Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / March 7, 1996, edition 1 / Page 25
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tKIje Cljarlotte ^osit SPORTS THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1996 Little guys are big winners in free agency By Dave Goldberg THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO/CAROLINA PANTHERS Eric Davis signed with the Carolina Panthers for four years at an average of almost $3 million. Tackles and cornerbacks are the en vogue positions for teams building through free agency. T he New York Jets spent $25 million on Neil O'Donnell, mak ing him the NFL’s fourth-best paid player, not the fourth best player. It's an indication of the equalizing nature of the salary cap. For in the first fortnight of free agency, it's the have-nots maiking the moves - the Jets, the Cardinals, the expansion teams. And it's the haves, like the Cowboys and Steelers, who are losing their players. “The top four teams are real ly up against it under the cap," said Leigh Steinberg, who negotiated the deal that pried O'Donnell loose from the Steelers and sent him to a team whose 3-13 record was the NFL's worst last season. “The salary cap breaks up happy marriages." The O'Donnell signing also demonstrates the growing gap in cash, one of the factors that’s causing franchises to seek stadium deals at home or to the highest bidding cities. Pittsburgh isn't going any where, but the Steelers are a family-owned team with limit ed cash available for signing bonuses; Leon Hess, who owns the Jets, has made hundreds of millions in the oil business. It's not always the agents. Steinberg is one who would prefer to have his top chents stay put. He's renegotiated Steve Young's contract with the 49ers and Troy Aikman's with the Cowboys half a dozen times each to give those teams cap room to augment their ros ters. “If you can give your player a chance to play on a Super Bowl team, you do it," he said. Lessons pay off for Rams By Herbert L. White THE CHARLOTTE POST A little experience has gone a long way for Harding's Rams. The Rams used a fourth- quarter rally Tuesday to beat Providence 76-64 in the first round of the N.C. 4A boys' bas ketball regionals. Harding (21- 4), which lost to East Mecklenburg last season in the western semifinals, plays Asheville Reynolds today at 8 p.m. at East Burke. "They've been in close ball games,” Harding coach Gosnell White said. “A lot of these guys played on the team last year and played a lot, so when the game got tight, they knew we had to score, espe cially our leaders. They made sure we got good shots and good looks at the basket." The best looks were made by senior guard William McNair, who drilled home 21 points against the Panthers, includ ing nine in the last five min utes. Remembering last year's disappointment, the Rams weren't about to let a Providence team they'd swept in regular season play knock them out. The thought was too close to run from. "They were ready. They were well-prepared to win," White said. "Those are the worst ones (to try to win). We lost the sec tional final to a team we swept last year. I tried not to men tion it, but it was in the back of my mind." Harding also had to shake off an upset loss to West See HARDING Page 11B Providence’s Chris Rogers drives around Harding’s Jerrold Woods (23) in the first round of the N.C. 4A basket ball playoffs. Harding won 76- 64 to advance to the second round today at East Burke. m. PHOTO/WADE NASH Ahmed Evans, a CIAA all-rookie team selection at forward, is part of Johnson C. Smith’s nucle us for returning the program to national prominence. The Golden Bulls finished 11-16 this sea son after a run of three NCAA playoff appearances and time in Division ll’s top 20. Smith looks to 1997 By Herbert L. White THE CHARLOTTE POST Johnson C. Smith's basket ball team will be markedly dif ferent next season, and coach Steve Jo5mer can't wait. The Golden Bulls, who fin ished the season at 11-16, had a down season filled with inconsistent play. With some of the best players in school his tory gone, Joyner had to get by with a team that was short on experience and emotional toughness. "Every coach makes a realis tic evaluation of his team going into the season," he said. "We had reached a point where we had cycled through our best players without bringing in people to replace them." Smith return two key players in forwards Ahmed Evans and Alex Thompson as well as point guard Erasto Hatchett. Evans, a CIAA all-rookie selec tion, and Thompson, an all conference pick, give the Bulls experience and potent inside scoring. They’ll be the building blocks to the future. "We think we've got the nucleus to build a team around," Joyner said. "But we certainly have to have a good recruiting year." Smith, which hadn't