Good NBA Column By Tom Enlund

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

NBA types wonder what to do without game
Tom Enlund - Milwaukee Journal-Sentenel - 11/28/98

They're bored. With way too much idle time on their hands, the league's coaches and player-personneltypes are becoming 
flat-out bored during the lockout. After all, just how many kids clinics and radio shows can you do before you start
climbing the walls? How many Thanksgiving turkeys can you hand out? How many marginal college games can you watch? 
The players' union has come to the conclusion that the owners are now just stalling inthe negotiations, playing mind
games and trying to wear down the players' resolve. The strategy may also be working on the coaches, whose eyes should 
have that road-map, film-watching look by now. Instead, they're passing the time in other ways. 

In Charlotte, Hornets coach Dave Cowens spent a recent afternoon having lunch with Carolina Panthers coach Dom Capers
and then taking in a Panthers practice.

The subject of the 1987 NFL strike came up in the conversation and Cowens was asked ifhe could foresee replacement players
ever donning uniforms in the NBA. 

"Where are you going to get them, grade school?" he asked. "We've already got all the high school kids." Meanwhile, 
New Jersey Nets general manager John Nash tells of scouting a recent college game between Temple and Mississippi and finding
about 20 NBA types there. Normally, estimates Nash, there would be about four. "

This will be the most heavily scouted class in history," he said. 

In Houston, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said his staff was trying to maintain a business-as-usual approach as much as possible.

"What we're doing is trying to use our time productively," he said. "We've covered a lot of things. We're evaluating a lot of things.
We're preparing forwhat will come.

"We've been working every day. The full coaching staff is here. I spend a lot of time here at night, late into the night. We're planning,
talking about drills, different approaches with our players."

Odd couple 

Here's a frightening thought. Charles Barkley and Mike Tyson are hanging out together in Phoenix where Tyson is training for a comeback. 

In fact, the two handed out holiday turkeys -- how appropriate -- at a no-frills Rocky-type boxing gym where Tyson is working out.

"I'm a friend and a fan," said Barkley, who needs no tutoring in the art of throwing a haymaker. "I think this is his best mental 
shape in 10 years. He was young when bad things happened to him. He had bad people around him. Now he has good people around him. 
Now, he's going to appreciate things more than he ever has."

Cashing in

New Jersey's Jayson Williams has verbalized what has become only too apparent during the lockout: That there is no shortage of cash
in the league's coffers. 

"I admit it, I feel guilty about how much money I make," he said.  "That's why I do 30 million charity events. Because you have to
give back. When you think about it, who should make this kind of money? Policemen, firemen, people teaching 6-year-old kids to read.
Every day, I wake up and my biggest decision is which car I'm going to drive."

Furthermore . . . 

The lockout has delayed construction of Penny Hardaway's $12 million mansion in central Florida. Besides that, Hardaway, who collected 
$7.8 million last season, hasn't been inconvenienced badly by the league's labor problems. 

"Other than that, I'm pretty conservative," he said.

Who's got game? 

This isn't a huge upset, but there appears to be increasing doubt over whether Tim Hardaway's charity game in Miami is going to come off.

The extravaganza was supposed to have been played this Friday but very few players have committed, leaving promoters scrambling for participants.

Word is that agents David Falk and Arn Tellum are still trying to put together a Dream Team I vs. Dream Team II matchup for early December in Las Vegas.

Holiday cheer 

The Chicago Bulls aren't exactly shedding tears that they won't be able to play on Christmas Day this year and will have to spend the holiday at home
with their families. 

Chicago has played on Christmas the last two years and seven of the last eight. 

Bulls player rep Steve Kerr does find NBC's replacement programming -- "It's aWonderful Life" starring James Stewart -- to be rather ironic, however.

"Isn't that the movie where he loses all his money?" said Kerr. "Doesn't he lose all his money and becomes so frustrated that he ends up deciding to 
go jump off abridge? 

"Well, I'm not ready to jump yet."

Hoop dreams 

Portland guard Damon Stoudamire is among the players who wants to end all the nonsenseand get back on the court. 

"I'm itching to play," he said. "I mean, why did James Naismith invent this game? Because it's boring in winter.
You might have your die-hard hockey fans, but who wants to just watch hockey?

"College basketball is starting, and the ABL is going on now, but the only other basketball on TV are the classic games.
They're a lot of fun to watch, but you know who wins."

Off the pine

Nets center Rony Seikaly has already set a goal for himself for the alleged coming season -- to win the league's sixth-man award. 

"I'd rather be the sixth man and be helping a team win rather than starting and coming out after two minutes," said Seikaly. 
"People say to me, 'You could start on 20 of the 29 teams, why would you want to play with the Nets?' 

"It's simple. I think we have talent and then some. Toni Kukoc, Kevin McHale, they could have started just about anywhere, too. So it's
fine with me."

Back in action 

Portland center Arvydas Sabonis scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, both game highs, to lead the Lithuanian national team to a
87-57 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovinalast week in Sarajevo.

It was the first of three games that the Sabonis has committed to playing for his homeland during the lockout. 

Lithuania is trying to clinch a spot in the 1999 European championships where it hopes to qualify for the 2000 Olympics. "I'm bored,"
Sabonis told the Lithuanian media.  "I just want to play basketball."

On the mend 

The continuing lockout has, in a sense, been a blessing in disguise to center Alonzo Mourning and the Miami Heat.

The recent arthroscopic surgery undergone by Mourning was expected to sideline him until Christmas. Now it appears that
the league won't begin before Christmas, so the all-star center will not have to miss much.

He will have to sit out Miami's first game, whenever that should occur, because of the playoff fight he engaged in last season.

Magic Kingdom 
 
The Orlando Magic has signed a new five-year lease to stay in the Orlando Arena. 

One of the concessions the Magic received from the city-owned building was to find acorporate sponsor and 
re-name the building and help pad the team's basketball-related income.