Washington Post July 12th 1997

 Before they showed off their new uniforms yesterday at Union Station, the Washington Wizards took steps to ensure the team will have a very familiar look next season by signing point guard Chris Whitney and reaching an agreement with guard Tim Legler.

Whitney's contract is worth $4.3 million over three years and has an initial salary of $1.2 million for this season, a source said. Legler is close to signing a three-year deal worth a similar amount of money, the source said.

Legler -- who tore his anterior cruciate ligament last year and strained his knee this season three games after his return -- underwent knee surgery in early May. He will sign the contract after taking a standard physical examination on Monday.

After Washington's 44-38 season that brought the team its first playoff berth since 1988, key players publicly lobbied for management to keep the core intact. The retention of Whitney and Legler means the Wizards will have their top 10 players from last season under contract for the 1997-98 season.

"Once we get those two back into our family, then I feel we can get off to a good start, kind of like start where we left off at," said Wizards forward Juwan Howard, who modeled the new home and road uniforms yesterday.

Wizards General Manager Wes Unseld said: "I am a person that believes that you can't stay pat and keep getting better. But I think this group is so young, I think we started to see what they can do toward the end of last season and I think we should give them that opportunity to do that. But we're still going to be looking to add something to this team in whatever subtle way that can help."

The Wizards have two remaining roster spots and can use their $1 million salary cap exception to sign a free agent from another team.

They have offered a one-year, $326,700 contract to forward Ben Wallace. Because of salary cap constraints, that's the most they can offer the second-year forward, who played in 34 games last season for Washington. He is waiting to hear what other teams have to offer, but one Wizards source said he probably will be back. That would leave one spot.

Second-round draft pick God Shammgod helped model some of the T-shirts and other paraphernalia that the team calls "Wizard Wear" yesterday. He said he remains optimistic that he will get to wear a real uniform this fall, even though Whitney and starting point guard Rod Strickland give the Wizards two players at Shammgod's position.

"I can't worry about the next player," Shammgod said. "I'm just seeing what my role is. In the future, I know I'm going to be a good player, and hopefully one day a great player."

Yesterday's gala uniform debut, which featured a fashion-show style runway, attracted hundreds of onlookers. It's another step in the difficult challenge of establishing a new identity after the team dropped the "Bullets" name it had held for 34 years, ever since it began playing in Baltimore.

"It's going to take a little time for the fans to adjust to it," Howard said.

The uniforms, which are made by Nike, feature the new color scheme of blue, black and bronze. The home uniforms are white with a blue stripe down the left side and the road uniforms are blue with a black stripe. Bronze is used in the trim.

Since the NBA allowed the use of alternative road uniforms in 1994, many teams have come up with secondary uniforms -- which, of course, give fans something else to buy.

But to establish new uniforms (and get maximum sales opportunities), teams must wait two seasons after making a change before they can introduce the second uniform. Once that deadline passes, the Wizards plan to unveil a black alternative road uniform.

"I just can't wait to get that black uniform under our belt," Howard said. "I'm pushing that black uniform, so we can have three."