ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 1, 1996 TAG: 9611010027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
When millions of Americans and Canadians sit down in their easy chairs tonight for the first televised game of the NBA season, the newest thing they'll see will look like something from 50 years ago.
The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors will be wearing old-fashioned uniforms to commemorate the NBA's 50th anniversary. It will be the first of 22 games this season in which teams go retro.
The New York-Toronto game comes 50 years to the date when the first Basketball Association of America contest was played between the Knickerbockers and the Toronto Huskies on a hardwood floor laid over the ice at Maple Leaf Gardens.
This time, the floor will be laid over the artificial turf of the SkyDome. And the Raptors, instead of wearing their usual red, white and purple outfits, will be wearing plain white jerseys with ``Huskies'' written across the front in blue letters.
New York also will wear replica uniforms with light blue lettering outlined in orange against a blue background.
``Really? I didn't know. This is the first I've heard of it,'' Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said Thursday. ``I'm always the last guy to know.''
With so many familiar faces playing in new places, it's an interesting twist to a season that promises to be a curious mix of old and new
Shaquille O'Neal will be wearing the purple and gold colors of the Los Angeles Lakers in Inglewood, Calif., when Los Angeles plays the Charles Barkley-less Phoenix Suns.
That game, too, will be televised nationally on cable. It's one of 97 games that will be shown on NBC, TNT and TBS this season.
O'Neal's move to the Lakers, who gave him a $120 million, seven-year contract, was the biggest story in a summer filled with personnel changes around the league.
Barkley has moved over to the Houston Rockets, who have only two players remaining from the team that won the first of its two consecutive championships in 1994.
The Rockets open at home against the Sacramento Kings tonight, the busiest night of the entire season with 14 games scheduled. The Charlotte Hornets are the only team that won't be playing.
In other games, it's Chicago at Boston, Cleveland at New Jersey, Milwaukee at Philadelphia, Washington at Orlando, Atlanta at Miami, Indiana at Detroit, San Antonio at Minnesota, Dallas at Denver, Seattle at Utah, the Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State and Portland at Vancouver.
Another 10 games will be played Saturday night and four more Sunday.
The moves of O'Neal and Barkley are just two of dozens that teams made in an effort to catch up to the Chicago Bulls, who return basically the same team that won a record 72 games last season before winning their fourth championship in six years.
After missing most of the exhibition season, Scottie Pippen will be in the starting lineup alongside Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Luc Longley and Ron Harper.
The newest face on Chicago's bench will also be the oldest. Robert Parish, who on Wednesday was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, will coax his 43-year-old body out for another season of the sport he used to play alongside Larry Bird, Rick Barry, Gus Williams and Jo Jo White.
The Seattle SuperSonics, last season's Western Conference champions, will have Jim McIlvaine playing center beside an unhappy Shawn Kemp, who made the mistake of signing a long-term contract two years ago before the league's salary structure became so inflated over the summer.
Among the players who were traded or switched teams for lucrative contracts worth tens of millions of dollars are Dikembe Mutombo (Atlanta), Rod Strickland (Bullets), Larry Johnson (Knicks), Anthony Mason (Hornets), Kenny Anderson (Trail Blazers), Ervin Johnson (Nuggets) and Sam Cassell (Suns).
The NBA's leading active career scoring leader is back, too. Dominique Wilkins, who played last season in the Greek League, signed with the San Antonio Spurs for the league's minimum salary of $247,500.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB