By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Dec. 24, 1998

The effect would be greater had the phone call actually come from Lithuania, home of former NBA star Sarunas Marciulionis. That he was in San Diego for some warmer weather was only incidental.

He

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wanted to talk about the NBA lockout of its players and the future of the Northern European Basketball League he has founded and will be introduced Jan. 15. A day later, they will meet in Vilnius, Lithuania to discuss what to do with American players and the general focus of the future of the league that will unfold as the next century begins.

"The (NBA lockout) is a mess, that's for sure," Marciulionis said. "We are very much in contact with the NBA and they are helping us develop our promotion and our future. I don't know about the players. That's something we have to talk about. But what this is about for the future of the NEBL is developing our own players to help the national teams and Olympic teams and international basketball. If we play NBA players instead of our own players, what good does it do for the development of basketball for Northern Europe and its children?"

RIGHT NOW, THE NBA RESTS. EVERY basketball fan in the world is very much aware of the NBA lockout at the moment, and if a deal isn't completed between the league and the National Basketball Players Association by Jan. 7, commissioner David Stern and the 29 team owners will cancel the season.

Marciulionis, 34, played in the NBA from 1989-97. A 6-foot-5 guard, he was a star for the Lithuanian national team and a superb offensive player for the Golden State Warriors until 1993, when knee injuries cut into his quickness. He then began the trade circuit, first in Seattle, then Sacramento and ultimately Denver before retiring prior to the 1997-98 season.

He is looking to the NBA to enhance the future of his league and is founding it on the globalized marketing plan Stern developed. Marciulionis says his league -- including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Finland -- will encompass a population base of nearly 200 million.

"Our plan is to connect the Russian states all the way to Denmark," Marciulionis said. "Poland, the Baltic States and Scandinavia ... our plan is to help basketball grow, not interfere with what FIBA (Federation of International Basketball) does. We will all be partners."

Maybe

Sarunas Marciulionis will attempt to carry the ball for the Northern European Basketball League. (AP)

it's wishful thinking on his part. But Marciulionis is bright and anyone who ever saw him play will never doubt his aggressive nature. He will make things happen. Nonetheless, the lockout is just as distressing to him. As an eight-year player, he is loyal to the plight of the players, and torn because he respects the league that gave him the opportunity as a player. He is continuing his loyalty as an international advocate/businessman.

"As a player, you never give money and freedom back," Marciulionis said. "But the owners are afraid of where this is going and they have to slow down the salaries. It is a bad situation and I hope they can sit down and compromise. It is not an easy thing."

THAT, WE ALL KNOW. IT ALSO IS APPARENT Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik warned the NBA Board of Governors it would come to this. A simple majority (which in all likelihood is already a given) will end the 1998-99 NBA season before it even began.

Even if they do come to an agreement in the next couple of weeks, three months of basketball have been lost. The irony drips from Marciulionis, who saw opportunities in Lithuania -- where most were have-nots -- were there only for the rare few like himself or Arvydas Sabonis, center for the Portland Trail Blazers. Marciulionis helped get tie-dyed uniforms paid for and designed by the late Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead for the 1992 Olympic bronze-medal winning Lithuanian basketball team. He is a crusader by nature.

So what happens from here with the NBPA? Marciulionis can't even predict. He doesn't want to. One high-ranking NBA official, speaking anonymously, believes there's not much choice left for NBPA executive director Billy Hunter. They have lost the battle, but at this point, he can not concede any more than he already has, otherwise, this whole exercise will have been fruitless. Never before in the history of team sports in the United States has an entire season been canceled, and already the players have lost nearly $500 million in salaries.

NOW STERN IS CALLING HUNTER'S BLUFF for the whole world to see. The owners, if they sit out the season, will still have income of some $480 million from the $2.64 billion television contract with NBC and Turner. They will have to pay it back in some form during the final three years of the deal, but that won't be as painful because of all the money they will save in salaries for the year.

The product already is tarnished. They will lose the season tickets of this season and won't get them all back next season, but this is in the face of giving players more than 57 percent of their income this season and more in the future. They'll hang with the commissioner. As for player solidarity, that remains to be seen.

"How can Billy give in now?" the NBA official said. "If he gives in now to a deal that's been sitting there, why will they have missed three months of paychecks? That's a lot of money. They have to keep up the fight or there has been no purpose in them not accepting the offer as it exists. If he gives in, it won't look any better than the way Simon Guordine gave in last time, but at least Simon didn't cost the players paychecks."

All of this and Marciulionis wants to start his own league?

"It won't be like that in the Russian states," Marciulionis promised. "Everybody wants just a chance to play basketball and make some money. I never thought I would make all this money. I just wanted to play. Now I want to share what I got out of it."

A novel idea at that.