European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 1, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday february 1, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary Cava or turnaround in Good hands i Haven checked it out completely but if the Cleveland Cavaliers who currently sport the bes record in the National basketball association go on to win the league title then Wayne Embry will hold singular distinction. Embry would become the first general manager Ofa pro basketball Champion whose hand Span from thumb tip to Pinky tip measures about the length of a foot ruler. There May be some who feel that people wit Large hands regardless of race religion or political affiliation Don t have the necessities to hold important administrative jobs in professional sports. Embry is a Large person period. He stands 6 feet 8inches and weighs at least he did in his svelte play ing Days 250 pounds. As it happens Embry is also Black and so is his head coach Lenny Wilkens. There have been a num ber of Black head coaches in the Aba and some like Bill  . Jones and Wilkens himself when he was with Seattle have won championships. So it is no big Deal for a Black to be the Field or court Leader of a professional establishment unless of course that establishment is in the baseball or football business. As for running a team from the front office Well there Are two hands on Black general managers in the Aba today Elgin Baylor with the los Angeles clip pers and Embry. A possible third Bill Russell of Sacramento has a Gold plated title of some sort but it is believed no longer holds much True administrative Power. Neither Baylor nor Russell has had the front of fice Success that Embry has demonstrated building a team that was in utter shambles into a contender in just a few years. It appeared for a while that Baylor become awfully smart awfully fast when he signed Danny  then he become awfully dumb awfully fast when Manning was injured. I be shaken hands with Baylor and Russell and it Smy impression that though both have Large hands neither has As grand a claw As Embry. So if it s True that the bigger the hand size the smaller the brain then Why Haven t Baylor and Russell done better scientists continue to Ponder this phenomenon. Especially since some of the deepest thinkers in basketball have pretty Good sized hands like Jerry Wayne Embry handled the Pivot before running a team. West whose lakers have won the Aba title the previous two seasons and three times since 1982. You had to know that Embry was smart when he chose Lenny Wilkens to be his coach. Wilkens like Embry was an outstanding pro player. He had one deficiency though and that had Todo with his hand which As i recall is a relatively average sized scoop. But Wilkens was left handed and did very Little with his right hand. Years later when he was a coach at Seattle and i was ab9ut to see Wilkens for a article i asked Walt Frazier who had often guarded him if he had a question for Wilkens. Yeah said Frazier. I always had trouble with Lenny. I always knew he was going left but i could t Stop him. Ask him  i did. Frazier always knew i was going left Sai Wilkens with a laugh but he never knew  maybe an extra amount of attention has been Given to Embry s recent Success because he has accomplished it in Cleveland where just a few year Sago the owner was Ted Stepien. Stepien now an sex Aba owner was famous for trades that primarily consisted of giving up top draft picks in order to improve All the other teams in the league. Shortly before Stepien bought the cars he said for publication if i owned the Cavaliers half of the squad would be White. White people need heroes. Myself can t equate with Blacks. I need White people and i think the cars have too Many Blacks. These Days Whites need White heroes. Whites can Only relate to Whites just like Blacks to  there is nothing on the record about Stepien relat ing his theories to hand size whether people with Small hands can relate and choose heroes who also have Small hands but in fact Stepien was t the Only one who Felt that Whites could t relate to Blacks As heroes. It s an old old Story. During the last several years when the new York kicks were going bad on the court and at the Box office Many said that fans weren t coming to games because of All those Black players the Kricks  is they did t want to see those particular Black or White players. Right now Madison Square Garden s basketball business is booming and without a single prominent White player on the kicks. It s that Way All Over the league. A Good product will apparently draw regardless of color or length or Width of extremities. But then the Aba s an extraordinary outfit. After All Bob Lanier wore a size 22 shoe and not Only did he have a lot of fans and was respected enough to have once been the head of the players association but also his basketball sneakers Are on exhibit in the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield mass. One Day perhaps so will Wayne Embry s Winter gloves. And maybe Ted Stepien s volumes on sociology too. The new York times Cleveland lights Way for Aba Downtrodden by Ken Denlin Gerthe Washington Post Baltimore Pardon some of us for being reluctant to celebrate the Cleveland Cavaliers As Thebes basketball