Mascot's catapult plants ideas in mischievous Barkley's head

0 Comments | Milwaukee Journal, The, Feb 13, 1995 | by TOM ENLUND

Phoenix, Ariz. The outcome of the National Basketball Association All-Star Game had long been decided Sunday and it was time for some fun.

The East and West all-star teams were gathered in their huddles during a timeout with 5 minutes 50 seconds remaining and the Phoenix Suns' mascot, The Gorilla, was on the court hamming it up on a catapult device that shot him toward the basket for dunks.

Suddenly, the anticipation grew and the crowd noise became deafening as the Suns' Charles Barkley emerged from the West huddle and began eyeing the device. He looked at the contraption and then the basket. He smiled. Was he considering giving it try?

Barkley never got his chance. A horrified Phoenix coach Paul Westphal, along with Suns guard Dan Majerle, sprinted on the court and dragged Barkley back to the safety of the huddle.

"I would love to do that," Barkley said after the game. "Maybe I'd get lucky and get hurt and then they'd have to pay me for the last two years of my contract."

"He's crazy but he's not stupid," Westphal said. "I was doing everything I could to get him out of there."

But the antics weren't over. After Barkley returned to the huddle, he and Westphal grabbed center Hakeem Olajuwon of the champion Houston Rockets and tried to pull him toward the catapult. Olajuwon wisely resisted.

"If we could get Hakeem and Shawn {Kemp of Seattle} to do it, things would look rosy to us," Barkley said.

Barkley in trouble: Barkley and the NBA downplayed an apparent off-hand racial remark Barkley made at the end of a testy television interview Saturday.

Barkley said Sunday that his remarks were clearly a joke and, angered over an ESPN report that portrayed him as disliking whites, he assailed the network for being irresponsible.

"You guys are trying to . . . make this a controversy, and there's not going to be a controversy," he told reporters in an obscenity-laced response.

ESPN had reported that a reporter asked Barkley about groupies. At the end of the interview, Barkley turned to a friend and said, "See why I don't like white people?"

Barkley said he meant the remark as a joking aside to Barry Bloom, a San Diego Union reporter standing nearby with whom he is friendly. Barkley said he and Bloom, who is white, understood the remark was made in jest.

"They {ESPN} screwed me by trying to make something out of nothing," he said. "It's unfair and unfortunate that they would try to do that, but I'm going to get them back in the long run. They need me more than I need them."

ESPN spokesman Curt Pires said from the company's headquarters in Bristol, Conn., that at least eight or nine other reporters were at the interview and heard Barkley's remark. Pires said ESPN didn't ask the question about groupies.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said he was "more embarrassed by the reaction to this than by what Charles said.

"This is much ado about nothing. It's all part of Charles' routine, if you're with him in private or when he's being roasted or if he's on his stage with reporters."

Barkley, 31, whose wife is white, also dismissed the remark in a pre-game television interview Sunday with Jim Gray of NBC.

Under investigation: The officials who worked the All-Star Game, Dick Bavetta, Steve Javie and Jack Nies, reportedly are among at least 35 NBA referees under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for an alleged scheme involving millions of dollars in phony travel expenses.

The Sunday Oregonian reported that the IRS was looking at allegations that referees swapped first-class airline tickets for cash and over-reported travel expenses to the league for reimbursement, avoiding payment of income taxes on the difference. Some of the referees might have pocketed $100,000 or more during the five years ending with the 1993-'94 season.

NBA officials refused to discuss the report Sunday and officials of the referees union could not be reached for comment.

Trade rumors: The Scottie Pippen trade rumors just would not go away during all-star weekend, especially after Pippen said he would welcome a trade to the Suns and Barkley said he would welcome Pippen in Phoenix. One scenario had Majerle being traded for Pippen. Westphal was asked if it had all been a distraction.

"Not to anybody that had a brain," he said. "That's for people with nothing to do. Is he {Pippen} in the smoke-filled rooms where deals are made? I don't know how many ways you can say it's no story."

Majerle said, "It kind of brought me down for a little bit, because I wanted to concentrate on the All-Star Game and have a fun time. All the questions I was fielding were mainly about a trade."

The trade rumor of the weekend had Portland's Clyde Drexler going to the Houston Rockets for Robert Horry.

MVP: If he hadn't done so already, Sacramento's Mitch Richmond clinched his most valuable player award with 1:32 left when Majerle drove the lane and dished back out to Richmond for a three-pointer. He had returned to the game with 4:22 left.

"They told me to go back in and wrap it up," Richmond said. "Coach Westphal drew up some plays for me and my teammates looked for me to shoot.