9.30.2018

Moses to Philly? No Biggie, Says Bob Ryan

9/5/82

Moses to Philly? No Biggie, Says Bob Ryan

Please don't panic. Moses Malone going to Philadelphia will not make the Sixers a 70-12 team. It will not make them a guaranteed playoff champion. It won't even insure that the Spectrum seats will be filled, because Malone is among the least artistically fulfilling of all front-rank basketball players, as Philadelphia owner Harold Katz will soon find out.



Nobody ever crossed the street to see a man retrieve his own missed shot, which happens to be the thing Malone does best. There is no denying that Malone is the finest offensive rebounder in history, and that his strengths are of such magnitude to transcend his numerous failings and make him a force in the game. But he is being terribly overrated monetarily, to the detriment of Houston, Philadelphia and any team which must negotiate with a star of its own in the near future, Boston (Kevin McHale and Larry Bird) being the prime examples.

Many people contend that Malone will never play a game for the 76ers. Houston general manager Ray Patterson has already indicated that the Rockets will match the Philadelphia offer and then offer to trade Malone to the Sixers for, say, Caldwell Jones, Bobby Jones and cash. Would the image-conscious Katz decide he'd be better off forgetting about Malone, in that case, or better off bringing in Malone and restructuring the team. Incidentally, it really doesn't make much difference how the team is structured around Malone, since he can't do a solitary thing to help anyone else on the basketball floor, anyway.

I'll say this about Moses: He's better than Darryl Dawkins. In the last four seasons, Dawkins gave the 76ers 27 minutes, 13 points and 6 rebounds a game, figures that hardly warrant the shedding of any Philadelphia tears over his departure. It has long been obvious that he is more concerned with his own style than with any substance, and that if he were ever going to become anything more than a People Magazine idea of an NBA center, he would have to leave Philadelphia and resume his career elsewhere. He never went to college, but now he'll have the chance at Larry Brown's Rah-Rah University campus in East Rutherford. Maybe a collegiate approach will stimulate the personally lovable - but professionally juvenile - Dawkins.

Back to Malone for a moment. Do root for him to wind up in Philadelphia. There is nothing much for a Boston fan to be afraid of from a win-loss standpoint, and bringing him to Sixerland would mean the introduction into the Boston-Philadelphia rivalry of the most villainous rooting figure since Wilt Chamberlain. Malone is no fun to root for, but he's a delight to root against. If you've got any kind of theatrical bent, you want him here three times in a Sixers uniform next year (plus playoffs), rather than once in a Rocket outfit.

That's a nice team they're putting together in Salt Lake City. Adrian Dantley, Darrell Griffith, John Drew and Freeman Williams will constitute a nice, sound, selfless, cerebral unit, won't it? No one knows exactly how good Dominique Wilkins will become, but he won't have to progress very far to be a better pro forward than John Drew, one of the worst clutch players in basketball . . . Atlanta could be constructing a sensational team, one that could go a long way if someone could ever figure out how to keep Tree Rollins in the game for 30 minutes a night . . . Dan Roundfield, the great power forward, confesses that his boyhood ambition was to become the Detroit Tigers' center fielder. The oft-injured Roundfield was asked how he would avoid getting hurt sliding. "If you hit 'em far enough," he said, "you don't ever have to slide." . . . Bill Walton has not yet announced a formal comeback attempt with the Clippers, or anyone else, since he has been stung before. What he has fantasized about is a 20- or 25-game season with someone.

Far too little mention was made in the local sports pages when Weldon Haire passed away last month at the age of 65. Weldon is an everlasting part of the great Celtics tradition, having been the long-time public address announcer for the team. He had a rich voice and a superb Boston accent that let the world know that these were indeed the Bah-stun Celtics. Only Weldon could take Archie Clark and turn his name into Occhie Clock. With all due respect to his successors, none have mastered the tricky art of making themselves a key part of the Garden basketball experience as did Weldon Haire, who spent the last several years of his life handling the Bruins PA chores as well . . . Oh, goody-goody. The Nets will have cheerleaders this season. You can bet the Celtics will have cheerleaders, and a stir-'em-up organist, the same day that Barney Frank joins the Reagan cabinet.

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