team on the planet the last three months. Minds get numbed by consistency especially the sort of sustained stupidity offered for most of 18 years by the former cadavers. So bad for so Long historically dreadful very Likely they never seemed capable in any lifetime including god s of achieving the Best record in the Aba nearly Halfway through this regular season the distinction of being one of Only three teams with a winning Road record the simple feat of forcing anyone into overtime a happened Here sunday against the bullets. And with a Yale at Center a Good Deal of the time. This 122-117 Semi Home Victory by the bullets had something beyond the game to tease both  31-9 Cavaliers could watch the struggling bul lets and appreciate How far they have come in such a Brief time the 15-24 bullets could look at the Cava Liers and get excited about something Nice perhaps happening sooner than expected. More precisely the bullets could glance at Cleve land Center Brad Daugherty being escorted out of the gym about a half hour before Tipoff and be grateful for now and hopeful about the future. Daugherty is the Cavaliers most valuable player uncommonly gifted at a position going out of fashion at the highest Levels of basketball. For reasons that might actually make sense but did t to anyone Here Daug Herty was not even allowed to watch this Day s drama. His one game suspension for fighting against the punching pistons Friday night was Okay but Daug Herty could not even sit with his teammates or in the stands or in the locker room for that matter. Little Stern in t it or. Stern anyway Daugherty s absence seemed too much for the Cavaliers to overcome. Especially with his place being taken for 31 minutes it developed by Chris Dudley who majored in economics and Politi Cal science at Yale but not foul shooting. The bullets almost surely could have won merely by whacking the 6-foot-11 Dudley every time Down the court. Only a recent surge of accuracy had lifted his free throw percentage for the season to .387. Sun Day he was one for four. Bullets coach Wes Unseld played it straight an for the longest time the Cavaliers were showing not Only signs of life but also of a runaway Victory. Longtime Cavaliers watchers were stunned at Ron Harper once rising off the floor just inside the foul Lin and not Landing until he had finished a net scorching Dunk. Fairly recent Atlantic coast conference observers were being silently apologetic to Mark Price. At Georgia tech Price accumulated wonderful numbers but also acquired a hyphenated Middle name from Many scouts and writers can to make it in the pros. Gulp even decently sophisticated basketball min shave been puzzled by the Cavaliers new found Suc Cess. They have nobody among the top 20 in scoring and nobody among the top 10 in rebounding. Their essence seems Best explained by three usually overlooked stats team assists turnovers and free throws attempted. Cleveland entered the game with 154 More assists than the opposition 347 More foul shots and 68 fewer turnovers. The assists reflect How unselfish they Are their great chemistry said bullets Advance scout Alan Srebnick. The free throws attempted show How patient they arson offence. Usually a defensive player won t foul on the first option. He probably will on the third or  s assist to turnover ratio is a Fine three to one. That Means the Cavaliers have what every team that dares dream of a championship needs most a Point guard and a Center. And was t Daugherty knocked by Many for being too passive at North Carolina three years into the league he s still Only 23. For almost All their 18 years of existence the Cav Aliers have been a Standard for sporting futility. Until Wayne Embry and Lenny Wilkens arrived two years ago they made others in the Aba Good but rarely themselves. Not quite Halfway through this season the Cava Liers have won 31 games in a dozen of their 18 prior full seasons they won 32 or fewer. Only five timeshare they made the playoffs Only once have they gotten past round one. Given the worst shall flip for first policy that the Aba had during Cleveland s Early years that i shocking bad to about the 12th Power. Still there is an explanation. When Ted Stepien had the team in the Early 80s,somebody told new Dallas coach Dick Motta Cleveland just opened a Candy store and is giving the stuff  fill up the bag Motta replied. For players less than Ordinary Cleveland gave Omotta and the Mavericks draft choices that became Sam Perkins and Roy Tarpley. To the lakers in Exchange for what amounted to Don Ford and Chad Kinch Cleveland surrendered the top pick in the 1982 draft. With it the lakers chose James worthy. Enlightened ownership the Gund Brothers replacing Stepien led to Embry and Wilkens assuming on the court command. The opening phrase in each of their Media guide bios says it All in just two sea sons Daugherty Harper and Price also Are in their third seasons. Larry Nance and Mike Sanders came in february As part of a Deal that helped Phoenix also become a fun team to follow. What seemed evident sunday was this the Cava Liers without Daugherty Are the bullets. And the bul lets with an inside presence just might be the Cava Liers it s important for them to stay lottery competitive this season and then get Lucky. L