Bristow finds life after NBA is all wet

Former NBA mainstay Allan Bristow, who has spent half his life attached to professional basketball, finally retired from the game last fall, settling in on Marco Island.

It makes sense, too, that he would pick such a tropical destination, what with the 54-year-old's love of the water.

Especially the pool.

Bristow has traded his NBA ties for a pair of swimming trunks. He reports to the Marco Island YMCA, a few bounce passes from his home, every morning to take instruction from Kamal Farhat, the coach of the master's swim team.

Bristow's best stroke?

"Staying alive," he said with a laugh, chatting it up Saturday before the National Sports Gala at the Radisson Suite Beach Resort, where he was among several honorees. "Breathing air instead of water."

Farhat and Bristow make an interesting pair. Watching the 5-foot-8 Italian teach the 6-foot-7 Virginian how to swim fast must seem awkward, a far cry from the days when Bristow himself was giving direction to high-flying millionaires.

Bristow is best known, perhaps, as the man who led the Charlotte Hornets to a pair of playoff appearances in the early 1990s, back when Larry Johnson was the face of the franchise.

Even after stepping away from the sideline, though, Bristow kept his hands in the game, most recently as the general manager in New Orleans.

What a difference retirement makes. Bristow, who played 10 seasons in the ABA and NBA, was preparing to make Chris Paul the No. 4 pick of the NBA Draft at this time a year ago. He is now more inclined to cast a line into the Gulf of Mexico, hardly concerned with snagging a Rookie of the Year-type catch.

So much about his life has changed since Hurricane Katrina, the historic storm that swept the Hornets away from their home. Bristow announced his retirement on Oct. 1, not long before the franchise moved its operations to Oklahoma City.

The Hornets are still in a holding pattern, the only team in the league with two first names. New Orleans/Oklahoma City will remain in the Sooner State for one more year, but the team is scheduled to be back in the Big Easy for the 2007-08 season, just in time for New Orleans to host an All-Star game.

"It looks like the league really wants a team in New Orleans," Bristow said. "They announced they're having the All-Star game there. Looks like the Hornets are going to go back. They're making every effort to have that city an NBA team."

Maybe the Hornets can learn something from their old general manager, the man who has tried to beat arthritis in his back and legs — health problems, along with the franchise's relocation, prompted him to hang it up — by swimming himself silly.

"People have different hobbies," Bristow said. "Some play golf or play tennis or ride motorcycles. You take it one day at a time. I know I'm not going to earn a multi-million dollar contract for swimming laps, but I get a lot of satisfaction from being on a swimming team."

So much, in fact, that he doesn't see himself diving back into basketball. He's having too much fun paired with Farhat, staying afloat worlds from where he earned his fame.