At the stroke of midnight, when June 30th became July 1st in 1988, Howard Slusher got a phone call from Suns president Jerry Colangelo. The Phoenix boss said he wanted to meet with the agent and Seattle's unrestricted free agent Tom Chambers as quickly as possible.
By the crack of dawn, Colangelo, along with coach Cotton Fitzsimmons and assistant coach Paul Westphal were on a plane for Los Angeles to see Slusher.Chambers happened to be at Slusher's house. The group chatted for four hours, during which three teams called to talk to Slusher about Chambers. But Colangelo found this unacceptable.
"The deal was he wasn't going to talk to anybody until we had our deal," Colangelo said. "So (Slusher) took messages."
Finally, Colangelo asked Slusher, "What price would it take to keep Chambers out of the market place?"
Slusher said $10 million over five years. Colangelo countered with $9 million, five years.
"I told him this is one of those situations you have 30 minutes to decide," Colangelo said. "Howard went out and talked to Chambers for 15 minutes, then came back and said, `Congratulations, you've got a forward."'
Four years later, the Suns were quick to pull the trigger again. This time, Colangelo waited 11/2 hours beyond the legal time teams could talk to free agents to phone Trail Blazers unrestricted free agent Danny Ainge.
"After 45 minutes, I made him an offer," Colangelo said.
Ainge accepted, but he had to wait a few days to sign while Colangelo redid the contracts of Charles Barkley and Chambers to free up the money to pay him, $5.2 million over three seasons.
"The answer is it is possible to take care of business that quickly," Colangelo said. "The way free agents are signed, you have to be out there in front and be the first one to make a deal. We went after two and we got two."
This brings us to the Knicks, who have been accused of tampering by the Bullets when they signed free-agent forward Harvey Grant to an offer sheet on July 1.
The Knicks insist the only things they're guilty of is using a similar strategy used by the Suns when they got Chambers.
According to a Knicks source, they tendered Grant the standard NBA contract with a few points that Grant and his agent Jimmy Sexton had to study.
Foremost was the money, $17 million over six years, and how it was to be paid. There was the option for Grant to become an unrestricted free agent after the second year, a $3.75 million loan at 10% interest and various insurance benefits. "You have to respect what they've done," Colangelo said of the Knicks. "They've maneuvered for the better part of the year to put themselves in the position to go into the free-agent market."
Incidentally, the Bullets have only themselves to blame regardless of where Grant finally makes his basketball home. The club was close to signing Grant last summer at less than half of what the Knicks offered him. The two sides were around $50,000 apart, a Bullets source said.
That $50,000 could cost the Bullets more than $8 million.
The consensus around the league is the Bullets will match the offer sheet, then figure out what to do.
New coach Jerry Tarkanian may begin to wonder if he left more talent at UNLV than he has with the Spurs. The loss of Terry Cummings, perhaps for the season due to knee surgery, is the latest blow to a team whose roster is in flux.
Cummings tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments last Monday when a player ran into the back of his right leg during a pickup game in Chicago. The leg will be in a cast for four weeks. Afterward, Cummings will undergo surgery to have the anterior cruciate repaired.
"It was just a terrible loss for the team," Tarkanian said. "We're very concerned, especially concerned about Terry. It's frustrating he got hurt trying to stay in shape. It looks like it will be a long-term recovery."
Willie Anderson's immediate future also is uncertain. The Spurs guard is on the mend, having underwent surgery in June to have a rod inserted to stabilize his right leg.
Futhermore, Greg Sutton is the only point guard on the roster, Rod Strickland having signed with the Trail Blazers as a free agent.
The Spurs also renounced Paul Pressey's contract and they did not make qualifying offers to free agent guards Trent Tucker and Vinnie Johnson.
Bulls are required to pay $400,000 of Craig Hodges' $800,000 contract if he is not picked up by another team within the 10-day waiver period. Friday's release of 32-year-old guard comes after release of Bobby Hansen, 31. "What this does is it gives B.J. (Armstrong) more playing time," GM Jerry Krause said, "and opens up roster spots for kids." Chicago has also not made an effort to re-sign Cliff Levingston, 31.
Trail Blazers are working on contract extension for coach Rick Adelman, who has one year remaining on his existing deal.