Bradley hoops it up for N.Y. fund-raiser

--- Suzanne Plunkett/The Associated Press

By STEPHEN BRAUN

Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK --- His former teammates wore white New York Knicks jerseys, but when Bill Bradley returned courtside Sunday at Madison Square Garden, he was wearing a gray flannel politician's uniform --- set apart from the basketball legends who joined him at a $1.5 million fund-raiser for his uphill quest to become president.

The former Democratic senator from New Jersey, who had shied away for years from talking up his past as a basketball Hall of Famer, joined his 1970 championship Knicks teammates and two dozen National Basketball Association giants before 7,500 cheering fans and political donors in a midday celebration designed to mimic the motion and theatrics of a basketball game.

The parade of former Bradley teammates like Willis Reed and Walt "Clyde" Frazier and basketball greats Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius "Dr. J" Erving was both calibrated and affectionate. The event managed to hog the airwaves on the Sunday political talk shows, raise cash and boost Bradley's national profile all at the same time.

Pacing at midcourt with a wireless microphone, Bradley asked supporters to help him open a "world of new possibilities." He told the crowd he wants to be elected president to wield "the power to do good." But he also treated the event as a long-delayed reunion with grizzled warriors, telling his fellow Knicks and NBA rivals that he had "learned a lot more (from them) than they learned from me."

Despite his underdog position in the presidential race against Vice President Al Gore, Bradley has built a well-honed fund-raising apparatus. Rick Wright, Bradley's former Princeton University basketball teammate and the senator's campaign director, expects the campaign will easily reach $45 million, the maximum amount that will be matched by federal funds.

Bradley spokesman Eric Hauser said Sunday that Garden officials estimated 7,500 attendees --- 2,500 more than the campaign had expected. Hauser said final figures may boost the expected totals for the event past $1.5 million --- less than earlier fund-raisers in San Francisco and Chicago.

The donors lining the lower levels of the Garden were a typically tough New York crowd, lustily cheering the Knicks and hometown products like Jabbar and Erving, and good-naturedly booing their old foes. Many hemmed into courtside seats that cost up to $1,000 a ticket, but hundreds of others entered the way many basketball junkies buy their way into games, buying nosebleed seats through Ticketmaster.

Bill Kwalwasser, a computer programmer from New Providence, N.J., showed up with his 10-year-old son, Sam, who expects to be the envy of his school this week, with an all-access pass signed by Dr. J and Boston Celtics greats Bob Cousy and John Havlicek. Kwalwasser paid $3,000 for seats nearly under the basket and to attend a reception where he and his family could mingle with Bradley and his NBA rivals.

"It definitely gets him noticed and that's a good thing," Kwalwasser said. "He's a true blue hero, a real all-American, you know? But I hope he doesn't dwell on this too much. People have to remember what he's done in public service."

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