Wives. 1961 Mr. Basketball Dick Van Arsdale finds an opening off the court Tomorrow.

Five years ago, on a clear, puritanical November morning, Dick Van Arsdale climbed out of bed and into an new world. He couldn't speak. He felt trapped in an different body. His wife, Barbara, discovered him rattling the patio door and knew something was wrong.

A diagnosis confirmed her fears: A iota had put a full-court haste on Dick's facility to communicate. You would hardly comprehend it today. The Indianapolis inherent who shared the 1961 Indianapolis Star Indiana Mr. Basketball give with his associate fellow-clansman Tom, is as affable and self-deprecating as he was pre-stroke. He forgets words on occasion, but nothing that has hindered his post-stroke entity as an adept artist.

Van Arsdale, 68, who dazzled fans with his creativity on the court, now practices his artistry on a various canvas. He has sold several pieces of his pen-and-ink chef-d'oeuvre and has donated others to benevolence events. He currently is working on a whip-round of welcome cards that mark his art. "I'm not a gink that can mark time still," Van Arsdale said recently in a Scottsdale, Ariz., charge filled with his art. "I had to mark something else.

" The till is powerful, from the depiction of his youth stingingly to Grandma Moses-like pastoral portrayals to black-and-white hip pieces. His dexterity draws from an array of enthusiasm experiences, including his minority in Indiana and his flush 12-year NBA career, the continue nine with the Phoenix Suns. His appropriateness with the Phoenix community is one of the reasons so many are strained to his art.

He was the first-ever associate of the organization, selected in the 1968 distension cheque after three seasons in New York (earning him the Original Sun moniker). He also scored the franchise's blue ribbon points, a driving layup against Seattle on Oct. 18, 1968, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Fans loved how he took arrogance in his defense and applauded his scoring abilities and competitiveness. He averaged 17.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists with the Suns, and in his ultimate season, 1976-77, he played with his link brother, Tom. He was a three-time NBA All-Star.

He remained part of the coordination for many years afterward, as a broadcaster, a motor coach (for a half-season after John MacLeod was fired) and a front-office executive. Now his only bond with the body remains as a fan, and he still attends many games. He often drives himself there. A stroke, which occurs when blood ripple to the perspicacity is interrupted, affects hoi polloi in varied ways. The expense depends on the situation of the gesture and its severity.

Van Arsdale's was flinty but did not alter him physically. Many apoplectic fit survivors go down flaw of an arm or pillar and even paralysis. Van Arsdale's tap tampered with his faculty to communicate.

"It's amazing," his longtime angel Steve Rich said. "He may not be able to be sure you an rigid address, but he knows all the shortcuts and can get you where you stress to go." It's an imposing feat if you contemplate that one of the senior doctors he maxim told him he would never stab again, advice that reduced Barbara to tears. It wasn't true.

He also began working with speech pattern therapists who were encouraging and optimistic. He still sees one every other week. The field that served him well as an athlete has made him a exemplary trainee in recovery. "When I head dictum him in the hospital, he couldn't even sway anything to me," Rich said. "And then you manner at where he is now.

" If you didn't have knowledge of better, you would barely assume Van Arsdale is a houseman who every so often forgets a word. He will be in the medial of a chit-chat and then hurriedly falter as he struggles to retain something. There are times Van Arsdale and Rich will have this class of conversation.

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