a reality check

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Killion: Fisher's situation a reality check

By Ann Killion

Mercury News

San Jose Mercury News

Article Launched:07/04/2007 01:36:02 AM PDT

Can we take a moment to honor perspective?

We get so precious little of it in sports these days. So when a situation comes along, in which everyone involved handles things with dignity and with a full grasp on reality, it is a moment worth celebrating.

So today we honor Derek Fisher. And his former employers, the Utah Jazz.

On Monday, Fisher requested and was granted by Utah a release from his contract. He walks away from three years that would earn him $20.6 million - with no guarantees that at 33 he'll ever get a contract like that again.

And the Jazz, whose berth in the Western Conference finals was in no small part thanks to Fisher's veteran presence, is left with a gap in leadership and experience. The Jazz management is fully aware that Fisher could sign with the rival Los Angeles Lakers later this year.

Lots of issues involving money and power and ego. Yet everyone did the right thing.

We all witnessed firsthand the emotional hurricane that surrounded Fisher during the NBA playoffs, when his 11-month-old daughter, Tatum, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare cancerous tumor in her eye. On the night of Game 2 of the series against the Warriors, Fisher flew directly from a New York hospital to Salt Lake City, making a dramatic entrance. He helped his team win that game and win the series.

Tatum, who had her first birthday last week, is currently undergoing treatment in New York, while Fisher and his wife seek the most comprehensive program for their daughter. They want to move to the city where Tatum will be under the care of the best specialists treating the disease - care that Fisher said is available in only a handful of cities.

Fisher didn't want to consider being in Salt Lake City while his family struggled with the illness elsewhere.

"Life for me outweighs the game of basketball," Fisher said.

Of course it does. Of course a father needs to be near his ill child. Of course an employer would let the employee do what is best for his family. It's the human decision, one that any of us would make.

But it doesn't always work that way in sports. Too often we see petty differences and stupid contract fights. Too often decisions are made from the positions of greed and power. Made to squeeze the last dollar amount out of a team (hello, Don Nelson?) or made to exert complete control over another human being.

So we wouldn't really have been shocked if the Jazz denied Fisher's request out of fear that he might sign with a rival. Team owner Larry Miller, who wept at Monday's news conference, said that he was initially skeptical and thought Fisher was just trying to force his way out of Salt Lake City. But he became convinced when he realized how much money Fisher was abandoning.

"I know it's hard for people to imagine at this point what I'm giving up," Fisher said. "And what my family and I are giving up in terms of what we've established in my career, and this contract that I worked my entire life to secure. It's the risk that we have to take at this point."

Nor would we really have been shocked if a professional athlete worked the angles somehow - delaying a decision until he could collect some of next year's money, or leaving the Jazz in a bind. That too, sadly, is the kind of thing we see too often in sports.

The cynics might still see something rotten. If the Lakers sign Fisher, the conspiracy theories will start, as though Fisher would ever have chosen this path. But that's the sad side of sports we've been conditioned to accept.

"We're sitting here and everybody seems sad about this," Jazz General Manager Kevin O'Connor said. "I think what we should be is grateful there is somebody that cares as much about his family. And somebody that owns the team and cares as much for the same reasons."

Fisher doesn't know if he'll get another job, noting that he's only 6-foot-1 and averages about 10 points a game.

"I don't know how many people feel strongly about what I do," he said.

He was talking about on the court. On life's court, I think he'll find many people feel very strongly about what he does.

Contact Ann Killion at akillion@mercurynews.com

[Van Basten II]

People take sometimes too seriously sports, great to see good senses prevailing.

[BruceH]

People take sometimes too seriously sports, great to see good senses prevailing.

Yoda?