Friday, June 24, 1988/The Battalion/Page 5
Sports
Rcwawer’
Read on
>"■ For mote;
327.
Tm.in
: ,0 Washingv
Bizzell Hi ■
i lots ol fun f,
Hall,
teed McDok;
We onlypub: ?
‘0. What's Uff
nissionsare
y will m Up
-ontempo®
P-m. Rudde
rlUSICCOV
ry music In
will be fe
rk fromfi-l!
ree andc»
able.
TEXAS Ft.
, Texas: II
Imission,
»:
I by Georp
ill the fanus
but the sc
;s earlier. 1:
od and esi
irldly chant,
ic thrown it
he Plaza i
F:05 and 9:f:
D
ber at Virfi
ae hippie, h
70 was theVi
;her was
as caugh
1 hoi m said, ■
’hat’s why If
NBA Welcome Wagon
Expansion draft deal helps
Dallas to retain bench trio
DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas
Mavericks kept their entire roster
intact in Thursday’s expansion
draft — giving its first-round pick
in next week’s regular NBA draft
to Miami in exchange for Miami’s
promise not to pick one of the
three players the Mavericks left
unprotected.
The Miami Heat had shown in
terest in all three of the players —
centers Bill Wennington and Uwe
Blab and guard Steve Alford —
but particularly Wennington.
Wennington ana Blab were first-
round draft choices in 1986, and
Alford was a first-round choice a
year ago.
“Our coaches and basketball
people feel that the bench players
on our team are important to our
success,” Mavericks General Man
ager Norm Sonju said. “We’re
trying to keep our bench intact
for next season.”
A second expansion team, the
Charlotte Hornets, also was in
volved in Thursday’s draft. But
no team could lose more than one
player.
Texas’ two other NBA teams
— the Houston Rockets and San
Antonio Spurs — each lost a
player from their squads Thurs
day. Miami took Jon Sundvold, a
6-2 shooting guard of the Spurs
and Andre Turner, a 5-11 guard
of the Rockets.
Dallas’ first-round pick in next
Tuesday’s draft was to be No. 20
overall. The Mavericks will have
two second-round picks and one
third-round pick.
“This is a trade that makes
sense for both teams,” Sonju said
of the Mavericks’ agreement with
the Heat.
“Miami, as an expansion team,
is thinking just like we did back in
1980. It will take them time to
build their franchise correctly.
They realize the foundation of
their franchise will be built mostly
with draft picks.
“On the other hand, we’re
going into our ninth season, and
in these past playoffs, we came
within a few minutes of getting
into the NBA finals. It is our
opinion that our young veterans
would be able to help us more
than any player we could acquire
at the 20th pick in this year’s
draft.”
Rick Sund, vice president of
basketball operations for the
Mavericks, said: “The fourth and
fifth years are important for all
players, but especially for big
guys like Uwe and Bill, 7-footers
who have three years experience.
We’ve got time invested in our
bench players, and they’re all im
portant to us.”
The Dallas deal was one of six
the Heat made Thursday as exist
ing teams arranged for the new
team to either pick or not pick a
player off the unprotected list.
“The drafts are getting deeper
and deeper,” Miami part-owner
Billy Cunningham said. “We
wanted to make sure we had as
much flexibility going into the
1990s as we possibly could have.”
Lewis Schaffel, managing part
ner of the Heat, said his club is fo
cusing on developing a young
team and that the Dallas trade
was considered a pivotal move in
that quest.
“We wanted youth, we wanted
athletes and we wanted flexibility
over the next three to four years
in a changing basketball busi
ness,” Schaffel said. “The draft
after this year is only two rounds.
We wanted to be able to take ad
vantage of any contingency as we
move forward.”
Alford said he was pleased the
Mavericks made the deal to keep
the team intact.
“That just tells me that they
didn’t want to get rid of me,” Al
ford said. “I think it was a move
that they want to keep the stabil-
ity."
Alford, after leading Indiana
to the national collegiate title and
earning All-American honors in
1987, rode the bench last season
as the third point guard behind
starter Derek Harper and Brad
Davis.
