There’s an opening in the NBA right now which comes with bells, whistles and numerous red flags: the general manager spot for the Los Angeles Clippers.
On one hand, it’s one of 30 such jobs in the best basketball league there is, albeit one that is headed full steam for a work stoppage next year. On the other hand, it’s a job where you’d have to report to the two men who have presided over what can charitably be called a spectacularly humdrum quarter century of hoops in Los Angeles: Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his henchman, Andy Roeser.
So, naturally, the Usual Suspects will be mentioned for the post. (Jerry West has already said ‘no thanks.’) And, as we all know by now, there is likely to be a grass roots campaign for the position from ESPN’s Sports Guy Bill Simmons. He did it in Minnesota. Why wouldn’t he do it in his adopted hometown for the team to which he openly admits – courageously, in my view - that he has season tickets?
Of course, the Clippers won’t bite, although they have a long and storied history of making decisions that border on the ridiculous. (Mostly, they involve coaches coming and going while Sterling, Roeser and, until recently, Elgin Baylor, all sat together with Alfred E. Neuman ‘What Me Worry’ buttons on their shirts.)
But you have to admit it would put the Clippers on the map, although for all the wrong reasons. If Sterling ever wants the Clippers to be taken seriously, something he’s still working on in his third decade of stewardship, by the way, then hiring a wisecracking sports guy with no basketball experience would seem to be counter-productive. But Simmons could always appeal to The Donald’s soft side - $$$$ - by offering to the do the job for free for a year (which was his offer to Minnesota) and then go away when the nuclear summer settles over the league in July 2011.
There was a time when Sterling might actually go for something like this. Not that long ago, he did offer a basketball operations job to a national NBA writer, who decided against it. I mean, you’d have to work for a man who in a sworn deposition said he did not participate in basketball matters, something a number of his former coaches would openly dispute.
I still have in my possession a letter from Sterling that is more than 20 years old, thanking me for my coverage of his team (even though I was covering the Celtics at that point for the Hartford Courant) and letting me know he’d be glad to help me with anything down the road. I didn’t take that to mean anything more than just a polite way to end the letter. Back then, Sterling would invite us to join him at halftime to chat at courtside. He even took telephone calls from us.
It isn’t unheard of for a member of the media to cross the line and move into sports management. In the old days (and I mean well before Simmons was gleam in his father’s eye), reporters used to do double duty as public relations men for the teams they covered. The newspapers didn’t have a problem with that back then. The reporters liked cashing two checks.
The man who got the Timberwolves GM job, David Kahn, started as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and then the Portland Oregonian, covering the NBA for the latter. He eventually left the biz, landed a gig at NBC Sports and then as an assistant GM with the Indiana Pacers, where he played a big role overseeing the construction of Conseco Fieldhouse, still the best NBA venue in my opinion. He stayed active in the league (particularly the D-League) after leaving Indiana and then talked Glen Taylor, the Wolves’ owner, into hiring him. Then, he quickly let go a guy he used to occasionally cover – Kevin McHale.
Another successful media-to-management case is that of Marty Hurney, the general manager of the NFL Carolina Panthers. He covered the Washington Redskins for various Washington-area newspapers until he was hired by the team’s PR department. He subsequently moved into the management area with longtime NFL executive Bobby Beatherd and eventually landed a job running the Panthers. In three years, he oversaw a team that went from 1-15 to making the Super Bowl.
Then there’s Chris Snow, who left one of the plum assignments in sports writing (as long as you are single and don’t have a life) of covering the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Globe to work in hockey operations for the NHL Minnesota Wild.
On the other side, I’m told that a number of media members in South America have moved over to soccer operations – with so-so results.
We in the media generally feel we could handle the job of running a franchise, but really pay attention only a couple times a season: at the trading deadline and at the draft. That’s when the GM’s work is open to public scrutiny, so we feel compelled to weigh in. But there are a lot of scouting trips to Tuscaloosa and Las Cruces that the good GMs make more than once. And then there are the agents.
You’d have to admit, if the Clippers did give Simmons a shot, the news conferences would be fun. You’d start seeing ‘Lost’ references in every Clippers story. There would be an assistant GM going by the name of House. There’d be humor. There’d be chatter about the Clippers, something Sterling desperately desires.
And, let’s face it, there’s history on Simmons’ side. As in, how could he, or any of us, do any worse than what has already been done up to now?
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.
Here’s a nugget you might not know: The Oklahoma City Thunder leads the NBA in inter-conference victories. Their victory Monday night in Atlanta pushed the surprising Thunder to 15-4 against Eastern Conference opponents. Not bad for a team which won only 23 games last season. They’ve won 23 already this season.
The success of the Thunder against the East (they are only 8-14 in their own conference) drives home the point that, once again, after a one-year blip, the Western Conference, top-to-bottom, is the best. In nine inter-conference matchups on Martin Luther King Day, the West prevailed in seven, highlighted by the Thunder’s win in Atlanta, the Mavericks’ win over the Celtics in Boston and the Lakers’ victory over the Magic at the Staples Center.
The numbers after Monday: the West has a 138-96 record against the East, which, on a percentage basis, is the biggest in five years (59 percent.) Nine teams in the Western Conference have winning records against the East and a tenth, Houston, is at .500. By contrast, five teams in the East own winning records against the West and a sixth, Toronto, is at .500.
Wasn’t it supposed to be different this season? Shaq was moving from West to East. Vince Carter was going to Orlando to make the Magic better. The Raptors spent like drunken sailors on shore leave and seemed to be poised to return to the Land of the Relevant, even though more than a few eyebrows were raised with the mother lode showered upon Hedo Turkoglu. The Wizards looked ready to return to the post-season with a healthy Gilbert Arenas (how has that worked out? Oh well.)
It seemed from the outside that the better teams in the East improved (the Celtics adding Rasheed Wallace, the Hawks’ adding Jamal Crawford) which would only strengthen the conference.
Well, the rich did get richer in the East. The Celtics, when healthy (still waiting, by the way, for that glorious day), are better. The Hawks are better. The Cavs may not match their 66 wins of a year ago, but they may be better suited for the playoffs. The Magic? Well, HoopsHype’s Eddie Johnson had two Orlando players (Carter, Dwight Howard) on his top 10 list of most disappointing players. Nonetheless, the Magic are 9-6 against the West and fourth overall in the East.
So what has caused such a shift from last season, when the Eastern Conference had a 231-219 record against the West? By the way, that has been the only season in the last five where the East has been remotely successful. To wit:
2005-06: West 252-198
2006-07: West 257-193
2007-08: West 258-192
2008-09: East 231-219
2009-10: West 138-96 (through Monday)
Here are a few thoughts.
- The lower echelon teams are in the East, again. Last year, there was a great divide in the West between the haves and the have-nots. Yes, the Phoenix Suns won 46 games which would have earned them a No. 4 seed in the East, and didn’t qualify for the playoffs. But the West also housed six of the worst seven worst teams in the NBA: Golden State, the Clippers, Sacramento, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Memphis. Those five teams were 50-130 against the East, with the Kings a hideous 1-29. The remaining nine teams in the West last season were 181-89 against the East. This year, with the Nets leading the way (0-16 against the West), the worst teams appear to be back in the East. Five of the seven losingest teams are in the East.
- The Western Conference upper echelon is, again, stronger. As of Monday, there were 11 teams over .500, including all five teams in the Southwest Division. The worst of those, New Orleans, was 21-19, which would be the No. 5 record in the East. The 11 teams with winning records are 114-64 against the East. It certainly appears that for the third straight year, a 40-something win team from the West won’t make the playoffs. (Golden State’s 48-win team of 2007-08 remains the gold standard for winning teams not qualifying.) And, it could well be, that for the third straight year, a 30-something win team from the East will make it. As of Monday, Nos. 5-7 in the East were one game over .500 and No. 8 Chicago was on a pace to win 36 games.
- To date, the Western Conference has had the majority of home games. Led by the Lakers’ 26, the five teams with the most home games all reside in the Western Conference. The Spurs and Trail Blazers have played 23 while the Jazz and the Clippers have played 22. (Miami played its 22nd home game Tuesday night, most in the East. The Cavs, with 17, have played the fewest.)
- Nine of the Lakers’ 12 victories against the Eastern Conference have come in the Staples Center (as well as their only loss to an Eastern team, the Christmas Day defeat to Cleveland.) The Lakers play their next seven games on the road against Eastern Conference teams. The Eastern swing features bookend beauties (Cleveland on Thursday and their first meeting with the Celtics on Jan. 31. But the five games in between are all ho-hummers: New York, Toronto, Washington, Indiana and Philadelphia. Only one of those teams, Toronto, is currently among the top eight. The Spurs, meanwhile, will be on the road for virtually all of February, playing nine of their 11 games away from the ATT Center. But only three of those roadies will be against Eastern Conference teams.
