Laettner Playing With Big Kids Now

Christian Laettner came in with the idea that it’s better for the pledge to be seen and not heard. After all, this was some fraternity he’d been invited to join: The Greatest Team of All Time. He sat between Big Brothers Bird and Barkley on Sunday when the Dreams opened the Tournament of the Americas, then squished himself between Big Brothers Clyde and Michael Monday night.

And what kind of serious stuff did the Big Brothers talk about with the pledge?

“Do you think Laettner’s really that good looking?” Charles Barkley said to Larry Bird, and anybody who would listen. “Huh? I mean, he’s good looking, but he’s not as good looking as me. Hey, Laettner, you’re not so great.”

Then there was Michael Jordan telling the plebe after one tournament contest, “Hey Christian, interviews are over, you didn’t play that long to be giving interviews.”

Then there was a group effort to pull Laettner’s basketball shorts off during the introductions earlier this week. And another time when Bird and Barkley wouldn’t let Laettner back into his seat between them after a timeout. This is what’s known as busting one’s chops, and Laettner’s have been busted more than anybody’s. “Christian has gone from the top of his totem pole in college basketball, to the bottom of this team’s pole,” Olympic assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski, Laettner’s coach at Duke, said last week.

And what’s it been like for Laettner, this total repositioning of his basketball life? Going from prime-time, Kentucky-beating, two-time NCAA champion stud, to garbage-time mop-up man? Who you gonna call with two minutes left and the United States up by 80? Hey Laettner! Go in and see if you can hold off Cuba for a few minutes.

Actually, it’s been better than that for Laettner, a lot better. The time of his life, in fact. Because he could be outspoken, testy and rough at times, there was some suspicion Laettner wouldn’t be embraced by the Olympians, wouldn’t fit. “I’m very comfortable with it,” he said. “I’m totally and absolutely enjoying myself. It’s great sitting on the bench and watching. I’m very calm with it. I understand I’m going to be the last guy to be sent into the game.”

He’s been a nice fit, respectful and deferential, wide-eyed and appreciative of the chance. “I didn’t freak out at being named to the team,” he said. “I freaked out at being considered for the 12th spot in the first place.”

So he wondered about them, and they about him. “He’s a great kid,” said Barkley, who always seems to have his arm around Laettner’s neck, whispering this advice or that. “The media gave him a bad rap. He’s going to be a helluva player, you watch. He’s bigger and stronger than I thought he was.”

Asked if he and the other Big Brothers have engaged in a lot of hazing, Barkley said, “Hell, no. He’s about to make more money than a lot of people in the room. You can’t talk bad about anybody who makes more than you do.”

In this all-star format, against bad competition in games not adequately described by the word “blowout,” it’s difficult to tell how Laettner stacks up. Sometimes he seems a half-step behind, but so would half the players in the NBA, even third-team all-stars, with The Dreams. “It’s coming,” David Robinson said of Laettner’s game. “It’s not there yet, but he’s getting there.”

Laettner said he “expected the skill level to be this high, extremely high. This has met all my expectations in that sense. But what cleared all my expectations was how well they all get along, how much they talk and kid around. Scottie Pippen looked like a quiet kid, and Patrick Ewing looked like a quiet guy. I’m very uncomfortable around quiet people. But they weren’t. Everyone thinks of Ewing as a quiet warrior who growls, not speaks. He was so personable. I expected them all to be more serious and adult-like.”

He laughed, knowing the implication of the statement. “They act like kids, which is refreshing,” he said. “I love it. It was incredible to see how excited they are about this. That probably should tell me something about what the best players in the world have in common. Differences? They just do more expensive things than I can do.”

For the moment.

What will end as a gold-medal summer didn’t start off so easily for Laettner in some respects. He was player of the year, he led his team to a second consecutive NCAA title in April. But after being built as high as a college player can be, the wrecking ball hit hard, unnecessarily to him. All of a sudden he wasn’t quick enough, couldn’t play center, might be a bust, another Danny Ferry, was getting the 12th spot only because he’s white, spent too much time trying to be black. “A season of speculation,” Laettner called it. He was booed on draft day when Minnesota picked him No. 3 in the NBA draft.

It’s funny that Laettner and Barkley should grow so close because both are lightening rods for racial discussions.

“ ‘You act black,’ ” has been said a few times about me,” he said. “Maybe it’s just a case of acting differently. I don’t act like the stereotypical white boy in so many ways. I just hate stereotypes, all white kids are smart, all black kids are cocky. Maybe I shock people, but it’s not my goal in life to walk across racial barriers.”

But he is, really, just like his new friend Charles. “Before I met him I liked Charles because he’d stick up for what he believed,” Laettner said. “A lot of times when you’re a public figure, you’re up on a stoning wall. Something hurts but you can’t say anything. Charles speaks up. He’s spoken the truth about things that needed to be addressed. I knew he was the type of guy I’d like to meet.”

Laettner says it’s hard to verbalize what he’s learning by being part of the Dreams, but it’s more apparent than he may know. “I can’t prove anything until I get to Minnesota,” he said very perceptively about the doubters. “I never had any doubt I could play, although others did,” he said. “But this whole experience is about so much more than playing basketball.”