There are two reasons why the hoop fans of Cleveland aren’t on suicide watch. The Cavs actually play pretty well without O’Neal, as they’ve demonstrated time and again this season. The other reason is that Shaq’s presence in Cleveland – and he once swore he’d never play in a cold-weather city - is for the playoffs in general and Dwight Howard in particular.
And, unless O’Neal suddenly goes on The Wire’s ‘Proposition Joe’ Diet while recovering, he should be ready to play by the time of the presumptive Eastern Conference Finals matchup between the Cavs and the Orlando Magic. Until then? Not to worry.
There was no sense of impending doom in the Cleveland locker room last week when O’Neal had to leave the game against the Celtics with what at the time was being reported as a significant thumb injury. True, there was no definitive word on the severity of the injury. But that game pretty much turned when O’Neal went out and the Cavs rolled the Celtics in the fourth quarter with a smaller, quicker lineup.
After the game, LeBron James admitted that the Cavs’ best defensive unit was one with Anderson Varejao in the middle and JJ Hickson at the power forward slot. That unit is quicker, more athletic, James said. But, he quickly added, the Cavs still need Shaq.
But do they really? What if O’Neal doesn’t get back into shape? Do the Cavs still have enough to win their first NBA championship with O’Neal watching as an expensive cheerleader on the bench?
Yes, they do.
Provided, of course, that Zydrunas Ilgauskas returns (more people believe in the tooth fairy than believe he won’t) and provided that Leon Powe is back to full health and Mike Brown, the Cavs’ coach, gives him some playing time. He can be a beast.
Cleveland has done an excellent job this season of absorbing all that is Shaq, from the outsized personality to the limited playing time. Brown gave him the starting job. O’Neal has consistently deferred to James, playing the gray eminence role to perfection. Shaq also contributed 12 points and 6.7 rebounds while playing only 23.4 minutes over 53 games. Before the injury in Boston, he had scored 20 points each in the previous two games going 18-of-23 from the field.
All of this was a bonus, for the addition of O’Neal was generally seen as a move for the post-season, when things slow down and bodies fly. In the regular season, he might be seen as a defensive liability (the next pick-and-roll he defends will be the first one) and clogging up the middle on offense. He rarely draws double-teams anymore.
But in the playoffs, where everything supposedly slows to a trench-warfare pace, the thinking was that Shaq would be invaluable, muscling up on the ultra-ripped Howard while serving a reminder as to who, really, was the real Superman. The memories of Howard destroying Shaq-less Cleveland last year in the playoffs are hard to forget, especially the devastating elimination game, where the Orlando center lit up the Cavs for 40 points. Over the six games, Howard averaged close to 26 points and 13 rebounds a game.
The Cavs didn’t have anyone then who could stop Howard then and, realistically, they still don’t. Who does? But Cleveland looks to be a better overall team going into this year’s playoffs with arrival of Antawn Jamison (who can be a double-figure rebounder in addition to a scoring threat), the emergence of Hickson as a dynamo and the mind-boggling excellence of James, who just won another Eastern Conference Player of the Month award. No one else from the East has won one this season. The Cavs also added depth at the wing positions in Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon.
Right now, and things can certainly change, the Cavaliers and the Magic look to be headed towards a conference final matchup. The Celtics, the best team in the conference in the first two months, look to be grinding to a halt with injuries and age coinciding at absolutely the wrong time. Atlanta is your proverbial wild card. No one else seems ready to crack the top tier.
If the timelines hold true, O’Neal could be cleared to play at the end of April, which would be around the start of the second round of the playoffs. That’s assuming, of course, that all goes well, that Shaq is in playoff shape (as opposed to regular-season shape) and that the Cavs can re-integrate him into the rotation without messing things up. But what if they’re on a roll like last year, when they swept the first two series? Do they still bring back Shaq?
That’s why they brought him to Cleveland in the first place. But if for some reason, the recovery doesn’t go as planned and Shaq has played his last game of the 2009-10 season, fear not, title-starved Clevelanders. The Cavaliers still have enough to get the job done, assuming of course, that No. 23 (soon to be No. 6) doesn’t hurt his thumb and miss two months. He’s the only one Cleveland really can’t afford to lose.
The late, great comedian Bob Hope used to have a wonderful line when he hosted the Oscars.
“Welcome to the annual Academy Awards presentation,’’ Hope would say. “Or, as it’s known in my house, Passover.”
When the Basketball Hall of Fame recently announced its nominees for induction into the Class of 2010, there could have been a number of individuals who felt the same way Hope did, although not necessarily in a joking manner. To me, one in particular stands out, as challenging a selection as there can be. On his resume alone, he should merit serious consideration for Springfield. But he will never, ever, ever get there.
It has been a decade since the player they called ‘The Worm’ graced an NBA court, so he has been eligible for the Hall for some time. But he cannot even get nominated, let alone inducted. Based purely on what he did as a player, he deserves to be in the discussion.
