ESPNET SportsZone | Columnists
Reminds you of when the Los Angeles Lakers supposedly squandered their future, trading Elmore Smith, Brian Winters and a couple of dozen others, or did it just seem that many, for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Anybody remember how the Lakers played after they made that deal? Oh, they won a lot of championships. Well, so much for the idea they mortgaged their future.
Same thing for the Cincinnati Reds sending Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson, Dan Norman and Doug Flynn to the Mets for Tom Seaver.
One of those five is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. No, not Zachry. And even though he doesn't play that game, Greg Norman would have a better chance of getting in than Dan Norman.
The issue here is getting rid of a great player, in this case a player nicknamed "The Great One,'' for people who someday may be great. Or just good. Or maybe just stiffs.
I have one bit of advice. Don't do it. Sorry, Kings, but you never asked me.
Quantity and possibility almost never match reality. Everyone knows what Gretzky can do, the way everyone knew what Kareem could do.
You don't bet on the come. Even Aesop advised about giving up a bird in the hand for two in the bush, and that was back before the 3-point shot.
If you're going to trade, you've got to get as much as you give. And when you're giving up superstars, individuals who transcend the game in both talent and charisma, quid pro quo is impossible.
In Boston they still whine about the "Curse of the Bambino.'' The Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in December 1919 because Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed the money. Not to keep his team solvent but to put on a Broadway musical.
No one in New England forgives Frazee. Nor should they.
No one in southern California should forgive Kings management. And they won't. The trade was one of the dumbest in the history of American sport, for the Kings that is, not for St. Louis.
Los Angeles, the team and the city, has lost what cannot be regained, a special athlete who not only helped win games but helped sell his sport in a region where everything except Heidi Fleiss' profession is a tough sell.
No place in the world is more cognizant of the star system than Hollywood. L.A. sports is Magic, Gretzky, Piazza and who's ever playing tailback at USC. Or it used to be.
A theory put forth here is the reason the Raiders and Rams both took leave of the second most populated area in the U.S. is neither team had a performer with any genuine attraction. The fact that both franchises stunk also entered into the equation.
When Gretzky was traded to the Kings, seven and a half years ago, Sports Illustrated immediately placed him on the cover, alongside Magic Johnson. Think SI will do a cover on Tardiff or Roman Vopat?
The fascinating thing is the Kings' trade runs contrary to the thinking in southern California. It used to the L.A. clubs that gave up the wannabes for the stars. In 1959, the Rams traded nine players to the Chicago Cardinals for Ollie Matson. And got the better of the deal.
A few years later came the Kareem deal. L.A. won that one, too.
There are exceptions to all this. There always are.
The Dallas Cowboys created a Super Bowl champion mostly out of thin air when they traded Herschel Walker in 1989 to the Minnesota Vikings. But that's because the Vikes treated the arrangement as a charity donation, giving up first and second-round picks to Dallas in three consecutive drafts, 1990, 1991, 1992.
Even the New York Jets could gain a modicum of respectability in that manner. Well, maybe I shouldn't got that far.
The Oakland Athletics had Rickey Henderson going and coming in deals with the Yankees, for the same player even.
In 1984, the A's gave up Henderson, two seasons beyond breaking Lou Brock's stolen base record, for prospects Stan Javier, Jay Howell, Jose Rijo, Eric Plunk and Tim Birtsas. Twelve years later, it would take a debate in the U.N. to reach a conclusion if even there was a winner.
Javier went to the Dodgers, back to the A's and is now on the Giants. Rijo got his team a World Series championship, except his team at the time, and at this time, was and is the Cincinnati Reds. Oakland sent Rijo -- and Birtsas -- to Cincy for Dave Parker, who did help the A's win three straight pennants.
In 1989, Oakland traded Plunk, Louis Polonia and Greg Cadaret to the Yankees to have Henderson return to the A's, where he did contribute to Oakland's 1989 World Series triumph.
There's a baseball adage about selling a player, something that goes, "Who you going to play in left field, a $10 bill?'' The same holds true in the trade of a superstar for a lot of no-names.
They may fill holes on the roster but they won't fill the gap left by the departure of an excellent athlete. You don't replace Babe Ruth, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Wayne Gretzky.
Art Spander, a longtime columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, contributes regularly to ESPNET SportsZone.