[Advertisement] [Sports] [NBA] [Basketball] CURRENT SPORTS NEWS COMPROMISE: Bogues singing different song [Hornets] Sunday, August 24, 1997 Hornets By John Delong 1996-1997 Season CHARLOTTE -- It wasn't long ago that Muggsy Bogues was going in front of College Basketball television cameras and calling on the Charlotte Hornets to either trade him or College Football waive him so he could play elsewhere. Prep Sports To be precise, it was nine weeks ago -- two days after Coach Dave Cowens publicly NBA/Hornets urged Bogues to retire and two weeks before the Hornets signed David Wesley to NFL/Panthers a seven-year, $20-million deal as their point guard of the future. Baseball Based on Bogues' bitterness at the time NASCAR and his threats to sic superagent David Falk on the Hornets, it looked like Lenox Rawlings Bogues' playing days in teal were probably over. Golf But now, Bogues is saying it looks like Bowling he'll be back for his 10th season with the team when training camp starts in October, Tennis with a front-office job in line once he does finally decide to call it quits. Outdoors Meetings in the past week with owner George Shinn and vice president Bob Bass [AP Sports News] -- requested by Bogues after he got a ASSOCIATED PRESS favorable second opinion from doctors last month -- are apparently producing Breaking Sports News compromises on both sides. ''Things aren't finalized yet, and when [Sports Archive] they are, I'll talk about it then,'' SPORTS ARCHIVE Bogues said earlier this week. ''But yeah, it looks like I'm going to be back. Things College Sports have changed during the course of these meetings. That's what these meetings have Pro Sports been about.'' NASCAR So this amazing story of this incredible athlete who has overcome incredible odds to play 10 seasons in the NBA -- now with [JournalNow Home] virtually no cartilage remaining in his [Image] left knee -- is about to add another incredible chapter. So what has happened in the past month to bring about these changes of heart? Well, even though Bogues isn't explaining right now, you don't have to wait for the spin-control, happy-face, kiss-and-make-up press conference for answers. Several things are fairly obvious. * Bogues found out that he didn't have as many options as he thought he would when he mugged for the minicams. The Hornets will insist that they never tried to trade him, and that might be true because it takes two to have a conversation. Fact is, nobody around the league had even the slightest desire to take on a 32-year-old, 63-inch point guard with no cartilage in his knee and $3.8 million in guaranteed money left on his contract. And had anyone been interested, they would have had to waive the physical, because Muggsy couldn't have passed it. * Bogues found out that there was no way the Hornets were going to release him and pay him off so that he could sign elsewhere for the minimum, which he once hoped that Falk might be able to force them to do. The Hornets understood from the very beginning that it would be a public-relations disaster to release a bitter Bogues, especially if he played well elsewhere. And it would have cost them $3.8 million to buy him out, which is a nice chunk of change even for a deep-pockets owner like George Shinn, who has already shelled out more than $50 million on free agents this summer. * Somebody along the way, probably longtime teammate and friend Dell Curry, talked enough sense into Bogues for him to swallow his pride and cool down a bit. The front-office job is something the Hornets have been talking about for years, and clearly if Bogues left in a huff and burned some bridges, it would have been much tougher for him to ever come back to the organization. * Somebody in the Hornets' front office, red-faced by Cowens' ill-timed comments, extended Bogues an olive branch. Bogues was, after all, a huge contributor in the Hornets' franchise-record 54-28 record last season. * And lest we forget, it's easy to make promises and compromises in the middle of the summer, even if everyone suspects that the compromises will never work in reality. Cowens has no plans to make any kind of commitment to Bogues regardless of what Falk and Bass and Shinn hammer out in some conference room. In fact, in talking about Bogues last week, Cowens said he'll make ''no exceptions'' in letting players sit out practice next season, as Bogues has done. Along the same lines, Bogues can promise to be a good soldier next season, but it's inevitable that he will become unhappy with his playing time at some point. If he plays, he'll probably outplay Wesley in some stretches, and that will make him even angrier when Wesley is in there for the key minutes at the end. * Perhaps one other thing should be obvious, too. Bogues should come out of these meetings with a promise that the Hornets will eventually retire his No. 1, making him the first player in team history to be bestowed such an honor. The unanswered question is, when will he retire? [JournalNow Home] © 1997, Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.