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The Augusta News-Review-July 18,1981-
Highest Black Sports Position To Be Vacated
NEW YORK
Professional basketball,
which can ill afford to, is
losing an exceptional man
because he feels it’s time
for a change.
Simon P. Gourdine,
deputy commissioner of the
NBA for more than 11
years, already has given
notice he’ll be leaving the
job before his contract is up
next January, and with the
track record he has for
working out solutions to
even the toughest
problems, it wouldn’t be
the least bit surprising to
see him grabbed up by
some other sport or outside
major industry.
The popular 40-year-old
one-time Assistant U.S.
Arrorney is leaving the
highest executive position
in sports ever attained by a
black man and he's doing
so with ambivalent feelings.
J.R.May Pitch If Strike Ends
If the baseball
strike is settled, the big
news will not center around
what the players and
owners give up or refuse to
give up. The headlines will
be J.R. Richards returns to
the mound for the Houston
Astros.
The towering
righthander, who delivers
his fastballs to the plate at
90 miles per hour speed,
suffered a stroke last
season and was forced to
finish the 1980 National
League season in a hospital
bed.
J.R. looks as though he
could pitch a major league
today. But those attending
him are determined not to
rush, not to waste a line of
a rehabilitation outline they
set down months ago. They
don’t want him to feel
pressut 5 from their
projections.
Whether that first pitch
comes in July, August or
September, h ow ever,
“there will not be a dry
eye in America," attorney
Tom Reich said. ‘‘lt’s
gonna stimulate anybody
who gives a damn and any
body who doesn't.
“See,” Reiche added,
"I don’t just think he’s
going to pitch well.”
Before a recent Astros
game, manager Bill Virdon
watched Richard pitch
batting practice. J.R.’s
pitches were not batting
practices tosses; they were
85 MPH sliders and 80
MPH forkballs. Hitter Gary
Woods, a reserve
outfielder, admitted to
being nervous as he
prepared to enter the
batting cage.
“I don’t want to get in
there," he said. "You can
get hurt in there. Have you
noticed they only make the
Won’t Name Stadium
After Hank Aaron
MILWAUKEE -
Hank Aaron, the baseball
great who made Milwauke
famous; first as a member
of the Milwaukee Braves
and Later as a member of
the Milwaukee brewers, is
a baseball favorite here but
not revered quite enough to
have the city's County
Stadium renamed for him.
Aaron broke Babe Ruth's
career home run record
with the two Milwaukee
teams and the Atlanta
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“On one hand," he
says, “professional
basketball has been such a
stimulating and exciting
environment for me. On
the other hand, I look
forward to doing something
different, something
with a greater
potential for personal
growth.”
Gourdine's expertise in
dealing with an settling
issues helped the NBA
survive its stormiest period.
Remember th war
between the NBzv and
ABA? It created
unimaginable and
unprecedented legal and
labor entanglements as well
as internecine battles
among the various NBA
teams. Someone had to
have the brains and
endurance to straighten the
whole thing out and nobody
rummies get in there?
Terry Puhi and Cesar
Cedeon won’t be stepping
in there."
Virdon liked what he
saw from Richard.
"He’s not ready, but
that doesn’t mean there's a
wide gap.” he said.
Old Face, New Place:
Former Ohio State All-
American John Hicks, a
budt in the NFL with both
the Giants and Pittsburgh
Steelers after being the
league's No. 1 draft choice a
few years back, has been
named an assistant coach at
Case Western Reserve
University located in
Cleveland, O.
Stroke of Luck: Former
Pirate product Mitchell
Page, now with the
Oakland Athletics, was sent
to the A's Tacoma farm
club two days before the
current players' strike,
continues to collect from his
$400,000 salary. Upon
arriving Page was off on a
10-day trip to Hawaii.
An Expert’s Opinion:
Veteran boxing trainer
Eddie Futch, who has spent
the better part of his 69
years in and around some
of the sports’ greatest
performers, was recently
asked how his present
heavyweight champion
Larry Holmes would have
fared against the great Joe
Louis. Said Futch, “I
consider him (Holmes) a
great boxer. I rank him
with Billy Conn."
So, how would be have
done against Louis? “I
think Conn could have
beaten Louis if he’d been
10 pounds heavier," Futch
replied. “Larry is 40
pounds heavier (than Cann
was)." You figure it out.
Forgotten Man: Curt
Flood, who years ago went
Braves.
The Milwaukee County
Board of Supervisors voted
4-0 to a motion to have the
stadium renamed after
Aaron.
One of the supervisors,
James Koconis, defended
his vote by saying, "With
all due respect to Hank, I
believe the stadium should
be a tribute to the tax
payers. After all, we
haven't named the
courthouse after a judge.”
Page 6
did more in that regard
than Gourdine.
