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Show SjUiiJjs. is way too high MIKE KLIS NEW YORK THI DAILY HI RALD. Hrovo. I lah ). I'jiic i woopes' swoop needs a little more court time For 22 goals, Sakic's price By AuiniM Go, Joe. Go ahead and go. They're already counting on it here. Splashed on the back page of three New York daily tabloids Thursday was the famous photograph of a Joe jubilant, Sakic wearing his Colorado Avalanche sweater and She HOUSTON (AP) received yellow roses from Charles Barkley and two standing ovations from the crowd. But Sheryl Swoopes knows it will take more than flowers and applause to get back into basketball shape. Six weeks after giving birth to a son, Swoopes made her WNBA debut Thursday night s minan uneventful utes in the Houston Comets' victory over the Phoenix five-plu- 74-7- 0 She'll try again today against the Los Angeles Sparks in The Summit. "I was very nervous for the first game after being out of competitive basketball for a year," Swoopes said. "There's a big difference in pickup ball and getting out here. It's going to take awhile to get the butter- out hard during the Comets' last road trip. "I've been surprised how good I've felt in practice," Swoopes said. "I worked out the first six months of my pregnancy playing pickup games. Even after that, I still shot the ball." With her family hovering over sleeping Jordan Eric at courtside, Swoopes went onto the court for the first time with flies out." Swoopes scored no points and took no shots, but her body vised game, but he's not sutV how many minutes she will get "We'll play Sheryl based on what's best for the team," hV ' said. . th'i' of has been one 9:20 to go in the first haif. The crowd stood and cheered, but she showed little of the Olympic flash from a year ago. "A lot of people asked why I didn't shoot, but I was just trying to fit in with the team and get in the flow," she said. didn't matter to me if I shot 20 times or not at ail." coach Van Comets Chancellor wanted to give Swoopes some playing time before today's nationally tele held up well. She returned to practice July 30 and worked Mercury. "Sheryl premier piayers, but she's not' one of them right now," Chancellor said. "You let anyone lay out a year ... MichaeF Jordan couldn't lay out a1 year, much less have a baby, and come back and be the same." It open-mouth- hoisting the 1995-9- Stanley 6 Gup. One newspaper accompanied the photo with the pronouncement: "The Next Messiah?" a reference to Sakic replacing Mark Messier as the New York Rangers' leader. The other two ran the copycat headline: "Broadway Joe." If Sakic leaves for our country's largest city, for the NHL's smelliest arena, for $15 million up front, for the Rangers and an odds-o- n chance to win another Stanley Cup, Colorado's hockey fans will miss him. He's been great. At least he was great one year and real good the next. It would appear Sakic is skating on the downhill side of his playing curve, Avalanche mulling over $21 million question NEW YORK (AP) After waiting for Joe Sakic's wife to shop for a dress, now the New York Rangers will have to wait a few more days for the Colorado Avalanche to answer. Will they match the Rangers' spectacular contract offer to the free agent center? The offer sheet to Sakic, signed Wednesday, included an $15 million signing bonus in the three-yea- r deal. The Avalanche have five eye-poppi- more days to match the offer; if not, New York will owe Colorado five first-roundraft picks. It "would hurt" the admittedd Avalanche to ly match the offer, which amounts to $17 million for the first year, year and Patrick Roy more than $4.5 million. Lacroix, in an interview in Denver, admitted it would be difficult to match the Rangers' offer sheet, but that the Avalanche would make a decision that's "best for the hockey club and the fans in Denver." Sakic was paid $3.1 million last season, and the Avalanche had hoped to him to a multi-yea- r contract of about $6 million per year. d cash-strappe- including salary and bonus, Colorado general manager Pierre Lacroix said. The Avalanche already are stretched thin on salaries, paying Peter Forsberg $6 million a mm Ml! !1 H n lwMiwai but he's still real good. The Avalanche may never win another Stanley Cup without him. THE REGRETTABLE truth, however, is Sakic is not worth $15 million up front. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux may have been worth that kind of cash if their prime years were in the not the . But not Joe Sakic. Not now, not ever. After scoring 51 goals in his first season in Colorado, and another 18 in leading the Avalanche through the Stanley Cup playoffs, Sakic scored just 22 goals last season, eight in the playoffs. Twenty-twgoals. Pull out the calculator and punch in $15 million up front and another $2 million in salary for the 1997-9season to a late-1990- late-'80- s, ...' s. IIIM o 8 guy who scored 22 goals. Besides, even if Sakic was worth $15 million up front, the Avalanche, if we can believe its accountants, can't afford to pay it. It isn't just $21 million the three-yeadeal the Rangers have offered. It would hemorrhage budthe Avalanche's get to match the $21 million deal the Rangers have offered. It's the $15 million signing bonus that's prohibitive. The Avalanche would rather have Sakic than five draft choices. The ultimate decision, though, will be based strictly on economics. r, red-in- k Saw mi (W(TW ciew Tpta first-roun- d leave, Charlie Lyons, who presides over Ascent Entertainment, the company that owns the Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, will be vilified by the hockey public. ately as the working-clas- s immediciti- zens scoff at the absurdity of paying $15 million up front to one player. But as the Avalanche loses its dominance during the regular season and exit the playoffs before the Stanley Cup finals, fans will remember that they lost Sakic. That won't be fair because the Avalanche should not be blamed. Even if the Avalanche paid Sakic now, it would have no choice but to further slash at its already deteriorating depth. It probably wouldn't be able to pay Patrick Roy later. Either way, the Avalanche loses. It was fun while it lasted, but in today's it never lasts. So go ahead arid go, Joe. Take your 22 goals and go. free-age- nt sys-tej- Colo. Big savings? 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