Blame Owners For The Lockout

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 18, 1998 / 7:44 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

These days, Kevin Garnett has turned into the scapegoat.

This is a 22-year-old who never went to college. He was given a six-year, $126 million guaranteed extension prior to last season and has become the focal point of NBA contracts spinning out of control. The reason is obvious.

Because Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor gave him that extension with a year remaining on his original deal, he also carries the burden of why the Larry Bird exception is at the heart of the acrimonious labor talks.

"Everybody is talking about Kevin Garnett," said Bob Whitsitt, president of the Portland Trail Blazers. "It's not fair to point at him. He had a year to go on his contract and their owner wasn't even bidding against anybody else. This is what's happened in recent years -- people are just getting huge contracts because the owners are paying them."

While the NBA and the Players Association remain locked in arbitration at the moment over whether or not the players with guaranteed contracts should be paid during the lockout, we are now just three weeks away from the prescribed beginning of training camp.

That start ain't gonna happen. Ditto for the Oct. 13 unveiling of the exhibition season. Chances are growing increasingly slim that regular season opening night '98, Nov. 3, will come off on time either.

"We all know," Seattle SuperSonics guard Gary Payton said, "that they want to see how we react when we miss a paycheck. But we'll see how they react when they lose the arbitration and have to pay all these guaranteed contracts without any games."

As it appears today, we'll find out all of the above pretty soon. But sorry G, your math is all wrong. When all the briefs are filed Friday, arbitrator John Feerick will have 30 days to render a verdict. If he takes all 30 days, the decision comes down Oct. 18. Best-case scenario would be the season starting in four weeks -- allowing for two weeks of negotiations and two weeks to provide free-agent signings and administration for the teams. At this point, mid-November is optimistic.

The latest word on Fifth Avenue is during the lockout, commissioner David Stern is not getting paid either. His contract, believed to be worth almost $6.5 million a year, is almost three times the average player salary of $2.4 million last season.

All we are seeing now from both sides are grandstand moves. The latest, and most obvious, was the NBA's cancellation of a scheduled exhibition game in Tel Aviv between the Miami Heat and Isaeli champion Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv on Oct. 12. It is being billed as the first NBA game ever officially canceled because of work stoppage.

Then again, it was just an exhibition game in the Middle East.

Neither Tim Hardaway nor Alonzo Mourning, both in Seattle for Payton's Charity All-Star Game, wanted to comment on it. But the eye-rolling told us everything we needed to know.

Said one team president on hand who requested anonymity, "Obviously, those guys don't care about those games. The people who lose are the people in Tel Aviv. I'm telling you, this thing is going to go on for a while. This is all about being stubborn."

"It will change when people start to lose money -- the players and the owners."

The sad aspect of it all is the effect on Garnett, who at his young age and with an affable demeanor, doesn't dig the blame he wasn't prepared to handle. His agent Eric Fleisher -- oddly the son of the late guru of the players association, Larry Fleisher -- made enough noise early on about Garnett returning to Chicago (where he went to high school) or going anywhere else, that Taylor just buckled to the pressure and gave Garnett the bonanza.

"It isn't fair to Kevin," Fleisher said. "He got what the market dictated. That's what all players get if they're looking into their free-agency seasons. It's a gamble that just about everybody has to take if they want the best value. But it's a gamble too. You never know what will happen from day to day."

Sure. Just ask Christian Laettner, who is a free agent and ruptured his Achilles' tendon last week playing ball at his alma mater Duke. Laettner, who made $5.35 million last season, turned down a seven-year extension last summer. Now he can't play this season, will not have a contract, and his value will be greatly diminished come July of 1999.

On the flip side, you have Karl Malone whining about wanting a $20 million a year deal next season, when he has spent his whole career signing extensions. It's the same thing with Scottie Pippen to a certain extent. He had chances before to get a new contract or play out his option. Well, now he is aging and injury prone. In some respects, playing pro basketball occasionally becomes comparable to real life.

Sorry guys. Not even you can have it both ways all the time.

Kevin Garnett just happened to play the game the right way. Even if he is the last man out to get a huge contract, he earned it with talent that is utilized in both an inspired and versatile manner on an incredibly skilled 7-fooframe playing three frontcourt positions. Besides... he is a good guy and in this era of sports, it is impossible to minimize the importance of that.