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Peter May On Hoops 9/13/98
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
PRO BASKETBALL
Officially speaking, they're on their own
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 09/13/98
While millionaires battle millionaires over the way to disperse millions, the
NBA referees, arguably the most impacted, voiceless group in this whole
unseemly lockout mess, sit on the sidelines and pray for a resolution.
Officially, they have no stance, no say, no position. They technically are
employees of the NBA, but dissidents in Iraq have more freedom to speak. Their
income could be directly affected if games are lost, and few, if any, of the
58 referees have the financial freedom of the players, not to mention the team
owners.
''These are people with mortgages to pay and monthly nuts to crack,'' says
Howard Pearl, the general counsel for the National Basketball Referees
Association. ''These people need the income. This [the lockout] affects them
profoundly, but they play no role in it and have no position on it.''
Pearl and the NBRA executive board met last month in New York with NBA
officials and came back with promises that the officials will receive their
Oct. 1 paychecks. There is no ''lockout language'' in the standard referee's
contract. According to Pearl, the baseball umpires had such language and
received checks during the play stoppage in 1994.
Most referees get paid every two weeks over the course of the calendar year,
with the new pay period starting on Oct. 1. Their salaries range, according to
Pearl, from a low of $80,000 to a high of around $200,000. In other words, the
highest-paid referee receives less money than a minimum-wage player in the
NBA.
There has been no further news from New York regarding the status of the Oct.
15 checks, although a league source indicated that the referees were told they
would not be cut off without adequate notice. The league declined to comment
on the issue, saying it does not speak about salary matters regarding its
employees. Meanwhile, the referees have been sent two 50-question tests to
keep them mentally involved, but the opening of their training camp, Sept. 25
in New Jersey, has been put on hold. They anticipate they will be given two
weeks to get in game shape once the lockout ends, which is likely what the
players will receive as well.
Pearl, who has been general counsel for more than one year, said he is
satisfied with the way the NBA is handling the matter. ''I'm impressed, beyond
belief, with the NBA and its smarts, its intelligence, and its willingness to
do the right thing,'' he said.
Referees are entering the fourth year of a five-year deal with the league. The
last time their deal was up, they missed games because of a labor impasse.
Pearl also is trying to get clemency and reinstatement for the several
referees who have run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service for alleged income
tax evasion, though he said, ''Like everything else, that issue is on hold
until the lockout ends.''
The officials can only hope that their salaries don't get put on hold as well,
because it could mean a longer, colder winter than any trip they might have to
make to Minneapolis.
Quick fix won't be in
Unlike the officials, most player contracts don't start until November, which
means that there is little incentive for anyone to settle the lockout until
then. If you're a player, why push the envelope so you can have two-a-days and
then have to play exhibition games in Huntsville, Kalispell, or Flagstaff?
The league and the union have finished their presentations - six days of
testimony - to arbitrator John Feerick over whether players with guaranteed
contracts should get paid during a lockout. (You can pretty much figure out
which side thinks they should.) Both sides have until Friday to present
additional briefs and then Feerick has up to 30 days to make a decision.
The union and the league agree on one thing: Feerick will try to make the
decision in as short a time as possible. (Feerick's reputation is to render a
decision that should please everyone, meaning he likely will rule that
anything Michael Jordan says and does is OK.) If he rules for the union, the
league will go to court and that could add even more down time. If he rules
for the league, the union will then double back and negotiations should renew.
However, the union has seen nothing from the league that doesn't include a
''hard cap,'' and the players are not inclined to accept that.
One thing to keep in mind: When this does end, it will probably take at least
a month to get the games going. Teams and free agents will likely be given a
couple weeks to get deals done, and then there should be a two-week training
camp.
