Rider is the storm/ Nuggets swingman has no regrets about his past

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 8, 2001 | by John Branch

With five weeks left in the season, the Hawks waived him - Rider opted for his release rather than face a three-game suspension for missing a team shoot-around - and the Rider experiment ended. "It was worse than I ever imagined," general manager Pete Babcock said later.

The NBA tried to put Rider in its after-care drug program. But he refused the counseling and random drug testing it requires. Last March, the NBA suspended Rider, then with the Lakers, for five games for violating the program's rules. Rider says he's never tested positive. Details are confidential because of basketball's collective- bargaining agreement.

Los Angeles would go on to win the NBA title, but left Rider off its playoff roster. And at the end of the season, the Lakers reached the same conclusion three other teams had - it's better if Rider isn't around.

Isaiah Rider has been little trouble for the Nuggets, at least since missing the first practice of training camp and a team bus in Chicago during preseason. (The contract wasn't signed, he said. Issel wasn't happy.) He has been cooperative and polite with reporters, provided the subject is the present and future, not the past.

Talking to him uncovers a man who is articulate, inquisitive and soft-spoken. Those close to him marvel about his intelligence. He hasn't created any obvious ripples in the locker room. He receives plenty of back slaps from the coaching staff. He jokes with teammates. He stays late practicing jump shots. No one kisses the ball off the glass from the wing more sweetly than Rider. He plays the game with more smiles than scowls.

If the past eight years hadn't happened, there would be no reason to wonder if this relationship between Rider and an NBA team can work harmoniously, the way no others have.

"I need for my peers, my friends and my family to respect me," Rider said during training camp.

But there are signs of the veneer cracking. Coming off the bench, Rider is expected to give the Nuggets a jolt of offense in well- timed spots. He played 30 minutes, scoring 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds, in Denver's first two games. But after playing 5 minutes and scoring three points in a one-point loss to Sacramento on Saturday, and hearing his teammates and Issel say afterward they need more production from the bench, Rider couldn't keep quiet.

He took a jab at starting swingmen James Posey and Tariq Abdul- Wahad.

"If they're going to play 30 or 35 minutes a game, they've got to get more than 15 points between them," Rider said. "I could do that in 25 minutes."

Issel and general manager Kiki Vandeweghe bristled at Rider's comments. They met with Rider on Monday, and rumors circulated that Rider was being waived. That didn't happen, but Rider believes he has just a few games left to prove his worth. The first test didn't go well; Rider was handed 26 minutes of floor time in Tuesday's 99-93 loss at Houston and scored just eight points.

"I'm just living day to day, doing what I got to do," Rider says. "It's a day-to-day job for me. Period. My play is the only thing I'm worried about."