nccanes
06-25-2003, 09:56 AM
Interesting question - posed only because of a very unfortunate occurance. If you are signing a 3.7 mil NBA contract - a contract that say you canNOT ride motorcycles - why do you go out and buy a brand new one of your own? (Not to mention not even bothering to get a motorcycle license.)
Anyway, here is the Durham column about it...
Columnist: Jay Williams' accident may be wake-up call
By Thomas Boswell : The Washington Post
Jun 24, 2003 : 10:03 pm ET
Last Wednesday, one day before he wrecked his new motorcycle against a pole in Chicago, perhaps ruining his NBA future, Jay Williams was back at Duke playing in pickup games and joking with his former coaches.
Little did he know he was about to become the national symbol of "What Can Go Wrong" when an athlete jeopardizes his career for the thrill of doing something exciting and normal, but also dangerous and -- probably -- dumb.
Throughout sports, every player and every team confronts the question of whether to treat their bodies as a perishable business asset or to "live a little." Lots of people take the risk of breaking bones on cycles, skis, snow mobiles or hang-gliders. But they seldom face the price -- in fame, accomplishment and dollars -- that Williams may pay for his joy ride. The Bulls already assume he'll miss next season. Beyond that, nobody knows.
"When we got the news, it hit home all the more because, just the day before, he was working in our camp, dunking on guys," said Duke assistant coach Chris Collins, son of former Wizards coach Doug Collins. "This is incredibly sad. All of a sudden, you see how fragile things really are. Now, he's just hoping he can have a life again."
Williams broke his pelvis and damaged ligaments in his left knee in what so far appears to have been a one-vehicle crash. Emergency surgery last Thursday was followed Tuesday by more extensive hip surgery. No one knows for sure whether Williams has career-threatening nerve damage, though, each day, his chances seem better.
"They're putting a plate in his pelvic area that will tighten everything up. In layman's terms, the (hip) area was ... stretched completely out," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski told a group of media Tuesday. "In a few days, the key thing will be the MRI (on) his knee ... (We) need a lot more information about the knee."
Williams' accident happened this past Thursday evening. By Friday, Krzyzewski was beside the player who led his team to the 2001 national title. He has kept up with every aspect of Williams' repair. He even sneaked into Williams' hospital room. "We got in the back door and up to see him." At first, Williams told the Duke coach he wondered if he was paralyzed. Then, very briefly, doctors wondered if Williams' leg had been without blood for so long that it might have to be amputated.
"The good thing is the timeline has gone from "paralyzed' to "amputation' to "I'm going to be OK. Now I've got to get these operations,"' said Krzyzewski, who already has endured one former player's near-fatal car accident in 1993 (Bobby Hurley) and another's career being decimated by injuries (Grant Hill). "I would be shocked if he didn't play (again). I just think that it will happen. He's different than all of us. In the assembly line of putting people together, somehow it stopped on him."
That is the optimistic view. Krzyzewski is certainly entitled to it after seeing Hurley's recovery from injuries doctors thought would kill nine out of 10 people. Yet Hurley was back in the NBA in one year. He was never the same player, as Williams may not be, but he was back.
"Hurley's first game back in the NBA was my first game as a head coach in the NBA (in Sacramento)," new Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said Tuesday. "I'll never forget it. He hadn't played the whole night. I put him in in the fourth quarter. He changed the whole game. He got me my first win. It was incredible how much the crowds loved him."
Ironically, one year ago this week, Williams' name was on every lip. He was the second player picked in the NBA draft after graduating from Duke in three years. (Hobby: chess.) Although his abilities weren't as spectacular as this year's New New Thing -- Lebron James -- they were far more proven. Williams was the Sure Sure Thing. Now, because he did something sufficiently dangerous that it is specifically prohibited in every standard NBA contract -- ride a motorcycle -- there's doubt he'll ever play again.
No wonder Williams' first words to Bulls General Manager John Paxson were, "I'm sorry."
