Hersey Hawkins

For perhaps the first time in his illustrious basketball career, Hersey Hawkins found himself being used as a decoy. And it was a ploy so slickly contrived that not even Hawkins recognized it. While Hawkins, visibly uneasy, was being asked on national cable television how it felt to be taken by the Los Angeles Clippers with the sixth pick in the NBA draft yesterday at New York's Madison Square Garden, the principals of three NBA teams were conspiring...

The drive from Peoria is one hour old as Hersey Hawkins wheels his Mercury Cougar homeward, through the hypnotic green farm land of northern Illinois. The 76ers' top pick in last week's NBA draft is about to alter his life - dramatically. He is about to get married. He is about to try out for the U.S. Olympic basketball team. He is about to move, perhaps for good, to an Eastern city he knows little about. He is about to become a millionaire. And his life is about to flash before his very eyes.

The 76ers check into their training-camp facilities at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster this evening and, as hoped, first-round pick Hersey Hawkins will be arriving along with the rest of the 18-man preseason roster. The circumstances that bring Hawkins to camp could be better, however. For one thing, the 6-foot-3 shooting guard is still recovering from strained ligaments in his right knee, suffered while playing for the U.S. basketball team during the Olympics two weeks ago. According to the recommendation of team physician Ray Moyer, Hawkins won't touch a basketball for another week.

The box score says Hersey Hawkins played 39 minutes in the season-ending loss to the Bulls last night. The box score lies. "I got hurt early," Hawkins said glumly after the Bulls beat the Sixers, 100-95. "First foul. When I fouled (Bill) Cartwright. Or, when he fouled me. Caught a knee to my left thigh. "After that, I couldn't push off the way I wanted to. I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to. "Basically, I had to coast up and down the court. " You cannot defend against Michael Jordan on one good leg, which is why Hawkins sat down for long stretches.

Hersey Hawkins spent an extra half-hour after practice yesterday taking passes from Sixers player personnel director Bob Weinhauer and shooting 18- foot jumpers. Most of them, it can be confirmed, went in. That should come as a relief to the rookie guard, who has shot only 3-for- 18 in the first two games of the Sixers' first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks that continues tonight at the Spectrum. It also should come as a relief that coach Jim Lynam has decided to keep Hawkins in the starting lineup tonight, despite leaving him on the bench for much of the second half Saturday as the Knicks scored the final 11 points of the game, pulled out a dramatic, 107-106 victory and went up, 2-0, in the best-of-five-series.

In the big overtime to come, the meek may indeed lay claim to the earth, but within the rectangular confines of an NBA game, they almost never inherit the basketball. The NBA is a league for egotists, for those confident enough to believe that every shot should fall and every pass should be intended for them. The perfect NBA arena would have mirrors on the ceiling. Hersey Hawkins may never be comfortable with that. He may never be the sort of player who screams for the basketball.

Sixers general manager John Nash said yesterday that progress has been made in the negotiations with first-round draft pick Hersey Hawkins. But no agreement has been reached. Meanwhile, Hawkins said he will remain in the Philadelphia area while the talks continue. Hawkins is being represented by Joe Napoli, a lawyer from Peoria, Ill. Napoli had threatened on Tuesday to take Hawkins back to Illinois if an agreement was not reached yesterday. Nash and Napoli met yesterday for the third time - the first time since last week - in Lancaster, where the team is holding training camp at Franklin & Marshall College.

When U.S. basketball coach John Thompson announced his starting lineup for tomorrow night's opening game against Spain, there was a noteworthy omission: Hersey Hawkins. The Sixers' rookie shooting guard, who started most of the time on the U.S. team's pre-Olympic tour, will have to sit and watch Mitch Richmond start for the U.S. team. The other starters, according to Thompson, will be David Robinson at center, Danny Manning and Dan Majerle at forward, and Charles Smith IV at point guard.

At a time like this, Hersey Hawkins's thoughts, amazingly, drifted to former teammate Charles Barkley. "I think some of the best things that happened to me in my five years with the 76ers involved working with (current general manager and former coach) Jim Lynam, with the other coaches and with Charles," Hawkins said yesterday after learning that he had been traded to the Charlotte Hornets. Barkley? The rambunctious, controversial guy who forced his own trade from Philadelphia to Phoenix last summer, then became the NBA's Most Valuable Player and led the Suns to the playoff finals?

The game was there to be taken and, inexplicably, Hersey Hawkins would not take it. The game was there to be grabbed by the throat and, inexplicably, Hersey Hawkins would not grab it. It was a night that cried for The Hawk and, inexplicably, he was unable to answer the cry. In recent seasons, when Charles Barkley has been unable to create Barkleymania, The Hawk has been the 76ers' next-best answer. He would take his textbook jumper, step out and launch his deadly three-point shot, drive doggedly to the basket and score inside or draw fouls.