Only one player in the history of the NBA has led the league in rebounding seven times. That man is Dennis Rodman, who did it from 1991-92 through 1997-98. During that time, he played for three different teams, the Pistons, Spurs and Bulls.
Now, the NBA didn’t start tracking rebounds as an official statistic until after such famed glass eaters as BillRussell, Wilt Chamberlain and Nate Thurmond had either retired or were past their primes. But the NBA Guide does list yearly rebound leaders dating back to the 1950-51 season, using total rebounds as the statistic. And since then, only Wilt has led the league in rebounding more times than Rodman.
Now, consider that Rodman was, at best, 6-7. To do what he did at that height with such guys as Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning around is nothing short of unfathomable. This is a small forwardleading the NBA in rebounding. In 1991-92 and 1992-93 he averaged 18.7 and 18.3 rebounds a game, respectively – in the decade since Rodman retired, no one has averaged more than 15.4 a game. You can make the case with almost convincing finality that there has never been a better rebounder, inch for inch, than Dennis Rodman.
But that’s not all of it, of course. Rodman was one of the premier defensive players of his time as well, a lock-down individual defender who took on all comers (remember him on Karl Malone in the Utah-Chicago Finals?) Twice he was named the Defensive Player of the Year. He was named to the league’s All-Defensive Teams a staggering 10 times, seven as a first-teamer. (By comparison, Mutombo, who has four DPY awards, was, mystifyingly, a first-team All-Defensive only three times. Somehow, in 1995, he won his first DPY, but was voted to the All-Defensive 2nd Team.)
And, let’s not forget, there are the five championship rings in Rodman’s safe deposit vault, or wherever he keeps them. He won two as an instrumental reserve on the Pistons and three more as a starter and sometime reserve for the Bulls. He’d have a sixth if Hugh Evans hadn’t butchered a call in Game 6 of the 1988 Finals.
Isn’t that a career worthy of consideration for Springfield? Of course it is. But we all know why it will never happen – because of who he is, not what he did. Sure, he did some dumb things along the way. So did a lot of others. But the lingering fear among the voters and the Hall folks is that the ultra-eccentric Rodman would show up for the induction ceremony in a Vera Wang gown with Carmen Electra as his presenter. And can you imagine the speech?
No, neither can the people who make the nominations. And that is why we will never see Rodman’s name on a possible list of inductees. He was just too whacky and crazy, to the point where he became a cliché. But he was a pretty darn good basketball player with a really good resume.
Alas, Rodman doesn’t stand alone in the category that, for lack of a better title, should be called “Guys With No Shot Who Deserve A Shot.” I can think of a few others and they, like Rodman, needn’t be spending any time by the phone, waiting for the call.
Jerry Tarkanian: Tark the Shark was one of the great college coaches of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He won an NCAA title at UNLV and then took an undefeated team into the Final Four the following year. He led three different colleges to 20-win seasons in his first year at each institution. But he was at least as well known for his continuing battles with the NCAA and for the rather unpleasant factoid that all three Division I schools got penalized after he left. Then again, he won an injunction against the NCAA and UNLV after the two tried to get him not to coach for violations that occurred before he got there. And he won an out-of-court settlement after suing her NCAA for harassing him. Oh yeah, he also was 778-202 at Long Beach State, Fresno State and UNLV. He’s been eligible for some time and no call is coming.
Eddie Sutton: Like Tark, another ultra successful college coach. But Sutton’s career will be remembered for the infamous Emery Air Freight shipment to Chris Mills while Sutton was at Kentucky. After crashing and burning in Lexington, Sutton got another chance and resurrected his career at his alma mater, Oklahoma State, reviving a moribund program. Sutton became the first coach to take four schools to the NCAA Tournament (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State) and, after a one-year stint at the University of San Francisco in 2007-08, topped the 800-win barrier. Of the six others with more wins at Division I schools, only one, Jim Boeheim, is not in the Hall. But, rest assured, he will be. Sutton? Not so fast. He also had very public battles with alcohol, but, in all likelihood, it’s the Kentucky scandal that came on his watch that dooms him. The NCAA thought things were so bad that it considered leveling the death penalty.
Ralph Sampson: It’s hard to remember how good Ralph Sampson was a college player in part because his pro career didn’t quite live up to expectations. Then, of course, there have been the unsavory child support issues since he retired altogether. Not good. But the Hall of Fame for players isn’t just for the NBA guys. Or so we think. And Sampson had a remarkable run at Virginia, winning the James Naismith College Player of the Year award as a sophomore, junior and senior. Only Bill Walton matched that. He is the only two-time winner of the John Wooden College Player of the Year award. And it wasn’t like he was a total slug in the NBA. He won the 1984 Rookie of the Year Award. He was a four-time participant in the All-Star Game and the game’s MVP in 1985. He was all-NBA second team in 1985 and led the Rockets to the 1986 Finals, where he is perhaps best remembered for getting into a fight (of sorts) with the diminutive Jerry Sichting. But injuries helped do him in and there was always the sense that Sampson never really, really wanted it. You have to wonder what would have happened to him had he left Virginia after his freshman year and agreed to enter the NBA draft, where the Celtics (with Larry Bird aboard) pledged to take him at No. 1. Instead, Sampson snubbed a furious Red Auerbach and Red turned around and made the trade that brought KevinMcHale and Robert Parish to Boston. Both of those guys are in Springfield.
