AMARI'S NO FRENCH PROVINCIAL.

Byline: LEE BARNATHAN University Beat

``No offense,'' Lynda Amari begins the interview, ``but you're real fake.''

Amari, Cal State Northridge's French-born guard/forward, was speaking not about one person, but of Americans in general.

While waiting for a friend at Los Angeles International Airport one day, Amari watched as a stranger sat down with three other strangers and started talking. In a matter of minutes, Amari learned more than she ever wanted to know about the woman's honeymoon and marriage.

``In France, it's hard to trust somebody, but when we do it, it's like marriage,'' she said. ``We won't give you our friendship after just a week.''

This was one of the many differences Amari has encountered in her 2-1/2 years in this country.

Others include the lack of a metric system. Ask Amari how tall she is and she says 1 meter, 83 centimeters. ``Everyone tells me I'm 6-1,'' she says. ``I still don't understand.''

Basketball is different, too. She made the French national team as a 15-year-old and has seen much of the world, including Seoul, South Korea, for the 1993 World Championships.

One difference is the American fascination with statistics. She averaged just 9.6 points a game her freshman year at Ventura College and is averaging about 11 points this season for the Matadors.

``It's good if I score 30 points, and if I didn't score and I did other things, that's fine, too,'' she said. ``Stats don't make you a player. Who gave you the ball to score? The ball didn't come by itself.''

She demonstrated this in Wednesday's Big Sky Conference opener against Northern Arizona. She scored 24 points but also contributed seven key rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

She has seen hotels the size of apartments, with gold columns and Greek statues. Lobbies with fountains, piano bars and singers. Bowling alleys, too.

She never had money in her pocket because she didn't need any. She lived in the national training center in Paris. Her meals and daily schedules were planned.

She didn't draw a salary, either. She didn't need one on the national team.

``Everyone in (international) basketball knows who I am,'' she said.

She played on the team for six years, even rehabilitating an anterior cruciate ligament injury and regaining her starting spot in time for the world championships.

Yet all along, America pulled at her.

``I always wanted to come here,'' she said. ``This is where you can learn the most, or so that's what I hear.''

One person she heard that from was Olivier Saint-Jean, who plays for the Sacramento Kings. Amari and Saint-Jean knew each other in France, and it was Saint-Jean who told her to come here.

He even helped direct her to a college. While watching the 1997 State Junior College championship, he saw Ventura and thought Amari would fit there.

Junior college also was foreign to Amari. There's no such thing in France. Back home, you play for clubs. Here, you play for a school. But the desire for adventure was great, and when she injured her knee again 2-1/2 years ago, she decided that would be the time to make the move.

After rehabilitating, she went to Ventura and helped win two state titles.

Northridge competed with Arkansas, Clemson and Georgetown, but Amari chose the Matadors primarily because she felt former coach Michael Abraham cared and could help her reach the next level: the WNBA.

Abraham's gone, but coach Frozena Jerro is happy to have Amari's versatility.

``I saw Lynda play early last year,'' Jerro said. ``Watching her then, you can tell she's a highly skilled player, and at the JC level, she was head and shoulders above the rest. She can play a number of positions and play them well. I was so excited. Her versatility is so important.''

Amari isn't sure of her future. If the WNBA doesn't call, she'll go back to France, where she believes she can reclaim a spot on the national team.

If that happens, she'll also be back watching dubbed American television shows. Her favorite is ``Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,'' but something will seem strange.

``It's funny when you know it's supposed to be an English person talking,'' she said.

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Photo

PHOTO CSUN's Lynda Amari saw much of the world as a member of the French national team.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News