DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709230384

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

                                            LENGTH:   74 lines

WITH THE EAST AS HIS OYSTER, EX-MONARCH COMES HOME

It's been more than 20 years since he lived here as a member of the ABA's Virginia Squires and 25 since he left Old Dominion, but Norfolk has always sort of claimed Dave Twardzik as its own.

These days, there's more to back up that boast.

Twardzik and family are back, renting and looking to buy, as he takes the next step in his winding career path through the NBA.

Fired last June after two years as general manager of the Golden State Warriors - Maury's Joe Smith was his first draft pick - Twardzik quickly landed a job scouting Eastern college basketball for the Denver Nuggets.

When his boss, former Virginia Tech star Allan Bristow, said he could live anywhere in the East, Twardzik and his wife, Kathe, compiled a list with one name on it. Then, in late August, they dispatched the moving vans from the Bay Area to West Ghent.

``I don't know of many places better than here,'' Twardzik said Monday in the den of his rented house, probably ensuring himself a spot on the region's visitor's board if he wants it. ``I've always loved this area.''

Sure, he knows you can't fly hardly anywhere nonstop from here, and the tunnels can be a pain. But the fondness Twardzik, 47, has for his old friends, the ample water for his boat and his beach house near Corolla, N.C., easily trumped those drawbacks.

Besides, he's going to spend much of his winter in ACC country anyway, which he can mostly drive to. It also didn't hurt that, independent of his own move, Twardzik's daughter, Monica, entered ODU's graduate program in physical therapy.

``Moving here keeps the family together for another period of time,'' said Twardzik, who also has a 15-year-old son, Matthew.

After the eye-opening last two years, the Twardzik who returns is hardened even more to the ways of a league that's been his livelihood since 1976, when he joined the Portland Trail Blazers as a guard.

First off, Twardzik, one of ODU's most popular players ever, had never been fired. Through stints in the NBA as a salesman, community relations director, broadcaster, scout, scouting director, assistant coach and player personnel director, he had always moved on of his own volition.

Getting the rope cut by Golden State owner Chris Cohan halfway through his four-year contract was stunning, though Twardzik says he saw it coming.

``It stirred a lot of emotions and feelings that I've never had before,'' he said. ``In this league, there's always somebody whose job's in trouble. I've been sympathetic, but I didn't really understand till I went through it. It's rejection. You look back to see if there were things you could've done differently, not just in trades but internally.''

Twardzik's conclusion? He stands by his performance in an organization that, rife with dissension and selfishness, demanded a huge reorganization.

The year before he left his job as player personnel director in Charlotte - where Bristow was his coach - for Golden State, the Warriors won 26 games. They won 36 in Smith's rookie year but regressed last season to 30-52, and Twardzik and coach Rick Adelman were bounced.

The Warriors should have improved last season, Twardzik admits. But in the end, the advice of a trusted NBA friend, whom Twardzik would not identify, came back to bite him.

When the friend heard that Twardzik was up for the Warriors' job, ``he told me, `David, be careful. There are more problems there than you can imagine,' '' Twardzik said. ``Well, he was right.''

Still, his firing is a mere speed bump, Twardzik believes. He said he interviewed for an unspecified general manager's job a week after he was fired. And, NBA networking being what it is, he said he doesn't have to explain himself to anybody.

``My reputation in the league I don't think is tarnished,'' Twardzik said.

Surely, it's as good as ever to his friends around here - his old, and new, home. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Nuggets scout Dave Twardzik, told he could live anywhere in the

East, chose Norfolk: ``I've always loved this area.''

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