Actually, the issue is far more complex than that. A motorcycle is almost tame compared to some of the activities that present themselves to a world-class athlete. So many Redskins have ridden motorcycles over the years that former kicker Brett Conway recently held his annual "Brett's Biker Bash," a motorcycle ride fundraiser to benefit the Luekemia/Lymphoma Society.
Karl Malone has a clause written into his contract permitting him to ride a motorcycle. Bulls Coach Bill Cartwright, one of the first people at Williams' bedside, rides a motorcycle. Michael Jordan is such an avid rider that he has three bikes, including one given to him last season by the Nuggets as a retirement gift.
After what has befallen Williams, however, perhaps more players in all sports will start to think that, perhaps, a motorcycle really ought to be just that -- a retirement gift -- rather than something you buy at age 21 when everything lies in front of you -- so long as you stay in one piece.
According to sources, Williams' contract likely does not have any special cycle clause, like Malone's. That means, if he's hurt badly enough and the Bulls are annoyed enough, Williams's contract might end up voided. But that's far down the road. For now, Paxson says, "Those are things we'll deal with, but you really worry about him and how he's handling it ... I told him not to worry about it. ... When we think about him, we think in terms of this young man who is 21 that made a mistake in judgment. But that's not the issue. The issue is him getting better."
The standard NBA contract says, "The player agrees he will not, without the written consent of the team, engage in sports endangering his safety (including professional boxing or wrestling, motorcycling, auto racing, sky-diving, and hang gliding), or any game of basketball, football, baseball, hockey, lacrosse or other athletic sport." It's specifically OK to engage in "golf, tennis, handball, swimming, hiking, softball, or volleyball." Baseball's standard contract actually excludes swimming and hiking, too.
Krzyzewski knows that athletes are, by nature, rough and tumble and rightly proud of it.
"A person has a right to do whatever he wants to do. Otherwise, this would be a real boring world," Krzyzewski said. "We let our guys be human beings. I'm not going to follow these kids around every second and say, "This is good. This is bad."'
But then Coach K cut to the chase, so to speak: "I wouldn't want any of our players riding a motorcycle."
Unfortunately, because of Jay Williams, a lot of coaches and teams will not have to deliver that message to their expensive but often injudicious young talent. A telephone pole on Chicago's North Side did it for them.
Anyway, here is the Durham column about it...
Columnist: Jay Williams' accident may be wake-up call
By Thomas Boswell : The Washington Post
Jun 24, 2003 : 10:03 pm ET
Last Wednesday, one day before he wrecked his new motorcycle against a pole in Chicago, perhaps ruining his NBA future, Jay Williams was back at Duke playing in pickup games and joking with his former coaches.
Little did he know he was about to become the national symbol of "What Can Go Wrong" when an athlete jeopardizes his career for the thrill of doing something exciting and normal, but also dangerous and -- probably -- dumb.
Throughout sports, every player and every team confronts the question of whether to treat their bodies as a perishable business asset or to "live a little." Lots of people take the risk of breaking bones on cycles, skis, snow mobiles or hang-gliders. But they seldom face the price -- in fame, accomplishment and dollars -- that Williams may pay for his joy ride. The Bulls already assume he'll miss next season. Beyond that, nobody knows.
"When we got the news, it hit home all the more because, just the day before, he was working in our camp, dunking on guys," said Duke assistant coach Chris Collins, son of former Wizards coach Doug Collins. "This is incredibly sad. All of a sudden, you see how fragile things really are. Now, he's just hoping he can have a life again."
Williams broke his pelvis and damaged ligaments in his left knee in what so far appears to have been a one-vehicle crash. Emergency surgery last Thursday was followed Tuesday by more extensive hip surgery. No one knows for sure whether Williams has career-threatening nerve damage, though, each day, his chances seem better.
"They're putting a plate in his pelvic area that will tighten everything up. In layman's terms, the (hip) area was ... stretched completely out," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski told a group of media Tuesday. "In a few days, the key thing will be the MRI (on) his knee ... (We) need a lot more information about the knee."
