Lemieux roles as player and owner conflict

While there is a long way to go in the 2001 sports year, there is a good chance that Mario Lemieux will be at the top of the sports stories when the year is done. That will be especially true if he gets even better as the NHL season enters its second half.

At the NHL All-Star game Sunday, Lemieux was the center of attention. He was the captain of the North America team, the focus of media attention and he got his goal in the game that had 26 of them. I covered the game for ABC.

We opened the broadcast live in the North America locker room with Lemieux. As has been the case since he came out of a 33/4-year retirement 16 games ago, Lemieux could not be more cooperative with the press. That was not always the case in his preretirement career.

As we waited to go on the air, I asked him, “Is there anything that you haven’t had a chance to say yet that you’d like to say here?”

With a slight grin, he said, “No. There isn’t even anything that I’ve said once that I haven’t said twice.”

In light of his availability to the press over the past month, he was telling the truth.

Yet, nothing is perfect. Lemieux is an owner as well as being a player. There have been rumblings from the players’ association that the $1.5 million salary he awarded himself isn’t nearly enough. There is the presence of Lemieux at owners meetings where player issues are obviously discussed.

While Lemieux says he will not vote on player issues while he is playing, he still is involved in the discussions with other owners. That raises all the issues having to do with serving two masters.

His return has been of such a storybook nature that complaints and concerns have been only quietly raised. No one wants to upset the golden apple cart, and that includes Lemieux. For that reason, while he fully cooperated with the press at the All-Star game, he tried to do so in the most discreet way. He redirected the spotlight on others whenever he could.

He avoided crowds of media and refused to be the last player introduced prior to the game. Instead, he was the last of the reserves to be announced, but the starters as selected by the fans came last.

After the game, a fan said to me it looked like Lemieux was playing in slow motion for part of the game. Not that he wasn’t trying, but that he appeared to hold back at times.

He probably did.

The last thing he wanted was to be the MVP of the game and attract even more attention. He did get his goal and the fans loved it, but that was just one of 26.

Lemieux will not be in slow motion at any point the rest of the season. He wants desperately to take the Penguins to the playoffs, both as a player and an owner. The physical game played against him by other teams will mount, especially those teams looking for a playoff spot themselves.

His performance to this point has been so exceptional that even fellow all-stars were lost for words to describe it. Goal scorer Brett Hull, rarely at a loss for words, knew he was going to play on Lemieux’s line Sunday.

“I’ve spent weeks trying to figure out how I’m going to play with Lemieux,” said Hull. “I finally decided, I’ll find a way to get him the puck, and then just watch.”

Welcome to the crowd.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and CBS sportscaster.