- Is there any hope for the East? Well, no team has played more road games than the Cavaliers (25) while the Celtics have played 21 (and have more home losses in fewer games than road losses. Go figure) But the Cavs only have 11 games remaining against the West, which might bode well for them in the overall standings, but won’t do much to bridge the sizeable East-West gap. The Celtics have 17 games left against the West, including two each against the Lakers, Nuggets, Rockets and Trail Blazers. However, the surprising Charlotte Bobcats have 19 games left against Western Conference teams – 12 of them on the road. And the home games include Dallas, the Lakers and the vaunted Thunder.
So, barring something unforeseen over the second half of the year, the 2009-10 appears to be reverting to the form we’ve seen throughout the last half of the last decade. The West will reign supreme in head-to-head play. One (or perhaps) two teams from the West will get shafted by not making the playoffs while a team with fewer wins playing in an inferior conference will get in, most likely with a losing record.
Does this mean the champ will also come from the West? Hmm. Seven of the 10 NBA champs came from the West last decade, but only two teams won titles. Three Eastern singletons (Detroit, Miami and Boston) interrupted that run. The Lakers may end up with the league’s best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. And, if they do, they can thank the East for being a big part of that.
They slowly emerged on the NBA scene in the 1980s. They became mainstays in the 1990s. In the last decade, for the first time in league history, one of them became a Most Valuable Player and another became a Rookie of the Year. Two would earn Most Improved Player Awards and two others would earn Sixth Man Awards.
For the foreign-born players, whose sole basketball experience prior to the NBA had been playing in Europe, Asia or South America, this past decade was one of remarkable growth in both numbers and talent. At the beginning of this season, the NBA counted 83 international players on rosters from 36 countries. DirkNowitzki, the only German in the NBA, won the 2006 Most Valuable Player award. PauGasol, one of five Spaniards in the league, won the rookie honors in 2002.
Those two continue to excel to this day and are the starting forwards on my All-Foreign first team of the decade. I decided to exclude foreign-born players who played college ball in the United States. Thus, no Steve Nash (a lock for first team otherwise) and no Andrew Bogut (who wouldn’t have made it anyway.)
It wasn’t hard selecting the first team. After that, it got a bit dicier. One of the revelations: a lack of high-caliber guards from across the pond (or below the Equator.)
And it was hard to eliminate people like Vladimir Radmanovic, who nonetheless is still responsible for my all-time favorite story involving a foreign player. During the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, Radmanovic was kicked off his national team. He then proceeded to watch them play sitting in the stands, wearing his national team sweats.
At any rate, here is one writer’s take on the best foreign-born players of the last 10 years.
Explanation: There really can’t be a whole lot of debate about this unit, unless you want to use the traditional small forward/power forward configuration. While out of action this season, Yao has developed into, arguably, the league’s best center. And he did so carrying the weight of, oh, a billion people on his shoulders.
Nowitzki right now may rank as the greatest foreigner ever to play in the league – and we can only wonder what would have happened to him had Rick Pitino got his wish and been able to draft him in 1998. (Paul Pierce wasn’t a bad consolation prize.)
Gasol has helped turn the Lakers into annual title contenders. Parker and Ginobili each have three championship rings from the Spurs with Parker getting MVP honors for the 2007 NBA Finals.
Second Team
Center: Vlade Divac, Serbia
Forwards: Peja Stojakovic, Serbia; Andrei Kirilenko, Russia
Guards: Hedo Turkoglu, Turkey; Jose Calderon, Spain
Explanation: Those who have only briefly become NBA fans may need a refresher on the remarkable Divac, whose career spanned parts of three decades. He was a critical member of the Kings from 2000-2004 and, back then, Sacramento was really good, just not good enough to overtake the Lakers. He was a gifted passer; only three others in NBA history have amassed 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots: Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (Tim Duncan should join that group this season.)
Stojakovic was also a big-time player on those early 2000s Kings teams and has an All-NBA 2nd team selection on his resume from 2004. He remains one of the game’s most dead-eye shooters. Kirilenko has slumped lately, but his athleticism and quirkiness helped change the image of the tall, slow-footed, mechanical European big man. Kirkilenko remains the only player of this group to have made an All-Defensive Team. He actually made three of them, including the first team in 2005-06.
