Rambis Is a Sight for Sore Eyes : Pro basketball: The Lakers’ fans love their horn-rimmed, working-class hero as much the second time around.

He is Kurt Rambis because of . . .

The fans.

Especially in Los Angeles, through four NBA championships and into what is now his second stint with the Lakers, they love his hard-hat style of play, the unpretentious personality, the notion they could see him on the Forum court one day and Boogie-boarding the next. They especially loved him as a contrast to his graceful, sleek teammates of the Showtime era.

No one scores less and is cheered more. Chick Hearn, the Laker broadcaster for 34 years, said Rambis is possibly the fourth- or fifth-most popular player ever to call the Forum home, behind only Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper and in a group with Jamaal Wilkes, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich. Josh Rosenfeld, the team’s public relations director in 1982-89, ranks Rambis second during those years, behind only Johnson.

Only one thing might surpass the fans’ love for Rambis.

His love for them.

“The fans always appreciated all the little dirty stuff I did, all the things nobody else really liked to do,� he said. “They appreciated the fact that I liked doing it, once they got over laughing at me the first time they saw me on the court. They appreciated all the stuff I did, and it just made me want to do more and play harder.�

He wasn’t sure what to think when it all started, when he first saw a group of kids in the stands wearing the geek glasses and cheering his every move. Deceived by 20/400 vision, he thought Rambis Youth was mocking him and told a Laker staff member to invite them to the Forum Club for a confrontation. Rambis was going to tell them to knock it off, only to pull the about-face after seeing that this adulation was on the level.

It took off from there, through his seven seasons as the gritty power forward. Then it continued, even after he left as a free agent to sign with the Charlotte Hornets and through stops with the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings before the reunion this season.

“There’s only been a couple of times when I’ve seen him cry,� said Linda Rambis, the former vice president and general manager of Forum tennis who became his wife. “I know it’s not popular for a man to cry. But when our first son, Jesse, was born, it was like boo-hoo forever. That was the most emotional. But when he came back with the Hornets that first time and got the championship ring from the Lakers and the fans gave him a five-minute standing ovation, he was so, so touched. I was in Charlotte and I was crying. The kids were crying.

“We’ve always had a connection with the fans in L.A., and I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t think it’s hero worship, because Kurt is not that type of person. It just makes him real teary-eyed.�

Six years and three teams after leaving, he has that connection again. Everything except a new generation of Rambis Youth.

“Quite frankly, if you were a kid, would you want to come to a game with glasses on like that?� he said. “OK. You can only take embarrassment so far.�

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I don’t think people looked at Kurt as a basketball player. I think they looked at him as a guy who played basketball.

--JOSH ROSENFELD

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He is Kurt Rambis because of . . .

The glasses.

His father got sick of having to buy new ones every time a pair would get knocked off and break while his son was playing sports. So, sometime around the sixth grade, an image was born. Black horn-rims. Earpieces that flap out so the hinges won’t snap. Rubber padding in the nose area to prevent deep scratches on the bridge.

He has tried contact lenses, but didn’t like them, so he will finish his career sporting the ‘rims.

“I look too damn good in them,� he said. “How can I give that up? They’re women magnets.�

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Fourteen years of pro basketball, including the one in Greece. That’s more than Larry Bird played. More than Magic Johnson played. Who would have believed it?

--LINDA RAMBIS

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He is Kurt Rambis because of . . .

The stash of hotel soap, shampoo, sewing kits, shower caps, conditioner, wooden hangers and rolls of toilet paper.

Rambis is not a kleptomaniac. He is simply, uh, frugal. He hoarded so much stuff from years of touring the league that when the family temporarily relocated from Manhattan Beach to Charlotte, then to Phoenix and then to Sacramento before returning to the South Bay, it cost about $200 each time for the boxes of hotel goods. Did we mention bathroom floor mats?

“He knows how to stretch a penny, I can say that,� longtime teammate James Worthy said. “He hasn’t bought a new pair of shoes since the last time he was with Lakers. He had one pair he just kept re-soleing year after year, putting orthotics in them, trying to save them. He was the reason we had a dress code enforced.�

One time in Indianapolis, Rambis forgot his game shoes in the hotel after boarding the bus, so Rosenfeld retrieved them. The shoes are in the red bag in the closet, Rambis told him, but don’t take anything else out. Rosenfeld opened the bag to find the sneakers, 10 rolls of toilet paper and 10 or 15 hangers.

Rambis is quick to pick up tabs at expensive restaurants, and he gives money and time to charities and community-service projects. Those boxes of soap and shampoo and sewing kits? The Rambises donated them to a homeless shelter in Los Angeles during the holidays.

“He just doesn’t believe in wasting,� Linda Rambis said.

The Rambis method has changed about as much as his popularity. He stuffed the free beers and sodas in his bag before heading out of the locker room before, and he does it now. After he was waived on Dec. 14 and then re-signed on Jan. 5, one of the first acts after returning was to bring home about 50 sodas.

Linda saw them, all stacked up, and looked at her husband incredulously. “I took the ones I would have taken if I was there,� he told her.

Said Linda: “I still think he’s a geek, but I fell in love with that geek. He’s just himself. He doesn’t put on airs. He is who he is. I would think most people would find it embarrassing to put sodas in your bag all the time in front of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Barkley. But to him, it’s like, ‘I don’t give a darn. This is me.’ �

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The thing I would describe if I were going to draw a picture of Kurt would be a human heart with a pair of glasses on it.

--CHICK HEARN

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He is Kurt Rambis because of . . .

The talent.

He has some, you know.

“In some ways, it’s unfair to Kurt that his reputation has only been around the overachieving and that part,� said Coach Randy Pfund, an assistant during part of Rambis’ first Laker stint. “Like a lot of players in the NBA, very good players in college come in, but the Michael Jordans, the Magic Johnsons, the Larry Birds tend to make them look very mortal. That’s the situation Kurt was in. He’ll always be known for that, but those around the game know.

“When I think of Kurt, I think of some of the basketball things he does. Inbounding the ball quickly (after an opponent’s basket). That’s a little-taught skill, but for years that was a real part of the Laker fast break. Good outlet passes. Setting screens. Talking--he’s not afraid to communicate and yell. It’s those things, basketball-wise, that I always think about.�

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I’ll always remember the championships, I’ll always remember the funny things that happened on and off the court, the good things that happened. But there’s no way I could describe to you the feeling, the joy and the incredible rush that goes through your body when those fans cheer for you. I’ll never forget that feeling.

--KURT RAMBIS