The Bucks Stop Here

The waiting might be the hardest part for free-agent center Brian Williams of the Clippers.

While such free agents as Shaquille O’Neal got record-setting contracts last summer, Williams, coming off the best season of his NBA career, remains unsigned with the opening of training camp less than a week away.

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said if Williams isn’t signed when camp opens next Friday at UC Santa Barbara, the Clippers won’t sign him.

“We want the focus to be on the guys that are in camp, not the guys that are unsigned,” Fitch said.

Williams, who has left the negotiations to agent Fred Slaughter, declined several interview requests.

Slaughter demanded a $100.8-million, seven-year deal from the Clippers in July and gave the team four days to sign Williams. The deadline passed.

Why has he generated so little response? Williams seems to be a victim of an unrealistic early salary demand, other teams’ problems staying under the salary cap and his history of prolonged contract disputes.

Slaughter is now reportedly seeking a $35-million, five-year deal or a $7-million, one-year contract. The Clippers are reportedly offering $12 million for three years. Williams made $2.2 million last season and would have earned $2.5 million this season if he hadn’t opted out of his contract.

“The Clippers asked me what it would take to get it done, and I said I’d give them an idea,” Slaughter said of his original demand. “But I said it might be low or it might be high. The figure wasn’t intended to be a hard figure, it was a figure that could be negotiated up or down based on what the market said. The market came in and the numbers got adjusted and the only thing the Clippers adjusted was the longevity.”

Andy Roeser, the team’s executive vice president, said the club made Williams a fair offer.

“Fred has had all summer to consider offers for Brian from other teams,” Roeser said. “We have offered him more than anyone else can or will. If that’s not enough, I understand, but we’re not going to bid against ourselves.

“The issue on the table is how much more money should you offer him to stop him from taking less from somebody else? The answer is obvious.

“We want to be fair with Brian. I think the fact that our offer is more than anybody else can offer him demonstrates that we have been fair.”

Slaughter says he’s in no hurry, that the Clippers must sign Williams because center Stanley Roberts’ Achilles’ tendon injuries have kept him from playing a full season since 1992-93.

“I’m not going for the Clippers’ pump fake,” Slaughter said. “I’ll keep my feet.

“People ask me, ‘Will Brian be in camp by Oct. 4?’ I have no idea. You never know what will happen in the NBA. After all, they just signed a guy [7-foot-2 center Dwayne Schintzius] that they need to win more games and get into the playoffs.

“I don’t want to bash the Clippers, but I can’t allow my client to sign a contract that he’s unhappy with.”

Slaughter said he thinks Williams deserves to be compensated as well as Laker swingman Elden Campbell, who signed a $49-million, seven-year deal last summer.

Campbell averaged 13.9 points and 7.6 rebounds in 82 games for a team that won 53 games; Williams averaged 15.8 points and 7.6 rebounds in 65 games for a team that won 29.

Only seven of the NBA’s 29 teams are under the salary cap and able to sign Williams, but only one aside from the Clippers has expressed interest, the Miami Heat.

“We have inquired about him,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “He did have a great season; he sort of broke through as a starter and had good numbers. Everybody knows he has the athletic ability. It’s [being unsigned] probably perplexing from his standpoint because he does have the skills. He’s a talented big man. It looks like he’s broken through and could be one of those players who could be consistent.

“Maybe it could be the market or it could be what they’re asking. He’s a talented player. We’re interested, but we’re limited as to what we can do because of the cap.”

The Clippers can sign Williams for any amount because he’s their own free agent, but Miami has only a $2.1-million salary slot available.

Offered a $35-million, seven-year deal by the Seattle SuperSonics last summer, Slaughter rejected the offer and the SuperSonics signed Jim McIlvaine, a two-year veteran who averaged 4.7 points and 6.2 rebounds with the Washington Bullets last season, to the same deal.

An NBA agent familiar with the negotiations between Williams and the Clippers thinks Slaughter initially overestimated Williams’ worth because of reports that the Lakers might sign Williams if they couldn’t get O’Neal.

“It’s more than strange,” the agent said. “Fred got in his head that this is what [Williams] was worth. Brian has never finished a full season, there’s nothing there, that’s why people have been afraid of him out there because you don’t know what to expect. If you pay him, does he decide to go on hiatus for a couple years before he plays in the last year of his contract?

“The Clippers aren’t wrong. They didn’t believe he’s worth $9 million [the first year in Slaughter’s original proposal], and nobody else did either, and they don’t believe he’s worth $7 million. The market is only what people are willing to pay.

“The most amazing thing is that at $4 million he’s being insulted. He’s lost perspective. That’s part of an agent’s job to try to keep their client’s head on straight.”

Slaughter said he hasn’t mishandled the negotiations.

“I don’t understand other agents trying to tell me whether I’m handling it right or wrong,” Slaughter said. “All I can say to you is my client is happy with the way matters were handled.”

Saying he wasn’t bluffing, Slaughter faxed the Clippers on Sept. 9 with his current salary demand and gave them a Sept. 13 deadline or threatened to sign with another team.

That deadline also passed.

Slaughter claims, “I set no deadline. I said to the Clippers one time that it could be that Brian would sign by the 13th with another team, but we decided not to do that.”

Orlando Magic General Manager Pat Williams, who drafted Williams in 1991, said Williams has never reported to camp on time because of contract disputes.

“He has a history of very, very prolonged negotiations,” Pat Williams said. “We drafted him in ’91 and we didn’t get him signed until a month into the season. And he had another [salary dispute] in Denver, and that seems to be what’s happening here too.”

Slaughter said his client isn’t intentionally holding out to avoid camp.

“That’s stupid,” Slaughter said. “If the Clippers had come up with a fair-market responsive deal, Brian would have [signed].”

Phoenix Sun President Jerry Colangelo said Williams may be a victim of the NBA’s new free-agent salary structure.

“Without being specific on Brian, one of the things that is happening as a result of the movement of free agents is that there will be an increasing amount of disparity as it relates to salaries on individual teams,” Colangelo said. “If people do price themselves out of the marketplace, they could be left standing with an empty bag.”

Just like Brian Williams.