounds are taken below the rim," he says, "so I'm uniquely qualified for the job."

He's also qualified as one of Washington's enforcers in the middle. "I came into the NBA with the attitude that I would be doing the intimidating," he says. "There are very few players who like to get banged, but that's the way the game should be played." This season Ruland is leading the Bullets in scoring (18.8 points a game) and shooting percentage (57.6%), and had a resounding 25-point, 17-rebound performance in just 37 minutes in the Bullets' 95-87 victory in San Diego on Nov. 20.

During Boston's 4-1 playoff victory over Washington in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year, some Celtic fans thought Ruland and Mahorn were playing too rough. Up in the broadcast booth, Most kept dragging the two offending Bullets through the gravel in his throat. Before Game 4 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., Ruland approached Most's on-the-air sidekick, Rick Weitzman. "My mother listens to the games from Boston on WRKO and she says she's never heard such a biased announcer," Ruland said. "Tell Johnny Most that my mother says he's a bleep." Weitzman relayed the story to Most, who was rendered almost speechless.

When he opened his broadcast for the fifth game three days later, Most began, "This is Johnny Most at the Boston Garden. Mrs. Ruland, if you're listening, turn off your radio." Anita says if she'd been at Boston Garden she would have decked him.