Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 403

which disturbs me even more than the way this big money is making pro basketball an unprofitable business. "Our division (Midwest) should be the best-balanced and most competitive in the league this season. I think the Bulls have a good chance to win the title, but Milwaukee, Detroit, and Kansas City-Omaha think so, too. "It's going to be a helluva race. As for handling the rest of it, I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't believe I could do it.

Some people felt I wouldn't last long when I came to Chicago, but I've applied the same principles here that I did when I was coaching junior high school in Utah and it works just as well with the pros. "A good coach has to be a teacher, not a shouter. I think what I've done with the Bulls and what others like Fitzsimmons (Cotton, Atlanta). Holzman (Red, New York), and Sharman (Bill, Los Angeles) have accomplished in the N. B.

A. proves my point." Actually, anybody who looks at Motta's career, a steady progression from smalltown Utah to coach of the year 1 970-7 1 in the N. B. can see why he's always looking for a tougher challenge. It's the nature of such intense competitors to do so.

He built little Weber (Utah) State from small-college status to a perennial Big Sky Conference champion resented by other schools in the league and ducked by independent powers looking for soft touches on their schedules. He came to Chicago unheralded and built the floundering Bulls into an N. B. A. powerhouse with the ingredients all-out effort plus mental and physical toughness.

When the Bulls and the equally-rugged Golden State Warriors go at it, there's enough carnage to satisfy Roller Derby fans. It's a new season and a new challenge. Is Motta equal to it? You can find the answer on channel 44. agent, financial advisor, and tax loophole specialist and their first move is to plunk down a list of grievances. Since the war between the N.

B. A. and the upstart American Basketball Association, volleys of greenbacks have rained on the heads of the delighted procagers, now by far the most affluent wage slaves in any sport. The average salary package in the N. B.

A. last season, including such substantial fringe benefits as $10,000 in "severance pay" for each year of service, came to Despite this largesse, frequent inter-league raids keep players on the lookout for greener pastures, thereby enriching their agents and the lawyers who gleefully grab fees for interminable body-snatching court fights. Very little of this double-dealing is good for the overall growth and stability of either league, but the merry-go-round just keeps turning faster. The 17 A. general managers have to encourage contract-jumping and other such shady tactics because, in their words, "everybody else is doing it." That seems to be a familiar excuse for people at all levels of American society these days, so it shouldn't surprise anyone to find it in sports.

The question is, will anybody try to reverse the trend? Motta is making the attempt in his new role with the Bulls. In doing so, he's careful to point out that getting the job done right by combining a winning team on the floor with a profitable operation in the front office is his only concern! He is aware that larger questions of ethics, philosophy, and life style are involved, but Motta deliberately avoids such discussions. "My concern is to give the fans a good evening's entertainment at a price that's not beyond their reach," he sums up his approach to the new task of running the whole show. "Salaries are way out of line and that's limiting the players' incentive, By Bob Logan IS (ace won't be framed in the CBS eye even tho that network will take over national telecasts ol his team's league in 1973-74. No, it's more of a Bulls-eye pinpointing the handsome features of Dick Motta, coach, general manager, and man in the middle for the Chicago Bulls.

Opening their eighth National Basketball Association season, they have switched to WSNS-TV (channel 44) with a new policy of beaming all 41 road games back to Chicagoland. Andy Musser, former Philadelphia 76ers' broadcaster, will be play-by-play man on the telecasts. Doing the color is Dick Gonski, ex-Notre Dame athlete who was Bulls' ticket manager during the Pat Williams regime. Wherever they go this time, however, the spotlight will be relentlessly focused on Motta, a man who thrives on challenges. Just turned 42, Motta faces the biggest one of his life as ringmaster of the entire Chicago operation.

He figures to be on more spots this season than a commercial for the latest collection of oldies but baddies. Why would a man standing at the top of his profession turn down more lucrative offers from elsewhere to assume the entire burden for the Bulls? Coaching is a full-time job, especially in the N. B. with its nerve-shredding 82-game schedule, incessant travel, and succession of six games in different cities on seven nights, culminating with a titanic tussle in such metropoles as Ecdysiast, accessible only via One-Wing Airlines. General managers in all pro sports nowadays have their hands full too.

The athletes are a far cry from the "dem-dese-dose" dummies of yesteryear. They report to training camp with a retinue consisting of Rinqmaster Nfe -Bulls-eye MJ' I jinf Ill AM'im -kd i ri.