Maturing NBA Paying Heavy Price

A few thousand people turned down a crystal clear Southern California Saturday--not to mention televised baseball playoff and college football games--to watch an exhibition game between the Clippers and the Vancouver Grizzlies. They knew they were watching two teams that won’t be heard from too often this season. They probably didn’t realize they were getting a glimpse of the future of the NBA, which is quickly headed toward a league lacking superstars, with millions of dollars winding up in some unlikely places.

The most effective Clipper was an undrafted rookie named Keith Closs. The richest man on the court was Vancouver center Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, a man with moderate statistics for the worst team in the league the last two seasons who signed a six-year, $65 million contract over the summer.

Such is the state of the NBA’s salary structure that Grizzlies President Stu Jackson can discuss Big Country’s contract and say, with a straight face, “We probably saved ourselves some money.”

Here’s his rationale: They got Reeves signed in July, months before the Minnesota Timberwolves signed Kevin Garnett to a six-year deal worth a reported $128 million.

“I looked at it from Country’s perspective,” Jackson said. “If we were trying to sign Country in the face of a $125 million deal out there, I think some players’ stance, whether it be Country or [Rasheed] Wallace or [Antonio] McDyess or whoever would say, ‘OK, I’m not as good as Garnett, but I’ll be darned if I’m $65 million less than Garnett.’ I think that’s a really dangerous way to negotiate, which is why we wanted to get Country done early.”

Next summer they’ll have to worry about Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the second-year forward who already looks like one of the most polished young players in the game (just ask Lamond Murray, whom Abdur-Rahim torched for 14 points in the first quarter Saturday). Abdur-Rahim will definitely ask for more than Reeves, and maybe even more than Garnett. After all, he averaged more points than Garnett last season.

Garnett did not lead his team in scoring or rebounding last season (those honors belonged to Tom Gugliotta), but his contract is now worth almost as much as the Timberwolves’ franchise. Teams are forced to shell out more money then they can fiscally afford because, from a basketball standpoint, they can’t afford to let these players leave. Ultimately, they figure, it’s less costly than having nothing to show for their draft picks.

The Clippers know all about getting nothing from their draft picks. Of their 19 first-round picks between 1982 and 1995, 12 players played in the league last year. Only three of them were on the Clippers.

This year’s pick, Maurice Taylor, still has to show he’s more than just another guy who left school too soon. The most promising rookie might be the 7-foot-3 Closs, who blocked four shots against the Grizzlies, including a potential game-tying basket by Reeves in the last minute.

Who is Keith Closs? He’s a guy who played for two years at Central Connecticut State, then spent the past season with the Norwich Neptunes of the Atlantic Basketball League. He averaged 12 points and five blocks per game last year, but is the first to admit that “the competition isn’t that high” in the Atlantic Basketball League. Are there any players we might have heard of in the league?

“Yeah, Perry Moss,” Closs said. “He played in the [NBA] in the ‘80s with Philadelphia and a couple of other teams, I believe.”

That’s about it?

“That is it.”

Both rounds of the draft went by and Closs’ name wasn’t called because people had questions about his toughness and his heart. But he played well in summer leagues for the Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers, a mini-bidding war ensued and the Clippers offered him a five-year contract worth $8.5 million. The contract even allows him to opt out after three years--an escape Closs, if you will.

On a smaller scale, Closs’ contract is just as stunning as Garnett’s or Reeves’. How does an undrafted guy become a millionaire?

“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Closs said.

“It’s astonishing,” Clippers forward Loy Vaught said. “You never imagined that the numbers would get to where they are now. If you’re a young player, the sky could be the limit. Kevin Garnett’s contract--and I’m sure Abdur-Rahim is going to get a similar kind of deal--you scratch your head and wonder how guys can be making all this money to be playing a simple and fun game.”

You also wonder how long the owners can keep writing these huge checks.

“We’ve got a situation now where we’ve got approximately half of our teams potentially not making money, as compared to, say, even three years ago when there were only two or three teams not making money,” Jackson said. “That’s a trend that, obviously, cannot continue.”

Also, the owners are getting less of a bang for their bigger bucks. When are the young players going to take their place atop the game, not just on top of the money lists?

One reason the NBA generated so much excitement in the 1980s was the best players were in their prime years, with the promise of many more great seasons ahead of them. In 1982, Moses Malone won the first of back-to-back most valuable player awards at age 27. Larry Bird was 28 when he began a run of three straight MVP awards in 1984. Magic Johnson was 27 when he won the first of his three MVPs in 1987. Michael Jordan picked up his first at age 25 the next year. But since 1993, the MVP has gone to a player 30 or older every year except 1995, when a 29-year-old David Robinson won it.

Look at the leaders of the four conference finalists last season: Jordan (34); Tim Hardaway (31); Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and Clyde Drexler (34, 34 and 35, respectively) and Karl Malone and John Stockton (34 and 35).

Most of the players you want to see, you won’t be seeing for much longer.

The Clippers can’t even come up with one of their own players to market. Most of their ticket ads featured Jordan, who is scheduled to make exactly one appearance at the Sports Arena this season.

The other Clipper ad I loved was the one for their charity golf tournament, featuring “Stars of Sports & Entertainment and the L.A. Clippers Team”, which, apparently, qualified as neither of the above.