NBA Salary Capper: Rich King To Europe?

For Bob Whitsitt, it makes sense.

"A rookie can no longer figure he's set for life without proving he can play," said the president of the Seattle SuperSonics. "In many ways, we're going back to the old days."

For Rich King, sitting in a Los Angeles hotel room, it is devastating.

"I didn't grow up wanting to play in Milan or Bologna," said the 7-foot-2 center from the University of Nebraska. "I grew up wanting to play in the NBA.

"But I may have to play overseas this year."

King assumed he would be taken in the middle of the first round of the NBA draft. When the Sonics picked him No. 14, King was well aware that the No. 14 pick a year before, Travis Mays, was given a $1 million salary to sign with the Sacramento Kings.

"Money just wasn't that important to me," said King, "I just didn't want to worry about it. What I wanted to worry about was playing."

The money, of course, would take care of itself.

A funny thing happened on the way to the bank. The Sonics won't pay King $1 million a year. They can't. Their offer is $180,000, the minimum first-round rookie contract.

A year ago, the Sonics gave rookie Gary Payton $2 million. Shawn Kemp signed a six-year contract for $3.5 million not only before he played a game for the Sonics, but without playing a minute of college basketball.

"Rookie salaries went crazy," Whitsitt said, "and some players benefited from it."

The standard of sanity in the NBA is the salary cap. It limits salaries to 53 percent of gross revenues. It is wonderful. To everyone but this year's crop of rookies.

"I don't know," said King, "I hate to feel like a victim of the system, but I do. I realize to most people $180,000 is a lot of money. I'd gladly play this year for free, if I knew the money was going to be there in the long run.

"But with injuries and things, I could play one year, and that's it. For a professional athlete, $180,000 isn't much of a career."

The Sonics are more than $1 million over the new annual limit of $12.5 million per team. They've given the money to Payton ($2 million), Benoit Benjamin ($3.5 million), and Ricky Pierce, Derrick McKey, Michael Cage and Eddie Johnson (each $1 million a year or more).

Whitsitt suggests King sign for one year and then become a restricted free agent next year. The Sonics then could go over the cap to re-sign him.

"Obviously, I don't want to play this year for that amount ($180,000)," said King. "If something can be worked out in Europe, where I can apparently make eight or nine times as much, I'd have to consider it."

King is in Los Angeles playing in the NBA's summer league because the Sonics agreed to pay for a two-week insurance policy protecting him against injury.

"I'm having fun being with the team. The only downside is how nice they make it sound in Seattle," he said. "Frank Furtado, the trainer, was telling me about the team plane. I said, `Stop Frank, you're depressing me.' I don't want to think about not being there."

The pressure on King will be whether to sign this month with a European team.

"I'd like to wait until camp opens to see if the Sonics can make a trade," King said, "but that might not be possible."

Whitsitt wants to lessen the demand for playing time - and team tension - by trading a guard, probably Dana Barros, who wants to leave. NBA rules would allow King to pick up the salary slot of any player traded.For example, King could get the $500,000 Barros is making. Moreover, Sedale Threatt is paid $675,000 and Nate McMillan $710,000. Any of the three could become expendable.

But just as the cap works against King and other rookies, it also works against the possibility of a trade. A team must be under the cap to take a Barros or Threatt or McMillan. Most can't.

"Last year," King said, "Derrick Coleman signed as a rookie for $3 million, a fourth of his team's salary cap. Now teams can't pay players what they're worth. It doesn't seem fair."

For the Sonics, the cap crackdown comes at a perfect time. A year ago, they couldn't afford to make a low offer to Payton and lose him to a European team. The Sonics needed him.

King is a bonus, a rookie backup center who could learn his trade in Europe, although the Sonics would rather see him play here.

No, it isn't fair that King gets one-tenth what Payton got. But it is right that a rookie earns his money. The old-fashioned way.

Blaine Newnham's column usually is published Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the Sports section of The Times.