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Peter May's Sunday Globe Column
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[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
PRO BASKETBALL
A message from Michael
His appearance during labor talks speaks volumes
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 11/01/98
This is All Souls Day. We pray for the souls of those who have departed in the
previous year. But spare your prayers for Michael Jordan. To paraphrase Bob
Dylan, ''He ain't goin' nowhere.''
How can we deduce otherwise after seeing Jordan in his latest incarnation,
that of John L. Lewis/Samuel Gompers? Who knows what spawned this miraculous
transformation, but Jordan must be intent on playing at least one more year.
Why else do it?
You can read Jordan's remarks about owing future players something, but we
know better than that. Jordan does nothing if it doesn't benefit Jordan. It's
not being selfish. It's the real world, NBA style. The future players will do
quite nicely whether Jordan does a Jerry Springer with Abe Pollin or stays on
the golf course for bimonthly cell phone updates.
Jordan doesn't need any of this. He saved the league before by coming back
from baseball. Now he can save it again, this time by doing something he
previously found about as appealing as Jerry Krause: collective bargaining.
Then again, it also wasn't by accident that Jordan surfaced at the two
dog-and-pony shows staged by the union. There were minicams there. But he also
stayed in New York last Wednesday night and was an engaged participant in the
eight-hour bargaining session. He didn't have to do that.
We long ago stopped taking Jordan at his word. He wasn't going to play again
after retiring. He wasn't going to play in the United Center. He wasn't going
to play for anyone but Phil Jackson.
But the man loves challenges. And what greater one than the one before him
now: saving a season in jeopardy? Almost 1,200 games! He could then re-sign
with the Bulls - oh, there's the money thing, too - and prove he can win with
Tim Floyd, Frank Hamblin, or whoever coaches him. Another challenge. Another
milestone.
Then we can all go through this again next summer.
Hard to believe
Jordan's chat with Pollin underscored what many feel is the core problem of
the ongoing dispute: credibility. The players have seen the books and they
still don't believe the owners are in anything close to dire straits. Why else
would they go into the deal asking for 63 percent of the revenues when the
owners blew up the last deal because it reached 51.8 percent? Jordan even used
the word ''snookered'' in one of the sessions. You can relate to the players'
concerns when some owners willingly take losses and don't care. And even
perennial money-loser Indiana spent millions on Larry Bird and is moving into
a beautiful new arena. The league's response is pretty basic: Teams as a whole
are paying out more money than they are receiving; that can't continue. Jordan
related a revealing anecdote last Wednesday while waiting for the players'
meeting to start. It went like this: If you buy a house in my neighborhood,
and then you can't afford to stay there, do you pass the hat among your
neighbors? No, you sell the house. That's basically what he told Pollin, who
is the senior owner in the NBA and one of the acknowledged hawks in the
dispute. (He's also the one who paid Juwan Howard and Chris Webber) ... While
the NBA says that everything is included when basketball revenues are
calculated, one source of money is not: licensing. That's a totally separate
agreement. The NBA and the players split money from any licensed product that
has a player's likeness or name and a team name. The players get 100 percent
of the money if it's simply a player's likeness. The league sent the players
$25 million for their half of the licensing. Jordan said he thought the figure
should have been much, much higher, but the league says that is not the case
... Who's at fault? The internet site CBS/Sportsline asked that of its
readers. More than 30,000 responses came in and 63.4 percent blamed the
players while 36.6 percent blamed the owners ... Right now, there are three
dates we hear for opening the season. The first is Dec. 1, although that would
require a signed deal in a week, which certainly doesn't seem likely based on
what people were saying last Thursday. The second is Christmas. NBC craves
that game and has a doubleheader scheduled featuring the Kings, Grizzlies,
Mavericks, and Raptors. Only kidding. It's Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and
Phoenix. The third date is Jan. 1. One scenario outlined Friday had the league
redoing the entire schedule, with all teams playing each other twice. That
would result in a 56-game season. Another option would be to add games at the
end of the season, although that would push the season to the end of June.
Then again, if Jordan is playing, neither the NBA nor NBC will care if it goes
into August.
Is Walker a goner?
Pete Vecsey of the New York Post reported Friday that Antoine Walker will be
traded to Miami after the lockout ends for P.J. Brown and Jamal Mashburn. That
makes as much sense as any of the other Walker trade rumors we've heard
(Portland, Orlando) except for the fact that it makes a small team (Miami)
even smaller. There's no doubt the Celtics have been shopping Walker,
generally to teams with free-spending owners. But if there is a deal, Rick
Pitino will see that at least two of his many contract undesirables ( Pervis
Ellison, Greg Minor , Dontae Jones , even Dana Barros) are included. It also
will be interesting to see whether the Celtics go forward with a deal if the
new bargaining agreement gives them another year with Walker or limits what
Walker could make as a free agent. Would Pitino keep him, or has the
relationship soured to the point of no return? And if it's strictly economics,
will Pitino stick around if his hands are tied by ownership? ... The Kings
have hired former Laker guard Byron Scott as an assistant coach under new
mentor Rick Adelman. Scott played last year in Greece with Dino Radja for
Panathinaikos. Also on Adelman's staff is former Michigan head coach Steve
Fisher, who will, among other things, babysit Webber, and longtime Adelman
crony John Wetzel... M.L. Carr reports he's still trying to shake down rich
guys for the Celtics in his role as executive vice president for economic
development. Carr now has two children in college and a third in boarding
school, meaning three hefty tuition bills. ''All those times I used to tell
kids to stay in school,'' he said. ''I should tell my kids to go hardship.''
... The breakup of the Stephon Marbury - Eric Fleisher relationship came over
a shoe deal. According to a report in Street & Smith Business Daily, Fleisher,
who represents the Timberwolves' guard, turned down a $1.8 million offer, and
later a $1 million deal, from Puma. Puma then gave the money to Vince Carter,
and Marbury, apparently, will give a cut of his future earnings to David
Falk... The Nets' new ownership group has one man in charge of the basketball
end but several minority partners. One of those is team president Michael
Rowe, who got 1 percent of the $150 million sale. One who isn't is coach John
Calipari. Read into that what you will, but Rowe and Cal didn't always see
eye-to-eye last year on how the team should spend its money. Cal has an out
clause after this year ... Speaking of the Nets, we asked Keith Van Horne what
he thought of the ownership change. ''I don't know,'' he said. ''I didn't even
know the last ones.''
Material from personal interviews, wire service reports, other beat writers,
and league and team sources was used in compiling this report.
This story ran on page C04 of the Boston Globe on 11/01/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.