In Sund, Sonics get shrewd executive
 |
|
||||||||||
Rick Sund, a football and basketball player at Northwestern, wanted to chase his hoop dreams after graduating in 1972.
A Milwaukee Bucks scout had invited him for a tryout. But Sund's graduate scholarship to Ohio University would have been revoked because of NCAA rules.
And being more of an All-Academic type than an All-American during his college career, the 6-foot-4 guard chose the free classes.
"I didn't want to lose my scholarship if I didn't make the team," recalled Sund, who obtained a Master's degree in sports administration at Ohio. "So I said, `I'm not sure I want to do this.' "
A year later, Sund found himself in Milwaukee's front office - as an intern.
Now Sund - the Sonics' new general manager - is in the midst of an NBA career more prolonged than he ever imagined.
After more than two decades as an NBA executive, the 50-year-old Sund - married with two children - is extremely well-connected in the league.
"He's very unique," said Tom Wilson, president of the Pistons, where Sund worked the past six seasons as executive vice president. "He started so young, and I think that's one of the things that gave him perspective."
Sund was hired full time as a Bucks administrative assistant by Wayne Embry, the first black general manager in sports history. Embry served as a mentor to Sund, doling out a variety of duties during a time the league wasn't a big business.
"I insisted that he learn all phases of the operation," Embry said, "which he gladly did."
Because teams had only one assistant and a head coach, Sund scouted college players.
He typed game notes and gathered statistics for the Elias Bureau.
"We did the statistics by phone," Sund said, chuckling. "We didn't have faxes."
Without a sophisticated video system, Sund spliced film with Embry and Don Nelson.
"We'd put them up on hangers," Sund remembered. "Hang them down and then put them together."
And Sund occasionally satisfied his basketball urges by practicing with the team. For those vast duties, Embry paid Sund about $12,000 annually.
"I laugh at how the hell we both survived," said Embry, a consultant with the Cavaliers after 13 years as a GM. "I was making $32,000 a year and I paid him $12,000. He's doing a little better than that now."
Sund - who signed a four-year contract with Seattle - no longer has to deal with menial tasks.
His job is challenging for a franchise that has missed the playoffs two of the past three seasons.
Decisions will be made by consensus among Owner Howard Schultz, Coach Nate McMillan, President Wally Walker and Sund. But Walker - whose elevation to CEO created an opening for GM - has final say on basketball moves.
Sund is familiar with such hierarchies: In Detroit, president and coach Doug Collins could nix Sund's recommendations. And in Dallas, where Sund was an executive for 14 years starting in 1980, Owner Donald Carter and President Norm Sonju were part of the decision-making process.
Sund is well regarded in the league for his ability to work with varied personalities and his long-range thinking.
In 1997, Detroit traded forward Otis Thorpe to the Vancouver Grizzlies for a future first-round pick. Sund added a wrinkle: The Grizzlies had until June 1, 2001, to decide whether to give Detroit their pick, which ended up being No. 6 this year.
The date seemed innocuous except that it didn't give teams enough time to evaluate the June 27 draft. And Vancouver had trouble obtaining a lower, first-round pick to give Detroit by the deadline.
Now, the foundering Grizzlies must give Detroit their first-round pick next year unless it's in the top five, or pass it along in 2003 providing it's not No. 1 overall.
"A lot of guys wouldn't make a deal like that," Wilson said. "He's very creative. Sometimes he thinks way outside the box like that."
For all of Sund's creativity with league rules, NBA executives still talk of his people skills and honesty in a business where spin and deception seem prevalent.
"If you called and talked about players on (Sund's) team, he was always very candid," said Lakers great Jerry West, a consultant after retiring as president last summer. "And in making a trade, it's always buyer beware.
"But people who are not forthcoming, sooner or later can't make deals. And it makes it very difficult to operate in this league unless you have cooperation with players, agents and other general managers, which Rick has."
Wilson said: "You know that if you're getting an opinion, that's what (Sund) honestly feels. He's not going to stroke you, and when you leave the room start rolling his eyes. I can't tell you how rare that is."
Sund got a rare break in 1979.
Dallas needed a GM for its expansion franchise. And Milwaukee's ambitious scout, Sund, asked Embry to set up an interview.
Soon, Sund became the youngest personnel director in the NBA at age 27.
The Mavericks became a model expansion team by improving almost every season from 1980 to 1988, when Dallas reached the Western Conference finals before losing to the Lakers.
Dallas' remarkable ascent - winning 43 games in its fourth season - came mainly because of Sund's shrewd tactic: trading players from the expansion draft for future picks.