been able to replenish its talent pool while the Bulls were winning big, has a head start on rebuilding with three high school teammates - Warrick Scott, Girard Foster and Rashard Wall of Martinsville, Va. Scott, a 6-4 guard-forward See SMITH Page 11B That, of course, doesn't apply to the Jets. Or the Cardinals. Or the Panthers and Jaguars. But they're throwing money aroimd. The Jets have spent $52 mil lion spread over five years for O'Donnell, plus tackles David Williams and Jumbo Elliott to protect him. They're all risks - O’Donnell may only be as good as his supporting cast; Elliott has a back problem and Williams' wife might give birth again on game day. But for the time being, the Jets are better, meaning they may double their win total next season. They get even better if they use the first pick on the draft on Keyshawn Johnson, the USC receiver who's the latest “next Jerry Rice." Arizona's coup was keeping its' two best players, defensive tackle Eric Swann, who was made the franchise player, and comerback Aeneas Williams, who could find no one else will ing to give him a $6 milhon signing bonus. Then they added Lomas Brown, probably the best left tackle on the market, for $9 million over three years, a safer deal than the $14.8 mil lion over five the Jets gave Elliott. But the most impressive signings may have been by the expansion teams. In fact, other teams are suggesting that the NFL take away the extra draft picks Carolina and Jacksonville get this year because they already have extra money to sp>end on free agents. Carolina, whose seven wins last season were three more than any expansion team, is continuing its policy of staying respectable with veterans. So See FREE AGENTS Page 11B Negro League serves as fan’s field of dreams THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - When Bob Hayden returned home to Huntsville from 'Vietnam and serving on President John F. Kennedy's Honor Guard, he taught school for 22 years. He now lays bricks for a Shelbyville construction company. His free time though is spent researching the history of the Negro Baseball League and seeking information about the old players who survive. Hayden has spent most of his spare time over the past two years to this cause. His tongue spills off the names of baseball greats as swiftly as a cunning base stealer, identifying the histories of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson with researched pride. But there are many other names in Hayden's catalog of greats - Henry Kimbro, Buck O'Neill, Cool “Papa" Bell, Satchel Paige - players who might have earned riches and glory except for their chance of birth. They were black men in a white man's world, shunned from prosperity because of the color of their skin. Yet even though these players never gained the glory of the Aarons and the Robinsons, they were, in Hayden's book, equally deserving of the fame that eluded them. Hayden grew up haunting the Huntsville sandlots where he got the chance to see many of the early black ballplayers, including those who later were among the first to break the barrier of seg regation. “The Negro League had teams in Indianapolis, Chicago, Louisville, Nashville and Birmingham," he remembers. “Huntsville didn't have a team, but because of the way they trav eled, segregation, they had no place (motels) to stay. “So they'd buy gas in Nashville, stop to play in Huntsville and stay overnight in different homes," he says. See NEGRO LEAGUE Page 12B Magic passes on Olympic hoop dream THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Magic Johnson removed himself Sunday from consideration for a spot on the U.S. Olympic basketball team, saying the schedule is too grueling. “I've been wrestling with it, you know?" Johnson told NBC-TV. “I really wanted to do it, and then when I saw that schedule and I saw, damn, when is my time going to be with the family, for myself to recuperate to be ready for next season?" Johnson, a member of the original Dream Team at the 1992 Ol5mpics, returned to the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 31. He had retired in 1991 after learning he has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Fans have been clamoring for Johnson, 36, to be named to the so- called Dream Team III, which will compete at the Summer Games in Atlemta. Johnson said the Olympic training schedule, coupled with his business and Lakers commitments, would prevent him from spending time with his family and taking them on trips to Hawaii and Europe. “I want to step back," Johnson said in the interview before the Lakers played the Houston Rockets. “It would be too much because of my family commitments."
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 7, 1996, edition 1
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