The praise can be no better than this. George Karl, the irascible Seattle SuperSonics coach, says Hersey Hawkins "has made me enjoy basketball again. " Hawkins, the totally quiet, utterly professional, constantly competitive shooting guard for the Sonics, is perfectly happy to be scoring option No. 4 for the Sonics. He is absolutely content to be "the other guy" on a team that features Shawn Kemp and his SonicDunk; and Gary Payton, with his manic defense and blinding quickness and slithery moves; and Detlef Schrempf and his ability to do a little bit of everything all the time.

The Charlotte Hornets, looking to add scoring to their erratic backcourt, reacquired Kendall Gill last night in a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics. The Hornets sent shooting guard Hersey Hawkins and journeyman swingman David Wingate to the Sonics for Gill, whom Charlotte selected No. 5 overall in the 1990 draft. Gill played three seasons with the Hornets, averaging 20.5 points in 1991-92 before asking to play elsewhere, making him a target for many Charlotte fans. "Kendall wants to come back to Charlotte," Hornets coach Allan Bristow said at the team's practice gym. "He wants to play here.

He is only 28 now, less than two years removed from leading the 76ers in scoring, but when Hersey Hawkins saw his points-per-game average dip to a career-low 11.9 points for the Charlotte Hornets recently, the experience jolted him. "It sounds funny, but it was like seeing my career flash before my eyes," he said last night before the Hornets hosted the Sixers. "I mean, six points a game for three nights. I didn't ever expect to see that next to my name. " So Hawkins did something he isn't known for: He spoke up. He wanted some more shots.

As spin master John Lucas put it before his 76ers began their longest road swing of the season, this was the time to clean the slate for his young team. "Our season starts now," Lucas said shortly before last night's game against Charlotte. "We're zero-zero. Hopefully, that will give us a mind-set of a fresh start. " Although he did a little bunny hop in his frustration with the referees at one point, Lucas had precious little to spin about when the Hornets got done last night.

Two paths diverged in the woods through which the Sixers must travel on the way back to respectability. They could have kept Hersey Hawkins at shooting guard or Jeff Hornacek. The September trade with the Charlotte Hornets to regain the Sixers' 1994 first-round draft pick required that Hawkins be sent off on his own and that Hornacek remain with the tattered expedition party. Those routes cross briefly this evening when the Sixers and Hornets play an exhibition game here. Hawkins will be the starting shooting guard for Charlotte, a team with an honest chance to contend this season.

At a time like this, Hersey Hawkins's thoughts, amazingly, drifted to former teammate Charles Barkley. "I think some of the best things that happened to me in my five years with the 76ers involved working with (current general manager and former coach) Jim Lynam, with the other coaches and with Charles," Hawkins said yesterday after learning that he had been traded to the Charlotte Hornets. Barkley? The rambunctious, controversial guy who forced his own trade from Philadelphia to Phoenix last summer, then became the NBA's Most Valuable Player and led the Suns to the playoff finals?

For once, a 76ers player was in the right place at the right time. For once in this torturous season, the other team sputtered down the stretch, and the Sixers came from behind to win an exciting basketball game. Jeff Hornacek rebounded a missed three-point shot by Hersey Hawkins and hit a five-footer with 23.9 seconds to play to boost the Sixers to a 114-111 victory at the Spectrum last night over the plodding, perimeter-hugging, last- place Milwaukee Bucks. After Hornacek's basket gave the Sixers a 113-111 lead, Eric Murdock missed two layups, either of which could have tied the score, in the final seconds.

The 76ers have a losing program, too, but they didn't go on strike, and they didn't sneak out of town yesterday. They decided to gut it out for a while. Against the Miami Heat, one of two teams the Sixers must pass to enter the NBA playoffs, it was just like old times. The Sixers once again looked like an established contender, and the Heat once again looked like an expansion team flailing for respectability. The Sixers defeated the Heat, 108-91, last night to inject at least brief life into the playoff chase.

The game was there to be taken and, inexplicably, Hersey Hawkins would not take it. The game was there to be grabbed by the throat and, inexplicably, Hersey Hawkins would not grab it. It was a night that cried for The Hawk and, inexplicably, he was unable to answer the cry. In recent seasons, when Charles Barkley has been unable to create Barkleymania, The Hawk has been the 76ers' next-best answer. He would take his textbook jumper, step out and launch his deadly three-point shot, drive doggedly to the basket and score inside or draw fouls.

The box score says Hersey Hawkins played 39 minutes in the season-ending loss to the Bulls last night. The box score lies. "I got hurt early," Hawkins said glumly after the Bulls beat the Sixers, 100-95. "First foul. When I fouled (Bill) Cartwright. Or, when he fouled me. Caught a knee to my left thigh. "After that, I couldn't push off the way I wanted to. I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to. "Basically, I had to coast up and down the court. " You cannot defend against Michael Jordan on one good leg, which is why Hawkins sat down for long stretches.