Turkoglu gets slotted as a guard here because, basically, he is one, despite his height. He cashed in on a big playoff performance in 2009, helped by a vintage Game 7 submission in Boston against the Celtics. Calderon is one of two players on my All-Foreign teams never to have been drafted. But he now is in his fifth season with the Raptors and is usually among the league leaders in free throws and assist-to-turnovers.
Third Team
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Lithuania
F: Mehmet Okur, Turkey; Boris Diaw, France
G: Andres Nocioni, Argentina; Leandro Barbosa, Brazil
Explanation: As always, selecting the last members of the team proved to be a challenge. I can already hear the Luis Scola Fan Club (of which I am a dues-paying member) complaining. But Scola had only two years of NBA play this decade, so he loses out on that. But I love the guy. Ilgauskas is a great story, recovering from apparent career-ending foot woes to be a big part of the Cavaliers’ recent success. He’s been in two All-Star Games. Okur plays center on occasion, but, for purposes of this discussion, is designated as a forward. He has an All-Star Game appearance on his CV.
Diaw has stumbled a bit the bast couple of years, but he was a human Swiss Army Knife for the Mike D’Antoni Phoenix Suns in the middle of the decade, winning Most Improved Player honors in 2005-06. The never-drafted Nocioni gets in as a guard, even though he plays mostly forward. But he has guard size and he needs to be on this list, especially given the dearth of guards.
Barbosa, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year winner in 2007 (one year before Manu Ginobili won it) rounds out the team. He may not even be the best Brazilian playing right now (Nenê, AndersonVarejao) but, again, he gets the nod because of lack of competition for the position.
Toughest Omissions
Scola and Nene were the two hardest. Varejao and Mickael Pietrus come next. Radmanovic, Rasho Nesterovic, and even Andris Biedrins might find their way onto similar lists. Just not this one. And the third highest drafted foreign-born player (after Yao and Andrea Bargnani) played most of the decade and didn’t even get remote consideration. That would be the underwhelming DarkoMilicic, the No. 2 overall pick in 2003. Bargnani will get consideration for the next decade, along with YiJianlian, Rudy Fernandez, and, possibly, some guy named Ricky Rubio.
There is undeniable basketball DNA in Jonas Jerebko’s makeup.
His dad, Chris, played for Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. His mom, Elaine, played professionally in Sweden. His uncle, Peter, was a deadeye shooter at LeMoyne.
Jonas, who was born in tiny, isolated, not-exactly-hoops-crazy Kinna, Sweden, some 22-plus years ago, played everything and anything before understandably settling on basketball.
“I played golf, soccer, handball, basically all sports,’’ he said. “But when I got to be 16 or 17, I concentrated on basketball.”
Good move. He sprouted to 6-8, which sort of ended any hopes he might have of becoming the next JesperParnevik. He started playing professionally in his native land at the age of 17, spurning not only a basketball scholarship to the University of Buffalo (where his paternal grandparents live) but also offers from some pretty high-powered European teams who had liked what they saw of Jerebko when he played for the national team.
“Real Madrid. Benneton Treviso, Bologna. They all offered contracts,” Jerebko said. “That changed my mind about going to college and put me in a whole different direction.”
He decided to stay in Sweden, where he played for two years. He then landed a job in Italy for Angelico Biella, an A League team outside Milan. He added weight. He grew an inch. His game improved. He toyed with entering the NBA draft after his first season in Italy, but decided to stay for a second.
“I’m glad I did,’’ he said. “It allowed me another year to grow.”
Then, last June, Jerebko was draft eligible and the Detroit Pistons chose him with the 39th pick. On the surface, this looked like it might have been one of those throwaway selections in the second round in which the player stays overseas and, maybe, crosses the pond at some future point. Jerebko had no such plans.
“I felt like I was ready,’’ he said. “I had two years under my belt in Italy.”
Said Pistons’ hoops boss Joe Dumars, “a couple of our scouts had seen Jonas play last season and we had a pretty good handle on who he was. We felt like it was a no-brainer to take him in the second round.”
And, Dumars added, he also felt that Jerebko intended to play in the NBA.
“But,’’ Dumars added, “we knew he was a good, young player. But he has exceeded our expectations so far.”
