Nesby wants to spin magic with Wizards

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, June 12, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

Whether Michael Jordan will swap his designer suits in favor of an NBA uniform next season is a question not even his players can answer.

At least not Washington Wizards swingman Tyrone Nesby.

Nesby last spoke with Jordan, the Wizards' president of basketball operations, about three weeks ago.

"When he talked to me, he told me he didn't know if he's coming back," Nesby said Monday after the first day of his second annual NBA Superstar Camp. "He's going to work out, see what's going on.

"Mike doesn't even know yet. A lot of people are putting words into his mouth, but he doesn't even know."

The former UNLV player may not be Jordan's best friend, privy to the highly classified information regarding a possible comeback, but it was Jordan who answered Nesby's questions about joining the Wizards.

And it was Jordan who Nesby said convinced him that in time, the Wizards would be noticeably improved from the team that finished 19-63 this year.

So when the Wizards dealt Cherokee Parks and Obinna Ekezie to the Los Angeles Clippers for Nesby Nov. 29, Nesby wasn't mad, he was glad.

"A lot of people thought it surprised me," Nesby said. "But I asked for the trade during the summer because I wanted to get away from there."

"Being with the Wizards is going to be good for me. Mike is trying to change up a lot of things, make the team a lot better.

"I've been talking to Mike (since) before all this stuff happened. Mike told me he's going to make a change and right now he's doing it. So it's not like he lied to me. I respect the fact that he has made some moves."

Nesby averaged 8.4 points, 1.4 assists and 2.7 rebounds for the Wizards, starting 22 of 28 games.

His transition to a new team was strained by his rocky relationship with then-coach Leonard Hamilton (who resigned April 18), but the straightforward Nesby maintains their relationship was never as bad as it was portrayed.

Nesby feels Hamilton, the former University of Miami coach who had never coached in the NBA, did not know how to utilize Nesby's talent, nor was he aware of his style of play.

The coach and player once feuded openly during a Wizards home game.

"We worked things out," Nesby said. "People blew things out of proportion.

"See, (we) got into an argument. Everybody argues with a coach. That's life. When it was over, Jordan sat down and talked to me, said we needed to settle down and work things out. So me and Hamilton after the game, we sat down, talked. That was it."

The day after Hamilton resigned, Doug Collins, Jordan's former coach with the Chicago Bulls, was hired as his replacement.

Nesby holds Collins in high regard and is looking forward to playing for his new coach.

The Wizards have the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, and Nesby said he may remain a Wizard after his contract expires at the end of next season.

"I'm happy for the organization; they're going to get a new coach," Nesby said. "That's what the team needs.

"Any team that's not one that has gone to the playoffs, hasn't won too many games, they need a good steady coach. And they also need players that are going to stay with each other for so many years, understand each other.

"When you switch up teams every year, there is no chemistry. You can't win like that."

Winning is what motivates Nesby to continue playing.

Yet it was the Clippers, traditionally the cellar-dwellers of the NBA, who plucked Nesby from the CBA during the 1998-99 season. Then he was dealt to the woeful Wizards, who endured their third consecutive losing season.

While most players play for multimillion dollar contracts, what Nesby covets most is the opportunity to win a championship.

Or at least get close.

"People don't understand how much stress is on me right now," Nesby said. "I can't be in the league for 10 years and not go to the playoffs or not even get to play for a championship.

"I don't even want to tell anybody I've been in the league if that's the case. That's what you're there for -- to go to the playoffs, win a ring. You're not there for the money.

"Damn the money, you know. Money comes and goes. It's not about the money with me. My mom and family know I've lived most of my life without money.

"My whole objective is that you respect me and know when I go out there that I play hard."

This is the same objective Nesby stresses to the group of kids sitting in a circle on the court at Faith Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School on Monday.

The first day of the three-day camp now concluded, Nesby talked to the youngsters about working hard and practicing what they have learned.

These are the same principles Nesby lives by, the ones he hope will pay off in the form of a trip to the playoffs, if not an NBA title.