Karl, Sonics Out Of Mulligans With This Team

The 14th hole at the Coeur d’Alene Resort - the floating green - isn’t so much golf as it is 5-second melodrama.

Hitting it in the lake: bad.

Land: good. Any land - green, fringe, sand, geraniums. All good.

If you could somehow get your ball to bite atop the narrow timbers of the seawall, that would be ducky.

Now, mix in a modest gallery like the one admitted for the Bank of America Quarterback Classic this weekend and some medium-to-high handicappers like the QBs and other jock celebrities and it makes for some noisy theatre.

Sonny Sixkiller? Plunnnk. Ohhhh.

Steve Bartkowksi? Thupppp. Yaaay.

Bill Musgrave? Plunk. Cary Conklin? Plunk. Mark Brunell. Plunk, plunk.

No wonder that George Karl, his ball having found purchase on the bentgrass, staggered off the teebox sighing, “Thank God that’s over.”

The coach of the Seattle SuperSonics has experienced his share of bellyflops before big crowds, thank you. A Titleist coming up short is considerably less painful than coming up short of a title, but who needs the reminder?

When he trudged off 18 on Friday after shooting 90, Karl smiled that smile you sometimes see him give NBA referees and revealed, “Golf won today.”

No matter. Events of the previous 72 hours had made him feel like a winner, or so he professed.

On Tuesday, the Sonics had traded the vintner of their discontent, Kendall Gill, back to the Charlotte Hornets for Hersey Hawkins and a spare part, David Wingate. A day later, they redeemed the 26th selection in the draft for a mystery guest named Sherell Ford and nabbed Michigan State’s Eric Snow with a second-round swap.

These do not qualify as bold, visionary moves, but rather the best that could be done under the circumstances.

Gill’s value has been eroded by his inflated salary, his performance and his open warfare with Karl, so the Sonics maxed out with Hawkins, whose own numbers had slipped in Charlotte. What, you thought Indiana was going to make Reggie Miller available?

Despite his lack of public profile, Ford has the reputation of being a good scorer and a better citizen. Snow is supposed to be reliable relief for Gary Payton at the point. As for Wingate, it’s hard to see what he does for the Sonics other than siphon off some of Vincent Askew’s minutes.

But let’s face it. This is mostly addition by the subtraction of Gill. No wonder Karl feels so good.

It was a year ago that owner Barry Ackerley kiboshed the Shawn Kemp-for-Scottie Pippen deal Karl had arranged on draft eve, a veto that put the coach in a funk for the rest of the summer.

“Now our coaching staff is probably the most excited it’s been,” Karl said.

“The game of basketball is a lot more psychological and motivational than people think. Physically, talent-wise and X-and-Owise, we’ve been doing a pretty good job on the basketball court over the past two years. One of the clouds, one of the attitudes that’s been a problem is Kendall and me. And I’m standing here saying I’m as much at fault as he is.

“So it’s a smart move on (general manager) Wally Walker’s part to move forward, that it’s time to say goodbye and wish (Gill) the best of luck and try to keep as much respect between he and I and the organization as we can.”

That’s as polite as a good riddance can be.

But it also sounds like a ground-breaking concession for Karl, who in the past has refused to allow that his prickly relationships with players might get in the way of championship performance.

You don’t want to read too much into one quote, so take a mulligan.

He was asked if he might try to compel Kemp, the acknowledged superstar, into asserting himself as the acknowledged leader, as well. Karl bulldozed a different road with his answer.

“Over the summer, we’ll all spend a lot of time with each other,” Karl said. “I think Gary and Shawn and Det (Detlef Schrempf) and Nate (McMillan) and Sam (Perkins) - the old guys - and Ervin (Johnson), we’ve got to talk some of our problems out as well as work them out.”

Just how the NBA’s lockout of the players will impede the healing - and just how long Karl will keep this lollipop of peace extended - remains to be seen. Schrempf, for one, is encouraged, but then no Sonic has been more strongly allied with Karl.

“With the problems we’ve had, any problem you can get rid of will be a help,” said Schrempf, who played in Karl’s foursome Friday. “I’m not saying Kendall was a big problem - the situation was a problem. It’s one more thing off our backs. But we still have to resolve some minor things that have been holding us back, too.”

Such as?

“We have to be more professional, more disciplined,” he said. “Times have changed. It’s a different approach today with younger players, but everybody’s got to be more professional if a team’s going to win a championship.”

Insisted Karl, “The cloud is over. We’re a good basketball team and hopefully we’ll sustain being a championship-caliber team for two or three more years.”

The operative word is “hopefully.”

For if the Sonics tee it up in the playoffs next spring and hit it into the lake again, that cloud will return, more threatening than ever.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, ext. 5509.

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