The NBA / Thomas Bonk : Purvis Making Noises Like a Guy Who Is Tired of Being on Short End

Since Christmas, a span of 58 days, the Golden State Warriors have won two games.

And now the one player who holds that hapless bunch together is sounding as if he doesn’t want to wait until next Christmas for things to get better.

Purvis Short has three seasons left on his contract, but he isn’t sure he wants to stay around the Bay Area that long unless the Warriors make some improvements.

Don Cronson, Short’s agent, said he may ask the Warriors to trade Short.

“Something has to be done,” Cronson said. “He won’t remain in this current situation for the next three years. They’ve got to do something.”

Short is not really overpaid, but money isn’t the problem. Short will earn $495,000 this season, then $545,000, $620,000 and $675,000 the last three years of his contract.

The problem, Cronson said, is that the Warriors have made no effort to improve the quality of the team. Short doesn’t like losing.

“It’s been increasingly gruesome to him,” said Cronson.

The Warriors are owned by Franklin Mieuli, who is something of a throwback in pro sports ownership. His only apparent assets are the Warriors, a 5% interest in the San Francisco 49ers, a house in Berkeley and a small office building in San Francisco.

Basically, Mieuli’s income comes from the Warriors. Most other franchises are owned by wealthier individuals or by groups whose cash flow does not depend to such a large degree on the team.

Last week, there was a report that Luther Avery, Mieuli’s attorney, had hired a Bay Area broker to sell the Warriors. Avery had no comment on the report.

On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that Mieuli denied he wants a buyer for the team but indicated he would “be willing to talk with anyone” who wants to invest in the franchise.

The team is not for sale, Mieuli said. Asked about rumors that he had hired a broker to find a buyer for the Warriors, he replied: “We’re doing whatever we have to do to maintain continuity of control. That’s all I’m going to say. I’d be willing to talk with anyone interested in investing in the Golden State Warriors,” the note said.

There is speculation that the Warriors, in the nation’s No. 5 market, could be worth $20 million.

As kind of a sidelight, the Warriors’ lease with the Oakland Coliseum will expire this year, and there have been reports that the team is close to signing a lease that would keep them in the Coliseum until 2000.

Reportedly, under terms of the new lease, the Coliseum’s seating capacity will be increased from 13,355 to 15,000.

But right now, Cronson is making Short as much of a pressing issue as Mieuli’s legendary tight pocketbook.

“They (the Warriors) don’t have enough money to compete,” Cronson said. “The image of the organization and the team is being grafted onto (Short) so his great accomplishments are being demeaned.”

Cronson said Short doesn’t need to be around “this stench of losing.”

Al Attles, the Warriors’ general manager, said that he would not be pushed into trading Short, but that he couldn’t rule out a trade either, wrote Tom Friend of the San Jose Mercury News.

“You never say never about a trade,” Attles said.

There’s also trouble in Seattle, where Coach Lenny Wilkens was ripped anonymously in the Seattle Times last week by some SuperSonics players.

In the story by reporter Glenn Nelson, the players said that Wilkens does not communicate with them, that he does not prepare the team properly for games, and that he is consistently outcoached.

Meanwhile, team owner and billboard magnate Barry Ackerley will not talk to sports reporters, only business reporters. When he was asked by a nonsportswriter last week whether Wilkens had his support, Ackerley said:

“I know when an owner gives his coach a vote of confidence, it’s the kiss of death. But what can I say? I’m a Lenny Wilkens fan.”

The SuperSonics are getting killed at the box office. Only 13,509 turned out to see the Celtics in the vast Kingdome last Thursday, and that was the largest crowd of the season.

So far, the SuperSonics have drawn just six crowds of more than 10,000 and nine crowds of fewer than 6,000.

The Clippers’ Norm Nixon reached 5,000 assists faster than anybody, except Oscar Robertson.

Nixon got his 5,000th assist in his 597th game. It took Robertson 467 games.

Tom Heinsohn, color commentator on the CBS telecasts of the NBA, played under Red Auerbach for nine seasons with the Boston Celtics. Heinsohn said that a statue of his ex-coach is being planned for downtown Boston.

After looking at the design, Heinsohn said he was asked his opinion of the statue, which is supposed to be life-sized.

“It’s all fine except it’s out of proportion,” Heinsohn said. “The head’s not big enough.”

There seems to be no end to the wit and wisdom of the New Jersey Nets’ Darryl Dawkins, even though he hasn’t even been around for most of the season because of a back injury.

Dawkins surprised even his New Jersey teammates when he suddenly showed up at a recent workout and practiced.

Reporters asked Dawkins when he had finally decided he should test his injured back in practice, and Dawkins showed that, in some ways, he was already in playoff form.

“I woke up this morning and a little bird that was sittin’ on my ledge told me,” Dawkins said, then added: “He also gave me the winning Lotto numbers.”

Dawkins knows that eventually he’ll have to quit playing, so he’s already got his retirement plans mapped out. He plans to buy a radio station, open a recreation center for kids and buy a chocolate yacht with a thunderbolt on the side.

That’s not all. Dawkins said he also intends to buy a see-through car, so it can “show off the bad chick I’ll have sittin’ next to me.”

Forward Adrian Dantley of the Utah Jazz asked Coach Frank Layden last week for permission to skip two practices.

When Layden asked why, Dantley wouldn’t say, except that the reasons were personal.

Layden gave his approval, but held Dantley out of the next game. The Jazz won, incidentally.

Layden seems to be running out of patience with Dantley, who began the season as a holdout even though he was under contract. Utah was frantically trying to peddle Dantley before the trading deadline but failed to interest anyone.