Blazers have bone to pick with Pistons

Bill Curley's broken left foot is throwing a wrench into Portland's
deal with Detroit involving Otis Thorpe, and the signing of Arvydas 
Sabonis.

Bill Curley's suspect left foot has tripped up the Otis Thorpe 
trade and kept the Trail Blazers from signing Arvydas Sabonis.

Curley, who broke his foot last March 1 playing for Detroit, did 
not pass inspection after Portland acquired him and the rights to 
rookie guard Randolph Childress in last week's long-awaited deal 
with the Pistons.

"There is some question about his foot, and that's the whole issue," Lee

Fentress, Curley's agent, said Tuesday.

The Blazers and Pistons are talking again, trying to salvage or 
re-work the deal.

"It's between Portland and Detroit," Fentress said. "And the 
medical people are talking to each other."

The Pistons must get rid of Curley's $910,000 salary in order to 
have room for Thorpe's $2.4 million contract under the NBA's $23 
million salary cap. The Blazers must get rid of Thorpe, for several 
reasons. They want Childress, and Thorpe has made it clear he does 
not want to come back to Portland.

"Portland, I thought they were taking steps backward," Thorpe said 
in Detroit last Friday, as new coach Doug Collins looked on. "With 
Doug, we can go forward."

The trade also would trim about $1 million off Portland's team 
salary, putting the Blazers in position, or close to it, to give 
Sabonis the money he commands.

Unless Detroit can find another team for Curley -- which isn't 
likely -- the Pistons and Blazers will have to come up with a 
revised arrangement. Portland could agree to take the 6-foot-9 
power forward but demand more in return (other considerations, 
money, etc.), especially in the event Curley does not play much.

In fact, Pistons officials intimated that they believed such was 
the case, that Blazers general manager Bob Whitsitt was trying to 
squeeze more out of them.

Curley has $4.9 million and four years left on his contract. It is 
believed the Pistons already had agreed to pay part of his salary, 
and Whitsitt now could be asking them to assume a bigger share.

Whitsitt, working at his Rose Quarter office, would not comment on 
the status of the Thorpe trade.

When the two teams do finish talking, "I think Bill will stay in 
Portland," Fentress said.

Curley, reached at home in Massachusetts, wasn't sure.

"I don't know what I'm allowed to say, and I don't want to get 
anybody mad at me," he said. "I'm just sitting here, waiting."

Curley came to Portland at the end of last week, met with coach P.J. 
Carlesimo and said he was ready to start working out with his new 
team. Then, almost immediately, he was gone.

And now, "I really don't know if I should be talking," Curley said. 
"I'm just on hold. I feel fine, but it's not in my hands."

Curley missed 24 games after breaking his foot, then returned for 
the final two games. Not known for his quickness, he apparently did 
not run the court well, even by his standards.

A Pistons staff member familiar with Curley's medical history said 
the player did feel there was a problem with his foot near the end 
of last season.

"We had him come in," the Pistons official said. "We looked at him 
and thought he was OK. And he had a physical before the trade, and 
as far as we're concerned he's fine."

The NBA has approved the trade, a league spokesman said, and Thorpe 
has sold his home in Houston and is close to buying a house in 
Detroit. But the league spokesman noted that all deals are 
contingent on the players involved passing their physicals.

The holdup, meanwhile, does not seem to be bothering Sabonis.

"Whatever. We don't mind," said Arturo Ortega, one of his agents.

The 7-3 center from Lithuania not only shot baskets for the second 
day in a row at Lewis & Clark College, but this time he scrimmaged 
briefly and matched up well against former Blazers center Kevin 
Duckworth.

Sabonis, wearing a Blazers shirt and shorts, did not run the court 
intensely and had a brace around his right ankle. But he had no 
trouble getting off a variety of quick shots from inside and 
outside, and showed better form and range than perhaps any of the 
returning Blazers.

Ortega said a contract for Sabonis has been drawn up, and that the 
two sides have agreed on details such as the length of the deal.

Ortega said he will return to Madrid on Wednesday but that another 
agent, Herb Rudoy, will be here with Sabonis when the former Spanish 
League star signs with Portland.

Sabonis, who otherwise has not talked to the local media, answered a 
few quick questions after his workout.

"My English is bad," he said, somewhat apologetically.

How does he like Portland?

"It's like seven years ago again," he said, referring to his 1988 
visit.

"It's the same, beautiful.

"It's green, and the people, I think, are nice."

To sign Sabonis, the Blazers almost certainly will have to renounce 
their free agents -- Terry Porter, Mark Bryant, James Edwards and 
Steve Henson.

The Blazers might not be done trading, either. Philadelphia, sorely 
in need of a point guard despite signing Vernon Maxwell on Tuesday, 
still is trying to get Rod Strickland. But sources said Whitsitt 
turned down the 76ers' offer of 6-7 forward Clarence Weatherspoon.

However, the Blazers apparently might be interested in Philadelphia's 
6-11 Sharone Wright, a second-year power forward.

And be it with Philadelphia or another team, Strickland and/or 
forward Clifford Robinson are on the market as the Oct. 6 start of 
training camp at Linfield College nears.