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Peter May Still Skeptical Of Walker - Pitino Dynamics/ Decrease In Salary Cap Hurts Teams
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
PRO BASKETBALL
More to Walker case than money
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 01/10/99
We now know the cost of doing business in the NBA. The Celtics know
it. Antoine Walker knows it. David Falk knows it, even if he doesn't
like it.
It follows that there should be no reason now for the Celtics not to re-sign
Walker. Yes, the mother lode is still staggering: Walker would be eligible
to sign a seven-year extension averaging $12.24 million per season. And the
total - $85-plus million - is about $60 million more than Paul Gaston has
ever agreed to pay to any player on the Celtics. (It's OK with Antoine,
though.)
But if Gaston is going to keep the Celtics competitive, those are the
numbers he is going to have to swallow - and more than once. Will he do it?
He has to. But the phrase that kept reverberating last Thursday when the
deal was approved by the owners was ''well-managed.'' David Stern said the
deal gives teams a chance to make money if they're ''well-managed.'' That's
a not-too-subtle message (or a shot at the Clippers), and he said it more
than once. Some owners (Micky Arison in Miami, for example) don't care
whether their team is well-managed. Gaston cares a lot. But if he's going to
compete, he will have to pay.
But the Walker issue was never just about money. He always knew that was
going to be there; the only question was the number of zeroes at the end of
the check. The issue also is about style, personality, and relationships.
Can he and Rick Pitino coexist over the next several years and will Walker,
and others, want to keep playing a certain style into their late 20s? Will
Walker grow up and stop being the boor that he can be on the floor, a
behavior pattern that makes him one of the league's least-liked players?
Will Pitino demand more maturity from his ''captain'' or will he stand back
as he did last year?
Walker clearly is a wonderful talent and still a work-in-progress. What he
needed most - a veteran to tell him when to stop acting like a jerk - he
never got in Boston. (Frank Brickowski wasn't around long enough.) The
Celtics will have to sign him, if for no other reason than to have him
available for a deal if it doesn't work out. Pitino thinks it will, which is
exactly what we expected him to say. Walker says he wants to stay, which is
what we expected him to say. We've learned by now, however, that what is
said and what is done aren't always the same thing.
A logical step
The NBA finally came to its senses and allowed teams to talk to agents while
the lawyers from the league and the union go over the new agreement. It was
naive to pretend that nothing was going on, and this gives both parties a
chance to examine the landscape. Teams had been able to discuss deals among
themselves; why not with agents as well? ... The new deal will help teams
like the Celtics keep their players. It gives teams a twofold advantage in
re-signing their own free agents: a club can offer an extra year (seven vs.
six) and can offer yearly raises of 12 percent vs. 10 percent. If Walker,
for instance, were to test the waters this summer, he could field a bid of
no more than $67.5 million over six years (still enough to avoid the crowds
at Kmart and Piggly Wiggly). The Celtics can offer seven years and the
aforementioned $85-plus million. Which one would you take? ''For a team that
is building through the draft, it's a great deal,'' said MSG boss Dave
Checketts, one of the Nine Angry Men on the Labor Relations Committee.
''It's excellent for the Celtics.'' He then paused and said, ''You know, as
a matter of fact, I was thinking of the Celtics the whole time we were
negotiating. I wanted to protect them. That was my goal all along.'' He then
said his next goal was to acquire Pervis Ellison for Patrick Ewing... Pitino
said the Celtics had had several discussions about free agency during the
lockout and not a single one dealt with a cap of $30 million. That figure is
a killer not just for Boston, but for a lot of teams. ''A lot of teams are
in a panic,'' said Nets coach John Calipari. ''They thought they could get
two guys and now they probably have enough for only one.'' Detroit got
crushed, from $10 million to around $8 million. Orlando, for instance, has
seen its cap room fall from around $8 million to $6 million. That's still
enough for Matt Geiger, Ike Austin , or whomever but probably not enough for
two decent players. The Celtics have no options unless they can unload
salaries, a difficult task given their largely unappealing roster. Their
best bet would be to re-sign Popeye Jones and live with what they have in
the middle ... If you were a major sponsor of Indiana Pacers basketball,
last week was your basic win-win. Not only did you see the season saved (not
to mention a possible title for your Pacers) but you also could toast the
settlement in Cancun. That's where the Pacers took their VIS (Very Important
Sponsors) ... We hear that the owner of the San Antonio Spurs, Peter Holt,
is less than enthused about bringing in Mr. Warmth, Latrell Sprewell. The
odds still favor Miami, but the base-year compensation rules may hurt any
deal because the Warriors want Brent Barry included. The same goes in
discussions with Indiana ( Travis Best would be a base-year guy) and New
York ( Charlie Ward) ... Checketts is concerned that Ewing is not in shape
as the season approaches. ''Did you see him in Atlantic City? It wasn't
pretty,'' Checketts said. ''He needs now to focus on basketball. I told him
that. I told him his concern is the Knicks, not the union. I would have
rather seen someone else at the bargaining table, like maybe Reggie Miller,
but it was Patrick.'' Ewing, remember, missed most of last year with a wrist
injury and then spent the last several months acting as president of the
union. Checketts said he was convinced last Monday that the season would be
over. ''The owners were tight. I was wondering what we were going to do with
all those empty nights,'' he said. ''But I think what happened is that Billy
[ Hunter] figured he had come too far, too long, and that he'd better get an
agreement for those guys who were coming into town. So his executive
committee told him, `Go make a deal.''' It could have been ugly had those
players not had an agreement on which to vote. ''I was expecting an eventful
day,'' Danny Ferry said. ''I don't know what would have happened if we did
not have something to vote on.'' ... We won't know for a while whether the
fans will come back - all bullet polls indicate they still don't care - but
it would be misleading to base anything on the dog-and-pony show last week
at the GM Building. Yes, there were fans and autograph-seekers, but it was a
celebrity-spotting thing. Most people didn't even know whose autograph they
were getting, and no one had to pay a nickel for the privilege ... Aside to
Coach Pitino: The six-month labor impasse was a lockout, imposed by
ownership, not a strike.
