Aspiring To Higher Things

"I have told Tom," Tydings says, "that it isn't a good idea to beat good people—even," and there is a pause for emphasis, "when you can. There are never enough of them, and it creates hostility in the party. Tom understands that and, should he decide to run, it is a matter of waiting for the right opportunity. In this case that is no hardship because he has so many other things going. As a very practical consideration, he has another year to go on a lucrative basketball contract."

There had been talk recently about McMillen's possible candidacy to run against Republican Representative Marjorie Holt for her seat from Anne Arundel County this fall.

"It is no secret that I want to become more involved in public affairs," McMillen says. "But I haven't talked to anyone about any specific office. Maybe I'm better suited to working behind the scenes, say by helping with a Jay Rockefeller or Gary Hart presidential campaign. I also have a lot of entrepreneurial interests I want to develop. Some of them interface with public service, and that may be my role. I am definitely committed to trying to make a contribution in public service. But how and when I make a contribution is still an open question.

"I intend to be playing in the NBA for Atlanta next year. People have written that I have asked to be traded to the Bullets so I can spend more time in Maryland . It's untrue. If a change like that were made it would be because of sport, not politics. While I'm with the NBA I'll do what I have been doing when I'm not playing or working on the game: talking to people, collecting information, thinking about options, getting ready for when I'm finished with basketball."

McMillen sometimes calls these activities "networking." As he practices it, networking requires the constitution of a moose, the energy level of a shrew and no more fear of flying than a bat has.

A typical political foray might include a trip to Annapolis to chat with members of the Maryland legislature; a string of two or three speeches on behalf of his alma mater, in which he would warn against what he calls the "brain drain," the evil consequences of Maryland graduates moving elsewhere; and a visit to the farm home of Louis Goldstein, the state comptroller and a grand old (41-year) pro of Maryland politics. On an off-day he might travel, as he did, to New York to appear at a Democratic Party function commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franklin D. Roosevelt . In spare moments, always and everywhere, in airports, hotel rooms and other people's offices, he telephones friends, family, fellow Rhodes scholars, business, political or media people in Chicago , Phoenix , San Diego , Denver or wherever the Hawks are flying.

McMillen has talked to civic and industrial leaders about building a recreational center in inner-city Atlanta with facilities similar to those found in suburban clubs and health spas.

"When I was a kid in Mansfield and I would break into the gym to play basketball," he says, "I thought I was a criminal, which I suppose technically I was, but everybody probably knew about it and thought it was all right. If a ghetto kid did the same thing he would be treated as a vandal and a delinquent. Our system depends on expanding opportunities, not excluding people from them. Economic progress and social justice aren't opposing goals. They are dependent on each other."

Descriptions of Tom McMillen tend to be a catalogue of his exceptional accomplishments, methods of self-improvement and high ambitions. They tend to present McMillen as a cross between a 6'11" computer and a priggish Boy Scout . There is a down side: McMillen has certain language weaknesses. They are probably caused by hanging around too many public servants, political technicians and entrepreneurs. And listening to Alexander Haig.

"If you don't stop using access and network as verbs, or if you ever use interface again in any form, I will not vote for you for dog catcher, particularly not for dog catcher."