Lynam said that being "prudent" can work better than any curfew. Gene Shue, the Sixers' general manager, said "a curfew (for the team) wouldn't be a bad idea," but deferred to Lynam.
"A curfew?" Barkley said. "I get in one fight in eight years and all of a sudden I can't go out? Why is that justified?"
The players shrugged at the concept and suggested that they were responsible adults.
"Guys have to be responsible enough to do the right thing," forward Armon Gilliam said. "Whatever they do after (an imposed) curfew, they could do before."
Said Williams: "This was something I couldn't walk away from. One jerk. What's a curfew going to do about that?"
The Sixers have rules of conduct laid out for them before the start of each season. Lynam has said, for example, that Barkley would be fined for missing the team flight from Chicago to Philadelphia Wednesday morning. Gilliam wasn't on the flight, either, but had cleared that earlier with Lynam. Barkley said he simply overslept.
"(The rules aren't) all specific, but they explain about conducting ourselves in the proper manner," said forward Ron Anderson, the team's player representative.
"What's in the (team) rulebook is up to the organization - the owner, the general manager, the coach. They have to do whatever they have to do.
"I don't know what else they can do. Each guy should do his best not to get in (bad) situations. (But) if it's unavoidable, then no rule can stop it."
Said backup center Jeff Ruland: "This isn't college. Even if we had all charter flights, who's to say something couldn't happen at another time, another place? The thing is, you can't just sit in your hotel room. I mean, how many soap operas can you watch? I like to read, but how much reading can you do? If you just sit there all the time, you can go nuts."
Ruland is making a comeback after being forced into retirement in 1986-87 by a damaged knee. He said he has enjoyed visiting with friends in various cities that he hasn't seen in several years.
"You have to try to lead a normal life," Ruland said. "I must've said hello to 25 guys in (the Hyatt bar in) Chicago. I met a couple of people who said they were teachers and we talked for a while about education, about me going back to college to complete my degree, about having my own kids in school now.
"I mean, a curfew? I guess they can do it, but, at least to me, it serves no purpose."
