Recruiters Work Magic

This is the quiet period?

Nothing official happens until Aug. 1, but in the meantime agreements can be made (and disavowed), so San Antonio teetered, Chicago wallowed, Detroit disappeared and Orlando became an Eastern Conference power again after a string of lavish, Disney-themed recruiting parties.

Quiet?

Forbidden by the league to charter jets, the Magic flew in Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and their families and advisors on the first flight out on the first day, July 1, buying up the rest of the first-class sections so they could have some room.

The Spurs said Orlando went so far as to research the preferences of Duncan’s girlfriend, Amy Sherrill. Not to be outdone, the Spurs researched recording studios in their area, hoping to entice Hill’s wife, Tamia, a Motown artist. (The closest they found was an hour away, in Austin, where the prevailing sound is more country.)

When Duncan prolonged his stay by a night, panic hit San Antonio, where “Stay, Tim, Stay” billboards sprouted all over town.

One San Antonio TV station tailed Duncan’s limo home from the airport. Another station had a helicopter make a pass over his house.

When Duncan stayed noncommittal in a meeting with Coach/General Manager Gregg Popovich, asking hard-eyed questions about how the Spurs could upgrade their creaky roster, Popovich knew he was in trouble. Concerned that Hill, who had already announced for Orlando, and Duncan were a package deal, Popovich flew to Detroit for a last-ditch pitch.

Hill, a pleaser if one ever lived, had reportedly privately assured Piston basketball boss Joe Dumars he’d stay one more season. Naive as the front-office rookie he was, Dumars made plans to attend Wimbledon.

Meanwhile, the Magic was hiring a recruiting coordinator to make sure the stretch limos were on time, booking planes and hotel suites and arranging timetables so they could just happen to run into local resident Tiger Woods.

Hill’s parents wanted their son out of a declining situation in Detroit and Tamia seemed to enjoy being recruited. A news story said Piston owner Bill Davidson had once offended Tamia by not saying hello while talking to Grant. Skeptics said the only member of the inner circle who didn’t have a vote on where Grant was going was Grant.

Meanwhile, the No. 3 plum, Toronto’s Tracy McGrady, who has a home in Orlando, said he’d go there too.

“Once Grant and I get here, this will definitely be the city,” McGrady said. “The East is locked up. If Duncan comes here, it will be scary. Only the Lakers will be out West. Imagine those matchups? It will be unfair to the league if all three of us come here. We’ll have the East. We’ll be playing the Lakers for years.”

In Chicago, the dismayed Bulls found no one wanted to visit them. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who’d been chatting up Hill’s mother, Janet, all winter, flew to Detroit for a way-too-late pitch.

The Bulls are widely regarded by players as grinches. Thus the team didn’t laugh off the Great Cornrow Controversy, when high schooler Darius Miles said General Manager Jerry Krause dissed his braided hairdo in a pre-draft visit.

Krause and Coach Tim Floyd denied it, but Miles’ mother, Ethel, who was in the meeting, repeated it at length.

“Mr. Krause said that as a team they had an image to uphold and that he didn’t think cornrows looked professional,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. “He [Floyd] stepped in and tried to change the subject of discussion to cool things off. The coach was a nice man and I had a good time with him. . . .

“There was a picture of Dennis Rodman up on the wall with all his different-colored hairstyles. Krause said Rodman’s hair was dyed different colors but he said it was never braided.”

Not that it mattered, but the Bulls had every intention of drafting Miles before the Clippers beat them to him.

What does matter is, after all those years of feuding with their players, the Bulls just figured out they have a perception problem.

The Bulls finally got McGrady, who’d been persuaded there wasn’t room in Orlando for Duncan, Hill and him, to visit. McGrady was greeted by the Bulls’ cheerleaders and threw out the first ball at a White Sox game.

“I was made to feel during my last visit [to Orlando] that I wasn’t the guy they really wanted,” he said. “I know they wanted me, but they didn’t want me like they wanted Tim Duncan or Grant Hill. Chicago made me feel like it was all about me. That’s a big factor.”

It was a big factor until Duncan announced he’d stay in San Antonio anyway.

