The incidents grow in number and notoriety: football players charged with murder, Darryl Strawberry failing yet another drug test, Dennis Rodman’s ongoing performance as a pathetic fool.
And so in the wake of another legal hassle for Charlotte’s Anthony Mason, arrested and charged with assault early yesterday for a nightclub brawl, members of the Nets brass were thankful for their cast of players, thankful for the “good guys,” as Don Casey called them, thankful for the good guys such as Kendall Gill.
And it was the character – as much as his last year contract status and steady numbers – that made keeping Gill beyond the trading deadline so easy.
Numerous teams inquired with genuine interest. Some wanted that contract for salary-cap purposes. Many wanted the double-figure point production and the defensive prowess that includes a 2.00 steals average. The Nets wanted to keep all that. And something more.
“One of the reasons we didn’t trade Kendall is he’s a good player and he’s as professional a player as I’ve ever been associated with,” said Nets GM John Nash. “And I know he had some difficulties in Charlotte and Seattle. I came to New Jersey four years ago with negative pre-conceived notions about Kendall Gill, and all of those have been erased.
“And I’m not blowing smoke,” Nash continued, “when I say of all the players I’ve ever been associated with, he ranks in the top five in terms of being a true professional on and off the floor.”
And so Gill stayed where he wanted to be. He lives in Manhattan and loves playing for the Nets. When he first arrived, he came with all that rumored baggage that Nash alluded to, baggage that it took anyone with working brain cells a few moments to figure out didn’t exist.
“I think I got a bad rep by being a nice guy by not speaking up for myself when I needed to speak up,” Gill said before the Nets encountered the troubled Charlotte Hornets at the Meadowlands. “When a crisis arrived, I’d say, ‘Maybe it will go away’ instead of dealing with it and I held all those things inside.
“Like when they said me, Zo [(Alonzo Mourning] and Larry [Johnson] didn’t get along. We all got along,” continued Gill, leveling his sights on Hornets’ owner George Shinn.
“Down there, George Shinn – and we all know where he is now – to me he’s a big hypocrite and I can say that because everybody sees it with him dealing with his legal mess down there and everything – I didn’t sign a contract with Charlotte because I wanted to wait and let my free agency take effect in the summer but the Hornets wanted me to sign during the year so they could lock me up for a long time at a lesser price. I wouldn’t do it and then all the propaganda against me was negative. I couldn’t win for losing.”
Gill was traded away from the Hornets to the Sonics and found that it was even worse in Seattle. The lifestyle of the Pacific northwest was unlike anything he knew. And he and coach George Karl clashed.
“I really didn’t want to go to Seattle. I wanted to stay in Charlotte. It was so far from my home, so far from what I was used to,” Gill said. “It was a great team and I enjoyed playing on the team but it just was not in my element. And I did not like George Karl. And when I came here, it was a whole new start for me and everybody got to see the real me. I was never any of those things the people said.”
And the Nets realize that more and more. Gill had been a steadying influence and he has proven it repeatedly. By willingly stepping back from being a prime scorer into a secondary offensive role under John Calipari. By abandoning his two-guard spot to play small forward. By happily going back to two-guard this year, only to be moved by necessity again to forward. Being rumored in trade after trade for several years.
“It’s an everyday thing with Kendall,” Don Casey praised. “In a very quiet way, he goes around and does his business. He has a great anticipation on defense and he’s a gamer. He may be off some nights but he’s a gamer and when he sits he doesn’t complain. He’s a true professional and a good guy. He’d old school, a quiet warrior.”
And guys like Gill are good for the league. He usually sympathizes with any and all misfortunes, but he drew a line with Strawberry.
“I get angry when I see something like Darryl Strawberry fail another drug test because I idolized [him] growing up because I was a baseball player, too, and to see him have so many opportunities and to see him keep doing it after you get chance after chance, you can’t feel sorry for the guy any more,” Gill said.
“If trouble keeps following him maybe it’s not following him. Maybe he’s looking for it.”
