 |
|
Updated: May 10, 9:48 AM ET Honest Abe, follow MJ out the door By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Let me start with disclaimers: I like Abe Pollin. I really do. In a world, and a league, of poseurs and pretenders, people who talk about doing the right thing and then do the expedient, selfish thing, Pollin is almost always on the right side of the argument. As a fellow Washingtonian, I know the numerous good works Pollin had done for the community (and don't know about dozens of others), not because he'd get favorable press, but because he genuinely believes in the idea of being a good neighbor. Abe Pollin built MCI Center in the middle of Washington, D.C., when most people were going the other way. He built a lot of it with his own money, again, because he didn't want to hold up the District in a time of fiscal crisis. And one of the biggest reasons I like Pollin is the same reason I like Allen Iverson: Both are incredibly, passionately loyal to those who've stuck up for them, and they don't care if other people don't like it. For years, general manager Wes Unseld has been battered by the locals in D.C. for not making the Wizards into contenders. It is safe to say that Unseld would have been fired by just about every other owner in the win-right-now-or-else NBA. But Pollin sticks with him. He's loyal that way. He is a good, decent man who was always pleasant to me when I covered his team on a daily basis.
This really isn't even about Michael Jordan. It is about Pollin not being big enough to work through a problem that had solutions. When the New York Times on Sunday accurately detailed the cast-in-stone hard feelings that Pollin had for Jordan, that should have been enough. It was a properly delivered shot across the bow by Pollin (or his people; it doesn't really matter now) that got Jordan's attention: I don't like how you're treating my people. Pollin and Jordan are a lot alike, actually, and that's part of why they clashed. If you're not with them, if you don't drink the Kool Aid, you are summarily cast out of the tribe. In retrospect, it was like asking the Jets and Sharks to build a playground together. Pollin held the upper hand; he owned the club. He could make demands of Michael Jordan that no one, not Jerry Reinsdorf, not David Stern, could make. He could have insisted that Jordan, if he wanted to return to the Wizards as president of basketball operations, had to make major changes. If he wanted Jordan to move his family to D.C., he could have asked for it. If he wanted Jordan to have lunch with him every day, he could have asked for it. If he wanted Jordan to apologize to others in the organization, he could have asked for that. If he wanted Jordan to grow hair, he could have asked for that. But Pollin asked for nothing. He just told Jordan to get out. And that was a colossal mistake.
Did Jordan make mistakes? Of course, he did. Hiring Leonard Hamilton was an awful call. Time will tell on Kwame Brown, but his first two seasons have not lived up to his first-pick status. Was it a mistake to come back and play? Yes, in the sense that it created resentments among players; no, in the sense that, I believe, it made Jordan appreciate what constitutes a good team even more. Rip Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse? Not as bad a deal as it appears now, I believe; Hamilton fits in perfectly with what the Pistons want to do, and he's playing with better players than Stackhouse. And Doug Collins, no matter what the players think of him, is a terrific basketball coach. Not the best communicator. But a great coach. I have no doubt that Jordan, and probably some of Jordan's people, frequently rubbed Pollin's folks the wrong way. There was likely an attitude of city folk toward country folk, a sense that "We're from the big city, rubes; pay attention and you'll learn something." But those aren't offenses that merit the death penalty. They are behaviors that can be modified. These are people, after all, not androids. Firing Jordan now shows incredible impatience with the building process. At the height of his playing powers, when he was the baddest hooper on the planet, it took Jordan seven years to win a title. He had been in Washington 3½ years -- and, let's be honest, this past season shouldn't even count. The Wizards won 19 games two years ago. They won 37 this season. How is that not "moving in the right direction?" There is no magic pill for winning, unless you have the first pick when Tim Duncan is available. It takes years. Most of the time, you have to rebuild twice -- once to get rid of the deadweight you inherited, a second time to fine-tune. The Kings had Webber, Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic four years ago. But over the past four years, they've also had to add Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson and Keon Clark to become a genuine title contender. Don Nelson came to Dallas in 1997 with only Michael Finley to build around. He added Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki the next year, and has spent the past five years mixing and matching pieces, subtracting a Juwan Howard here, adding a Nick Van Exel there. And the Mavs still are probably going to go out in the second round again.
Jordan is, to put it mildly, impossible as a teammate. He will push, and push, and push, nag, cheat, cajole, threaten, bully, curse, do any and everything to players to see if they have what it takes. That's not nice. But he's the one with six rings. Don't you think these players should have been listening to him, not the other way around? And let's cut to the chase here; the Wizards have been nice for two decades and they've gotten their butts kicked. When you have a disagreement this profound, you go in a room and you close the door. You yell at each other. You cuss. You order in lunch. Maybe you cuss some more. Maybe it takes two hours, maybe it takes a week. But you try to solve the problem. Do you think that Larry Brown and Iverson settle their differences in one 30-minute meeting? Do you think that Brown or Ive have dropped a few F-bombs on one another over the years? But, ultimately, they made up. (This brings me to Ted Leonsis, the Wizards' minority owner. Where the hell is he during all this? He's the one who brought Jordan to D.C., and I'd imagine he understood the value of having Jordan around. Did Leonsis try to act as a peacemaker, try to get these two stubborn, proud men to realize that they're better together than they are apart? Did he say anything, or watch a huge chunk of his investment get in his Mercedes and drive away?) At the least, Pollin owed Jordan an explanation. He owes the fans of Washington a lot more. I know Abe Pollin is a proud, proud man. The worst thing you can do is tell him how to run his franchise. Bob Johnson might have had a franchise seven years ago if he'd approached Pollin quietly, negotiated, taken his time, instead of making public threats and blustering. Abe Pollin doesn't react well to bluster, or threats. He's earned the right to run a team he's owned since 1964 his way. But it's been run into the ground. It's time to let someone else drive the car. David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |
| |||||||||||||||||||
Always room for Air