Duncan was being Duncan, withdrawn and so hard to read, his own agent, Lon Babby, called him “inscrutable.” Nevertheless, even the Spurs thought Duncan was Orlando-bound when David Robinson, vacationing in Hawaii, called Popovich to ask him how it was going.

Whatever Popovich said, it was enough to convince Robinson to fly home. Robinson reportedly assured Duncan he’d play three more years--until he was 38--and take a cut from his $11.6-million salary, giving the team room to sign a free agent next summer.

“We just sat down and talked a little while,” Duncan said. “Just to kind of get on the same page, put some things on the table and see what kind of answers came up. I liked the talk. I liked what came out of it.”

Said R.C. Buford, the Spurs’ assistant general manager: “No one should minimize the importance of David in this.”

A day later, Babby stunned the Magic with the news Duncan was staying.

“I’m glad the process is over,” Duncan said. “I just hope that people will stop following me.”

“Tim stayed at Wake Forest all four years,” a friend told the San Antonio Express-News. “He isn’t a guy who likes a lot of change in his life. He has played with David Robinson and for the same coach for the past three years. But the Magic made it a difficult decision for him.”

That left a slot in Orlando for McGrady, who immediately got over his infatuation with Chicago.

“Playing alongside Grant would be great,” McGrady said. “It would be like two Scotties [Pippens]. I don’t want to say Michael [Jordan], but two Scotties.”

The next day, one of the Scotties got a call from Alonzo Mourning. The Heat was close to a sign-and-trade deal, sending P.J. Brown and Anthony Carter to Toronto for McGrady, if McGrady would sign with the Heat.

“Things change,” McGrady said. “You know who I got a call from? Alonzo Mourning. He said some things that made me think.”

The next morning, McGrady formally announced for Orlando. Said his agent, Arn Tellem: “There’s no place like home.”

Even if you take the roundabout way to get there.

With the three plums spoken for and Indiana’s Jalen Rose reportedly agreeing to stay with the Pacers, the competition focuses on Charlotte’s Eddie Jones, who wants to go to Miami, which has no cap room, but may have to settle for Chicago; Seattle’s Rashard Lewis, Milwaukee’s Tim Thomas, the Clippers’ Maurice Taylor and Derek Anderson and Orlando’s Ron Mercer.

Hill, ever the gentleman, took out a $60,000 ad in the Detroit Free Press, thanking Piston fans for their support.

The Magic’s recruiting coordinator helped him compose it. If you want to talk about your full-service recruiter, that’s Orlando.

For his part, McGrady says he’s dropping out of sight for a while.

“Hey, I’ve got to get out of town to clear my head,” he said. “All the stress of you reporters is starting to get me.”

Like war, capitalism is hell.

MR. CLUTCH: THE AGONY AND THE AGONY

If it’s summer, Jerry West, the Laker icon, must be searching his soul to see how long he can cling to a perch and perks others would kill for.

West has again been telling confidants he’s out of here for sure, until it’s back in the news. And he has headed off to Alaska to fish, rest and see if it feels like it’s still worth it when he returns.

One of these days, and it may not be long, he might actually do it too. On that day, the Laker front office, which has been getting more bureaucratic, will become even more corporate and uptight.

Coach Phil Jackson’s preferences will dominate because the new reality is this is Jackson’s team. He reconciled the players West acquired, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and got them over the hump, so Jackson is the indispensable one. Moreover, Jackson runs a peculiar system and has a peculiar profile for the players he wants.

It isn’t Jackson who’s running West out, however. It’s West, tortured by the usual demons.

Friends say owner Jerry Buss never properly rewarded him, that he should have had a Pat Riley-Larry Bird kind of ownership stake. On the other hand, if Buss missed, it wasn’t by much. West’s five-year, $17.5-million contract dwarfs anything for any non-coaching administrator in any sport.

The truth is, if it isn’t one thing it would be another. West was miserable enough when things were a lot more peaceful than they figure to be around here for a long time.

With West’s passage, however, something human and endearing, however stressed, would pass, something entirely Laker-like. This isn’t just a man, this is the living embodiment of a franchise’s history.