You think? Jerebko may not have been a household name outside of Kinna last June, but six months later, he is making it pretty much impossible not to be noticed by any semi-serious NBA observer. He has started 21 of the 22 games in which he has appeared, moving into the starting rotation on Nov. 3, helped by an injury (ruptured disc) sustained by Tayshaun Prince. He dropped a season-high 22 points on the LA Clippers on Nov. 27 and twice has gone for 11 rebounds.
He has endeared himself to the worker-conscious Pistons’ public, serving notice in the exhibition season when he got into a fight with Jamaal Magliore.
“It was just a reaction,’’ Jerebko said of the incident. “It was a physical game and something happened.”
He has been embraced by the Swedish players on the Detroit Red Wings, who have taken him to dinner and invited him to their games. He is finding the adjustment to the NBA much less difficult in terms of culture shock than his arrival in Italy after spending his entire life in Sweden.
And, he has made believers not out of just Dumars, but out of his coach, John Kuester, and his teammates, from veteran Ben Wallace to fellow rookie Austin Daye.
“You can get labeled in this game,’’ Kuester said, referring to the oft-held (if not necessarily true) that European hoopsters are not as rugged as their American counterparts. And weighing only 230, Jerebko does not come across as a brute.
“But our players respect him and recognize that he is one of the hardest workers on the team,” Kuester said. “He is not afraid at all to get his nose dirty out there. He takes a challenge.”
Arguably, Jerebko might already have met his biggest challenge – getting to the NBA after learning and playing the game in a country that isn’t exactly known for producing blue-chip basketball players. His dad played professionally in Sweden after his stint at Syracuse. It was in Sweden where Chris Jerebko met his wife and where the family (which also includes a daughter, 20-year-old Johanna, who plays professionally in the country) still resides.
Inarguably, Jonas Jerebko is the first player who was born in Sweden and went through the Swedish basketball system to make it to the NBA. And, incontrovertibly, he may be having the most surprising rookie season of any NBA newbie, even Brandon Jennings.
“I’m just a rookie,’’ he said. “I didn’t expect to be playing this much. But I think I’m doing pretty good so far.”
He not only is starting at the small forward position, he is playing nearly 28 minutes a game. He’s averaging 8.2 points and 5.5 rebounds a game – and 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per in his last nine. Those are the kinds of numbers he submitted for his Italian League team.
But, Kuester hastens to add, numbers do not begin to define Jerebko’s impact.
“He gives us so many extra possessions with his hustle plays,’’ the coach said. “He can put the ball on the floor. He has guarded all the great players in our league and he moves his feet very well for a big man.”
What Kuester can’t say is what lies in store for his rookie forward when Prince does return. The Pistons have been decimated by injuries this season, but, as the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. And Jerebko has been the most pleasant of surprises in an otherwise underwhelming start for the Pistons.
“I don’t know when Tay (Prince) is coming back, but we will make a decision at that point,’’ Kuester said. “But I can tell you this: he (Jerebko) has gotta play.”
His name is on The List, right there with LeBron, Dwyane and the rest of the marquee 2010 free agents. Ray Allen might well be going to the Hall of Fame one day, but he’s also going on 35 (next July 20) and, statistically, is down in just about every offensive category.
So, time to trade him, right? Get younger, find a team eager to absorb an expiring contract and go from there. Amazingly, those scenarios were out there a few weeks back, offered anonymously, of course, and coinciding with Allen’s early-season shooting woes. They are as ludicrous now as they were back then. Ray Allen isn’t going anywhere - nor should he.
Why would the Celtics even remotely entertain parting with Allen, who has been everything they wanted and possibly more in his two-plus seasons in Boston? (My guess? They’re not.) He still demands coverage and respect, as he demonstrated last Tuesday when he blitzed the Bobcats for 27 points, knocking down five of six three-pointers. Prior to that game, he had been shooting 30 percent from three-point range (his career average is 39.7) and an even uglier 26 percent over the previous six games.
To that, the Celtics and Allen say, ‘so what?’
He’s been through these kinds of things before, most notably in the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he couldn’t make anything. (He always contended he wasn’t in a slump but, rather, wasn’t getting enough shots.) He came out of it rather nicely against the Pistons in the conference finals and then had an excellent NBA Finals, making one of the signature baskets of the series, the blow-by of Sasha Vujacic at the end of Game 4, sealing an improbable Celtics come-from-behind victory. (He also had another memorable basket in that game, a baseline, under the basket drive for layup.)
