Lakers Get More Room to Move : It Makes No Sense, but It Does Add Up

Is it true the Hundred Million Dollars War, otherwise known as the NBA’s free-agent chase, threatens not only the Lakers, but the game and Western Civilization as we know it?

Relax. It’s only partly true. Unfortunately, if you’re a Laker fan, it’s the part about your team.

Yes, the NBA frenzy can be seen as a metaphor for the widening gap between rich and poor, but guess what? It’s happening not only in basketball or in sports, and it didn’t start last Thursday. Remember the ‘80s?

It may, indeed, separate athletes from fans, which is supposed to have hurt baseball stars. However, basketball players have had higher earnings than baseball players for years while passing them in popularity, as measured by commercials and endorsements. Fans might not mind rich baseball players as much if so many of them weren’t having a tantrum a day.

It certainly has been exciting for the Lakers, who threw Vlade Divac overboard in their wild Shaquille O’Neal chase and Tuesday erased Anthony Peeler and George Lynch.

A lot of people are baffled by the events of the last week, so let’s do what we can to clear things up.

1. Just what are the Lakers doing?

Did you have to start with such a tough one?

To this point, they’ve gotten rid of Divac, Peeler and Lynch, opening up about $7.5 million worth of cap room, to go with the $4.5 million they already had. All they have to show for it is Sean Rooks, a backup center. It looks as if they’re getting set to make one last offer to O’Neal.

2. Have they lost their minds, talking to Dennis Rodman?

Here’s how wild this is: You can make a case for it.

If they can’t get O’Neal, why not sign Rodman for a year or two, in effect parking their money, letting the other teams “cap” themselves anew, as the Miami Heat and New York Knicks have, then coming back in 1997 or 1998 when there are new free agents and fewer bidders?

In the meantime, Rodman may keep them competitive. He can’t turn Del Harris’ hair white because it already is; maybe he can show him how to dye it all the colors of the rainbow.

3. Should the Lakers have gone after O’Neal?

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

4. How about now?

Looks like that time is past. Unless he’s putting on a good show, he wants to stay in Orlando. Since the Magic can bid whatever it wants for its player, since owner and Amway magnate Rich DeVos has major money, it’s uphill for the Lakers.

5. Which teams have done best in this thing?

The Miami Heat got Juwan Howard, a rising star, to go with Alonzo Mourning. The old New York Knicks got three young players, Larry Johnson, Allan Houston and Chris Childs.

6. So they’re title contenders?

Maybe not.

The Knicks have to put together five starters who played on four teams last season. They have to re-sign Patrick Ewing next season when he’s 35. They owe Johnson a $6-million bonus next July, and $77 million over nine seasons.

In other words, they’re out of moves for the century.

The Heat’s other starters are projected to be Walt Williams, Sasha Danilovic and Tim Hardaway. Having committed an average of $30 million a year to Mourning and Howard, Pat Riley is out of moves too.

7. Who did the worst?

Besides the Lakers at this moment, the Washington Bullets and Detroit Pistons.

The Bullets lost Howard, who vowed to stay with his buddy, Chris Webber, and then bailed. Webber is probably going over his own contract now with a magnifying glass, looking for a way out. The Pistons lost Houston. Doug Collins had cap room and good young players and planned on being a predator. Instead, he turned into prey.

8. How could the Bullets and Pistons let their young stars go?

Neither wanted to, but it may have been taken out of their hands. Both players were represented by David Falk.

Falk is known among general managers as the smartest of the agents, and the most imperious. He has his own agenda and get clients to follow it. He and the Bullets are on bad terms and Howard winds up in Miami, which is now expected to re-sign used-up Rex Chapman--another Falk client.

Houston, a Falk client, was recruited in New York by Ewing, another client.

9. Where is this money coming from?

It comes out of the owners’ vaults. The NBA remains one of the few leagues with a salary cap, so don’t worry about them.

The cap recently went from $16 million to $24 million, an unprecedented leap, caused by the new collective bargaining agreement’s re-definition of revenue, of which players get 53%.

Before, money from the sale of licensed merchandise--caps, T-shirts, etc.--wasn’t included. Players got an annual $500,000, an absurdly low figure, agreed to before sales took off. Last season, the NBA reaped a reported $3 billion in licensing money, more than $10 million per team.

TV and luxury suite revenue are also increasing. The bottom line is that the average team’s “defined revenue” has gone up about $16 million per year--53% of which goes on the cap.

If an owner is $8 million under, he can give it to a free agent with a 20% raise the next six years, a seven-year, $89.6 million contract. If revenues merely stay flat over that period, the owner will have earned an extra $112 million.

To make a long story short, the reason the owners are giving players all this money is, they’ve got it and more.