Holley says Walker needs bodyguard

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Holley says Walker needs bodyguard. Personally, I'm glad Walker just
handed over the money and watch when he got mugged. Seems like the wise
thing to do. The 60,000 dollars may sound like a lot but it is roughly
half of what Walker makes per game next season. A few days worth of
income is not worth risking your life or your friends' lives over. I'm
very glad no one got hurt and there were no armed bodyguards around to
guard bodies.

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Guard would help forward
By Michael Holley, Globe Columnist, 7/4/2000

He is a rich athlete spending the summer in the city - Chicago - in
which he grew up poor. Antoine Walker was so poor that he used to
collect the caps off soda bottles to make extra money; so poor that he
dragged a jar full of pennies to the store because that's all his family
had; so poor that he moved from apartment to apartment, hoping his
mother could find a way to pay the rent.

The kid who rooted for the pre-Jordan Bulls is wealthy now. He is 23. He
can afford to buy a soda companyif he wants. His penny jars have been
replaced by portfolios. His mother now lives debt-free in a beautiful
home.

This is almost your typical rags-to-riches sports tale. If it sounds too
good to be true, there's a good reason for it.

It is.

As an anonymous poor man, Walker worried about getting his mother
$60,000 out of debt. As a famous rich man, the Celtics captain now has
to worry about bodyguards and getting himself home before midnight.

There are many areas of pro sports that have changed so dramatically you
don't recognize them anymore: free agency, expansion, sports attorneys
(agents), and, yes, rags-to-riches stories.

At about 4:15 a.m. Sunday, Celtics captain Walker and four friends were
robbed at gunpoint on the Near West Side of Chicago. The gunman left
with $3,000 in cash and a $55,000 gold-and-platinum Cartier watch.
Walker and his friends were waiting outside a restaurant called Eppels,
a place with hours made for the nightclub crowd: 4 a.m. until 5 p.m.

According to police, no shots were fired.

Walker is a single man. He loves wearing fine, tailor-made clothing. He
also likes to dance. He should be able to stay out as long as he wants
in a city that doesn't sleep until 5 or 6 a.m. This is the Celtics'
offseason, so it's not as if Walker's late night/early morning will
affect his performance against the Pacers or Knicks. He should be able
to wear a piece of jewelry that exceeds some families' household
incomes. He should be able to socialize with his friends, and - unlike
the days of his youth - not worry about who will pick up the tab.

He should.

He can't. At least he can't do it the way he is used to doing it. Not in
Chicago, not in Boston, not in New York, not in Los Angeles.

Two weeks before Walker was robbed, Nets point guard Stephon Marbury had
a $150,000, two-foot necklace taken from him as he waited for a light to
change in Manhattan. He was waiting in his Bentley. It was 3:45 a.m. and
Marbury, a native of nearby Brooklyn, had just left a local nightclub.
The man who robbed Marbury of his diamond-studded necklace also had a
gun, a silver 9mm.

I wouldn't describe Walker as conservative, but he's going to have to be
now. By any measure, he is a visible target. He stands 6 feet 9 inches.
He is rich. Not only is he tall and rich, he is tall, rich, and on
television. People recognize him. Most of the people who recognize him
are NBA fans who simply want to applaud or critique him on his game.
But, sadly, once you reach a certain tax bracket and a stratum of
celebrity, there has to be a higher degree of paranoia.

It means that you still can hang out with your friends, but you might
want to consider hiring a limousine rather than driving your own car.
Walker is loyal to his old friends and doesn't like bringing a lot of
new people into his circle. That's admirable, but he might want to hire
a bodyguard just to be cautious.

It means that you can still own the Cartier watch, but you might not
want to wear it certain places. It means that, while your bank account
swells from endorsement deals and the $71 million contract you signed in
January 1999, you might not want to carry a lot of cash with you -
certainly not $3,000.

Look at that. It all seems so neat and idealistic. If Walker does that,
does it mean he never will be robbed again? Of course not. Poor people
and rich people are targeted every day. You don't have to be famous to
pique the interest of a thief. But given options on the streets of
Chicago at 4 a.m., a man with a gun most likely will approach the
expensive car with the 23-year-old, well-dressed NBA player in it.

It's too bad that we have to think this way. One of Walker's childhood
heroes, Michael Jordan, began anticipating problems with large crowds
early in his career. He analyzed crowds and clubs the same way he
analyzed his opponents, and then proceeded purposefully. Charles Barkley
was not as cautious and, although he was and is a hilarious man of the
people, he literally had to pay for some of his late-night openness.

Barkley's dossier includes a toss-'em-through--a-plate-glass-window
trick at a bar in Orlando, Fla., and a memorable confrontation in
Scottsdale, Ariz. After the Arizona incident, Barkley said he would
rather ''wear a Malcolm X hat to a Klan rally'' than apologize to his
foe.

What this all means for Walker is that he has to ignore what his
calendar tells him. Next month he will be 24, a good age for all-night
dancing in the city he loves. On some nights, though, he might want to
consider doing something that many 24-year-old clubbers don't: dancing
at home.

The kid who grew up rooting for the Bears and wearing jersey No. 11 (in
honor of Chicago native Isiah Thomas), soon will find that for pro
athletes, even the cliches have changed:

You certainly can go home again ... just make sure you have a bodyguard.