| Wednesday, April 26
By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com |
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Butch Carter may not be crazy.
Is there method to his seeming madness?
The lawsuit that the Toronto coach was, uh, encouraged by the league to dismiss on Tuesday against Marcus Camby had nothing, you understand, to do with Marcus Camby.
|  | | How does Bobby Knight fit into all this Carter-Camby lawsuit talk? |
This is, I understand, about old feuds, old wounds, old scores. But what my minions tell me what it's really about is credibility. And Robert Montgomery Knight. Not necessarily in that order.
You see, Carter's recently published book about his life has come under attack from just about everyone associated with Indiana basketball. You'll recall that Carter accused Knight of uttering a racial slur against an unnamed African-American player who people believe to be Isiah Thomas. Just about everyone has denied it happened. Thomas has denied it. So has Cavs
coach Randy Wittman, who was a teammate of both Carter and Thomas on that 1979 Indiana team. Countless other Indiana/NBA types, from the Hawks' Alan
Henderson to the Celtics' Calbert Cheaney, have leapt to Knight's general defense.
Make no mistake: the General has a lot of friends in the NBA. Friends who could, one supposes, make it hard on Butch Carter.
So, my spies tell me, Carter felt that Camby's public statements accusing him of being a liar were part of a smear campaign against his credibility. How so? Well, Camby's current agent, Rick Kaplan, used to be the Raptors' public relations man, before he took a job working for ... Isiah Thomas. (Kaplan has, however, since started his own company, 1450 Media, and no longer works with Thomas.)
So ... a quid pro quo?
Absolutely not, Kaplan insisted on Tuesday.
"Isiah and Marcus have not talked since August," Kaplan said. "I was present when they talked. Unfortunately, Marcus missed Isiah's golf tournament in Detroit over the summer. So I suspect Isiah might be a little angry with Marcus. And I haven't talked to Isiah since interview day at the All-Star Game last February.
But there's additional intrigue. Thomas and Wittman aren't the only ex-Hoosiers that were on that 1979 team. Among the others is Glen Grunwald, who happens to have brought Butch Carter to Toronto. Who happens, now, to be the Raptors' general manager, and Carter's boss.
You might see where this is heading.
Certainly, if Knight used a racial slur, Grunwald, who was in the room, would have heard it. He is in the impossible position of being able to either confirm Carter's account, and go against Knight, or deny Carter's account, and go against his head coach. In the middle of the playoffs.
It's something Grunwald wants no part of.
"That's something I don't want to address until after the playoffs," Grunwald said Tuesday. "It's not a productive thing."
Understand the stakes here. Carter has his own friends in the
organization. Namely, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. So making a move on Butch Carter could have its own dire consequences for the franchise later. Vince Carter says the one thing he gets a lot of from Butch Carter is criticism. But he doesn't mind. Matter of fact, he wants it.
"All the time, I mean, he pushes me, pushes me, and he's trying to bring out my potential and I understood that from day one," Vince told me recently. "So, when he comes out and he says whatever he has to say about me in the papers or whatever, it never bothers me, 'cause me -- I understand where he's coming from. Other people might take it one way, but I understand."
So while the lawsuit may now be a moot point, the rest of this
amazingly complicated story is just getting started, I reckon. Stay tuned.
Doubting Thomas
Now that Lenny Wilkens has been forcibly removed in Atlanta, Isiah Thomas' name comes up again. As it does in Indiana and New Jersey. And for the first time, I believe it. Before, I didn't think there was any way that Thomas would sign up in an organization where he'd have to share power with
anyone. In Atlanta, of course, Stan Kasten is cemented in place as president, and Pete Babcock is a strong GM.
But now, I'm told, Thomas would be willing to come in as coach as long as he has the final say on personnel. In other words, as long as he has veto power the next time Kasten wants to bring Isaiah Rider to town. And Thomas is apparently intrigued by the Hawks' potential (close to $20 million) cap room after the 2000-01 season.
Just one question from the peanut gallery, though. If it wasn't
Wilkens' idea to bring in Rider, why is Wilkens the only guy that lost his job? I have no quarrel with Kasten or Babcock, but shouldn't the entire organization sink or swim together on those kinds of Big Decisions?
Around The League
Speaking of Wilkens, he won't be coaching in Washington next season, no matter what you're reading. He's not on Michael Jordan's short list. Well, let me amend that. Wilkens won't be coaching in the District of Columbia. As for Washington state, home of the Seattle Sonics, where Wilkens lives? Well,
things have gone from bad to worse for Paul Westphal. Vin Baker is a shell
of his former self, and Vernon Maxwell, inexplicably, isn't on the playoff roster. The Sonics claim that it was a mutually-arrived-at decision -- once Westphal told Maxwell that he wasn't certain to get big minutes, Maxwell said he wasn't all that confident in his surgically repaired knee, anyway,
so why not put him on the injured list?
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Uh, does that sound like the Artist Formerly Known as Mad Max to you?
The more likely story: Westphal told Maxwell that Shammond Williams was going to take most of his run in the playoffs, but stay ready. Maxwell's more likely retort: to hell with that, put me on the IR. More likely, because that's exactly what happened in Houston in 1995, when Clyde Drexler replaced Max in the starting lineup during the Rockets' run to a second title.
Mark Cuban really is thinking about bringing Don Nelson back as coach next season. Nellie has apparently convinced him that the whole Shawn
Bradley trade-half-the-team thing, or paying $13 million to Erick
Strickland, wasn't his call. It was a Pam Ewing, season-long figment of the imagination. And Cuban has allowed himself to become the lightning rod for all things Dallas.
"In terms of players, we have already agreed on some, disagreed on others," Cuban says. "Unlike previous management, I write the checks, I have the final say. All the final decision making and power starts and ends with me." Cuban better make sure Michael Finley's on board for that, though -- he's got an early out after next season.
George Irvine's gradually becoming the front-runner to stay on
in Detroit as head coach next season by telling everybody how much he doesn't want the job. "Ambivalence gives him the best possible negotiating position," a friend says, correctly.
With the drawn-out first round, the Suns are increasingly confident that Jason Kidd not only would be available for a Game 5 against the Spurs, but might be back in time for a Game 4. |  |
Aldridge: Ship's still sinking in Toronto
