Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110167
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL VENTRE LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: INGLEWOOD, CALIF. LENGTH: Long
They dream about the old days, when the club was winning championships and Rambis was leading the league in floor burns. Legions of the Rambis Youth - well, maybe not legions - used to come to the Forum in their yellow shirts and their black horn-rimmed glasses to pay homage to a work-ethic icon.
Those days are gone. The Rambis Youth has disbanded.
"I've seen a couple of guys with canes and glasses on," Rambis said with a deadpan expression. "They're all graduated from college. They've got jobs.
"One thing about Rambis Youth, they were all smart. I think they're all heads of companies now. I might have to go begging for a job. I'll be a Rambis Youth youth now."
Actually, right now he's a Sun, having arrived in Phoenix by way of Charlotte, N.C.
Rambis recalled the day of Dec. 18, when the Hornets' brass told him he had been traded to Phoenix for Armon Gilliam.
"I guess in the back of my mind I thought I might be traded at the end of the first season," said Rambis, who played on the Forum floor again Thursday night as a starting power forward when his Suns took a 1-0 series lead into Game 2 against the Lakers.
"But I never really thought it would happen. So when they pulled me in and told me I was traded, I kind of hung my head and said, `Oh, no way!' We had just moved there. We had a house. I'm thinking, `How is this gonna disrupt my family?'
"So then I finally asked them, `All right, where did I get traded to?' And I still have my head down. They said, `Phoenix.' And a smile went [he makes a squeaking sound] all over my face. But I kept my head down. I just said, `Oh, Phoenix. Oh well, take it easy. Goodbye. Good luck to you guys.' I left and shut the door. Walked out in the hallway and went, `Yeah!' "
The Suns, meanwhile, made a similar noise. They had been amassing talent - point guard Kevin Johnson and high-scoring forward Tom Chambers, to name two - but they lacked leadership. Enter Rambis.
"He's brought a great deal to us," said Cotton Fitzsimmons, the Phoenix coach. "First of all, he brings that vast amount of experience that he's had in the NBA. He also brings a vast amount of experience in winning championships. That was very important to our team. We have a very young team. People forget that. We wanted somebody who's been through it. That's why we went after him."
Forward Dan Majerle, in his second year out of Central Michigan, is one of the Suns' youngsters who looks at Rambis and sees more than a guy with glasses.
"He has the championship rings, he knows how to win, and he knows what it feels like to be in a playoff situation," Majerle said. "He's an inspiration to our team just because of what he's done for our team. I know he has a great reputation around the league, but he came in and has done the little things that were needed to be done - rebound and play defense. He earned our respect as soon as he walked onto our team."
Rambis' days in Charlotte - he signed with the Hornets as an unrestricted free agent on July 28, 1988 - weren't exactly miserable. There is something to be said for an expansion team in virgin NBA territory.
"The first year was fun," he said. "We led the league in attendance, so it was fun to play at home. The city was excited about us. We won more games than anyone projected that we would win.
"Then the next year, they traded a whole bunch of guys. They got rid of some good guys and got some not-so-good guys. The owner started saying, `Well, we won 20 games last year and we're gonna win 35 this year!' Just saying stupid, ridiculous things. It stopped being fun. And in that situation, when it stopped being fun, then the losing became just unbearable. It was just this monkey that was growing by geometric progressions on your back."
Rambis had packed his family - wife, Linda, and the real Rambis youth, sons Jesse, now 4, and Jordan, who turns 2 in August - and headed for Charlotte because the Hornets were offering a lucrative four-year contract. (He still has two years left after this one.) But more important, they offered regular work.
Rambis the Sun now finds himself on enemy turf, trying to upend a Lakers juggernaut he helped create. "They've been in this situation so many times and they've seen so many things defensively that they know exactly what to do," he said of his former teammates. "They've seen all the gimmicks and countered them, and countered them well.
"Their confidence is so high, they've been in so many tough situations and gotten out of them that they just never think anyone at any time is going to beat them."
When he was in LA full time, Rambis dabbled in sportscasting, doing feature reports and substituting for the station's main sports anchor. He is looking for a similar gig in Phoenix.
"They came to my house to do one of those things on a typical day at the Rambis home," he said.
It was one of those pieces in which we get to see the celebrity coexist blissfully with his wife and kids.
"I said, `Linda, honey, could you fix me a sandwich for lunch?' She yelled, `Get it yourself!'
"Then they asked my son, `Who's your favorite basketball player,' expecting him to say me. He said, `Magic Johnson.' "
Although Kurt Rambis has moved around, some things never change.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB