Battle brews over Baker

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Battle brews over Baker

by Steve Bulpett
Sunday, March 2, 2003








Amid reports that Vin Baker's alcohol abuse was even more open a problem than
realized, the Players Association is said to be girding for a major fight with
the Celtics over the fact Baker's pay is being withheld.



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League sources said yesterday that Baker's problem with alcohol was evident to
opponents, but while the backup center is attempting now to get help with the
matter - as much for life reasons as for career purposes - the agreement he
signed Thursday with team officials is coming under fire.

While that document is said to contain provisions for Baker having some of his
salary returned to him if he is successful in his care program, the fact he
will be going without pay at all - and will have to submit to testing later -
has stepped on dangerous legal ground, according to the Players Association.

Ron Klempner, lead attorney for the union, had no comment yesterday, but one
agent who has worked closely with the group has already been in contact to
argue the points of the Baker-Celtic agreement and warn of the ramifications
if it is allowed to remain in force.

The Celtics, who have been dealing with Baker on the issue since October, used
the standard contract clause that states the player must present himself fit
to play as grounds to guide Baker into signing. According to a team source, if
he did not agree to be suspended and get help, the team would have made the
move unilaterally and fought the case. As it stands now, the Celtics may still
have to do so.

``The clause their using here doesn't fit,'' said the aforementioned agent.
``Vin has broad-based guarantees in his contract and one of them is that he
gets paid in case of sickness. And alcoholism is an illness, a disease.

``A guy can be a drunk and not be prevented from playing in the league. All
you have to do is research the collective bargaining agreement - which was put
together by both the league and the players - to know it doesn't matter if Vin
has alcohol in his system. It's not something that's covered by the CBA.
Alcoholism is a sickness.''

There is also fear that a precedent could be set here that would give teams
latitude to twist the rule.

``That's why I don't think Vin even has the right to do what he did,'' the
agent said. ``If he had gone to the team and said, `I'd like to take a leave
of absence - even an unpaid leave of absence - to take care of some personal
problems, then it would be one thing. But that's not the way this happened.

``And (Baker) can't agree to rewrite something in his contract or enter into
any kind of agreement that gets the Celtics off the hook for money. That's
just the rules. And beyond that, if the Celtics were able to get away with
something like that, you'd have teams lining up to go after guys who have
contracts they don't like. I think the Celtics had Vin in a bad position here
and they took advantage of it.''

There appears to be sympathy in a personal sense for Baker among the Celtics,
but Walter McCarty stopped short yesterday of saying his teammate was being
harmed by the club with the agreement.

``It's a very frightening situation,'' McCarty said of the potential precedent
and what it could mean to other players, ``but that's something that Vin has
to deal with. You know, we have to be careful with what we do. Every decision
we make, we have to be prepared for the consequences. But we want to support
him and hope he can get through this thing.''

There is also an awareness that the club has talked to Baker about his
personal issues in the past.

``I don't know completely what the situation was leading up to that point,''
McCarty said. ``There's probably a lot more that we don't know about. I don't
know exactly how it happened, but I'm pretty sure there was an opportunity for
everything to work out right. But it just didn't, I guess.''

While players hope Baker just gets his life together, the Players Association,
on the contrary, is looking at a very important issue for its membership. Each
step of this process thus far, including the dissemination of information by
the Celtics, is certain to be put under a legal magnifying glass.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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