Williams' accident happened this past Thursday evening. By Friday, Krzyzewski was beside the player who led his team to the 2001 national title. He has kept up with every aspect of Williams' repair. He even sneaked into Williams' hospital room. "We got in the back door and up to see him." At first, Williams told the Duke coach he wondered if he was paralyzed. Then, very briefly, doctors wondered if Williams' leg had been without blood for so long that it might have to be amputated.
"The good thing is the timeline has gone from "paralyzed' to "amputation' to "I'm going to be OK. Now I've got to get these operations,"' said Krzyzewski, who already has endured one former player's near-fatal car accident in 1993 (Bobby Hurley) and another's career being decimated by injuries (Grant Hill). "I would be shocked if he didn't play (again). I just think that it will happen. He's different than all of us. In the assembly line of putting people together, somehow it stopped on him."
That is the optimistic view. Krzyzewski is certainly entitled to it after seeing Hurley's recovery from injuries doctors thought would kill nine out of 10 people. Yet Hurley was back in the NBA in one year. He was never the same player, as Williams may not be, but he was back.
"Hurley's first game back in the NBA was my first game as a head coach in the NBA (in Sacramento)," new Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said Tuesday. "I'll never forget it. He hadn't played the whole night. I put him in in the fourth quarter. He changed the whole game. He got me my first win. It was incredible how much the crowds loved him."
Ironically, one year ago this week, Williams' name was on every lip. He was the second player picked in the NBA draft after graduating from Duke in three years. (Hobby: chess.) Although his abilities weren't as spectacular as this year's New New Thing -- Lebron James -- they were far more proven. Williams was the Sure Sure Thing. Now, because he did something sufficiently dangerous that it is specifically prohibited in every standard NBA contract -- ride a motorcycle -- there's doubt he'll ever play again.
No wonder Williams' first words to Bulls General Manager John Paxson were, "I'm sorry."
Actually, the issue is far more complex than that. A motorcycle is almost tame compared to some of the activities that present themselves to a world-class athlete. So many Redskins have ridden motorcycles over the years that former kicker Brett Conway recently held his annual "Brett's Biker Bash," a motorcycle ride fundraiser to benefit the Luekemia/Lymphoma Society.
Karl Malone has a clause written into his contract permitting him to ride a motorcycle. Bulls Coach Bill Cartwright, one of the first people at Williams' bedside, rides a motorcycle. Michael Jordan is such an avid rider that he has three bikes, including one given to him last season by the Nuggets as a retirement gift.
After what has befallen Williams, however, perhaps more players in all sports will start to think that, perhaps, a motorcycle really ought to be just that -- a retirement gift -- rather than something you buy at age 21 when everything lies in front of you -- so long as you stay in one piece.
According to sources, Williams' contract likely does not have any special cycle clause, like Malone's. That means, if he's hurt badly enough and the Bulls are annoyed enough, Williams's contract might end up voided. But that's far down the road. For now, Paxson says, "Those are things we'll deal with, but you really worry about him and how he's handling it ... I told him not to worry about it. ... When we think about him, we think in terms of this young man who is 21 that made a mistake in judgment. But that's not the issue. The issue is him getting better."
The standard NBA contract says, "The player agrees he will not, without the written consent of the team, engage in sports endangering his safety (including professional boxing or wrestling, motorcycling, auto racing, sky-diving, and hang gliding), or any game of basketball, football, baseball, hockey, lacrosse or other athletic sport." It's specifically OK to engage in "golf, tennis, handball, swimming, hiking, softball, or volleyball." Baseball's standard contract actually excludes swimming and hiking, too.
Krzyzewski knows that athletes are, by nature, rough and tumble and rightly proud of it.
"A person has a right to do whatever he wants to do. Otherwise, this would be a real boring world," Krzyzewski said. "We let our guys be human beings. I'm not going to follow these kids around every second and say, "This is good. This is bad."'
But then Coach K cut to the chase, so to speak: "I wouldn't want any of our players riding a motorcycle."
Unfortunately, because of Jay Williams, a lot of coaches and teams will not have to deliver that message to their expensive but often injudicious young talent. A telephone pole on Chicago's North Side did it for them.