New clubs load up on future picks;
Hornets get moody Tripuka, Curry
horrors of*
1, his familf
NEW YORK (AP) — The Mi
ami Heat and Charlotte Hornets
concentrated on youth and
wheeling-and-dealing Thursday
instead of big names as they ac
quired their first players for their
NBA debut next season.
The Hornets, however, did
trade for Kelly Tripucka, the only
one of seven available former All-
Stars to change teams.
The Heat made six deals with
existing teams, four of them for
agreeing to pick or not pick a
player off the unprotected list in
Thursday’s expansion draft. The
most important acquisition Miami
made was to get Dallas’ first-
round pick in next Tuesday’s col
lege draft in exchange for
agreeing to select, with the first
pick, an unknown who had not
played in the NBA since 1980.
The Hornets selected guard
Dell Curry of Cleveland with the
No. 2 expansion draft pick and
later made a deal to get Tripucka
from Utah.
“I didn’t think it was possible to
get both Dell Curry and Tri
pucka,” Charlotte general man
ager Carl Scheer said. “We feel
we got the top two players in the
draft, and if we don’t screw up in
the college draft, we feel good
about the team we’ll put together
in the fall.”
Miami selected Billy Thomp
son from the champion Los An
geles Lakers with the third pick
and also acquired a 1991 or 1992
second-round pick in exchange
for not selecting 41-year-old Ka-
reem Abdul-Jabbar.
With the fifth pick of the draft,
the Heat selected Fred Roberts of
Boston and acquired a second-
round pick this year for not se
lecting veteran Dennis Johnson.
Roberts was traded to Milwaukee
for a second-round 1989 pick.
Because of its deals, Miami will
have two first-round picks, No. 9
and No. 20, in the first round of
the college draft on Tuesday,
plus three second-round choices.
Charlotte’s even-numbered
picks were Curry, Dave Hoppen
of Golden State, Washington’s
Tyrone Bogues, Chicago’s Mike
Brown, Rickey Green of Utah,
Michael Holton of Portland, Mi
chael Brooks of Denver, Bernard
Thompson of Phoenix, Ralph Le
wis of Detroit, Clinton Wheeler of
Indiana and Sedric Toney of
New York. Brown then was
traded to Utah for Tripucka.
Miami took Scott Hastings of
Atlanta, Jon Sundvold of San An
tonio, Kevin Williams of Seattle,
Hansi Gnad of Philadelphia, Dar
nell Valentine of the Los Angeles
Clippers, Dwayne “Pearl” Wash
ington of New Jersey, Andre
Turner of Houston, Conner
Henry of Sacramento and John
Stroeder of Milwaukee.
From Seattle, Miami also ac
quired a 1988 second-round pick
in addition to Williams. The Heat
also traded Valentine to Cleve
land for a second-round pick in
1990 or 1992.
By trading for Tripucka in
stead of selecting him in the ex
pansion draft, Charlotte was able
to reach an agreement with Utah
whereby the Jazz will share some
of Tripucka’s $1 million contract.
Ags to play in A&M Open today
rfa
balloon’s 3’
ar, include:
give it a r
ections.
become??
drugs/ 5
Several of the Texas A&M tennis
players’ vacation has been cut short.
Eight Aggies will hit the courts this
[weekend to participate in the Texas
A&M Open at the Omar Smith Ten-
inis Center.
The tournament will begin this
I morning at 9:30 with the women’s
| single and men’s doubles.
Four A&M women will be playing
in the single’s competition this
morning including Sandy Klein, Su-
|san Williams and Derryn Haygarth.
Cindy Church well, a sophomore and
the bracket’s No. 2 seed, received a
first-round bye and will play her first
singles match Saturday at 11 a.m.
Three A&M players will also be
gin play in the men’s doubles this
morning. Junior Shaun O’Donovan
and non-Aggie Neil Smith of Fort
Worth, the No. 3 seed, and senior
Craig Whitteker and Mike Castillo,
the No. 4 seed, begin play at 9:30.
O’Donovan, A&M recruit Chris
Brown and junior Wayne Green kick
off the men’s singles this morning at
11. Castillo and former A&M player
Dean Goldfine play at 12:30 p.m.
At 2 p.m. Williams and Klein will
play a first-round match in the wom
en’s doubles. Haygarth and Church-
well, the No. 2 seed, received byes in
the first round and will play their
first match Sunday at 10 a.m.