Ford back to work?
Chris Ford got a call Thursday from Clippers GM Elgin Baylor and was told
that the team hoped to have its coaching situation ''wrapped up'' by
tomorrow. Ford and Clipper assistant Jim Brewer are presumed to be the two
leading candidates. Brewer would come cheaper, which is always a big
consideration with the Clippers. Ford is interested in the job, although his
wife and kids will stay in Lynnfield for the rest of the season if he gets
the nod. By the way, Ford's daughter Katie was chosen All-New England in
volleyball from that noted Division 3 juggernaut, Williams College. And
Chris Jr. has graduated from college and is coaching an eighth-grade team in
southern New Jersey. He's also substitute teaching ... Calipari is eager to
get back to work, but said those who thought he was ''going nuts'' were
misinformed. He said the down time was a real benefit. ''The last two years,
I've been beat up quite a bit,'' he said. ''It was physically grueling; I
wasn't used to the long season or the intense scrutiny or the number of
games. The lockout was good for me that I got away from that for awhile.''
Cal has decisions to make today on two players, one of them believed to be
Michael Cage. Their contracts have guarantees that kick in today ... Agent
Marc Fleisher, no fan of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, thinks
European players won't want to be first-round picks because of the five-year
commitment they must give to their NBA team. ''They're better off being
second-rounders who can cut their own deals,'' he said. ''The money allotted
for first-rounders won't be enough. They can make more in Europe.'' As
usual, Fleisher has a couple of obscure (by NBA standards, anyway) clients
who may make NBA rosters this season. One is Oded Kattash, who, Fleisher
says, is ''the Michael Jordan of Israel'' and plays for Maccabi-Tel Aviv.
The Knicks are interested in him and the Clippers and Pistons both wanted to
sign Kattash before the lockout. Indiana has some interest in 7-foot
Croatian Mate Skelin, another Fleisher client. Steve Kauffman, meanwhile,
thinks he has another Bruce Bowen type in Pepperdine's Gerald Brown, who was
undrafted. He played very well in an agent's summer league in LA and could
wind up in either Phoenix or Indiana ... Utah owner Larry Miller, a man of
the people dressed in a sports shirt and sneakers for the Board of Governors
meeting, wonders how hoop historians will judge this season. ''I think there
might be an asterisk on this season,'' he said. ''I think 50 games gives us
some credibility, but it's not a full-blown, 82-game season. You can't say
that. Then again, I might feel differently on June 29.'' Miller is fuming
over reports that he has a handshake deal with Karl Malone for a new
contract. ''I'll say, diplomatically, that I'm frustrated by that,'' he
said. ''It distresses me greatly. There is no handshake or deal. We have
never talked about a new contract, other than Karl saying he wants to keep
playing, he wants to keep playing in Utah, and he wants to make a lot of
money. I feel betrayed by whoever said that.'' Miller also said he was stung
by Malone's comments during the lockout that he had played his last game as
a member of the Jazz and wanted to be traded. ''It really hurt,'' Miller
said. ''Our relationship is not a facade. We have gotten close over the
years. When I hear that stuff, I wonder where it's coming from. I don't
presume to know. The fact that I couldn't talk to him was frustrating for
me. But he's also got to be cognizant of the damage he's done, in terms of
sponsorships and things like that. No one's going to want a guy who's all
over the map.''
This story ran on page E02 of the Boston Globe on 01/10/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.