THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250556
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
After seven years in the NBA, J.R. Reid has found happiness in a temp job.
Job title: power forward, New York Knicks. Pay: about $32,000 per game. Duration: through the end of the season, which could be soon. The Knicks open a best-of-five playoff series against the higher-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers tonight.
Strings attached: none. Reid will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, available to the highest bidder.
And those bids will be accepted in dollars, lira, francs. Whatever.
``All my options are open,'' Reid said Sunday after New York's final regular-season game, a 122-111 win over the Boston Celtics. ``Overseas, all the teams in the league, maybe New York. I'm going where I'll get to play, man. I want to go somewhere I can contribute every night.''
While he probably won't have to leave the country, the 6-foot-9 Reid likely will have his fourth new address in as many seasons next year.
``It's a tough situation here in New York,'' he said. ``We've got so many big guys already.''
And so many big plans, with Reid apparently not part of them. The aging Knicks acquired Reid from San Antonio in February largely to clear some room under the NBA's salary cap. The dollars they saved by swapping Charles Smith and Monty Williams for Reid and Brad Lohaus will be used to pursue a big-name free agent or two.
Wherever Reid lands, it will be the most important move of his career. At 28, Reid is at a crossroads. He's young enough to still make a mark in the league, but as what? Can he be a starting power forward? Or just a big, mobile body off the bench?
One thing for sure is that Reid is not the franchise cornerstone he was projected to be when drafted by Charlotte in 1989. The expansion Hornets made the former North Carolina All-American and Virginia Beach native the fifth pick overall. They placed him at center and waited for him to become an all-star.
Instead, Reid's production has dropped every year since his rookie season. He averaged a career-low 6.6 points per game this year, while earning $2.6 million.
Still, Reid's brief stint with the Knicks may have raised his stock around the league. With Charles Oakley out with an eye injury, Reid has become a starter, and has given the Knicks more than they frankly expected. Oakley is expected to return to the starting lineup tonight.
``We knew he had a big body, and is really very active, very aggressive,'' Knicks assistant Don Chaney said. ``The biggest surprise to me and the rest of the staff is his ability to hit the 17-foot jump shot. We knew he could post up a little bit, but we weren't that confident he could hit the outside shot. He's done that very well for us.
``When he's in the game, offensively we're very confident he can hold his own. Defensively, he's very active. He's a big guy (with) quick feet, so he can guard the quicker frontcourt people.''
Reid also has shown an improved ability to handle the ball and drive to the basket.
``He's playing hard,'' Knicks center Patrick Ewing said. ``He's going to help us in the playoffs.''
Reid has adapted enthusiastically - at first, maybe too enthusiastically - to the Knicks' physical style of play. No matter what he does in New York, he may be best remembered for an elbow he threw at A.C. Green of Phoenix on Feb. 26.
It was the most expensive elbow in NBA history, and one of the most flagrant. Green was looking away when Reid whacked him in the mouth, knocking out two of his teeth.
Reid said it was something that happened in the heat of the game. NBA vice president Rod Thorn disagreed.
``He was looking right at Green when he unloaded on him,'' Thorn said.
Reid looked like a villain. Making things worse for him was Green's squeaky-clean reputation. An aspiring minister and national spokesman for a teen abstinence program called ``True Love Waits,'' Green is one of the NBA's better role models.
The elbow cost Reid $74,000 - $10,000 in fines, plus $64,000 in lost wages from a two-game suspension. Two months after it happened, he says his conscience is clear. He was just protecting himself, he said.
``Anytime you ask anybody in the league they'll tell you A.C. is a great bible-toting brother,'' Reid said. ``But on that court he's not always like that.
``He'll throw some shots at you and he hit me with a good one, and I told him that I was going to have to let him know. I just caught him with one. That's the way this league is. If you're gonna come in here and try to be a tough guy, you've got to be able to take one sometimes, and that's just what happened.''
Reid said he didn't feel any extra pressure to be a ``tough guy'' after he arrived in New York.
``I've always been a physical player,'' he said. ``I've had my share of fights in this league, and altercations with guys. I didn't think I had to come here and prove anything to these guys. I think they knew the type of player I was.''
Actually, if Reid had shown a little more fire in the belly he might have had a smoother ride in Charlotte, where he went from favorite son to favorite whipping boy in record time.
The Hornets had a horrible team, and Reid, playing out of position at center, soon was labeled a bust. Even after he was moved to power forward, fans and management tagged him as lazy and inconsistent. He feuded with former coach Gene Littles and was traded after 3 1/2 seasons in Charlotte.
``J.R. always had talent,'' Hornets owner George Shinn said after Reid was shipped to San Antonio. ``But the talent always came (out) in spurts. There was never any consistency.''
Reid says the Charlotte experience delayed his development as a player.
``Coming in right out of college at 20 or 21 years old, coming to a bad team, people thought that coming from Carolina your winning ways are coming with you. It wasn't going to happen. That team was terrible.
``I didn't particularly like it down there. I've seen a lot of other players want to get out, too - Kendall (Gill) and Alonzo (Mourning). They're still struggling now.''
Reid felt lucky to be traded to a contender like San Antonio, and with the Spurs, he was able to shed his slacker label.
Reid cut weight to play for former Spurs coach John Lucas, who wanted to use him at small forward. Lucas later changed his mind and used Reid at power forward.
In San Antonio, Reid was a backup who didn't make waves about a lack of playing time. When Dennis Rodman was injured last season, Reid started 15 straight games and played well.
But when Rodman was traded to Chicago this year, the Spurs felt they needed a power forward who could rebound. Working the glass - particularly the offensive glass - has never been one of Reid's strong points. Over his career, he's averaged slightly more than one offensive rebound per game.
Reid, who had the most market value of any Spur reserve, was traded to the Knicks.
It was an easy place to come,'' Reid said. ``I knew a lot of the guys here, and that made it real easy to step in.
``As long as you play hard here the fans will take to you,'' he said. ``They're real supportive and cheer for me every once in a while, and that's something I haven't had in a while.
``They've given me a chance to play every night, and they'll even go to me in certain situations. That's helped my confidence so much.''
Reid literally has looked like a new player in New York. Anyone who hasn't seen him recently wouldn't recognize him. Once big and blocky, with a flattop haircut and prodigious posterior, Reid now has a rakish look about him. He's dropped 35 pounds from his Charlotte days, and has a headful of curls that flop as he sprints from end to end - something he can do quicker than most big men in the league.
One thing that hasn't changed is Reid's role as a team comedian. He's got the deepest voice in the New York locker room, and he keeps up a running commentary, targeting teammates, team officials - anyone who wanders within ear shot of his deep bass.
``His voice carries. He has a radio voice, really,'' Chaney said. ``He has some weirdness about him, which is good. Sometimes you have to cut the tension. He's a very loose guy, and you've got to have guys like that on your team.''
Reid's looseness should not be mistaken for a lack of commitment, he says. Particularly at this point of his career, when he's got a lot on the line.
``This is my life. This is what I've been doing my whole life,'' he said. ``This is not play.
``This is how I earn a living. And if you want a place to play in this league, you've got to make the most of it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color KRT Photo
1989 - 1992
Charlotte Hornets
Color San Antonio Express-News Photo
1992-1996
San Antonio Spurs
KEYWORDS: PROFILE
by CNB