Unearthing a Nugget

A Tale of Two More Cities, or see if this sounds familiar:

The Big Guy loved the town. He built a home there, intending to settle down. The townspeople pointed with pride at his place, saying, “What a palatial home our Big Guy has!”

Then the Big Guy got a better offer from another town. Now his house stands empty and the townspeople drive past, lamenting, “You can’t trust Big Guys.”

As it was with Shaquille O’Neal, formerly of the Orlando O’Neals and now a Laker, so it was with Dikembe Mutombo, once a beloved Denver Nugget, now an Atlanta Hawk with a brand new $600,000 home sitting empty in the Mile High City.

Like O’Neal, Mutombo is surprised to find himself relocated. When this free-agent tarantella began a year ago, he intended to remain with the Nuggets, a rising young team in a city he liked and that liked him in return.

By season’s end, Mutombo--personable, sweet-natured, a legend for his charity endeavors--was all but estranged from hard-bitten Coach-General Manager Bernie Bickerstaff.

It happened throughout the NBA in a season with so many prospective free agents and so much salary cap room. Mutombo says 19 teams indicated an interest in him, but the one he played for didn’t even make a formal offer.

“I think it was more personal,” he says, ruefully, sprawled on a bed in his hotel room in Sacramento.

“Two games coming to the end of the season, [Bickerstaff] called me to his office and tell me that he’s happy with the last five years we have, him and I, and our great success with the organization, taking the organization to another level. And then, good luck to whatever happens.

“It’s a little bit shocking, someone is telling you good luck to whatever happens. They don’t tell me, ‘Look, I guarantee you’re going to stay here, I’m going to do whatever it takes.’

“When he tell me that couple of phrases and then tell me good, I start to think it’s time for me to start packing my bags.

“They never come up with a proposal. I haven’t seen a team that you play with for so many years that does not try to get you back. It’s kind of weird. I was surprised. I felt it was business. Business decisions can be made any time. People lose jobs any time. People change jobs. They still love me, the things I’ve done for the community, the excitement I brought to the city, Mt. Mutombo.”

It was business, all right.

The Nuggets wanted to re-sign Mutombo, who has averaged 12.9 points and 12.3 rebounds in his five seasons in Denver, for something in the $5-million to $6-million range. But David Falk, the agent for Alonzo Mourning as well as Mutombo, blew up the prevailing salary structure, engineering the trade that sent Mourning to Miami and an eventual $15-million annual salary.

*

Last season went badly in Denver. Rookie Antonio McDyess, for whom Bickerstaff traded two players and a draft choice, developed slowly. By season’s end, the Nuggets were more smoking rubble than rising power, missing the playoffs when the Sacramento Kings beat them in McNichols Arena with Mutombo and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in civilian clothes on the bench, nursing injuries.

So another Big Guy bade goodbye, to find a long line of teams willing to pay $10 million a year, or more.

The Lakers were interested if they couldn’t get O’Neal. The Detroit Pistons were the favorites until the end, when a late, surprise bid by the Hawks stole Mutombo’s heart.

Money is money, but credibility equals momentum. Seemingly mired in respectability, chafing in their role as the forgotten child of Ted Turner’s empire, desperate for a center (Christian Laettner played it gamely but finished the postseason looking like a tenderized steak), the Hawks struck boldly, dumping more than $6 million in the salaries of Grant Long, Stacey Augmon, Matt Bullard, Sean Rooks and Donnie Boyce.

“We went down the line,” says General Manager Pete Babcock. “We called Shaq’s guy, like everybody else. The first response we got that was really positive was Dikembe’s agent. . . .

“This is my seventh year there, so I think I have a pretty realistic view of what’s appealing and what’s not appealing about our franchise. We play in an outdated building. We don’t sell out every night. But on the other hand, it’s a terrific city. We’re committed to a new building. We have Lenny Wilkens coaching our team, we’ve managed to stay competitive going through our rebuilding process. . . .

“We tried to hit all the angles about the cosmopolitan nature of the city. It’s an international city. Dikembe’s very internationally oriented, involved with CARE, which is headquartered in Atlanta. We talked about those things, but in reality, what it comes down to is dollars and cents.”

In Denver, insiders claim Mutombo was stat-oriented, a klutz on offense (as the joke went, he wanted $1 million a year for every point in his average), out for himself. Bickerstaff, more reasonably, says privately he thinks Mutombo was a good guy whose head was turned by free agency.

Mutombo, meanwhile, blames Bickerstaff for everything, dating to the departure of popular but ambivalent Coach Dan Issel two seasons ago.

“It was the hardest part,” he says, “to see the close friendship we have with Bryant Stith, Tommy Hammonds, LaPhonso Ellis, Mahmoud. We were becoming a family because we played together for four years, five years for some of the guys, and we see the up and down of the season so we know more about each other. It was sad to see the whole troop destroyed.

“Everything I think start to go to the wrong page when Dan Issel--I will not say resigned but was kicked out of the job. We felt comfortable with him. Guys weren’t really pleased any more.

“To see Brian Williams be gone, to see Rodney Rogers be gone, we were like, ‘What’s going on? We have great things happening to us. You don’t have to break us up like this. We’re in the same ship and we want to get there.’

“Then Robert Pack is gone. Then there’s a lot of controversy [around Abdul-Rauf]. It was very sad.

“You’re talking about a guy who built a house in his last season with the team, hoping that he’d stay. I built a huge house, in the middle of the city! It was about a $600,000 home--nice home in Denver.

“Folks was like, ‘Deke, what you doing?’ I think fans love me so much that the organization will keep me. I move in the house in November, then the season was over in May.

“Then I started seeing all those negative signs and I start wondering to myself, I said, ‘Why did I build a beautiful house?’ It was just sad. The sad part was to leave something you build from the ground.”

The house is for sale, but the market’s slow right now. It’s OK, for $11 million a year, Mutombo can make the mortgage.

“If I don’t get my money,” he says, “it’s going to be like a museum. Some neighbors told me, some people driving by just to see where Mutombo used to live. [Laughing] I’m glad it’s becoming a historical home.”

The next night, he went for 22 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks in a victory over the Kings. The Nuggets, off to a shaky start, were looking like a historical house, themselves. The Hawks were looking promising.

Big Guys. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.