PRO BASKETBALL NOTES

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mackey takes major step with Pacers


By Peter May, Globe Columnist, 8/3/2003

hree weeks ago, Kevin Mackey flew into Indianapolis. The next day, by design,
he met Larry Bird for the very first time, signed a contract to be one of
Bird's main scouts for the Pacers, and soon joined his boss in Utah to look at
prospects at the Rocky Mountain Revue. ''After all I've been through, and all
the places I've been, I feel like I've died and gone to heaven,'' Mackey said
Friday in a telephone interview, shortly before heading to the Caribbean to,
yup, watch more basketball. ''Larry is a worker. And I love to work.''



Mackey, of course, needs no introduction to Boston hoop fans. He coached
terrific teams at Cathedral High and Don Bosco in the 1960s and 1970s. He
assisted Tom Davis and Gary Williams during what many feel were the glory days
of Boston College basketball in the early 1980s. He then coached for seven
years at Cleveland State, a tenure highlighted by regular 20-win seasons and
an upset of Indiana in the 1986 NCAA Tournament, and lowlighted by an arrest
in 1990 outside a crack house.

He has rebuilt his life since then, all around basketball. He has coached in
every minor league imaginable and in places such as Argentina, Korea, and
Canada. The term ''gym rat'' or ''basketball junkie'' describes the
50-something Mackey to a T. He first heard from Bird about a year ago, when
Bird was putting together a basketball staff for what he thought would be his
job as the hoop boss in Charlotte.

''When he first called, I thought it was a practical joke,'' Mackey said. ''I
had never met him. I had never even been in the same room with him. He said,
`I know everything about you. Are you interested in working for me?' Well, I
took his number, called him back, and when I realized it was him, my tone
changed in a hurry. Of course I wanted to do it.''

Bird said he made a slew of calls about Mackey. Everyone said the same thing
-- and Bird knew he had his man.

''He knows the game. He knows players,'' Bird said Friday by phone from
Indiana. ''He knows talent. He's coached everywhere. He's been everywhere.
He'll go anywhere. He was in trouble and he got himself cleaned up. None of
that stuff bothers me. I'll give anyone a chance as long as they're willing to
work.''

And once Bird decided to rejoin the Pacers, Mackey was there the very next
day.

''He called me and I told him I had watched his press conference on
television,'' Mackey said. ''He said, `Come on in and let's go to work.' We
only had had a phone relationship until the next day.''

Mackey was fired from the Cleveland State job after his arrest. He never got
to coach in the new arena on campus, an arena he had a large part in getting
built. ''They called it The House That Mackey Built,'' Mackey said. ''But I
never got to coach in it.''

Basketball proved to be his salvation. Mackey went through drug and alcohol
treatment and, with the help of John Lucas, landed a job in the United States
Basketball League. He coached the Florida Sea Dragons in Naples, which is
where Bird happened to live. He coached in Atlantic City and Trenton, and last
year he led the Mansfield (Ohio) Hawks in something called the United Pro
Basketball League. That team won the regular-season title.

''I'll always be grateful to the minor leagues,'' Mackey said. ''For a long
time, that was the only door that was open to me.''

When he broached Mackey's name to team president Donnie Walsh, according to
Bird, the response went something like, ''I know the guy. I've been wanting to
hire him for a long time.''

''I didn't hire him just to have him here. I hired him to help me,'' Bird
said. ''He's going to do a lot of scouting for me, college, pro, and he's
going to do a lot of traveling. But he doesn't mind that at all. The guy loves
the game of basketball.''

Mackey noted the irony of the date of his hiring. It was almost 13 years to
the day since he was arrested; he'll never forget that date: July 13, 1990.
He'll never forget July of 2003, either. That's when the latest chapter in his
basketball life started -- one he hopes will be a lot longer than the others.

