AT A MIDDAY practice at Loyola Marymount University on Nov. 7, 1991, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Dunleavy delivered an urgent and sudden edict to his players: They needed to head to the Forum in Inglewood, California, immediately. Every player had to be there, he said. "No exceptions."
That included a point guard named Sedale Threatt, a 30-year-old career backup who had been traded to the Lakers a month earlier. He had spent time in Philadelphia with Julius Erving, in Chicago with Michael Jordan, in Seattle with Gary Payton.