Charlotte Observer: Season Can Be Saved If Owners Give Back Lost Wages

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Charlotte Observer        
Published Sunday,                  
December 13, 1998
     
                                         

NBA season could be
saved if owners give
players their back pay

    By RICK BONNELL
   Sports Columnist

Hornets player
representative Dell
Curry told me a month
ago that the lockout
can't end until the
11th hour, just before
the owners pull the
plug on the season.
Curry, and lots of
other union officials,
expect David Stern to
throw the players a
bone at the last minute
to solve this thing.

Here's the bone Stern
should throw:

Back pay.

Those are dirty words
to Commissioner Stern
and deputy commissioner
Russ Granik, who love
to remind players that
two months of pay is
gone, and never coming
back. But everything is
negotiable, and the
best way to close a
deal is making veterans
whole financially for
the season.

I realize this would
gall the owners.
Hornets owner George
Shinn, for instance,
would have to pay over
$6 million in salaries
for about 30 games that
would never be played.
But that's a small
price to remake the
sport's economics.

Owners would accept
this, I think, because
they have a long-term
view. This is their
business -- their
investment -- and they
can make that money
back plus more under a
harder salary cap.

The players have
short-term goals. We're
reminded constantly
that a player has just
a handful of years to
make his fortune. None
of them can afford to
lose a half-season of
pay, particularly since
spend money faster than
they earn it.

Consider the plight of
Toronto power forward
Charles Oakley. Nearing
the end of his career
at 34, Oakley is
scheduled to make $10
million this season.
With November and
December wiped from the
schedule, Oakley has
already lost more than
$3 million.

By January, he'll vote
for anything to recoup
that money.

THE END GAME: One union
insider predicts Stern
will publicly demand
that the players vote
on the owners' proposal
just before the season
is canceled.

Stern would benefit
however the union
reacts: There's a good
chance the players
would accept the
proposal, to get back
to work. If the players
turn down the proposal,
or if union leadership
refuses to stage a
vote, then Stern can
divert blame from the
owners for canceling
the season.

AROUND THE LEAGUE: USA
Today erroneously
reported that Hornets
free agent Vernon
Maxwell has retired.
Maxwell's agent, Dwight
Manley, says Maxwell
wants to play next
season. . . .

Heat guard Brent Barry
has dropped several
hints he's unlikely to
re-sign with Miami.
Barry would like to
return to the Western
Conference, where he
feels offenses are more
wide-open.

``We felt that he
wouldn't come back,
that he didn't fit
in,'' Miami guard Tim
Hardaway said of Barry.
``To hear that is not
surprising at all.'' .