Putting it together Bird, meanwhile, has settled into his job of trying to
improve the Pacers. They re-signed Jermaine O'Neal, and they wanted to keep
Brad Miller as well. ''We liked Brad, but not at $9 million a year,'' Bird
said. ''We're not going over the cap [luxury tax threshold]. We have talent.
It's my job to improve it.'' He likes the addition of Scot Pollard (''the guy
plays hard, doesn't complain, and has been a winner everywhere he's been''),
and thinks Pollard brings some toughness to the Pacers. ''We need some tough
guys,'' Bird said. ''We also need some scorers. We've got plenty of shooters.
We don't have enough makers.'' As for Boston, Bird said he never considered
coming here. ''I didn't feel like working for the new people. Or the old
people, for that matter,'' he said, referring to Paul Gaston. ''If we had
gotten the team, that would have been different. I love Boston. The people
there were great to me. But this is a good situation. I know the players. I
know the people. And it's on me.'' . . . This hasn't been the greatest
offseason for the Mavericks. They struck out with Alonzo Mourning and have had
no luck with any sign-and-trade situations. To make matters worse, Raja Bell,
who gave the Mavs some excellent minutes in the regular season and playoffs,
is making noise about not coming back. Bell is a free agent and, according to
Dallas personnel boss Donnie Nelson, the ideal Maverick. ''He's perfect for
us,'' said Nelson. ''We're sort of the Island of Misfit Toys in a way. So he
fits right in with us.'' . . . The US team that will play in Puerto Rico in
the Olympic qualifier this month will start practicing next week in New York.
The first-round schedule has been released, and the Yanks won't have to break
much of a sweat, with games against Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela,
and the Virgin Islands. (Idle thought: Why doesn't Tim Duncan play for the
Virgin Islands entry?) Of those four, Brazil probably will present the
stiffest challenge, but only if Nuggets forward Nene Hilario suits up. His
status for the tournament is up in the air, although he's getting a lot of
''requests'' from the folks back home to play. Hilario participated in the
recent Rocky Mountain Revue and may simply want to chill. We'll see. The US
completed its squad by adding Vince Carter, who will replace Kobe Bryant.
That's another indication of what should be pretty obvious by now: Paul Pierce
is simply not on the selection committee's wish list.

Fit for Boston Cavaliers president/general manager Jim Paxson on the Celtics'
newest acquisition, Jumaine Jones: ''He plays hard. He comes to practice every
day. We just felt for us, it was not the right fit going forward. I think
he'll help the Celtics. Danny [Ainge] has been after him all along.'' Paxson
said the Cavs needed another point guard (J.R. Bremer) and ''another big''
(Bruno Sundov). The Celtics threw in a second-round pick to sweeten the deal.
Bremer looms as the third point guard on the roster behind LeBron James and
Kevin Ollie. But his minimum contract does not become fully guaranteed unless
he's on the roster for Opening Night . . . Speaking of the Cavs, Paxson said
the team is now back on the Cleveland sports radar screen. ''There's a lot of
hope and expectation,'' he said. ''The Browns just opened camp, the Indians
are playing, but there's still something in the paper almost every day.'' He
could not specify how many season tickets had been sold since the May 22
lottery but said, ''We were so low, we had a long way to go. I think we're
going to be between 15,000 and 20,000 for every game. And those will be real
bodies. And paying bodies. That's significant.'' In addition, the Cavs have
become must-see in the eyes of the television people who run the NBA.
Cleveland will be on national television 13 times this season -- as opposed to
zero last year -- including three of its first four games. It's penciled in
for an appearance on Christmas against Orlando, and you know you've hit the
big time when the networks want you for their Christmas programming . . . The
Celtics' schedule isn't too onerous. They have only three games against the
Pistons -- that's good news -- as well as three against Chicago. Otherwise,
the schedule includes four games against the other teams in the Eastern
Conference and two against each of the Western Conference teams.

A Clipper shift What do we make of the Clippers? Has Donald Sterling suddenly
become Paul Allen? Well, no. First of all, we are reminded that The Donald
said under oath in a deposition that he has little involvement in the
basketball affairs of the Clippers. (Q: Do you play a role in signing off on
the amount, the dollar figure, that is paid to either a coach or player? A:
Probably not.) But someone from the Clippers who probably looks a lot like The
Donald did sign off on matching Miami's $82 million offer sheet to Elton Brand
and Utah's $42 million tender to Corey Maggette. That someone also passed on
Denver's $51 million offer to Andre Miller, which was frontloaded to the point
that Miller will get about $14 million this season. (Notice Sterling matched
offers. In other words, someone else did the dirty work and, in the end, the
Clippers got both players for less than it might have cost them had they
re-signed them themselves.) But even with the unprecedented (for the Clippers)
payloads for Brand and Maggette, the Clippers' payroll now consists of nine
individuals making around $32 million, just below the league's minimum payroll
number. That's still more than $10 million under the cap, so the Clips could
also re-sign Lamar Odom and add a few minimum wagers and still be under the
cap. Also, even with the Brand and Maggette deals, there still are five
players on the Clips being paid via the rookie wage scale, including draftee
Chris Kaman. The Heat are thought to be preparing an offer sheet for Odom, but
it could meet the same fate as the one tendered to Brand. Miami did manage to
land ex-Laker/Spur/Maverick free agent Samaki Walker, though we're not sure
why . . . Miller, meanwhile, spurned the Jazz to sign with Denver. One
possible reason: He wanted to be somewhere where he had no history. He played
collegiately at Utah and he grew up in the Los Angeles area. Needless to say,
his Clipper experience wasn't the greatest, and he told the Denver Post he
likes the idea of going somewhere where he's not well-known: ''I don't know
anybody in Denver. And I don't plan on knowing too many people.''

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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