Payments come on schedule
Meanwhile, there is a small group of players, including the Celtics' Greg
Minor, who are still receiving paychecks for the 1997-98 season. Union
attorney Ron Klempner said it is a ''small percentage'' of the players who
choose a 12-month payment schedule; the others are on a November-April pay
schedule. ''The vast majority of the players don't get paid until Nov. 15,''
Klempner said. As of now, around 30 players have not been paid for services to
be rendered for the upcoming season. They had clauses in their contracts
providing for lump sum payments prior to the start of the season ... Tough
summer for Christian Laettner. First, he loses an all-expense-paid trip to
Monaco and Athens as a member of USA Basketball's World Championship team when
the NBA players elected not to go after the league imposed the lockout. Then,
he blew out an Achilles' in a pickup game last week at Duke. Whatever plans he
had for this season are now on hold. Laettner had surgery at Duke University
Hospital and has returned to his Atlanta home to convalesce. Luckily for him,
he had paid the premiums on his insurance and so the medical costs were
covered. ''In a situation like this [lockout], every player has the option to
pick up the premiums,'' said Laettner's agent, Herb Rudoy. In this case, not
only is there a lockout, but Laettner also was a free agent. ''I make sure all
of my guys do and I'm certain everyone else does too,'' said Rudoy. ''It makes
sense.'' As for the operation, Rudoy said Laettner would likely have had it in
the same spot had it been elective. ''He's very comfortable with the people at
Duke, so, given the fact that he is a free agent, that is where he probably
would have had it anyway.'' ... New Bucks coach George Karl said he was very
close to accepting a position with TNT for this season, but the network
insisted on having a no-coaching clause in the deal. ''If I had signed it,''
he said recently in Milwaukee, ''they would not have allowed me to coach this
year.'' Karl found out about the Bucks' interest during a recent trip to Hong
Kong. He said he got a phone call at 2:30 a.m. from owner Herb Kohl's office,
informing him that ''the Senator'' (as Kohl likes to be called) would be
calling in a half-hour. Karl's response: ''No problem.'' Karl said he hopes to
bring assistants Tim Grgurich and Terry Stotts with him, but one individual
who isn't planning on making the move anytime soon is his wife, Cathy. She's
staying back in Seattle for the time being with their 15-year-old son, Coby,
who is on the golf team and is already in school ... The Miami Heat are
apparently re-thinking their decision regarding the sale of season tickets.
The Heat have traditionally avoided smaller packages in favor of the whole
enchilada. But last season, coming off a year in which they were in the
conference finals, Miami had just 24 sellouts. Who can tell what attendance
will be this season without Gary Grant and Willie Anderson, both of whom
decided to take the overseas money and run? Grant landed a job in Greece while
Anderson found employment with Maccabi-Tel Aviv, which was supposed to play
the Heat in an exhibition, but the game was canceled last week.
Jordan takes the court
If you're the plaintiff's lawyers, don't you think you might ask for a change
of venue? Then again, with Jordan as the defendant, is there anywhere he isn't
an instant celebrity? Incredibly, a jury (not necessarily of his financial
peers) will soon begin hearing evidence in Chicago against Jordan, who is
accused of breach of contract by the makers of the movie ''Heaven is a
Playground.'' Finding a jury might be the hardest task of all; the first day,
five hours of selection yielded only three jurors. The lawsuit, filed five
years ago, says Jordan signed on with the filmakers in 1988 for $350,000 plus
5 percent of the profits. He was to play a role in the film about a basketball
player - surprise! - who is trying to get his game back. Jordan returned a
$50,000 up-front fee he received and has filed a counterclaim saying he had
been deceived about the film's financing. He and his agent, David Falk, who
also is a defendant (the two are joined at the business hip), also say the
contract they did sign was not binding. The lawsuit seeks as much as $20
million in damages, which is what the filmmakers claim the movie, which
starred Bo Kimble instead of Jordan, would have made had Michael participated.
Jordan plans to be in court for the duration of the trial, which could take up
to three weeks, and has drawn laughs from prospective jurors when asked by the
judge to introduce himself. He has, however, been accorded a privilege or two
by being allowed to enter the courtroom by way of a back elevator and through
the judge's chambers.
Material from personal interviews and wire services were used in this report.
This story ran on page F06 of the Boston Globe on 09/13/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
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