Two A&M teams are seeded in
the top three of the mixed doubles.
w/bluetri" 1
z Band
THE
BLOOD CENTER
at Wadley
BLOOD DRIVE
June 27-30
10 a.m-6 p.m.
Rudder & Sbisa
Sponsored by:
APO,OPA &
Student Government
Time for old stogie Kareem
to hang up goggles and retire
OK, OK, I
willingly
admit that
this column
could
appear to be
stained a
deep shade
of purple —
a result of
too many
sour grapes.
I was
rooting for
the Detroit
Pistons to
pull off the
upset Tuesday night; I readily
confess. Given another chance, I’d
do it again. Anything to see the
Lakers lose (short of seeing the
Celtics win, of course).
But it didn’t take the green-tinted
glasses of envy to see a pathetic case
for what he was — a 7-foot-2,
goggled dinosaur trying to play fast-
break basketball with the rabbits of
the modern age.
Or not trying, to put it more
accurately. More on that later.
Let me make myself perfectly
clear: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will go
down in the history books as one of
the greatest ever to lace up a pair of
Adidases. It was predestined from
the day he first set foot on a
basketball court that “little” Lew
Alcindor would be phenomenal. He
just plain had too much talent.
That’s what made the last couple
of weeks so depressing for anyone
who would call himself a fan of the
game. To see a.great one in his
declining years is not a pretty sight.
This was no exception.
For as long as I have
remembered, I’ve cringed every
time a Laker guard fanagled a pass
into The Big Guy in the low post. I
knew what was coming, just like
everyone else — a soft turn-around
jumper; a lightning-fast spin move
for a slam; or even scarier, the
dreaded sky-hook that drew nothing
but cord a shocking percentage of
the time.
There wasn’t a more reliable
offensive threat in the game. The
only one who had ever compared
was Wilt Chamberlain, and he got
half his career output just from
jumping and grabbing someone
else’s shot and stuffing it through.
That was before “basket
interference” and all that.
Kareem earned his points. He was
utterly incredible.
Please underscore the word was.
We all knew 41-year-olds weren’t
supposed to play with the kids. We
knew it made no sense. But for
Kareem, we were willing to suspend
disbelief.
Enough is enough, though.
We knew something was wrong
when he went 2-for-10 in Game 1
and Los Angeles Laker Coach Pat
Riley kept him on the bench for
about half the game. It really hit
home in Game 7; the Lakers built a
15-point lead in the fourth quarter
with Kareem on the bench, he came
back out, and the Pistons rallied to
come one Dennis Rodman jumper
from overtime.
Billy Cunningham hit the nail
right on the head twice in Game 7;
“Kareem’s really hurting his team
out there offensively.”
It would have been heresy,
blasphemy, to suggest such a thing
even one year ago. This week it was
obvious.
There is just no way you can
justify to me keeping a man on the
floor who doesn’t even go
downcourt to play offense from time
to time — “resting his old legs”
doesn’t even begin to cut it as a valid
excuse.
Surely, with only five men on the
court, each would at least be
expected to try to play at both ends.
But not Him. And it is bound to cost
LA points here and there, maybe
adding up to a game or two.
Sure, he’s going to pick up the
stray, uncontested layup off a steal
(when the Laker fast break probably
would have gotten two points
anyway). He’s going to look like a
hustling, spry 37-year-old
occasionally on an opponent’s fast
break (when he never went
downcourt in the first place).
And yes, he’ll still hit the sky hook.
But by the time he makes it upcourt,
Magic Johnson only has about 15
seconds to get him the ball.
Yet Kareem insists he will play
one more season. Basketball purists
the world over are shaking their
collective head in disapproval.
The last few years have been poor
enough, with Kareem becoming
more and more of a non-factor on
the boards. Now Johnson, James
Worthy and Byron Scott have had to
pick up the offensive slack as The
Captain’s numbers have dropped
again.
What will the scene be next year?
“Not pretty” is the only answer of
which we can be sure.
Will Abdul-Jabbar continue to
start, picking up fewer and fewer
minutes until he becomes a Sam
Perkins, filling a hole until a Roy
Tarpley can come in off the bench to
supply “a little more scoring, shot-
blocking and rebounding?” As if
that wasn’t what the starter was
supposed to be able to do in the first
place.
