Come Hill Or High Water

When the 21-year-old McGrady landed in Chicago for a recruiting visit on Friday, he was greeted by a blues band, the LuvaBulls cheerleaders and a horde of applauding fans, and later threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game and led the fans in singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame—all in hopes of persuading him to accept the Bulls' offer of $9 million plus annual raises of 10% for six years. The Bulls were optimistic, but when McGrady left Chicago on Sunday, it was on a plane headed for Orlando, where he has a new house in Isleworth. Gabriel and Rivers were at the airport to greet him.

A short time later Gabriel learned that Duncan had decided to stay with die Spurs. Among other things, Duncan wanted to maintain his partnership with center David Robinson, who flew to San Antonio from his off-season home in Hawaii to meet his frontcourtmate. The 35-year-old Robinson has said he wants to play four more years; according to early reports, Duncan was seeking a three-year contract from the Spurs with an option for a fourth year that would free him to play elsewhere when Robinson retires.

Adding more NCAA-style zaniness to the proceedings is the fact that players cannot sign contracts until Aug. 1, because the NBA accountants need the month of July to settle their books and to finalize the salary cap for next season. So Gabriel works the phones, trying to keep his options open while he tries to nail down others.

Sadly, all of this work was superseded by the news Gabriel received Thursday night. While driving home from work, he learned that the body of Cory Erving, son of Magic executive vice president Julius Erving, had been discovered at the bottom of a pond on the outskirts of Orlando. "We shut down our work at the office here today," Gabriel said on Friday. "It's been a hard day."

The next morning he was back negotiating contracts worth many millions of dollars, which is easier to do once you realize that it's all just a game.