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Special to ESPN.com |
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DALLAS -- That irresistible Killer Crossover is no longer with us. The highest-paid point guard in the NBA shuffles around on one leg these days, reduced to pedestrian ball-handling by the bone-on-bone scraping inside his knee.
And now there's more to fear for Tim Hardaway fans like me. This pioneer of the "I Got Skillz" generation might be suffering from fluid on the brain as well. Either that or Hardaway returned from the Olympics feeling chagrined that the Dream Team wasn't as politically correct as it could have been. Our Timmy could only have been being polite -- or blinded by the pain -- when he uttered the following statement: "The East," Ambassador Hardaway said, "is going to be just as tough as the West." Nice a notion as that sounds, to guard against further credibility hits, Hardaway would be advised to skew his view as soon as possible. Not even a marketing spinmeister from David Stern's office would suggest that there's any semblance of parity in the new season's conference comparison. Miami fans, furthermore, won't accept Hardaway's analysis as a device to temper expectations, because there will be no excuse for another Heat playoff implosion before the Finals. Pat Riley's crew is an overwhelming favorite to win 60-plus games and the East's No. 1 seed even if Hardaway -- recent recipient of a one-year, $12 million deal -- is too gimpy to play much at the start.
Anthony Carter and Rick Brunson will be more than adequate quarterbacks when lined up alongside Alonzo Mourning, Eddie Jones, Brian Grant and Anthony Mason. Especially when you scan through the rest of the comp. The reason why so many coaches and executives on The Wild Side talk about the West being better than ever is because the East is so lacking in beasts. "Some years back, we felt that we had eight [strong] teams to one or two over there," said Indiana president Donnie Walsh. "That's kind of flip-flopped. "The teams that come together quickly will be the teams that have a chance to get to the Finals. Teams haven't just changed players; they've changed the entire makeup of their teams." Indiana, of course, is foremost on that list, with three of its five starters gone from the group that took the Lakers to six games in last June's title round. Out: Dale Davis, Mark Jackson and the retired Rik Smits. In: Jermaine O'Neal, the promoted Austin Croshere and either Derrick McKey or the ready-or-not Al Harrington.
But it's not just Pacer People. The Knicks replaced Patrick Ewing with, ugh, Glen Rice and Luc Longley. Orlando is trying to camouflage its failure to land Tim Duncan with two stars (Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady) who play the same position. Toronto added Mark Jackson and Corliss Williamson but is down to one potential superstar thanks to McGrady's rush to leave the side of cousin Vince Carter.
Milwaukee could be better, having retained Tim Thomas, but could also suffer from Sam Cassell's perpetual discontent and Glenn Robinson's response to persistent trade rumors. Detroit should be better than people expect post-Hill, but not good enough to make the playoffs. Philadelphia? The same as you remember. Charlotte? Content to be decent as long as it's cheap. The wannabes? New Jersey, Boston, Washington, etc., would be choking on Mavericks fumes in the West. The running joke in Dallas is that billionaire owner Mark Cuban, instead of making all those trades and hiring all those coaches, should simply buy Stern's permission to move the Mavs into the East to end the NBA's longest playoff drought. Walsh's timing, hence, is actually quite good. Even with the unproven Isiah Thomas in as coach for Larry Bird, and with Reggie Miller sure to miss his buddies MJax and Dale, the Pacers still might get as far as they did last time. At worst, given the serious strides Rose and Croshere have made, Indiana still looks like a solid East No. 2 behind the Heat. "I don't have the same expectations ... but I think to ourselves we're still shooting for a championship," Walsh said. "It's hard to say we're the same team, because we're not the same team. But I think Jalen would have moved to the backcourt and Austin would have moved into the [small forward] position even if we brought everyone back. I felt that if Rik came back, we weren't that changed." As for Hardaway, maybe Mourning can change his mind. Zo seems to know what all of us see: West is by far biggest and bestest, when a team like Seattle -- with Gary Payton, Vin Baker, Rashard Lewis and Ewing -- will be fortunate to finish higher than fourth. "The [Dream Team] guys were making jokes about how lopsided the All-Star Game is gonna be," said Mourning, burned too many times by Heat failures to make comparisons or predictions of any kind.
Around The League Cuban also coined an early contender for Best Barb Of The Season at a recent Internet symposium. The Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal (Dunk.net) was also on the speakers' panel, and Cuban drew a broad smile from the Big Everything when he shook Shaq's hand and said, "Hey, it's the Big No Extension." O'Neal is still waiting for the Lakers to sign off on his four extra years at $117 million, as promised by owner Jerry Buss after Game 6 against the Pacers.
"I don't think it's a matter of us helping those teams out," Kidd said. "We feel good about the changes we've made, and there could be some moves we don't know about. [Dikembe] Mutombo, Chris Webber -- there's some guys out there that could make our team a lot better."
The success, though, has been bittersweet for the younger Nelson. So shaken by the near-upset of Team USA, Nelson has informed the Lithuanian federation that he will continue to be a part of their basketball program only if he can excuse himself from future meetings with the United States. "If we're playing the U.S., I won't be on the bench and I won't be part of the game plan or anything else," Nelson said. "It was fine when you're talking about diminishing the margin, but two points is too close. I've got an ethical problem with that."
And we still say that if Shaq, Kobe and the Team Sprite tandem of Tim Duncan and Grant Hill were all in Oz, as planned, there would have been no close games and significantly less chatter about how boring these guys are. Vin Baker and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, remember, didn't pick the team. Down the road, if the biggest names are unable or unwilling to participate, USA Basketball has to do a better job of selecting players who can blend into the international game. People who can pass, shoot and move without the ball. Against zone defenses, and with the game called so much differently than it is Stateside, The Upset is inevitable unless versatile personnel is fielded. This group never got it. They just kept gambling on defense, going for steals that would lead to dunks, instead of buckling down and playing 30 hard seconds against players who no longer fear them. "Even when I was with Dream Team II [in 1994], when you would get a breakaway guys would stop to see what dunk you would do," said Portland?s Smith. That was another millennium, obviously. Marc Stein, who covers the NBA for The Dallas Morning News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |
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