Griffith-Joyner Switch Called Business Decision : But Cracks Surface in Relationship Between Kersee and Athlete He Coaches

The perception, if not created then certainly perpetuated by the media, of the Griffith-Joyner-Kersees as the most harmonious family since the Waltons required a closer look after the story broke this week that Florence Griffith-Joyner, who recently emerged as the world’s fastest woman, no longer will be coached by Bob Kersee.

For that reason, there was a line of reporters Friday outside the Van Nuys apartment that she shares with her husband, Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic triple jump gold medalist.

If the Joyners had been prepared, they could have given the reporters copies of the family tree, showing them that it is still intact even if Florence and Al have decided to branch out on their own.

At least, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it. For now.

They’re still waiting to see how cordially the news is received by Kersee, who may or may not have heard it. They gave the message to his secretary but have not spoken to Kersee since Monday, when he left on vacation for parts unknown but believed to be in the vicinity of Florida or the Bahamas.

Griffith-Joyner confirmed her new business manager’s announcement that she will be coached by her husband and not by Kersee, who is married to Al’s sister, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the heptathlon world record-holder.

But Griffith-Joyner said that her decision should not be taken personally by Kersee, at least no more personally than she and her husband took it last November when Kersee decided not to coach Al.

“Bobby was my friend first and my coach second,” said Griffith-Joyner, who has worked off and on with Kersee since 1980. “We’re still friends. We’re family. Period.”

Al said it was a business decision. Not only did Kersee coach Griffith-Joyner, he also managed her finances. His policy has been that he will not supervise athletes on the track without also supervising their financial affairs. So, Al said, Griffith-Joyner had no choice but to leave Kersee, the coach, when she wanted to separate herself from Kersee, the manager.

“I think Bobby is the best coach in the world,” Joyner said. “But if you’re going to pay someone to manage you, then he should be doing his best for you. If you don’t like the job he’s doing for you, you should move on.”

Griffith-Joyner paid dearly. She said that Kersee took 25% of her appearance fees and bonuses until December, when he lowered his rate to 18%. The going rate for track and field managers is about 10%

But Griffith-Joyner said her primary complaint with Kersee, the manager, is that he was not effective in generating outside income for Griffith-Joyner. She was a silver medalist in the 200 meters and a member of the gold-medal 400-meter relay team at the World Championships in Rome last year, but she has not had contracts with shoe or apparel companies since 1986, even though she said Kersee had promised her both would be forthcoming.

During the Olympic track and field trials in Indianapolis earlier this month, when she ran 10.49 to break the world record in the 100 meters and 21.77 to break the American record in the 200 meters, it was obvious there would be no scarcity of offers. She said Kersee told her he would have contracts and a check waiting for her at the finish line after her final race.

“You can only live so long off promises,” she said. “I ran with one pair of spikes for six months. I accidentally left them at the track at UCLA one night, and when I came back the next day, I asked Bobby if he’d seen them. He said he threw them away, that they needed to go in the garbage. If it was that obvious, why was he letting me run in them? He was supposed to be getting me equipment.

“Now, at the trials, he’s all of a sudden talking figures. I told him, ‘I came here without a dime, and I’ll leave without one.’ I should have made this decision a long time ago.”

The decision she made Tuesday was to sign a contract with Gordon Baskin, the longtime financial adviser to Edwin Moses.

“Now, all I have to do is concentrate on running,” she said. “There’s someone else to take care of all the rest. I just feel a lot better.”

As for whether she will run better, or at least as well, without Kersee coaching her, she did not seem concerned.

Although Kersee received most of the credit for her performances in Indianapolis, she said that she has been working with him no more than two days a week since November. She said that she has been coaching herself, with considerable help from Al and her videotapes, on the other days.

The Joyners will work together full time when they move next month to Orange County, where they will train at UC Irvine.

If they hit a snag, she said that she believes they can call Kersee for advice.

That’s their story.

But based on some of the other comments she and Al made Friday, it doesn’t seem likely that they will seek counsel from Kersee, at least until they can solve some other problems in a relationship that has been strained since last November.

Then, Joyner asked Kersee to coach him and was rejected. That was a business decision by Kersee. He doesn’t coach athletes unless he can also manage them, and Joyner didn’t want to be managed by Kersee.

The Joyners said they understood, but whether they really did is another matter, and there was tension among them and the Kersees for a while.

“Al wasn’t being coached by anybody, and he needed someone,” Griffith-Joyner said. “I thought maybe he and Bobby could work together. That hurt me to see him refuse to work with Al.”

Then, late last year and early this year, Kersee began to add athletes to his World Class Athletic Club.

Griffith-Joyner left Kersee once before, in early 1986, because she felt she wasn’t receiving enough personal attention, and she said she began to feel squeezed again.

“We’d all be lined up on the track at UCLA trying to get Bobby’s attention,” she said. “I couldn’t go to Bobby when he was coaching Jackie in the long jump and say, ‘How does this look?’ I felt guilty asking for his time.”

She said she also felt forgotten, particularly in June when Kersee took many of his World Class Athletic Club athletes to Eugene, Ore., where the UCLA women’s team, which he also coaches, was competing for the National College Athletic Assn. championship.

Griffith-Joyner said that Kersee told her he would send her a prepaid airline ticket to Eugene, and that when she tried to let him know she never received it, he didn’t return her telephone call.

She said she was convinced it was time to leave Kersee when he tried earlier this summer to discourage her from running the 100 meters in the trials, even though she had the fastest time in the world this year.

He wanted her to concentrate on the 200 and the 400, telling her that she would have a better chance against the East Germans in those events at the Olympics. But she said she believes it was because he had two other women entered in the 100 at the trials and felt his club would be better represented if she were in other events.

“I felt he should have been thinking about what was best for me as an individual,” she said.

At the trials, Kersee told reporters that he and Griffith-Joyner made the decision together for her to enter the 100.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

That’s behind her now.

“I was just going through the motions when I was working with Bobby,” she said. “I feel freer and happier now.”

She said will feel even better after she and Al explain their reasons, couple to couple, to Kersee and Jackie.

One of the most touching track and field stories in recent years has been the brother-sister relationship between Al and Jackie. Even though she had just broken her own heptathlon world record, she was in tears at the trials because Al didn’t make the Olympic team in the triple jump.

“I think maybe she’s going to feel betrayed,” Al Joyner said. “But I hope that she understands that she and Bobby do what they have to do to enhance themselves, business-wise and performance-wise, and that we have to do the same thing. We’re still a family.”