CAMPBELL High's contribution to the NBA went one-on-one with Michael Jordan last year, holding his own for 45 minutes. There’s a bit of
Ewa Beach in the NBAMike Wise, a center for the Sabers in the early '80s, didn't make it to the pros as a player. But he has one of the more coveted jobs in sports journalism. Wise, 34, is the NBA beat writer for the New York Times. It got him nearly an hour alone with His Airness. Sometimes Jordan's wife has trouble booking that much time.
And 45 minutes of conversation with the greatest basketball player ever can bring out some interesting revelations.
"Jordan told me that as much as he and Charles Barkley helped the game, they hurt it, too. He said, 'We can take over a game, and now everyone wants to do that, even if they can't,' " Wise related. "He said it's bad that ESPN shows only highlights of his spectacular plays and never what he does without the ball. He feels it's corrupting the game and causing kids to have unrealistic expectations of themselves."
WISE says his favorite NBA people to talk with are former Seattle coach George Karl and New Jersey Nets forward Jayson Williams. He likes Karl's candor and Williams' humor.
"(Karl's) honest and genuine. You can ask him tough questions and he'll never give you stink eye. If he feels like jumping off a cliff after a tough loss, that's exactly what he'll tell you. You really respect that when so many people make up stories to fit their agenda.
"Jayson Williams is hilarious, and he's not mean. Barkley's funny, but he's a mean funny," Wise says. "There are so many incredible Jayson Williams stories. On the road in Portland, he's playing pool with some guy who's a trapper from Alaska. He says, 'If I win, you take me bear hunting in Alaska. If you win, I fly you out to New York to the Celtics game next week.' "
Apparently, Williams rebounds better than he shoots pool.
"A week later, there he is at the game in New York, some wilderness guy who'd never been out of the Northwest."
WISE hopes the NBA lockout ends quickly so he can stop covering labor and legal issues and get back to writing about the game itself and the league's personalities.
"My personal feeling is that a lot of it is the owners' fault," he says. "Everybody says the players are greedy, but the owners are the ones who started giving out 100 million to second-line players, and that has really put the league economics out of whack. You've got decent veterans signing for one million, and then you've got Juwan Howard eating up 105 million. He's solid, but he's definitely not Larry Bird or Michael Jordan."
Wise's siding with the players may be because he still is one at heart. He still plays in city leagues in New York.
"I played at HPU one year. I use the term 'play' very loosely, because I was a vital component of the team only when we were up or down by 20," Wise says. "My one claim to fame is that I was on the HPU team that beat Chaminade a few days after they beat Virginia. That's when all the fights started in District 29 games."
After HPU, Wise went to junior college in Sacramento and then Fresno State. He interned at the Pacific Business News, then worked at a couple of small newspapers on the mainland.
"There were times I was ready to go back to Hawaii and work at a plate lunch wagon," he says.
Wise won some awards for column writing. One of the judges, Times sports editor Neil Amdur, remembered him, and Wise was hired in 1994.
Although he takes his work seriously, Wise is the same easy-going guy he was while growing up in Ewa Beach.
He says the writers, players and officials have it easy. The coaches have the toughest job in the NBA.
"If my old coach from Campbell, Bob Nakagawa, was in the NBA, he'd throw down his clipboard, smack a guy on the head, give up his contract, and head back to high school . . . all before halftime," Wise says.
Dave Reardon is a magazine editor and freelance
writer who has covered Hawaii sports since 1977.
He can be reached via the Star-Bulletin or
by email at dreardon@hmsa.com.
