The Nba

Life after Bobby
David Wesley and the Hornets have kept their bearings in turbulent times

In the dream Bobby Phills is smiling, as if nothing has happened. Hand outstretched, he approaches David Wesley, who thinks about how good it is to have his best friend back. Sometimes, when Wesley's dream lingers, the two head off to shoot baskets or play golf. "Or sometimes," says Wesley, the Hornets' point guard, "we're just talking. Just standing there together, talking."

But the dream ends, and Wesley is overtaken by a profound sadness; he must face another day without his Charlotte teammate, his traveling companion, his workout partner. His waking nightmare never changes: He is driving down Tyvola Road at about 11 a.m. on Jan. 12 after a shootaround at Charlotte Coliseum, talking on his cell phone, watching Phills in his rearview mirror. They are driving fast, too fast, each going more than 100 mph in a 45-mph zone, Phills in his Porsche 994 Cabriolet, Wesley in his Porsche 996, when Phills suddenly loses control and slams into an oncoming car. Wesley, his heart pounding, pulls over and runs to the wreckage to see the 6'5" Phills behind the wheel, his head tilted back, a small trickle of blood running down his face. "I knew," says Wesley quietly, "the minute I saw him."

Phills would be pronounced dead at the scene; two other drivers suffered minor injuries. As shocked teammates and coaches consoled one another, Wesley sat in his car alone, staring straight ahead, wailing until the body of his friend, a 30-year-old husband and father of two, was extricated from the wreckage, covered with a white sheet and taken away.

Death has touched many franchises, but few pro athletes have witnessed the unthinkable firsthand. For some Hornets the image of Phills's death is so vivid and disturbing that they avoid Tyvola Road when going home from the arena. Yet at week's end Charlotte was 30-24 and vying with the 76ers for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. Since Phills's death the Hornets were 12-8, with Wesley averaging 11.9 points and 5.8 assists during that stretch. "I never expected us to come out of it so quickly," says Charlotte coach Paul Silas. "We were all devastated. But I made clear to these guys from the beginning: If we don't win, don't use Bobby as an excuse. He never would have wanted that."

Ask the Hornets how they've endured, and they point to Silas. "It's nice to have a coach who you can talk to about something besides basketball," says forward Derrick Coleman. Silas's ability to keep the team together was tested yet again last Saturday, when forward Anthony Mason was charged with third-degree assault after a 4 a.m. fight outside a Harlem bar. That night Mason played 28 minutes in a 104-93 loss to the Nets.

All-Star shooting guard Eddie Jones remains the team's rock, but Coleman, who has slimmed down by 30 pounds to 270 this season, had averaged 21.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.15 blocks in his last 20 games through Sunday. "He can do things no other power forward can ever imagine doing," says Pistons coach Alvin Gentry, who voted for Coleman on his All-Star ballot. " Karl Malone can't step out and make three-pointers. He can't take it out on the wing and drive it to the basket, between his legs and behind his back."

Silas's decision to move Mason to point forward has opened up space for Coleman and center Elden Campbell underneath, enabled Jones to come off screens and kept the often pouty Mason happy. Yet the key to Charlotte's playoff fortunes is Wesley, 29, who will be called on to steady the backcourt and stretch defenses with his jumper. Over seven seasons he had carved out a reputation for reliability and hard work. Now he's more recognizable, but for all the wrong reasons.

"Before, only the hard-core fans noticed me," Wesley says. "We went to Philly a few weeks ago, and these two teenage girls saw me and said, 'There's David Wesley.' I remember thinking, 'That's odd, odd, odd.' Now it happens all the time. It makes me feel awful."

Wesley has been charged with misdemeanor speed competition and reckless driving, and a court date has been set for March 6. "At first I felt tremendous guilt," he says. "I was mad at myself for ever being in that situation. But what upsets me is how the media keep saying we were drag racing. That isn't true. We were driving fast, but there was no destination, no race."