It's like trying to imagine the Lakers without Shaq and Kobe. It's like trying to imagine the Jazz without Stockton and Malone. It's like trying to imagine "Dharma and Greg" without, well, Dharma and Greg.

The Atlanta Braves without Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux? Who could picture a world like that? Not the manager. That's for sure.

"I can't imagine it," says Bobby Cox. "I don't even want to think about it. You think of the Braves, you think of Maddux and Glavine -- and (John) Smoltz. It's been that way since '93. That's a long time, man."

The Best Of The Best

All stats through Tuesday and are since the start of the 1993 season, when Greg Maddux joined Tom Glavine in Atlanta: Most games started Tom Glavine, 301 Greg Maddux, 294 Mike Mussina, 281 Chuck Finley, 277 Darryl Kile, 275 Most batters faced Tom Glavine, 8,518 Greg Maddux, 8,378 Darryl Kile, 7,865 Mike Mussina, 7,884 Randy Johnson, 7,813 Most innings pitched Greg Maddux, 2,113.2 Tom Glavine, 2,028.2 Randy Johnson, 1,960 Mike Mussina, 1,931 Kevin Brown, 1,912.2 Most wins Greg Maddux, 163 Randy Johnson, 155 Tom Glavine, 153 Mike Mussina, 145 Pedro Martinez, 133 Best winning percentages Randy Johnson, 155-53, .745 Greg Maddux, 163-71, .697 Pedro Martinez, 133-58, .696 Tom Glavine, 153-73, .677 Jamie Moyer, 118-64, .648

For 10 straight seasons now, they have been the essence of the Atlanta Braves -- the Parade of Cy Young Stars. But will there be an 11th season for that parade?

Six months from now, Glavine, 36, and Maddux, also 36, can become free agents. It makes your brain engine overheat to think they could peel off those Braves uniforms this fall and never put them on again.

History says it won't turn out that way. But as long as they remain unsigned, anything is possible. And if you don't believe that, remember this:

Since the day Maddux first pitched for the Braves, on April 5, 1993, every face has changed around him -- except Glavine and Smoltz. (For the record, Chipper Jones and Javy Lopez didn't arrive until later that season.)

And even Smoltz entertained a few offers elsewhere just last winter. That came about after the Braves allowed him to play out the final year of his contract and make it onto the market -- before re-signing him.

So this year, in the case of the two co-CEOs of Aces Inc., says general manager John Schuerholz, "we've simply taken the same approach with them as we have with others in the past."

"We understand what they mean to us," Schuerholz says of Glavine and Maddux. "We understand how good they are. We understand what their value is in the modern-day baseball arena. We understand all that. So we continue to ponder what to do and how to do it and when to do it. And we're thinking of all those things as we're pondering."

The difference, though, is that none of those "others in the past" meant to the Braves what Maddux and Glavine mean -- and have always meant.

Since their pairing in 1993, they rank 1-2 in the major leagues in games started, batters faced and innings pitched. They were also 1-2 in wins until Randy Johnson nudged in front of Glavine this month. Only Johnson and Pedro Martinez keep them from ranking 1-2 in winning percentage.

And that doesn't even count their 47 postseason starts or 20 postseason wins since '93.

	“	It's hard to think about (leaving), but in a way, it's not hard. I think purely about playing the game, because that's what I do. I want to play. Like I've said, I'd love to play here. I'd love to end my career here. But I'm not ready to stop playing. So I'll be somewhere next year. ”
		— Tom Glavine

"We understand," Schuerholz says, "what our pitchers have done, in dramatic and consistent fashion, over the last decade. They've been not only an integral part of our championship success ... they've been players on whom the media has focused, as well as our fans. And properly so.

"But," Schuerholz says, "these are very complex issues."

Contracts for 36-year-old pitchers -- who will both be 37 in the first year of their next contract -- are always complex issues, of course. And they ought to be.

Age enters into the debate. Health enters into the debate, even though Glavine has never been on the disabled list and Maddux just finished his first trip to the DL in 17 seasons. And money enters into the debate, because Glavine makes $9 million now, Maddux $12.5 million -- and they're probably not going to be taking pay cuts.

But this year, their negotiations are complicated by one other factor -- those labor war drums whose beat grows steadily louder by the day.

"What they've told me," Glavine says, "is that they'd like to keep me, but what's more important now is the uncertainty over what's going on in baseball. So it seems like as long as there's that uncertainty, they're not ready to do anything. I don't know what that means. But that's fine. It doesn't bother me one way or the other. It doesn't change what I need to do. So I'll just focus on what I need to do and let the contract take care of itself."

Schuerholz isn't willing to disclose exactly what that means, either, other than to say: "We don't know what the circumstances will be in our industry next year. We don't know what the work rules are going to be."

In other words, if there's some sort of salary-cap type tax structure in effect next season, everything -- payroll budgets, superstar salaries, average-player salaries, contract length, etc. -- will be evaluated in a different context than it is today.

But whatever the circumstances, whatever the work rules, whatever the context, eventually the Braves are going to have to play baseball. And it still seems incomprehensible they could be playing it without Glavine, Maddux or both.

"You know," Maddux says, "if somebody wants to hire you and give you a contract, great. But it's not my money to give away. I'd be more than happy to take it, but it's not mine to give away. So I've got to do what I've got to do. And they've got to try and run their business the way they see fit. If at some point it pans out here, great. If not, somebody will give me a chance."

Or at least they will if he's healthy. In no other year would it be a major development that Maddux missed one start with an inflamed nerve in his lower back (and left Wednesday's outing after reaggravating the injury). But this is his free-agent year. So suddenly, if that becomes an ongoing problem, it also could become a factor that seeps into his marketability.

But Maddux, the most unflappable man alive, says he isn't worried about that, either.

"What I've got," he says, "is supposed to be temporary. So it doesn't concern me, not really. The game has given me so much, anyway. Sure, it's great, great money. But I don't expect to make that kind of money. And I don't know that I deserve that kind of money. But I'm still doing what I love to do. Hopefully, I'll still do it another five, six years. If not, I'll go take golf lessons and work on my golf game."

Somehow, though, it's tough to envision him working on his bunker game next April -- especially when he currently finds himself 42 wins away from 300 wins.

Glavine, meanwhile, is only 74 wins away from 300 -- and 15 away from passing Frank Tanana as the second-winningest left-hander (behind Steve Carlton) in the division-play era.

Glavine, however, is also a man who has spent his entire 16-year career with the Braves. Because this is the fifth year of his contract, it's been so long since he even thought about being anywhere else, he almost forgets what that sort of daydreaming feels like.

"In the past," he says, "I always knew the day might come when I wasn't here. But now that that day might be here, I don't know what to think about it.

"In a way, I can understand it from their standpoint. It's a big, big deal -- two guys like that from one team who can be free agents. It would be a big deal. But to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it. I'm so locked into what I do, what I need to do to have a good year, I haven't paid much attention to it."

On the other hand, though, he admits it's impossible to shut it out completely -- if only because people like us keep asking about it.

"It's certainly in the back of my mind, because it does come up," he says. "And when I think of next year coming around without Greg being here, or Greg being here without me, it's strange to think about."

It's so strange, in fact, Schuerholz refuses even to answer a question about that possibility.

"It's not necessary for me to do that," the GM says "So I can't say it would be hard or difficult or challenging or anything else. I don't need to do that, because it's April. I don't need to talk about probabilities of things that haven't happened yet. I need to think about what's the right thing to do. These are two great pitchers, and they are two pitchers who have contributed a great deal to our franchise. But I don't have to contemplate them not being here, because it hasn't happened yet."

In the past, however, the Braves signed both pitchers before their old contracts expired. In 1997, the last time both were free agents the same year, the club signed Glavine to a four-year, $34-million extension (with an option year that vested) in May. Then the Braves quietly got a five-year, $57.5-million deal done with Maddux in mid-August.

So that same scenario could well develop this year, too. Except the "circumstances in the industry" aren't likely to be cleared up by then. And they're both five years older.

It's impossible to remember the Braves losing any major free agent who wanted to stay and whom the Braves wanted to keep. But John Burkett, whom the Braves had offered a modest deal, left for more money from the Red Sox last winter. So who's to say Glavine or Maddux couldn't do the same if the Braves seek a hometown discount?

"It's hard to think about (leaving), but in a way, it's not hard," Glavine says. "I think purely about playing the game, because that's what I do. I want to play. Like I've said, I'd love to play here. I'd love to end my career here. But I'm not ready to stop playing. So I'll be somewhere next year.

"There are certain things that would make it much more convenient to be here ... But the essence of the game is just playing it. You play whereever somebody wants you to play."

And despite the mushrooming of stories just like this one, there has certainly been no indication the Braves don't want either of these men to play for them anymore. Far from it.

"Our fans will just have to take comfort," Schuerholz says, "in the fact that over the last 11 years, we've made a lot of big decisions. A lot of changes have been made. But in the end, the team that took the field the next year was usually a pretty good one."

And virtually all of those teams had one other thing in common, too: Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine kept taking the ball every five days. And we'd bet that whatever the "circumstances," the end of that era is not upon us.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.