And it will never, ever be the same again.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NBA Free Agents

The 2000 NBA free agents as announced by the league (r-restricted free agent):

CLIPPERS--Anthony Avent, f; Derek Anderson, g; Pete Chilcutt, f; Maurice Taylor, f; Charles Jones, g.

LAKERS--Glen Rice, g; Brian Shaw, g; John Celestand, g; John Salley, f.

ATLANTA--Bimbo Coles, g; LaPhonso Ellis, f.

BOSTON--Danny Fortson, f; Pervis Ellison, f-c; Doug Overton, g.

CHARLOTTE--Eddie Jones, g-f; Todd Fuller, c; Chucky Brown, g; Brad Miller (r), c; Michael Hawkins, g.

CHICAGO--Randy Brown, g; Chris Carr, g; Dickey Simpkins, f; Chris Anstey, c; Will Perdue, c; Michael Ruffin, f; Matt Maloney, g; Fred Hoiberg, g.

CLEVELAND--Danny Ferry, f; Ryan Stack, f; Earl Boykins, g; Lari Ketner, c-f.

DALLAS--Hubert Davis, g; Gary Trent, f; Greg Buckner (r), g; Bruno Sundov, c.

DENVER--Tariq Abdul-Wahad, g; Roy Rogers, f; Ryan Bowen, f.

DETROIT--John Crotty, g; Mikki Moore, c; Jud Buechler, g-f; Grant Hill, f; Terry Mills, f; Jermaine Jackson, g.

GOLDEN STATE--Tim Young, c; Bill Curley, f; Tony Farmer, f; Mark Davis, g-f; Adonal Foyle, c; Sam Jacobson, g-f.

HOUSTON--Tony Massenburg, f; Anthony Miller, f; Cuttino Mobley, g; Devin Gray, f.

INDIANA--Reggie Miller, g; Jalen Rose, g; Sam Perkins, f-c; Rik Smits, c; Austin Croshere, f; Mark Jackson, g.

MIAMI--Tim Hardaway, g; Anthony Carter (r), g; Harold Jamison, f.

MILWAUKEE--Tim Thomas, f; Darvin Ham, f-g.

MINNESOTA--Joe Smith, f; Bobby Jackson, g.

NEW JERSEY--Scott Burrell, f; Sherman Douglas, g; Johnny Newman, g; Kendall Gill, g-f; Gheorghe Muresan, c.

NEW YORK--Kurt Thomas, f; Andrew Lang, c; David Wingate, g-f; Rick Brunson, g.

ORLANDO--Ron Mercer, g; Chucky Atkins, g; John Amaechi, c; Chauncey Billups, g; Bo Outlaw, f-c; Anthony Johnson, g; Johnny Taylor, f; Monty Williams, f; Ben Wallace, f.

PHILADELPHIA--Toni Kukoc, g-f; Kevin Ollie, g; Ira Bowman, g; Antonio Lang, f.

PHOENIX--Oliver Miller, c; Todd Day, g; Toby Bailey, g.

PORTLAND--Greg Anthony, g; Brian Grant, f; Gary Grant, g; Antonio Harvey, f; Stacey Augmon, g-f; Joe Kleine, c; Nikita Morgunov, f.

SACRAMENTO--Ty Corbin, f; Bill Wennington, c; Ryan Robertson, g.

SAN ANTONIO--Tim Duncan, f-c; Antonio Daniels, g; Derrick Dial, g; Mario Elie, g-f; Avery Johnson, g; Felton Spencer, c; Jerome Kersey, f.

SEATTLE--Chuck Person, f; Rashard Lewis (r), f; Fred Vinson, g.

TORONTO--Tracy McGrady, g-f; Dee Brown, g; Muggsy Bogues, g; John Thomas, Sean Marks, f; Heywoode Workman, g.

UTAH--Armen Gilliam, f; Howard Eisley, g; Jacque Vaughn, g.

VANCOUVER--Antoine Carr, f; Milt Palacio, g.

WASHINGTON--Chris Whitney, g; Laron Profit, g; Jahidi White (r), c; Aaron Williams, f; Don Reid, f.