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Lockout Leaving Players Cooped Up
In Lockout, Players Feel Cooped Up
Labor Dispute Has Some In NBA Losing Patience
By Ric Bucher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 27, 1998; Page E01
It's 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and Washington
Wizards free agent Ben Wallace already has put in
his three hours on the treadmill and in the weight
room and on the basketball court. Now comes the
worst part of the day, the long stretch until
bedtime where he sits in his Richmond home and
alternately plays video games and flips through
the television channels, looking for news of
progress in the NBA's labor dispute between
ownership and the players.
"I'm doing all that," Wallace said, his voice
laced with resignation. "That's my thing. You do
everything you can do as far as staying in shape,
but after that you've got nowhere to go, no one to
push you to get that extra mile. You wait for
something to happen, and there's nothing being
done. My patience is wearing thin."
It is a scene being played out in the homes of
rank-and-file NBA players across the country, with
restlessness posing as much of a problem as fiscal
fear. In talking to nearly a dozen player agents,
they say most players have enough money to cover
their living expenses should they have to sit out
the entire season without a paycheck. The only
players being truly fiscally hurt are those near
the end of their careers (Buck Williams, Charles
Oakley) or blessed with contracts paying them
above their market value (Donyell Marshall, Brent
Price), because they're forfeiting paychecks
they'll never recover, no matter what the terms of
the new collective bargaining agreement.
The universal complaint, though, is that they miss
the privileged life that an NBA player leads --
competing in front of large, adoring crowds,
traveling the country in four-star style, hanging
out in the most exclusive of fraternities. And
while the more than 240 players who attended last
week's union meeting in Las Vegas were swept up by
the call to stand firm against what they perceive
as the owners' attempt to railroad them into a bad
deal, there's another faction to which Wallace
belongs, a faction that doesn't care who is at
fault but simply wants a resolution. Whether you
are a doctor or a shopping-mall security guard or
a backup NBA power forward, part of who you are is
defined by what you do and how you do it. Wallace
has nothing to do, nothing to be -- and he doesn't
know when he will.
"I know a lot of fans see the players as greedy
when I think it's the owners who are trying to
keep everything to themselves," Wallace said. "But
I'm sort of with the fans on we need to get this
solved."
And while some players talk of going to play in
Europe if the lockout doesn't end soon, the
reality is that there are only a handful of
openings available and almost none offer more
money than last season's NBA minimum of $272,000.
A group of NBA players picked up a couple thousand
dollars playing in an exhibition Friday in
Houston. Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone has taken a
gig as a Los Angeles sports radio talk-show host.
Wizards free agent forward Darvin Ham, looking to
make some money but retain the option of playing
in the NBA this season, is expected to sign with
the Grand Rapids Hoops of the Continental
Basketball Association.
Wallace, as a low-profile free agent who is
coveted enough to jump into the millionaire
bracket once the lockout is over, also would risk
selling himself short if he jumped to Europe.
"A lot of American players think there's a ton of
teams out there, and that's just not true," said
Andrew Vye, an agent who works with Wallace's
agent, Steve Kauffman, to get U.S. players into
the European market. "There's just a handful of
jobs out there."
Players under NBA contracts have even fewer
options. First of all, most European teams are
limited to three foreign players and made their
roster decisions in July. Foreign teams also
generally are limited to making three roster moves
once the season begins, and wasting it on bringing
over an NBA player only until the lockout ends
would have to be weighed carefully. An NBA player
under contract also would have to get a letter of
clearance from his NBA franchise and contractual
freedom by his European employer to return to the
NBA once the lockout is over, permission neither
team would be eager to give. European-born players
such as Rik Smits, Arvydas Sabonis and Rony
Seikaly wouldn't count as foreigners, but Vye said
it's unlikely they could expect to make more than
$45,000 or so a month.
Wallace is at the bottom end of the income scale
for NBA players, a free agent who has been in the
league three years and made a career-high $330,000
last season. He has been smart with his money in
anticipation of the work stoppage, paying in
advance a year's lease on his three-bedroom house
in Richmond. His sartorial taste runs toward jeans
and T-shirts, and his one piece of jewelry is a
platinum-plated pendant of the clock tower Big Ben
with diamond cuts rather than actual diamonds. He
splurged and bought a Lincoln Navigator after his
Chevy Tahoe was stolen last season, but the
Navigator and a Honda Accord are the only vehicles
he has, and they're paid in full. His monthly
living expenses are around $3,000, the biggest
chunk going to child support for a son who lives
with his mother. His fiancee, Chanda Booker, is
his only other dependent.
But being financially secure doesn't ease the
accusations from the fans that he meets or the
anxiety over his NBA learning curve being
disrupted.
"I get it all the time," Wallace said. " 'What do
you all want?' they ask. 'You're making enough
money.' I try to limit myself in those
conversations."
He has done that by sitting at home and becoming
an expert at Tekken III, a video street-fighter
game that has 30 characters to be mastered. "I've
beaten the whole game," Wallace said. "I'm waiting
for them to come out with Tekken IV."
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company