Or will the former superstar be
reduced to a spot offensive role, a la
Bob McAdoo? I sincerely doubt, and
hope, Kareem would have more
dignity than that.
Or will the Lakers give him the
option of a bench role or
unconditional release, allowing him
to be the central figure on a team
with fewer stars and less promise?
The third seems unlikely, as the
Laker management seems to be far
from the point of signing on a center
of even Kareem’s diminishing
ability. At least the top brass
considered him worth a second-
round pick in 1991 or 1992, which
the Lakers gave to the expansion
Miami Heat Thursday in exchange
for not taking Kareem in the
expansion draft.
Let’s face it: he’s still one of the
top six or seven centers in the game.
And even though the Lakers are
better in every facet of the game
with Mychal Thompson at center,
that doesn’t make Thompson what'
he isn’t — a bona Fide everyday NBA
center.
The obvious answer is a surprise
press conference, where a teary-
eyed Kareem will announce he has
reconsidered and has decided to go
out on top. Two titles in a row make
a great sending-off for one of the
game’s all-time greats. But we are
getting no signs of such a blessed
announcement.
So it seems fans of pro basketball
will be forced to endure another
year of watching a foiling star. The
younger generation will watch with
us and ask why the tall, skinny, bald
guy gets so much attention when
there are younger stars like Akeem
Olajuwan, Patrick Ewing and Brad
Daugherty who are obviously so
much better.
And we will be pressed to answer.
Hal L.
Hammons
Sports viewpoint
Southpaw Agosto adds “gusto”
to Astros' failing relief pitchers
HOUSTON (AP) — When he was
a struggling pitcher with the Chi
cago White Sox, Houston reliever
Juan Agosto was referred to as
“Juan Disgusto.”
Agosto reported to spring train
ing with the Astros this year with an
other public relations problem.
His competition for the team’s
left-handed relief job was Joe Sam-
bito, one of the Astros’ most beloved
players ever.
But Agosto shut out all the dis
tractions, forgot his past and now
has a 5-0 record and is pitching with
“gusto” for the Astros.
Agosto’s latest triumph came
Wednesday night in a 5-1 victory
over Cincinnati.
He pitched two innings in relief
and benefitted from a four-run
Houston eighth inning.
“The more I pitch, the better I’m
getting because my confidence is
higher and I’m pitching with good
control,” Agosto said. “It used to be
in Chicago, one guy would get on
base and I’d be gone.
“I’m also very lucky. Everytime
I’ve come into a game, the guys have
scored runs for me.”
Agosto has been in pro baseball
for 14 years but only three plus sea
sons have been in the major leagues
in a star-crossed career.
Agosto had never won more than
four games in any major league sea
son until Wednesday night’s deci
sion.
Now he has shattered his career
high major league winning streak of
two. Agosto still is taking aim at his
career high four strikeouts in a game
and seven innings pitched.
“The turning point for me in
spring training was deciding to just
concentrate on my pitching and
keep the ball down,” Agosto said.
“I knew if I also tried to worry
about what Joe was doing, I’d never
make it. I’m just glad they picked me
and gave me a chance to pitch.”
Agosto has earned his position
this season. He has a 2.61 earned
run average in 41 Vs innings and has
yielded 12 earned runs.
Agosto still can feel Sambito’s
shadow. The former Astros relief
ace has a 2.50 earned run average at
Tucson, the Astros’ Class AAA affil
iate.
Sambito would be a popular addi
tion to the Astros’ roster, but Agosto,
with his control and sinker pitch, has
effectively kept him on the farm.
“The more I pitch the more my
ball sinks,” Agosto said. “I’ve also
had great defense, which I need be
cause I’m a ground ball pitcher.”
Agosto is getting the luck that was
absent in his early career.
Signed as a 16-year-old, the
Puerto Rican native had a 15-39 re
cord in his first four years in the mi
nors and than sat out 1979 because
of arm trouble.
Meet us art: the
New Bombay Bicycle Club....
You’ll have delicious food,
lots of fun and cocktails, too.
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. Open Every Day.
WE
Open Now!
607 Texas Ave. • 696-1427
Across from Texas A&M