Clippers Left High and Dry: Ferry Takes Italian Route

The Clippers discovered Tuesday--the hard way--that Danny Ferry’s conversations with a basketball team in Italy were not a bargaining ploy.

The two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year from Duke and No. 2 pick overall in the June 27 draft took his game across the Atlantic and signed a one-year contract with Messaggero Rome of the Italian league, gambling that his snubbing of the National Basketball Assn. will eventually force the Clippers to trade him.

The Italian news agency ANSA, quoting sources in Rome, reported that Ferry’s contract is for $1 million, but a source in the United States told The Times that the amount is more than $1.5 million.

Although he never said so, Ferry was surprised to be picked by the Clippers five weeks ago. Publicly, he said all the right things on draft day about contributing to a team that already was well-stocked at forward, but privately, with family and friends, he was confused by the selection. So he examined his options, which were few and drastic.

He used one of them.

With the Clippers saying they were not planning to trade him, Ferry met with officials from Messaggero Rome during a post-graduation vacation to Europe. He realized that there were only two alternatives, short of sitting out the 1989-90 season, which would have made him eligible for next year’s draft: play overseas or in the Continental Basketball Assn. in the United States.

Ferry remains Clipper property, however. According to NBA rules, teams retain the right to a player for a year after he returns, meaning the Clippers can continue to play a large, albeit silent, role in his life for the next two years. And that’s if Ferry only plays in Rome for one season.

Apparently, now with few options themselves, that is the Clipper plan.

“Naturally, we are disappointed that Danny Ferry chose to play his first pro season in Europe,” General Manager Elgin Baylor said in a statement released by the club. “However, we look forward to having Danny in a Clippers’ uniform should he decide to pursue a career in the NBA.”

Baylor declined further comment on the matter until today.

Said Clipper Coach Don Casey: “I’m terribly disappointed that he is not becoming a Clipper and an NBA player. I look forward to him someday being in a Clipper uniform.”

Ferry also issued a statement, but did not return calls. He emphasized the educational aspects of the move and the future opportunities that working for a major agriculture corporation presents. Ferruzzi, the Italian agribusiness giant, owns Il Messaggero, the Rome daily newspaper that is the team’s main sponsor.

“They extended every courtesy imaginable to me and made me feel both comfortable and excited about playing in Rome,” he said of meetings last month with his new team. “It’s a unique opportunity--living in Rome, traveling throughout Europe, learning a new language, experiencing different cultures, in representing one of the largest international conglomerates--all while playing the game I love.”

“I was honored to be selected as the No. 2 player in the draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. They are an up-and-coming team. Frankly, I was also a little surprised the Clippers drafted me because they have a talented pool of young forwards. However, any concerns I had became academic once Il Messaggero made me this once-in-a-lifetime offer.”

When he spoke with reporters in North Carolina last week before accepting the McKevlin Award as the ACC athlete of the year, the possibility of going to Italy was very real.

“The NBA is something I’ve always dreamed about,” he said then. “But the team in Rome is offering me something unusual, something never before given by an Italian team.”

That being a chance to experience a different culture and the chance at an off-season job with the parent company. If he wants an off-season job after getting a million for playing basketball.

“They really want to help me set something up,” Ferry said. “I can go over there and be one of the better players, but I also think I would be challenged.”

He also talked of a multiyear agreement, which apparently didn’t materialize, and a provision that would allow him to escape Messaggero Rome in the event of a trade by the Clippers. It is not known if Ferry got that clause.

So, what is known is that a large portion of the Clippers’ 1989 draft has disappeared, before they even had a chance to begin serious negotiations. With Danny Manning, No. 1 in ‘88, still hurt, and Reggie Williams, the top pick the year before, still trying to find his place in the league, that makes the last three drafts of questionable help for 1989-90.

It is also clear that Ferry’s signing is a major coup not only for Messaggero Rome, but for the entire Italian league, where American players like Bob McAdoo, Darren Daye and Larry Drew are very popular. Norm Nixon spent just a month playing there last season after his March 16 “retirement” and became a crowd favorite.

This is extra special, though, because Ferry was lured away from a very promising future in the NBA to jump to Italy. He is not a fringe player or someone who has seen better days in the United States.

“With Ferry, our team makes a substantial leap in quality,” club president Carlo Sama told the Associated Press in Italy in a substantial understatement.

Jose Ortiz is the only other first-round player to snub the NBA in favor of Europe. The former Pacific 10 Conference player of the year from Oregon State was drafted No. 1 by Utah in 1987 and signed with a team in Spain, but the underlying current there was from his native Puerto Rico to stay eligible for the Olympics the next year.

That wasn’t nearly as daring a move as Ferry’s. But whether the rookie-to-be is able to realize the true jackpot--a quick trip back to the NBA--remains to be seen. He has already anted for the next hand, though.

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.