Trade Gives Fresh Starts to Ferry, Williams

Separated by five time zones and 5,000 miles, Danny Ferry and Reggie Williams offered different perspectives on the trade that has the whole league talking.

Ferry, in a telephone interview from Rome where he is playing for Il Messaggero, said he still is committed to playing the full season with the pro team in Italy.

“My situation hasn’t changed,” said Ferry, who starred at DeMatha High School and Duke before the Los Angeles Clippers made him the No. 2 pick overall in last summer’s NBA draft. “I had a conversation with my Italian coach and owner and let them know (the trade) had happened. I assured them my commitment remained strong for this year. I will re-evaluate after this season, as I would have regardless of what happened yesterday.”

“What happened” was a trade that sent former Georgetown star Reggie Williams and the rights to Ferry from the Clippers to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for all-star guard Ron Harper, two first-round draft picks and a second-round pick.

Ferry, who went to Italy to play for an estimated $2 million this season rather than sign with the NBA cellar-dwelling Clippers, has until the spring to figure out what his athletic future holds. But Williams was on the first plane to Cleveland; the former Hoya all-American couldn’t get away from the Clippers fast enough, and he didn’t try to hide his glee.

“I’m so happy, I can’t tell you how much,” Williams said. “This is a fresh start for me. I got off to a bad start (two rather unproductive years with the Clippers), and now I’ll get a chance to show people I can play.”

On his first day in Cleveland, Williams lay curled up in his bed, head under his blanket, freezing half to death -- but happy as could be. “I’ve got the heat turned up as high as it can go, but this room is still freezing,” Williams said. “But I’d rather be cold and playing with a winner than warm and in sunshine and playing for a loser. I’m going to prove I can play. I know I can do it. I know I can.”

Williams got the news in Houston, where the Clippers were set to play the Rockets.

“Elgin Baylor (the team’s general manager) told me,” he said. “I took a flight to Atlanta, then flew to Cleveland. I didn’t get to the hotel until about 2:30 in the morning, and then I remembered this was the same hotel where I had to order a space heater last year. ... A few of the guys, Charles (Smith), Danny (Manning), Kenny (Norman) and Gary (Grant) didn’t like the fact that I got traded. I appreciated them feeling that way about me, but I told them it was just business.

“I like getting back in the East,” said Williams, a Baltimore native. “And I like being with an established team that can win a world championship. I just want to blend in as soon as I can and relax.”

After two seasons marred by injuries, sparse playing time, and play that did not live up to the standards he set as an all-American at Georgetown in 1987, Williams was hoping to be traded in the summer. Seattle and Milwaukee showed interest, but nothing happened before the season started.

“I thought the trade talk had died out,” he said. “I was just hoping to have a good season” in Los Angeles.

Cavaliers General Manager Wayne Embry said the team needs Craig Ehlo and Williams to replace Harper’s 20 points per game at the off-guard position.

“We want to create an environment for Reggie to do well,” Embry said. “We want to get him in here, get him set in a role and let him play with some confidence. I don’t think it’s a risk. He still has to establish himself in the NBA, but we were impressed with him as a college player and on our team -- where we have some pretty strong inside players plus (point guard) Mark Price -- we think Reggie can really fit it here.”

Of Ferry, Embry said: “We respect his commitment to his (Italian league) team. We don’t want to do anything to disrupt what his intentions are. We will follow Danny in that regard.”

Ferry was asked about the possibility of participating in the NBA playoffs once the Italian season ends.

“Our playoffs don’t start until the middle of April,” Ferry said. “Some journalists have brought up that possibility, but I don’t think it would be very feasible. ... I don’t want to make any decision now. I simply have a different choice of where to play in the U.S.”

Some NBA observers assumed Ferry went to Italy with the hopes of forcing the Clippers to trade his rights to the Bullets, where he would play for a childhood hero, Wes Unseld, and work for his father, Bob, the team’s general manager.

“The Bullets played no part in my decision to come to Italy,” Ferry said. “It was simply the Clippers or come here. What I did was never a ploy to get to the Bullets.”

The trade surprised many around the league, because the Cavaliers seemed set with a lineup of young stars -- including Harper -- at every position. Why tear up a team that won 57 games last season? “Because we’re still in the process of building a contending team,” Embry said. “And you can’t consider that until you get past the first round of the playoffs.” (Cleveland lost to the Chicago Bulls in the opening round last year.)

And how much are the Cavaliers really trading away? Ferry was the No. 2 choice in 1989; Williams was the No. 4 pick in 1987. Presuming the Cavaliers don’t fall apart this season, their draft picks probably will be no higher than 22nd or 23rd.