When the Bucks Dealt Jabbar (Part VI)

In the second season of Chamberlain's retirement, there was little life in the Lakers. They finished 30-52 in 1974-75, their last year before Abdul-Jabbar, and their worst record since they came to the city from Minneapolis for the 1960-61 season.

But there was something the Lakers had, something that had already caught the attention of the Bucks, who finished last in the Midwest Division at 38-44 in their first season without Oscar Robertson.

The Lakers had two first-round draft choices. They had a rookie guard named Brian Winters, they had a 7-1, three-year veteran center named Elmore Smith. Because of Cooke's fortune, they also had cash.

Almost immediately, the Lakers moved to the head of the class. Contrary to appearances, the Lakers were there from the beginning, according to Alverson.

"They were always our target," he said. "The Lakers were at the top of our shopping list, but we didn't try them until late in the game. Then we were play-acting. We were trying to give the impression we had a lot of possibilities with other clubs."

This was not true. The first team to drop out was the Bullets. Abdul-Jabbar said that he never seriously considered them, but that if he had, he would have quickly forgotten them after several people were murdered in a house he owned in Washington. The people slain were Muslims, followers of Abdul-Jabbar's former teacher.

"It wasn't that I didn't feel secure there, I just was moving away from dealing with those people and I didn't see any need to end up right in the middle of the city with those people," he said.

That left the Knicks and possibly the Atlanta Hawks, who may have had an outside chance. In the spring, there was a rumor of a three-way deal among the Knicks, Hawks and Bucks, but Alverson quashed it as soon as it came out. The deal would have sent Atlanta's Lou Hudson and the Knicks' Walt Frazier and John Gianelli to the Bucks, who would then have traded Abdul-Jabbar to the Knicks and given $1 million to the Hawks.

This was a preposterous trade rumor. In fact, the only player the Bucks liked who was offered by the Hawks was John Drew, but one player surely was too little. Embry also said that the Knicks really didn't have enough to offer, either. Both Frazier and Earl Monroe were offered, but they were both over 30. The Knicks also offered cash.

Pete Newell, then the general manager of the Lakers, had been talking to Embry for weeks about getting Abdul-Jabbar. Cooke had issued explicit instructions to come up with a new center to replace Smith, a talented defensive player with limited offensive skills.

There was one player the Lakers had their eye on - Bill Walton. But Newell said that Cooke was not particularly pleased with Walton's lifestyle or his politics.

Cooke was asked whether he would have traded for Walton instead of Abdul-Jabbar.

"I would have had to be somewhat awry in the noodle," said Cooke.

Newell felt all along the Lakers had more to offer the Bucks than any other team. And even though Milwaukee knew that, the Bucks continued to play hard to get.

"Kareem could go to Europe for a year and then be a free agent - this is what I was telling Wayne," Newell said. "If he goes to Europe, you'll get nothing."

The trade that brought Kareem to the Lakers was put together at the United Airlines Red Carpet Club at Denver's Stapleton Airport. It took four hours and a lot of haggling, much of it over the one player the Lakers wanted to keep and the Bucks would not make the deal without, and that was Winters.

Embry and Alverson represented the Bucks, with Rothenberg, Newell and Jim Lacher, Lakers vice president-treasurer, negotiating for Cooke.

"There were no secrets anymore," Rothenberg said. "They knew we were willing to give up the entire roster for Kareem. We were trying to convince them to take (Gail) Goodrich and keep Brian Winters. They didn't want any part of Goodrich. He was older (32) and they just didn't like him very much."

Rothenberg had to agree to give the Bucks both of the Lakers' first-round draft choices. Milwaukee designated whom the Lakers would draft, Meyers and then Bridgeman. Part of the agreement was a kind of allowance that the Bucks gave the Lakers to sign the two draft picks.

In addition, the Lakers agreed to include Winters. The Lakers also agreed to pay the Bucks a total of $800,000 on the following payment schedule, according to contract documents: $250,000 on Dec. 1, 1975; $250,000 on May 1, 1977, and $100,000 on May 1 of each of the next three years.

Although the trade had basically been agreed to, it would still be nearly a month before it was signed and announced to the public.

Both Bridgeman and Meyers are out of basketball. Bridgeman, who owns a fast-food franchise in New York along with former NBA star Paul Silas, is also a color commentator on the Clippers' television games. Meyers lives in Southern California. He is a substitute teacher in an elementary school.

Winters is in his second year as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Smith lives in Cleveland, and he has not gone to an NBA game since he retired in 1981after his eighth knee operation. He still receives a deferred salary from his NBA days. Smith is a door-to-door minister spreading the word of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the Cleveland area.