The young GM found a partner in Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien. Starting in 1980, the Mavericks traded scrubs like Mike Bratz, Jerome Whitehead, Richard Washington and Geoff Houston for first-round picks from 1983 to 1986. The selections produced Derek Harper, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf and Roy Tarpley. With Mark Aguirre, drafted No. 1 in 1981, Dallas soon became one of the West's best teams.
"What Rick did with Cleveland, he ought to be arrested for," one-time Mavericks Coach Dick Motta said in 1984. "There will never be anything like that again."
Indeed, because of Sund's fleecing of the Cavaliers, the NBA soon instilled the rule - dubbed the "Stepien Rule" or "Sund Rule" - that teams can't trade first-round picks in consecutive years.
Dallas' fortunes began slipping in 1989 after Aguirre, who feuded with his coaches, requested a trade. The perennial All-Star was dealt to Detroit in February of '89.
The following season, the Mavericks traded two No. 1 picks for Fat Lever and Rodney McCray. Dallas hoped that the veterans would make it a championship contender again. Instead, both players were injured early in a season that ended with 54 losses.
Tarpley was banned from the NBA in November 1991 for drug use. Knee ailments caused Lever to miss the final 41 games. And the aging Mavericks finished the season with only 22 victories.
In the summer of 1992, ownership instructed Sund to rebuild the team with youth. McCray and Rolando Blackman were traded for No. 1 picks. From 1992 to 1994, Dallas had the worst two-year record in NBA history - essentially by design - with an average of 12 victories.
Sund was fired as personnel director on April 1994 partly because of his decision to hire Quinn Buckner as coach that season. Buckner - who hadn't coached on any level - was brought in to guide the team's young players. Instead, he alienated them with an iron-fisted rule.
Buckner was canned after one season with four years left on his contract. Still, when Sund left Dallas, the club had a promising nucleus of Jimmy Jackson, Jamal Mashburn and Jason Kidd, plus seven first-round picks over the next four years.
"When I look at Dallas," West said, "I think their frustration at not being able to catch the Lakers made them take some bold steps. And they were in good shape when Rick left."
Thus, Sund had no problem finding work.
He was hired as a consultant with the Sonics in 1994. And in just one season with Seattle, he made an impression on Walker. In 1995, Seattle lost in the first round for the second straight season. The media and fans called for wholesale changes.
"Rick was a great advisor," Walker said. "His inclination was to try to fine-tune it some and keep the core together. And it turned out to be the right decision."
Walker didn't fire George Karl and instead tweaked a team that went to the 1996 Finals. After Collins was hired by Detroit in 1995, he brought in Sund. Detroit's decision was cemented after its management interviewed the former Mavericks owner.
"Don Carter told our owner, `You have a hell of a guy,' " Wilson said. "He said, `If we'd have listened to Rick more, we would have been in much better shape.' "
Before Collins and Sund came aboard, the Pistons finished at 28-54. Detroit soon underwent a remarkable turnaround helped by making smart draft choices such as Jerome Williams with the 28th pick in the 1996 draft: Detroit was 46-36 during the 1995-96 season and 54-28 the following season.
But the Pistons never went beyond the first round. And instead of becoming an elite team, it regressed during the 97-98 season before struggling after All-Star Grant Hill left last summer for Orlando.
Perhaps Sund's worst move was giving Loy Vaught a five-year, $23 million contract in 1999. The power forward became a benchwarmer with back problems.
Sund has also been criticized in Detroit for dealing Theo Ratliff and Aaron McKie to Philadelphia for Jerry Stackhouse on Dec. 18, 1997. Although Stackhouse is one of the league's best guards, the decision has been second-guessed because Ratliff became an All-Star-caliber player last season and McKie was Sixth Man of the Year.
But the decision is an example of how a general manager can be blamed despite being overruled.
"He fought with Doug on it," Wilson said. "Ultimately that was Doug's call. (Sund) was totally against the deal and in favor of keeping Theo."
Collins was fired during the 1997-98 season, in which Detroit finished 37-45. But Detroit showed its faith in Sund by giving him a two-year extension through 2003.
Although Detroit struggled last season (32-50), Sund's maneuvering leaves the Pistons roughly $15 million under the salary cap. Now, Detroit is in a position to bid for a star like Sacramento's Chris Webber or Philadelphia's Dikembe Mutombo.
"We're going to reap the rewards for that this year," Wilson said.
Sund's NBA career has stretched for more than 20 years because of his ability to work well with people and his knack for making prudent moves.
No decision by Rick Sund had more of an impact than his first NBA decision in 1972.
"If I would have made the league, I would have been a fringe player," Sund admitted. "Thank god I didn't (try out)."
Nunyo Demasio can be reached at 206-515-5699 or ndemasio@seattletimes.com.