| | It's about time, Pat.
|  | | The acquisition of Eddie Jones signaled a major change for Pat Riley and the Heat. |
Hey, in a league where teams tell players they will spend the rest of their careers in a city and then promptly trade them six months later, citing
"business," and in a league where a player signs a contract and then holds out a year later because he is unhappy with its terms, citing "family security," I am all for the loyalty that Miami Heat coach Pat Riley displayed to the core of players he assembled down in South Beach over the years.
But c'mon, how many early exits from the postseason, how many embarrassments, how many frustrations does it take for a man to realize he, or something around him, have to change?
The trade that sent P.J. Brown, Jamal Mashburn, Otis Thorpe and Rodney Buford to Charlotte for Eddie Jones, Anthony Mason, Ricky
Davis and Dale Ellis was a long time coming. A long, long time.
I've written this before, but I never really understood what made Brown such an immovable asset. Team after team would call the Heat with trade proposals, and it was quite obvious that Alonzo Mourning was untouchable. So you've got to ask for the next guy in line, and that was Brown.
And yet, every suitor was rebuffed by Riley, meaning no deal ever was done to improve a team that for years overachieved, relying on the likes of Keith Askins and Voshon Lenard and any other numbers of players that on any other number of teams would be 10th or 11th men.
Don't get me wrong. Brown is a nice player. He is a great guy, a solid citizen, an unselfish player who thinks -- like all Riley-molded players --
defense first and allows Zo a little more flexibility than he otherwise would have.
But he is not that nice. He is limited offensively. Very limited. And there are other players in the league who can fill the role that will allow Zo to roam free and create havoc. I just don't understand -- other than loyalty -- why Brown never was moved before.
In a way, I feel badly for Riley. He had a grand plan. He carried it out in the summer of '96. He had all the cards for a sweet team, a championship team, probably. He already had Zo. He signed Juwan Howard. Three days later he signed Brown. And two weeks later, David Stern took his revenge on Riley's shrewdness by voiding Howard's contract.
Now, Howard is a bum as the main cog in Washington. But can you imagine him as the third option in Miami, playing alongside Zo and Brown, running the
court with Tim Hardaway. He'd be great. Come to think of it, that's why he was great at Michigan. That was his role next to Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.
Perhaps it was that slap by Stern that made Riley so hard-headed, so adamant about winning with what he had. Maybe he said to himself, "Damn David
Stern and damn everybody else, I'll win anyway, with or without them."
Pride is a nice weapon to have in your arsenal, for it is a self-motivator. But when it turns to obstinence and bull-headedness, it can be dangerous to one's self and make you blind. It can even be ruinous. I suspect that was the path upon which Riley was treading.
It took his old club, the New York Knicks, to wake him from his stubborn slumber, and now that he has, I think he might have almost instantly surpassed
Orlando as the team to beat in the East.
| |  | | Mason |
This, of course, is assuming that things remain status quo, which is no guarantee. There are rumors floating around the NBA that Anthony Mason still might be moved, to the Los Angeles Lakers for Glen Rice.
A source told me the Lakers have no interest in Mason because of his tendency to ... well, get arrested on occasion. However, Mason is in the final year of his contract, and apparently the Lakers want to unload some contracts after next season because owner Jerry Buss does not want to pay the luxury tax that will be imposed on teams over the salary cap. Buss apparently thinks the Lakers can win with just Shaq and Kobe.
If that happens, the Heat become an awfully small, somewhat offense-oriented team which is still in need of a power forward. Clarence Weatherspoon cannot play that position full-time.
So let's assume that deal will not happen. Who is going to score for the Heat. They might hold teams below the 49 points the Chicago Bulls ineptly
managed during the lockout season. They will be misers.
Picture this: You have Eddie Jones, one of the best defenders in the league, on the opponent's best perimeter player. If, somehow, that player gets past Jones, he goes into the lane, up for a shot, and Mason unapologetically crushes him with a well-placed elbow to the kidney, making
his trip that night to the Liquid nightspot a dream. And if Mason fails in that respect, well, then Zo will be right there to swat the shot down to Key Largo.
I can't wait for the all-Florida matchup. Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady
trying to take it to the hole against Jones, Mason and Zo. It will be more violent than watching back-to-back-to-back tapes of "Braveheart," "Gladiator" and "The Patriot."
And hey, this isn't a bad deal for Charlotte, either. First off, they were going to lose Jones anyway, so they got something for nothing. And their
front line will consist of Elden Campbell, Derrick Coleman and Brown.
The best part about these deals is that the East is once again legitimate. The Lakers and the Blazers quite obviously still are the teams to beat, but with this much bulk up front in both Miami and Charlotte, and with the talent being amassed in Orlando, no longer will the NBA Finals be a foregone conclusion.
A very nice story
| |  | | Lewis |
It's nice to see good things happen for a change. The story of Seattle SuperSonics forward Rashard Lewis is one of those.
Too often you hear stories like that of Scotty Thurman, the kid from Arkansas who left school early to turn pro and never even got a sniff of the NBA.
Lewis was the kid out of high school who was bawling with disappointment in the green room on draft night two years ago, slipping mercilessly from the
14th pick by the Houston Rockets, right out of the first round, and into the 32nd pick of Seattle.
The Sonics handled him properly. Lewis worked hard for two years, he developed into a serious player, and then both sides showed loyalty. On
Tuesday, Lewis, at 20 years old, signed a two-year deal for $8.3 million, with more riches to come.
Let's hope he stays a nice kid.
What a tangled Webb
| |  | | Webber |
I just read in a Japanese newspaper that Chris Webber wants to play in Tokyo. No, wait, it was taken out of context.
Wait, this just in, Webber told a Turkish newspaper he wants to play in Istanbul. Ooops, he was misquoted.
I get confused. After telling a New York paper he wants to play with Spree and the Knicks, and after telling the Sacramento Bee he wants to return to
Northern California, and after telling a Detroit scribe he wants to play at home, I'm trying to figure out what CWebb is up to.
Perhaps he's just keeping all his "avenues open."
Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | |
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