PHILADELPHIA -- At 5-foot-9 1/4, Dana Barros is, by NBA standards, a little guy.
"I've been hearing that for 20 years," Barros said. "Funny thing about little guys, people always talk about the negatives they bring to the game, but the last five or six years every team has tried to get one for the problems they create.
"Everybody wants their own."
Still, Barros never really found a niche with Seattle during the first four seasons of his career. In two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, he emerged as just the seventh player in history under six feet to appear in an All-Star Game. Last season, he also became the league's Most Improved Player.
He also became an unrestricted free agent, parlaying that position in to a six-year contract with the Boston Celtics worth $20.9 million.
That said, it wasn't as if he wanted to leave. If anything, he wanted to stay, insisting that Sixers coach John Lucas had been "the first coach who let me be me."
But the Sixers were looking ahead to the end of this season, when they have positioned themselves to be $5 million to $6 million below the projected salary cap limit of $24 million. That is when some blue-chip players, including Gary Payton of Seattle, Reggie Miller of Indiana, Dikembe Mutombo of Denver and, yes, Michael Jordan of Chicago, become unrestricted. Plus, Lucas seemed to view Barros as an ideal third guard rather than as a huge money starter.
The Washington Bullets are believed to have offered Barros $15 million over five seasons. The Sixers offered $10 million over three but would not be drawn in to a bidding war. Barros felt he had no choice but to accept the Celtics' offer, which he said came "out of the blue."
That is called striking it rich.
"It's almost like I can't find the words," Barros said. "I was talking to Washington and Philly and, out of the blue, this came up.
(Because of the lockout that had been in effect since July 1) "I wasn't like a regular free agent who could take his time, visit a few cities, make a decision. Because of when the lockout ended, I had three or four days.
"It was a Monday when I met the different teams, told them to make an offer. Everybody knew I wanted to go back to Philly, but Philly was the only team that didn't make an offer then. They didn't till the next day, when I couldn't wait any more.
"(Sixers owner) Harold Katz offered three years. I had six in hand. It wasn't a big decision. To be honest, I felt (the Sixers) wanted me but as a short-term fix. I heard the talk about me being a third guard, but other teams wanted to give me a long-term commitment."
Perhaps it was because Barros didn't have much time to weigh the situations that he took the Celtics' deal, returning to the area where he grew up and became a star at Boston College. In the Celtics' tiny backcourt, with 6-1 Dee Brown, 6-1 Sherman Douglas and 6-foot David Wesley, he seems to be just another player, not the explosive All-Star quality 3-point sniper he had become with the Sixers.
It's becoming more and more clear that, if he made his decision based on dollars, he did the right thing. But if he did it to advance his career, this could be a mistake.
"I would have loved to have had Dana, Vernon (Maxwell), Jerry (Stackhouse) and Jeff (Malone) as our guards," Lucas said. "We couldn't work it out. The offer Dana got, what do you do? When M.L. (Carr, the Celtics' executive/coach/entertainer) made his offer, he eliminated any negotiations."
And why, oh why, did Carr make the offer to Barros in the first place? The Celtics had far more pressing needs in other areas. In fact, most other areas.
"What matters is, the ball goes in the basket," Carr said. "Whether you're 7-2 or 5-2, it still counts. The criteria are not strictly size, but people like to put labels on you. Too small, too short, too slow.
"Here's a guy who had the right attitude, who never causes problems. His time came last season, he became an All-Star. I can remember 1979, when people said Larry Bird was too slow, couldn't jump. Now he's a legend."
Barros created the start of his own legend with the Sixers, leading them last season in minutes, scoring, 3-point shooting and assists. He was the only Sixer to start all 82 games. And, as usual, most of what he heard had to do with what people said he couldn't do. As in, couldn't be a starter on a playoff quality team.
Still, it's ironic that 3-point shooting, which had been a Sixers weapon with Barros, has become a more erratic portion of their offense this season.
"If somebody beats me out, I'm a third guard," Barros said. "I've been on both sides of the fence. If (others) earn it, that's fine with me. I waited six years to get to this point, to go back to the bench (voluntarily) would be a step back."
He keeps telling himself he has taken a major step forward. New team, new city, new coach, new expectations.
"If I was still (with the Sixers), people would be complaining about what I couldn't do," he said. "Now they need what I have."
Terry Cummings is back with the Milwaukee Bucks, trying to figure out the younger generation. "The young players don't think as much," he said. "That affects coaching, because you have to play those players. They play the game, they don't think it." ... Washington signed 34-year-old assistant coach Derek Smith as a player for the three days preceding the start of the season, then waived him. So is that finally it for Smith? "For now," he said. ... John Lucas offered Alvin Robertson, now with Toronto, a chance to come to Philadelphia last season. At the time, Robertson told Lucas he wasn't physically ready, still recovering from lower-back problems. "I had no explosion, couldn't get in a defensive position," Robertson recalled. "Take that away, and I had no prayer." ... Raptors coach Brendan Malone had all he could handle, evaluating the players taken in the expansion draft, plus all sorts of free agents and guys acquired in trades. "I had more players than the cast of Spartacus," Malone said.
The others, in no particular order -- Alaa Abdelnaby, Gerry Ward, Andre Turner, Kevin Pritchard, Toby Kimball, Jim Barnett, Dennis Awtrey, Rickey Green, Mel Counts, Tony Harris, Bailey Howell, Bob McAdoo, Derek Smith and Gerald Henderson.
In addition to writing this exclusive column for SportsLine USA, Phil Jasner covers the NBA for the Philadelphia Daily News.
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