[MFFL]

No mention of Finley in this NY Times article. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]
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July 1, 2001
By MIKE WISE


Chris Webber was in Manhattan last week, but there were no clandestine meetings with the Knicks. Instead, Webber, the coveted Sacramento Kings forward, oversaw his music label, met with his marketing people and tried to dine in private.

"He heard a couple of `Chris, we need you,' " Shawn Bryant, the chief executive of Game Face Ventures, Webber's New York- based marketing company, said. "But for the most part, the people that recognized him gave him his space, congratulated him on a great season and wished him luck with his decision. They weren't desperate at all."

Webber and the rest of the National Basketball Association's free agents can begin negotiating with teams today. Though free agents cannot sign deals until July 18, much of the major off-season activity will take place over the next three weeks.

As college basketball teams do in their recruiting period, N.B.A. teams will do what they can to entice players during visits. If Orlando's past pursuit of Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady and Tim Duncan is any indication, welcoming parties, billboard advertisements and celebrity introductions are expected.

But no one will be pulled like a wishbone as much as Webber, the 6-foot-10 power forward who leads the 2001 free-agent class.

Webber can re-sign with Sacramento and secure a seven-year contract worth about $121 million. The exact figure will be determined July 17, when the new salary cap — said to be $41 million to $44 million — is set. The Kings can use 30 percent of that annual figure to keep Webber, plus annual raises.

As the only three teams with salary-cap space, the Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons will be able to offer Webber a six-year deal worth in the neighborhood of $95 million. Houston could also be in the running, but the Rockets would have to renounce the contracts of several key players, including Hakeem Olajuwon and probably Maurice Taylor and Shandon Anderson. But according to The Houston Chronicle last week, the Rockets are not headed in that direction.

If Webber makes it apparent he will not sign with the Kings, the Knicks, Miami and Indiana and a number of other teams will most likely try to coax Geoff Petrie, Sacramento's vice president for basketball operations, into a sign-and-trade deal. Under that scenario, Webber would get the maximum deal and be dealt for players whose annual aggregate salaries come within 15 percent of Webber's. It is not a prospect Petrie wants to ponder.

"I'm getting ready to swim in shark- infested waters here," Petrie said in a voice thick with sarcasm by telephone Friday. "Sometimes, you wonder what kind of boat you're in."

He and the Kings could find out this week. Webber planned to fly home to Detroit yesterday and visit with family and friends for a couple of days before returning to Sacramento. Petrie said Webber had told him he would call the organization today perhaps to set up a meeting.

"One thing Chris has said is, `The journey begins with Sacramento,' " Bryant said. "Anybody that speculates on anyone else should bear that in mind."

After the Lakers swept Sacramento in the Western Conference semifinals in May, most N.B.A. observers assumed Webber had played his last game as a King. Shaquille O'Neal went so far as to say the Kings "would become an expansion team."

But Webber did not pack his bags and leave his posh home in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay. He spent much of the past two months in Sacramento working out at the Kings' practice facility, talking casually with Petrie and teammates.

Petrie's trade of Jason Williams to the Grizzlies for Mike Bibby brought more of a pick-and-roll point guard to the Kings, an asset to Webber's game. Though the flair of Webber and Williams became the franchise's trademark for much of the past three seasons, Webber was privately growing tired of the turnovers and poor decision-making at key junctures by Williams, his good friend.

Petrie is still scouring rosters for a big man to defend the middle, but the prospect of finding a better player than the current backup center, Scot Pollard, is slim.

Still, he says he believes Webber will seriously consider staying.

"I very much want him to stay," Petrie said. "We're going to be well prepared in our presentation. Not that we can tell him anything new about Sacramento. But obviously, we've got a relationship with Chris. Whenever he makes a decision, it won't be what's in our heads. It's what's in his heart. And I think we definitely have a place in his heart. But it's his call."

If Webber returns to the Kings, several hopeful N.B.A. teams will most likely have to settle for a very thin crop of talent — or keep their money for the following season.

Two of the top free agents, John Stockton of Utah and David Robinson of San Antonio, are almost certain to return to the teams they have played with their whole careers.

Taylor is on the market. Olajuwon wants to play one more season. Tim Hardaway wants one more contract. And Kendall Gill and Christian Laettner would both like to resurrect their careers. Patrick Ewing is out of work and may be hard pressed to find a team to pay him more than $8 million for two years. Mitch Richmond, 36, is also available after the Wizards reportedly bought out the final two years of his contract.

Figuring out how to acquire Seattle guard Gary Payton may be the next coup. Seattle has entertained offers from other teams. The SuperSonics also want to dump Vin Baker — who will make $11.2 million next season — and Ruben Patterson.

Webber is far and away the most lucrative player on the market. It is unclear how long he will take to make his decision or how many teams he plans to visit.

"It's safe to say, he won't be going to visit 20 teams," Bryant said. "They'll probably be a handful."

Petrie said: "Of course I want him to stay. But if he leaves, it shouldn't be looked at as a bad thing. He gave us everything he had and put us on the map the past few years. There would be no hard feelings. He's free. He can do what he wants."

Haywood Switches on Age Limit

Spencer Haywood, who won a landmark court ruling against the N.B.A. in 1971 that led to the early-entry rule, has been campaigning hard the past few months. Saying he is a huge proponent of no age limit in the N.B.A., Haywood believes the rights he fought for should be afforded to every gifted young teenager with special talents.

But as he watched the jockeying at the draft last week for Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry — the three high school players taken among the first four picks — Haywood said he had permanently changed his mind.

"It's all my fault," he said from his home in Detroit. "They need to fix the system. It's out of control."

Haywood, 52, is now in favor of Commissioner David Stern's proposed age limit of 20 to enter the N.B.A. and against the players association's mantra of allowing teenagers to enter the draft.

"I started to change my mind when I went around and spoke to a group of schools recently," Haywood said. "There were kids telling me they don't need to go to class because they're N.B.A. caliber.

"It used to be guys would stop going to classes in the spring semester of college because they knew they weren't going to finish before they went pro. Now that mind-set is creeping into these kids."

Billy Hunter, the union's executive director, has said that under no circumstances is he interested in Stern's proposal. But the union's executive committee will discuss the issue at its annual meeting in the Bahamas beginning next Sunday.

In print and television interviews over the past six months, Haywood has often flip- flopped on his stand on the age limit. But he says he is now clearly in favor of some restriction.

"My hope is that Mr. Stern and Mr. Hunter go to some desert island and come back with an agreement," Haywood said. "The N.C.A.A. should be invited. If they don't show, they need to start paying these players. For every Kobe Bryant that comes out and makes it now, there are going to be hundreds of others who don't even get their high school diplomas."