By Bill Nichols

CLEVELAND, O. - The three-year-old Cleveland Cavaliers are gaining respect around the National Basketball Association this season after pulling off the biggest heist since the infamous Brinks caper.
     Last summer, Cavaliers' Coach Bill Fitch traded guard Butch Beard to the Seattle SuperSonics for veterans Lenny Wilkens and Barry Clemens, which turned out to be the best piece of bartering since Manhattan Island was swindled for $24.
     Beard has done little to write about for the now-floundering Sonics, Clemens continues to perform admirably in his accustomed role as a backup forward and Wilkens has literally transformed the once laughable Cavaliers into anything but funny to the 16 other teams in the National Basketball Association.
     THE 35-YEAR OLD Wilkens, with the 25-year-old legs and the 15-year-old hands, has supplied ingredients, notably experience and leadership, previously lacking in the Cleveland expansion team of 1970.
     With Wilkens at the controls, the Cavaliers won 11 of their first 18 games after January 1, and now, especially on their home floor, can give any club in the league as much as it can handle.
     "I think Lenny gives Cleveland what Los Angeles gets from Jerry West and Boston gets from John Havlicek," Fitch has said often. "I expected great things from him and he's fulfilled out faith. He's truly a remarkable athlete and human being.
     "PEOPLE SAID Lenny would do the job for us near the end of those close ball games and he's done that, but also the one who put us in those close situations many times," added Fitch.
     Wilkens is averaging 20 points and nearly nine assists per game for the Cavaliers, in addition to providing court leadership to the extremely young team.
     He's done everything asked of him, but for a while it appeared that he'd never play for the Cavaliers.
     Wilkens was deeply disappointed at being dealt away by the Sonics and originally refused to report to Cleveland. He even talked of retirement which, if he followed through, not only would have hurt the Cavaliers, but caused a large void in the NBA.
     AFTER SOME personal soul-searching and several talks with Fitch and Cavaliers' Owner Nick Mileti, Lenny agreed to report to Cleveland. Fitch and Mileti offered him security in the form of what is believed to be a four-year contract.
     The 6-1 guard joined the Cavaliers in time for the seventh game of the season and has been the catalyst ever since.
     "I haven't regretted my decision," said Wilkens. "Once I made it, I knew it wasn't going to be easy and I knew what was going to have to be done.
     "I WAS realistic about the situation. I knew the Cavs weren't going to jump into first place. They're still very young in the NBA experience," he added.
     "It was very discouraging when I first came because we were losing a lot of games by one or two points, but it indicated one thing, though. We did have talent."
     It took a couple months for the adjustment for both Wilkens and his teammates, but now they're playing as a team with the veteran guard as the quarterback.
     "He's the master," marveled Austin Carr, the former Notre Dame whiz who displays a lot of pro potential. "Lenny and I talk a lot and every game I learn from him."
     Teammates and opponents alike have nothing but kind words for the former Providence College star.
     BALTIMORE Coach Gene Shue said recently, "The Cavaliers were improving before Wilkens came and now he's turned them around."
     Paul Silas, the strong forward of the Boston Celtics and a onetime teammate of Wilkens when both were with the old St. Louis Hawks, was duly impressed after a recent game in which the Cavs nipped the Celts.
     "The Cavaliers had the makings of a good young club before he came, but he has added 25 percent more firepower to it," said Silas. "He's also added maturity to this team. He knows the game inside out.
     "HAS HE SLOWED down? If he has, I can't tell it. The reason is, he knows the short cuts. Where the young guys take five steps, Lenny takes two and saves himself," added Silas.
     Celtic Coach Tommy Heinsohn labeled Wilkens, "terrific" after his fine showing in the NBA All-Star Game in Chicago.
     Comments like these are heard throughout the league. Nearly everyone is impressed in what Wilkens means to the Cavaliers.
     Wilkens talked of the Cavaliers' progress in early January and their recent performances bear out his thinking.