In what qualifies as must-see regular season basketball in the NBA, there is no better matchup than the Celtics and Lakers.
Well, that’s one theory. The resurgence of the Celtics combined with the ongoing success of the Lakers once again rekindled this wonderful rivalry, which dates back to some searing competition in the 1960s. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson brought it back in the 1980s (while pretty much saving the NBA in the process) and now we have them once again among the league’s elite, accounting for the last two NBA titles.
But a little bit of the bloom is off the old rose as the two teams meet for the first time this season on Sunday afternoon in Boston before a national television audience. The Lakers are upholding their end of the deal, entering with a 36-11 record, best in the demanding Western Conference and second overall to Cleveland.
The Celtics? Well, let’s be charitable and just say they’re in a bit of a funk. They’ve dropped their last two games and have lost 10 of their last 16 to fall to No. 3 overall in the not-so demanding Eastern Conference. The Friday night loss to Atlanta could cost Celtics boss Doc Rivers a berth as the coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars next month in Dallas. (That is not exactly high on Doc’s priority list right now.)
Not much has gone right for the Celtics since they thrashed the Magic on Christmas Day, improving to 23-5. Paul Pierce missed five games with a knee ailment and the team lost three of them. Kevin Garnett missed 10 games with a hyper-extended knee and the team struggled without him, losing six. Although he has returned, he bears little resemblance to the fiery and feisty KG who led the team to the NBA championship two seasons ago. He moved around like Billy Paultz in the Thursday night game in Orlando and was marginally better the next night in Atlanta.
Ray Allen and the words “expiring contract” are now being mentioned in the same sentence as the trade deadline nears, a heretical thought not too long ago. Allen, who scored only 9 points on Friday, is averaging 15.9 points a game, second fewest in his career. He’s also taking the fewest shots per game since he came to Boston, all the while leading the Celtics in total minutes played.
While Rajon Rondo has blossomed into an All-Star, and Pierce continues to play at a steady clip, the bench is a nightly challenge for Rivers. Rasheed Wallace has been up and down (but still leading the league in technical fouls) and sharpshooter Eddie House is in a slump. Rondo has no real backup and the Celtics miss the almost-forgotten Marquis Daniels, who is due back after the All-Star Game. He will have missed almost 30 games with a thumb injury.
The Lakers? They took advantage of a ridiculous, home-heavy schedule early in the season to break away from the rest of the West. They are 3-2 on their current Eastern swing, beating the tomato cans (New York, Washington and Philadelphia) while losing to Cleveland and Toronto. The Celtics are the third winning team they’ll face on the trip.
The defending champs have been very tough to beat with Pau Gasol in the lineup. The talented Spaniard has played in 30 games this season and the Lakers have won 25 of them by an average of 10 points a game. Gasol has missed 16 games with hamstring injuries and LA is 10-6 in those games.
Kobe Bryant, meanwhile, is poised to pass Jerry West as the all-time Lakers scoring leader. He is 47 points behind West and wouldn’t Bryant love to pass the man who drafted him against the team that so tortured his old boss in the 1960s? He averages 25.1 against the Celtics, but erupting for 48 would not be unBryant-like, even as he finishes up an uncharacteristically cold month for him (24 points a game versus more than 30 a game in November and December.)
The atmosphere in the Garden will be wall of sound stuff. The ‘Beat LA’ chants started here in the 1980s. But the Lakers won in Boston last season (110-109 in overtime) after getting beaten four times there the year before, including three in the NBA Finals. LA has won six of its last 10 regular season games in Boston, which is relatively unremarkable given how bad the Celtics were over most of that time period.
In the 1980s, these meetings were full of high drama and expectations. The two teams followed each other on a daily basis on the assumption they’d probably meet in the NBA Finals. ML Carr called them ‘The Fakers.’ The Fabulous Forum brought us Dancing Barry, the Rambis Youth and Randy Newman for the mood music. There were Hall of Famers at every position.
They may have another Finals meeting and it might be this year. But that’s a long way from now. The real injustice is that they see each other only twice during the season. That’s what makes this one so appealing.
You didn’t hear stories of depressed Ohioans lining up to jump into the Cuyahoga River when it was discovered that Shaquille O’Neal is likely out for the rest of the regular season after thumb surgery.
The late, great comedian Bob Hope used to have a wonderful line when he hosted the Oscars.
In what qualifies as must-see regular season basketball in the NBA, there is no better matchup than the Celtics and Lakers.