Locked-out NBA forward Joe Wolf visits Yale

In 1987, Joe Wolf was a first round NBA draft pick--10 NBA seasons later, he's still on the basketball scene. Indeed, Wolf should be in the midst of preseason right now. Yet somehow he found time on Wed., Oct. 28, to speak at a Master's Tea in Calhoun.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Denver Nugget Joe Wolf told students about the big business of basketball at a Calhoun Master's Tea on Wed., Oct. 28.

Wolf has had a fair amount of time on his hands recently. The NBA owners have locked out their players since July 1 because of labor disputes. The first month of regular season play has been cancelled with no end to the stoppage in sight. As a veteran of the league, Wolf has come to realize that "[the NBA] is a lot of fun, but the first thing is, you have to learn it's a business."

He didn't always see basketball that way. Born in Kohler, Wis., as the youngest of seven children, basketball was just a game for Wolf. As a little boy, Wolf had his dreams set on making it to the NBA, but not simply concentrate on his athletics. Wolf excelled in high school and was a member of the National Honor Society. He also won three state basketball championships. "With that recognition of being a National Honor Society member to winning three state tournaments, I got a lot of acclaim...and got over 250 scholarships offered to me my senior year," Wolf said.

He ultimately chose to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as had his brother Jeff before him. The 6'-11" Wolf excelled there. "Not only did I have to practice against skilled people...but I also got to learn from coach [Dean] Smith," Wolf said.

Wolf emphasized that Smith taught his players more than just basketball. "Every day was a learning experience.... At North Carolina, Coach Smith prepared me for [life] in interesting ways." Wolf added that Smith's players had a 99 percent graduation rate.

After four years at North Carolina, Wolf achieved his boyhood dream when the Los Angeles Clippers drafted him at No. 13 overall in the 1987 draft. Since then, Wolf has spent time with eight teams, been cut, and played a year in Spain so he could continue to play the game he loves.

Along the line, Wolf learned that the NBA is not just about fun and games." If you don't learn that, then you get hurt early," Wolf said.

Wolf learned this lesson in the beginning of the 1992 season when he signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Boston Celtics. "Kevin McHale was thinking about retiring and at that point Kevin and I played the same position...and Boston liked what I could do," Wolf recounted. "So we're at Brandeis University and I get out there and I'm warming up and I notice that nobody else is coming out on the floor. What happened was at that point that Kevin decided he wasn't going to retire and all the guys who had been my buddies didn't want to come out and let me know that I was going to get cut."

After getting cut, Wolf realized that the NBA was not just a sport, but also a business. And this is how he and many others in the league view the most recent labor dispute--as merely a business matter. Wolf explained that there were three main issues at stake. "The biggest issue is that if you have a pie this big, and that's what the NBA is, then how do you want to split it... Then you got the rookies, how much are we going to give them, and then we got our Larry Bird rights, and do we get to keep them." Wolf is referring to the Larry Bird exception, which allows teams to re-sign veteran players without having the contract count towards the cap.

Wolf noted that neither side has been willing to give an inch on the issues, which is why little has been resolved. "We won't get anything done until somebody makes a first move, and I don't think the players and the union are strong enough to make that move," he said. "They have to see something from the owners that says, `Okay, now they're willing to negotiate.' [This is] just because our union really just got strong last year.... I can't speak for the owners."

Wolf said he believes that the few teams in the league who neither make moneynor are competitive are hurting because of their own poor management and not by the fault of the previous labor agreement. He cited the Clippers as an example of a team which has done poorly because of mismanagement. According to Wolf, Clippers management spent only $21 million last year on its players' contracts even though the salary cap allowed for $26 million. He pointed out that Michael Jordan alone, because of the Larry Bird rule, was paid $36 million last year by the Chicago Bulls. He added that small-market teams can be competitive and retain big-name players, and cited the San Antonio Spurs and David Robinson as an example.

Wolf, who will be a free agent when the labor dispute is settled, played last year with the Denver Nuggets. He would prefer to return to Denver, but, now, his future is uncertain.

Whatever Wolf ends up doing this year, he's well-prepared from his time with coach Smith, when he said he "really started to learn about what it is to take the time out to think about what you want in life." When he left college, what he wanted in life was to play basketball. Yet now he may have to move on to another business. He owns a Dairy Queen in Wisconsin,along with other business ventures, and plans to start another Dairy Queen in a different city. Or, if all else fails, he could return to his acting career--he made a cameo in Eddie, a movie starring Whoopi Goldberg.

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