 "The guys are coming on," said Lenny. "Now any team that comes to play us on our home court should be aware that it can get beat.
 "You've got to have a certain amount of pride. You've got to believe that you can win.
     "PRIDE IS the one thing I felt the Cavaliers lacked," he added. "The team has this pride now.
     "I'm not saying it happens overnight, by no stretch of the imagination. I know it takes a period of time. It's like building a winner. Regardless of what people might say, you don't build a winner overnight."
     Wilkens readily admits he misses his family, who remained in Seattle this winter, but he hastens to add that he's enjoying his stay in Cleveland.
     "This has been a very rewarding experience," he said. "Sure I would love to play on a contender because I think I could help at least have a shot at the championship. But, if I can help the younger players on the club and if I can help Coach Fitch in any way, then I'm happy. Then I feel I'm making some progress. And I do see progress on this ball club. I'm very pleased about that."
     WHILE DOING his thing for Cleveland, Wilkens also has passed a couple of personal milestones this season. He passed the 15,000 point mark, went over the 6,000 assist level and was named to the All-Star Game for the ninth time.
     "I think every player likes to achieve something," Lenny said, "and when he does something, he's proud of his achievements in this league.
     "I think the assist figure probably is the biggest of all the achievements. We all like to score points, you know, but when I look and see there are only four guys (Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, Guy Rodgers and Lenny Wilkens) with more than 6,000 assists, that gives me a good feeling to know I'm one of those guys.
     "WHEN I was in college, I never had any idea of playing pro ball," he added. "Pro ball was never a goal of mine because I never felt I was good enough. So to achieve in this world gives me a good feeling."
     Although he apparently has recovered, Wilkens was hurt very much by the Sonics.
     Lenny was Seattle's player-coach for three years and last season he led the Sonics to a 47-35 record, ranking sixth in the NBA. First he was relieved of his coaching duties and then traded.
     HE SAID he'd like to forget his final months with the Sonics, which were not among the happiest periods of his life.
 Reluctantly, he talked about it.
     "There were rumors in the papers that I wasn't going to be back as a player and coach this year," he recalled.
     "With everybody second-guessing, of course, I was very highly discouraged. I also realized it was awfully difficult to be both a player and a coach. I think it hurt my playing more than anything else.
     "I FELT at the end of last season, when I sat down and talked to Sam Schulman (Sonic's owner), I was going to be agreeable to being just a player," Lenny continued.
     "He preferred that I do one or the other. I told him, in that case, I would just rather be a player. We agreed on it. Then two or three months later, they signed Tom Nissalke as coach.
     "Then people would ask Tom about me. I guess it was a normal question to ask how he felt in relationship to me. But this question seemed to me to come up too often. Every time you'd turn around, someone was asking it. Nissalke said it wasn't any problem, knowing the type of person I am.
     "I WAS ASKED the same question and I said there wouldn't be any problems. It was a big load off my back not to play and coach. A lot of pressure was gone and I king of looked forward to this season.
     “Then over the course of the summer I kept hearing rumors that I would be traded. I never said anything but, apparently, information leaks out of the Sonics’ office faster than any office I’ve seen. It was leaking out and it was very irritating to me.
     “One of the stories I head was that I was going to be traded to Chicago. I know for a fact that was for real, but nobody would admit it. Well, anyway the deal fell through.
     “BOB HOUBREGS (Seattle general manager) said no about any trades. He was looking forward to seeing me play in Seattle this year. He said if it ever came to that, which he was sure it wouldn’t, I would be traded to a contender. He knew there wouldn’t be any problems knowing the type of person I am. They always mention this.
     “Then the next thing I knew, I was traded.”
     This is all history now and Wilkens has a new lease of life in Cleveland. He said he probably would like to play two more years and eventually coach again on the professional level.
     If he would leave the player ranks tomorrow, which he won’t, the Cavaliers would have no complaints. Wilkens already paid enough dividends to make the trade Cleveland’s finest piece of grand larceny seen anywhere.