Allen’s name did come up last summer in trade rumors, when the Celtics were supposedly gauging interest in Rajon Rondo. (The team’s general manager, Danny Ainge, denies they were ever seriously interested in trading Rondo, but other GMs swear the Celtics were listening.) To many teams, Allen would be a valuable pickup, but, in a testament to the times, the value would likely be due to more to his contract than his game.
Ainge has not divulged his end-game strategy for Allen, but it has to involve keeping him in Boston after this season. Originally, when the Celtics made the deals for Allen and Kevin Garnett, observers gave them a three-year window to win, primarily because that was the length remaining on Allen’s contract. This is Year 3. They’ve already won one championship and, after a four-game road sweep of Miami, Charlotte, San Antonio and Oklahoma City, are 16-4 and looking very much like they’ll be in the chase to the end once again.
That chase will have to include Allen. He enjoys being in Boston (who wouldn’t with the teammates he has?) and continues to show he is still effective. His son, Walker, is getting top-of-the-line treatment for juvenile diabetes in Boston at one of the great medical centers of the world. (There was a rumor over the summer that his daughter Tierra, a junior in high school, might move from South Carolina to live with her dad for the last two years of high school. Alas, that did not happen.)
It isn’t as if Allen has gone Kevin Costner on the Celtics or anything like that. He’s averaging 15.6 points a game and has an overall shooting percentage of 46.3. Only twice in his career has he bettered that; last year (48 percent) and 2000-01 (48 percent.) Doc Rivers is keeping the minutes down. Allen is still almost automatic at the line (93.3 percent.) He won’t be a candidate for the All-Defensive Team anytime soon, but, like Paul Pierce, has emerged as a top-notch team defender in the Celtics’ schemes, anchored and egged-on by the indefatigable Garnett.
“You never talked about Ray playing defense before he got to Boston,’’ said the Suns’ coach, Alvin Gentry. “He’s probably playing the best defense of his career.”
Also, there is no overstating Allen’s value in the locker room and as a mentor to the younger players, particularly Rondo. Allen made a point of taking Rondo under his wing two years ago and Rondo has been an eager and absorbent protégé (although he still can be an occasional handful.) Allen’s practice habits, his professional demeanor, his “every day is Groundhog Day in the NBA” approach to the grind of a season are all enviable (and not all that common) attributes.
Allen has expressed a desire to play beyond this year and keeps himself in excellent shape. Generally, in the NBA, the guards start to lose it first, right around where Allen is now. But I can easily see the Celtics re-signing Allen for two or three more years. Reggie Miller, remember, played very well and very competitively to the age of 40. There’s no reason to think Allen can’t do the same.
Garnett has two more years on his deal and Pierce, who can opt out of is contract at the end of this season, has one more. Either way, they’re both going to be around next year. There’s no reason to expect Allen won’t be with them, certainly not on the part of the Celtics.
Let LeBron and the others steal the limelight. Allen will be perfectly content to re-up and stay where he is.
And when he does, you just might want to keep that window ajar a little while longer.
There still are some impressive names due to hit the free agent market next summer. We all know the Big Three: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
But one individual with some lofty credentials deliberately removed himself from the inevitable, frenzied, open marketplace: two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash.
His original, six-year free-agent deal with the Suns – you know the one Mark Cuban wouldn’t give him because of concerns over age, injury, durability and declining productivity – expires at the end of this season. But last summer, Nash and his agent, Bill Duffy, went to management and suggested a two-year extension, running through the 2012 season. The Suns agreed.
Why did he forego the free agent market, in which he participated and from which he cashed in during the summer of 2004?
“The option of waiting until next summer to be a free agent is totally speculative,’’ Nash said. “I don’t know what would have happened or what would be available. Here, I had an opportunity to play with a great group of guys I enjoy, to overcome a disappointing year last year, to turn things around. There’s a lot of reward in that. We may not be the most talented team in the league. We may not be expected to win a championship. But there’s still a lot to play for.”
