Once again, Micheal Ray Richardson is being rehabilitated for drug abuse
–for the fourth time in less than three years and at a fourth site. In the understandable sympathy for the basketball player`s relapse, Lewis Schaffel, the New Jersey Nets` executive vice president, spoke about how ”there will always be a place” on the team for this 30-year-old playmaker, so talented and yet so troubled.”
But if the Nets hope to construct a National Basketball Association championship contender, it`s time the franchise rehabilitated itself by not having a place for Richardson.
Out of human understanding, the Nets` franchise has a responsibility to help Richardson escape from the daze of his drug problems. But the franchise also has a responsibility to its other players, its coach and its fans not to let the team`s future depend on whether Richardson happens to be more involved with cocaine than with basketball.
No matter how successful his treatment over the next few weeks in the Pasadena (Calif.) Community Hospital drug program, Richardson will remain a question mark in the real world and in the basketball world.
For all his basketball value to the Nets` franchise, Richardson is more trouble than he`s worth. His teammates shouldn`t have to wonder when he might disappear again, as he did over the weekend. His coach, Dave Wohl, shouldn`t have to wonder if he might be offended by criticism, thereby creating a depression that might lead to his seeking drugs. And the Nets` fans shouldn`t have to wonder if part of their price for a ticket will pay for drug treatment.
It`s time the Nets looked for a playmaker they can depend on. Not that any other NBA team would touch Richardson now. Maybe no other team will ever touch him, knowing that one more drug offense automatically would bar him from the NBA for at least two years, a virtual lifetime ban. But after his current treatment ends, or certainly before next season, the Nets should try to trade him. If no other team wants him, the Nets would be better off buying out his contract.
As long as the Nets tolerate the question mark named Micheal Ray Richardson, the team will suffer from the uncertainty of what might happen tomorrow. No matter how secure he appears.
Until he disappeared last weekend, Richardson had been leading the Nets in scoring with a 17.3 average. He ranked second in the NBA in steals and ninth in assists. After splitting two games in his absence, the Nets resume Friday night in Boston with a 20-13 record. They have been dueling the Philadelphia 76ers for second place in the Atlantic Division, a tribute to Dave Wohl, the rookie coach. But his coaching style may have unsettled Richardson.
In a Dec. 18 game with the Utah Jazz, which the Nets won 113-98, the coach yanked Richardson in the closing minutes for taking a scoop shot, hardly what the coach considered a good shot in that situation.
Richardson was annoyed at being benched. But as the coach, Wohl can`t be concerned about treating a player with a drug-related past any different than he would a player without a drug-related past. Wohl wanted Richardson to take fewer shots than in other seasons while creating more shots for his teammates. Micheal Ray seemed to understand the coach`s thinking, saying, ”I know I have to change my game.” And overall, he appeared to be thriving under the new coach.
Despite his performance and, according to the Nets, his having regularly been tested ”clean” from drugs, those who remembered Richardson`s previous problems were concerned over at least two incidents. On Nov. 11, he missed the Nets` plane to San Antonio, citing traffic problems; the next day, he arrived a few hours before the game. On Dec. 5, he was ejected from a game with the Detroit Pistons for slapping Rick Mahorn; he later was fined $50 by the NBA office.
In retrospect, perhaps those incidents reflected the start of Richardson`s return to drugs.
Stability has never been one of Richardson`s attributes. Including his early seasons with the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors, he has had six agents and reportedly has purchased at least 16 cars, once selling a Rolls-Royce only a few weeks after having purchased it. He once signed contracts to endorse three different basketball shoes.
Following the 1983 playoffs, he visited the Fair Oaks drug treatment center in Summit, N.J.; that summer he also was treated at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minn., and he later entered a program at Regent Hospital in New York City.
Now he`s off to the Pasadena center, where Walter Davis of the Phoenix Suns is undergoing treatment. Quintin Dailey of the Bulls and John Lucas of the Houston Rockets also were treated there recently. But no matter how effective the treatment is, the aftercare is even more important. Otherwise, a relapse might occur.
”Micheal Ray is not a problem child,” says Larry Doby, the Nets`
director of community affairs, ”he`s a child with a problem.”
Once baseball`s second black major leaguer and also its second black major league manager, Larry Doby has tried to help Richardson adjust to drug aftercare.
”Micheal Ray is easy to talk to about things,” Doby says, ”but it might not be on his schedule to accept it. You know that old saying, `If I knew then what I know now.` I don`t think he`s reached the stage where he knows yet. Some people take longer than others to know some things. Someday maybe he`ll know.”
But the Nets no longer can afford to wait until that someday arrives.
