Sanity Threattened by a Player’s Greed

Exactly who does Sedale Threatt think he is? Does this guy honestly believe that the Lakers cannot get along this season without him? Did this guy actually talk himself into walking out on his teammates in the middle of the night because the cheapskate Lakers were paying him only $2.4 million a year not to be a starter?

It might be different if this very replaceable player represented the entire future of the franchise, the way, say, Glenn Robinson theoretically does in Milwaukee. Or it definitely would be different if this individual had a loophole in his contract granting him the right to remove himself from training camp until his contract situation was resolved, the way the unfairly criticized Anfernee Hardaway did in Orlando.

But that is not what we have here. What we do have is a second-string point guard, Threatt, with two years remaining on his very generous contract. When the Lakers awarded all this money to him, NBA teams were not exactly pounding on Sedale Threatt’s door. Until he turned up in L.A., in fact, this guy was a classic example, if ever there was one, of Just Another Player.

“We’re not doing anything, period,” a clearly irritated Jerry West said with conviction, as the Lakers prepared for Tuesday night’s exhibition with the Clippers.

Good. If Sedale Threatt wants a contract extension, let’s see if he can get one from the CBA Rapid City Thrillers. Or maybe in Spain. Because no other NBA general manager in his right mind is going to give this ingrate a longer, richer contract, should the Lakers cut him loose. Threatt is hardly a guy who is going to turn a good team into a great team, or a fair team into a good one. He couldn’t start for the Dallas Mavericks.

Greed is a character flaw that makes malcontents of otherwise reasonable human beings. It makes one wonder how Sedale Threatt can look at himself in the mirror. He is not a bad guy on the whole, but does he honestly believe the Laker offense revolves around him? Or that people come out to see him? Does he take pride in being beaten out for a starting job by Nick Van Exel, a tiny rookie picked 37th in the draft?

A monster was created when the owner of the Charlotte Hornets gave so much money to Larry Johnson that every other player in the league feels underpaid. Alonzo Mourning deserves more than Johnson because he is the best player on their team. But if you pay Mourning more than Johnson, the rest of the Hornets will have to get by on minimum wage. How rich can one owner be?

And then there’s this salary-cap business, which is having a trickle-down effect on baseball and hockey. First-year players are making more than Charles Barkley, as was duly noted this week by none other than Charles Barkley. Ron Harper was already making more than Michael Jordan when Harper demanded a raise from the Clippers. Harper couldn’t carry Jordan’s you-know-what. Yet who gave Harper his sweet new deal? Jordan’s old team, Chicago.

The rookie Robinson wants $100 million from Milwaukee. The owner isn’t sure the entire franchise is worth $100 million. Robinson hasn’t played one minute. His nickname shouldn’t be “Big Dog.” His nickname should be “Greedy Pig.”

These guys live in dream worlds. They have a center on the Clippers, one Stanley Roberts, who is larger than most centers, including the World Trade. Roberts recently expressed a desire to be thought of around Los Angeles someday in the same terms as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This guy must be smoking Twinkies. It would take Stanley Roberts two more good seasons to approach Benoit Benjamin’s stats.

We become accustomed to athletes wanting things their way. Orel Hershiser, who applied for free agency Tuesday because he could, once stated memorably that the reason baseball players seek better deals is because, “That’s the way we keep score.” And he is correct in that it falls under the heading of free enterprise, but it also leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of customers who would like to believe that an athlete might accept a wee bit less, simply to stay and play for them.

Jeff Hostetler, too, seemed stubborn and pig-headed Sunday when he openly defied his coach, Art Shell, by changing plays and then arguing on the sideline. It would be nice to be able to defend Hostetler by saying that the Raider coaching staff’s play-calling is so terrible--which it is--that the quarterback should call audibles whenever he can. But we can’t, because defying authority creates anarchy and puts Shell in the position of not being able to control his team.

One of the Clippers walked out of camp Monday and one might say that the unfortunate thing is that more of them didn’t. Who knows what was bothering Elmore Spencer? Maybe he wanted Stanley Roberts’ meal money.

As for the Lakers, if they cave in to a player with two years remaining on his contract, particularly a player who could be adequately replaced with one phone call, then they are nuts and deserve one another. And one thing we know about Jerry West. He’s not nuts.