Few looked at the Suns as one of the league’s more talented teams before the start of the season. Then they opened by matching the best record in franchise history (8-1) with Nash playing to his MVP form of three and four years ago. He’s already had games of 20 assists (Oct. 30 vs. Golden State) and 17 assists (Nov. 8 vs. Washington.) He helped hand the Celtics their first defeat with a double-double (16 points, 12 assists on Nov. 6 in Boston.) He became the Suns’ all-time leader in made three-pointers (Nov. 3 vs. Miami.) Two weeks into the NBA season Nash was leading the league in assists, shooting 54 percent from three-point range and, needless to say, a nearly flawless 93 percent from the line.
“He is still one of the top five point guards in the NBA and he has shown it so far this season. He has been phenomenal,’’ said Suns general manager Steve Kerr.
And with coach Alvin Gentry opening things up again on offense, you have to think Nash’s numbers and effectiveness will continue to impress. That’s good for the Suns, who will have him locked up at reasonable numbers ($11 million per with some deferrals) for the next two years, when he will be 38.
“The number one factor in signing that extension was that he’s 35,’’ Duffy said. “If he was 30, we’d be having an entirely different conversation. We would play it out for sure. But he likes the situation in Phoenix and ownership stepped up.”
They did indeed. Kerr said there was some “public sentiment” last summer urging the Suns to trade Nash. He admitted, “we got a lot of calls about Steve, trade-wise. The two lines of thinking were to either keep Steve and try to rebound from a lousy season, or sell high (trade Nash) and go young.
“To me, there was never a thought of moving him,’’ Kerr continued. “You just don’t move a guy who is that important to the franchise; he’s the face of the franchise. To trade a guy like that, who is still a helluva player, who is the heartbeat of the team, who brings in the fans to watch the team, I’m not going to do that. That’s crazy. He is going to help us.”
Kerr also believes that Nash’s days in Phoenix could go beyond the extension. He sees Nash as a John Stockton clone in terms of taking care of his body and looking for innovative methods to stay fresh. (Stockton played 82 games in his final NBA season, during which he turned 41.) There are summers, for instance, where Nash will rarely pick up a basketball, Duffy said. Instead, he will play soccer, cross-train.
“He definitely has found the fountain of youth,’’ Duffy said.
Kerr said, “Steve is such a freak of nature with his preparation in the offseason. During the season, he sits in a cold tub, like 52 degrees, after every practice and every game. He loads up on fruit. He knows how to take care of his body. Every summer he actively searches for ways to improve his conditioning. It’s plain to me, he’s going to be very successful for the next few years.”
Duffy also said Nash, who was born in South Africa and raised in Canada, has talked about playing overseas when his NBA days are over just for the experience. He said Nash, who has played in international competitions for Canada, could qualify for a British passport by virtue of family being born in England. (Sort of like Chris Kaman ending up playing for Germany in the Olympics.)
But those days are a ways away. Now, Nash’s focus is on the here and now and getting the Suns back to where they have been since he came to Phoenix – among the league’s elite. He’s the only MVP in NBA history to never have appeared in an NBA Finals and, in the minds of most, that is unlikely to change in 2010. Nash’s take? Dismiss him and the Suns at your own peril.
“This is a whole fresh start for us,’’ he said. “We have a lot of new players. Last year was basically a throw-away year with so many things thrown at us. We’re not really sure what to expect going into this season. So we’re just trying to find ourselves and try to be as positive and work as hard as we can everyday to get a little bit better.”
There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.
“I gotta get ready for the season,’’ Rondo said. “I haven’t even given it (the extension) a thought.”
His nose did not appear to be growing as he spoke and, in fact, Doc Rivers said he has seen no evidence that a possible extension is consuming his point guard’s thinking. On the contrary, insists the Celtics coach.
“It has not been a distraction for anyone, not for him, not for us,’’ Rivers said. “And he has been sensational (in the preseason.) Look, it’s not exactly revolutionary for an NBA player to be in this position. It happens all the time. Rajon has handled it great and I think it will work out. It usually does. It’s rare when it doesn’t.”
The Celtics have until Oct. 31 to sign Rondo to an extension which would kick in starting with the 2010-11 season. If nothing is done, then Rondo would become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2009-10 season, with the Celtics still holding the right to match any offer. However, there is some risk in letting that scenario unfold because a number of teams have targeted the summer of 2010 for spending on prospective free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If they all stay put, the money might be redirected elsewhere (to, say, a restricted free agent point guard from Boston.)
