The NBA : Layden, Jazz Playing Some Bitter Notes

As the Utah Jazz struggle around the .500 mark, they may have reached a new level of pettiness. Maybe it was just the extreme pressure of preparing themselves for the playoffs that finally got to them when it all spilled out in a big mess during a game at Phoenix.

Coach Frank Layden screamed at rookie Karl Malone, who yelled back. Then Adrian Dantley yelled at Layden to cool it, and Layden yelled back at him. Once they got off the floor and into the locker room, Dantley and Layden resumed shouting at one another.

So as a disciplinary measure, Layden sent Dantley back to Salt Lake City and held him out of a game. Suddenly, meetings were breaking out all over.

Layden met with team owners Sam Battistone and Larry Miller. Then Dantley held his own meeting with the owners. Then Dantley and Malone met with Layden. Finally, on Monday, Layden announced he was fining both Dantley and Malone.

Dantley was fined 30 dimes. Not $3, 30 dimes. Malone was fined two cents.

The joke is that the Jazz has the second-lowest payroll in the league, which probably explains the severity of the fines. This is, after all, the same team that took a 3 1/2-hour bus ride from San Antonio to Houston this season to save money.

Actually, this isn’t really much of a laughing matter. Dantley is the team captain, Malone is one of the league’s top three rookies this season, and Layden is not only the team’s coach, but also the general manager.

What is going on here?

Apparently it has nothing to do with Dantley’s celebrated holdout during last season’s exhibition games, which angered Layden to no end. Layden said the whole matter was not based on just the Phoenix incident, but that it has been building all year with a series of problems. He would not say what they were.

In the Phoenix game, Malone missed three free throws in the last 19 seconds and was berated by Layden. Dantley stepped in to defend Malone and the argument was on. Layden was careful not to say that Dantley had been suspended for one game, and Dantley was still paid for the game in which he did not play.

Malone’s fine of two cents was explained by Layden as the penalty for breaking a team rule about making statements detrimental to the good of the team. As for Dantley’s fine, the 30 dimes are believed to represent 30 pieces of silver, which is the Biblical amount that Judas received for betraying Christ, but Layden did not explain the exact meaning he intended for the sum of the fine.

“As far as I’m concerned, the incidents are closed and over and now we can go about our business,” Layden said.

Maybe not yet. Dantley has demanded that the Jazz issue a press release, retracting an earlier statement by Layden, who said Dantley had been sent home as a disciplinary measure. Dantley said that statement besmirched his image. The team has refused to make the retraction.

“I would do the same thing again,” Layden said. “It was a disciplinary measure.”

Dantley practiced with the Jazz Monday and is supposed to play again Wednesday night. There may be more meetings before then.

In Chicago, meanwhile, the Bulls are continuing to have problems. They had their own disappearing player. Orlando Woolridge bolted the team for a couple of games, then turned up in New York in the office of Larry Fleisher, his agent, and said that he had some things on his mind requiring Fleisher’s immediate attention.

“Let’s not forget, I’m only 26,” Woolridge said when he returned to Chicago.

Oh, well, of course. That explains everything.

It did not, however, explain it all to the Bulls.

In the span of one week, Woolridge stood up 400 youngsters and their parents at a church league basketball banquet where he was supposed to be the guest speaker, was late for four team-related appointments in one day, and skipped a doctor’s appointment when he said he was sick but was instead secretly flying to New York.

Unable to locate Woolridge, General Manager Jerry Krause telephoned Fleisher.

“Do you know where Orlando is?” Krause asked.

“Sure,” Fleisher said. “He’s right here.”

The Bulls wound up fining Woolridge $1,000 for missing his appointments and a total of $7,316 for the two games he missed, which figures out to 2/82nds of his salary. On the day he was to see team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Woolridge was 35 minutes late.

Woolridge has played in only four of the Bulls’ last 17 games. He says he is trying to go with a sprained right wrist, which he injured Jan. 28 against the New York Knicks. Team doctors can find nothing wrong with Woolridge’s wrist. Woolridge also said he is worried about playing for his next contract because he is a free agent after this season.

“I was worrying about things I shouldn’t have been worrying about,” Woolridge said. “Some nights when I wasn’t 100%, I felt that playing at 50 or 60% would jeopardize any kind of contract agreement I might have with the Bulls.”

Woolridge is asking the Bulls for a five-year guaranteed contract valued at more than $5 million. The Bulls are countering with three years guaranteed at less than $1 million a year.

Add Bulls: It looks as though Michael Jordan will be back this season after all, maybe even this week. Jordan has been out since Oct. 5 with a broken bone in his foot, but he has been playing full-speed pickup games in North Carolina for three weeks and believes he can play again.

If Jordan does come back this season, it will be against the advice of his agent, David Falk of ProServ. A conference call is scheduled for Wednesday to sort out the issue. Jordan, owner Jerry Reinsdorf, General Manager Jerry Krause and three doctors will be in on the call. Falk and ProServ will not.

“They’re quite welcome,” Reinsdorf said. “But I don’t think Michael wants them there. In Michael’s mind, they do his contract negotiations.”

The Seattle SuperSonics may have moved to the head of the class in the promotion department with the one they had last week. It was X-Man night, honoring rookie Xavier McDaniel. Since McDaniel’s hair style is none at all, the SuperSonics decided to admit free anyone with a shaved head.

Only a few fans took advantage of the offer. But the SuperSonics had another idea. Anyone with green hair, the team’s color, would also get in free. One entrepreneur with a can of green spray paint was charging $1 for a paint job outside the Seattle Coliseum.

Even though the SuperSonics lost the game to Indiana by 15 points, there were more important numbers to consider: Paid attendance was 5,177; sprayed attendance was 99.