“Before we could
negotiate a peaceful
settlement of the
interleague conflict, we had
to find a solution to the
legal problems with the
players that were under
review by Congress and the
' ar ’ X,.
J; ■ ■
Simon Gourdine
all the way to the Supreme
Court before losing his
fight for free agency, says
of the current strike, “rm
very very proud of what I
did.
“Forget the money.
Think of the dignity players
have knowing that their
contracts have a date to
start and a date to end. I
think it helped my
colleagues a lot. They paid
their dues to get where
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federal courts,’’
(Commissioner) Larry
O'Brien and I focused on
the long-standing Oscar
Robertson class action
suit."
Settlement of that suit,
considered a milestone in
professional sports, led to
the NBA expanding with
they are.”
Flood now works with
youth baseball for the
Oakland Parks and
Recreation Department.
High Marks: In two
decades of coaching at
North Carolina University in
the highly competitive
Atlantic Coast Conference,
Dean Smith has compiled
an enviable record both on
and off the court.
the absorption of four ABA
teams. Gourdine wasn't
finished, though. He then
worked out a strike
settlement with the
National Association of
Basketball Referees to keep
them from walking out
during he 1977 playoff
games.
He joined the league in
1970 as an assistant to the
late J. Walter Kennedy,
then commissioner, and
served as the league’s chief
leagal counsel and liaison
with the playerss. Having
played a lot of schoolyard
basketball in New York City
himself before earned a BA
debree at City College of
New York and a Law
degree at Fordham
University, He’s able to
speak the players’
language.
“I listen to them
whenever they call me
regarding a salary
dispute,” he says. “I guess
they consider me a
mediator.”
The players knew one
thing for sure. If they have
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a contractual problem,
Gourdine won't ignore it,
he’ll look into it and
ultimately get it solved.
Six years ago,
Gourdine was a leading
candidate for the NBA
commissionership and was
somewhat disappointed
when he lost out in the
“semi - finals.”
“In a sense, I aspired
to it,” he says now without
any bitterness or not having
gotten the position. “I
wasn't afraid to tell anyone
who listened I wanted the
position, but as the same
time, I recognized the
owners ultimately selected
a man O’Brien , with
greater experience than I
had."
Gourdine doesn’t feel
he got the deputy’s job,
which pays six figures,
because of his color.
“Reflecting on that
aspect,” he says, “it
allowed me to demonstrate
certain capabilities and
capacities that would not
have been noticed if I
wasn't Black.”
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Carew Wants sss
Strike Or Not
A.S. (Doc) Young
Shortly after the
baseball strike began, Rod
Carew’s attorney claimed
that Carew’s contaract
dictated that he should be
paid, strike or no strike.
But, California Angels’
brass disagreed. AND
THE CONTROVERSY DIED
DOWN. Carew’s attorney is
his brother-in-law ... Bad
luck was good luck for
Mitcljell Page, the Oakland
A's outfielder and
designated hitter. Shortly
before the strike began, he
was sent to a farm club -
with no interruption in
paychecks! ... Dave
Stewart, the Dodgers’
rookie relief pitcher,
wastefd no time getting
himeself a job outside
baseball for the duration of
the strike. He went to work
in a hardware store. He
found the hours “strange,"
but he knew the score ...
Don Baylor made a rather
odd strike statement:
Angels’ player
representative he said he
was going home to Austin,
Texas, so he wouldn’t have
the responsibility of
organizing workouts.
I wonder what Reggie
Jackson was thinking as the
strike began. He had been
in a terrible slump in this,
the last year of his New
York Yankee contract. As
the season began, he had
every reason to believe that
he would besigning a new,
multi-year, million-dollars
per contract with
somebody. But, with a
slump hanging over his
head his bargaining power
was lowered ... San
Francisco Giants manager
Frank Robinson took the
strike ''me off watching
the
league players, getting
acquainted with them ...
Howard Cosell has made
his fame and fortune off
shorts and sports stars. But
no one else tries to belittle
sports as much as he does.
All of his anti-sports talk is
b ig, fat, self-serving bore.
Journalistic honor
society be put to the test
when the Tribune
Company’s Chicago Cubs
play scandalously bad and a
Chicago Tribune writer tells
readers just how
scandalously bad the Cubs
are ... Whatever
happened to Muhammad
Ali? Are he and Harold
Rossfields Smith still
friends? ... George Rogers,
the South Carolina football
star, signed with the New
Orleans Saints ... Larry
Holmes belew his cool in
Las Vegas after he knowked
out Leon Spinks. It's
understandable that Holmes
craves proper respect as
the world’s best heavy
weight. But. he can’t shout
!t Up. J| lere - S tOQ muc h
cussworded racial talk in
heavy weight boxing today.
That's another leftover from
the mouthy Muhammad Ali
era. Was it surprising that
Spinks had another run-in
with the law! No.