Rondo certainly has made a case for a significant raise on the $2.6 million he is due to earn this season, an amount determined by the NBA rookie scale. (It is roughly half of what the Bulls’ second-year point guard, Derrick Rose, will earn this season and some $300,000 less than Jonny Flynn, the Minnesota rookie and No. 6 overall pick in 2009, will earn.) In three years with the Celtics, he has gone from being SebastianTelfair’s backup (with even a DNP-Coach’s Decision along the way) to an almost indispensable member of arguably the best starting five in the NBA, inarguably on one of the handful of NBA teams with legitimate championship aspirations. And he has done it the last two years with no real backup.
But how valued? And how valuable? Those are some of the issues that the Celtics and Rondo’s agent, the estimable Bill Duffy, are trying to hash out by Halloween. The Celtics don’t see this first deadline as all that important, given that they can always re-visit the issue next summer if things don’t work out this week.
“I honestly think that he will be a Celtic for life,” Rivers said of Rondo.
Says Rondo, “You gotta live for the present. I can’t think too much about the future because nothing is guaranteed. You never know what might happen.”
While Rondo’s improvement has been dramatic – last spring, he became the only Celtic other than Larry Bird to have three triple-doubles in the same postseason – he still is only 23 (he turns 24 in February.) If, as Rivers suggests, Rondo is going to be a Celtic lifer, then Rondo might want to think about what a 2011-12 or a 2012-13 Celtics team might look like. Ray Allen, for instance, is in the final year of his contract, although he shows little sign of wearing down. Paul Pierce has two years left on his deal, Kevin Garnett three. All will be well into their 30’s and slowing down when Rondo theoretically would be hitting his prime.
There were rumors this past summer that the Celtics were shopping Rondo, despite his brilliant play in the postseason. The thinking was that Rondo, who can be either high maintenance or simply complex depending on your view, might not handle a big contract the way the Celtics would prefer. Both Rivers and Celtics GM Danny Ainge denied that was the case.
Ainge, after all, was the one who saw something in Rondo, trading a No. 1 pick to Phoenix in 2006 so the Suns would pick the sophomore out of Kentucky at No. 21 overall. And, it was Ainge, with the blessing of ownership, who refused to include Rondo in either the deal for Allen or the deal for Garnett, even if it meant the deal would fall apart. That’s how much the Celtics thought of Rondo back then. (Neither Ainge nor Duffy would comment for this article.)
The sticky part now, potentially, is putting a monetary value on Rondo. The top-flight young point guards in the league (Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker) all make more than $11 million a year. Does Rondo deserve to join that elite trio? In all likelihood, this is where Duffy would like to see Rondo land. Or is the next level down (Jameer Nelson, Jose Calderon, Andre Miller, Mo Williams) more indicative of his worth? All of those gents make between $6 million and $9 million per. This probably is where the Celtics would prefer to slot Rondo.
The two gray eminences at the position, Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, both will pocket around $8 million each this year in the first year of new deals signed over the summer.
“The second contract you get is for what you have done in the league, and what you can do, even further down the road,’’ Rondo said.
Rivers has spoken warily in the past of the perils of young players looking for big deals and focused on things other than winning. He does not see Rondo in that category.
“The (second) contract that a player gets will be a good guideline as to where his career is and where it is going,’’ Rivers said. “If you are like Rondo, who will get a big deal, it’s because he has put the work into his game and he’s proven it. It’s good for him.”
Regardless of whether a deal is reached by Saturday, the Celtics’ plan for Rondo to be there, hopefully, in June when they raise another championship banner. And if they do, you can bet that No. 9 on the Celtics will have had a big hand in it.
There’s an opening in the NBA right now which comes with bells, whistles and numerous red flags: the general manager spot for the Los Angeles Clippers.
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 
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.
Here’s a nugget you might not know: The Oklahoma City Thunder leads the NBA in inter-conference victories. Their victory Monday night in Atlanta pushed the surprising Thunder to 15-4 against Eastern Conference opponents. Not bad for a team which won only 23 games last season. They’ve won 23 already this season.
They slowly emerged on the NBA scene in the 1980s. They became mainstays in the 1990s. In the last decade, for the first time in league history, one of them became a Most Valuable Player and another became a Rookie of the Year. Two would earn Most Improved Player Awards and two others would earn Sixth Man Awards.
There is undeniable basketball DNA in Jonas Jerebko’s makeup.
There still are some impressive names due to hit the free agent market next summer. We all know the Big Three: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.