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4 January22005SWISH MAGAZINE

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Swish Magazine. Whilemany of you may have been with us online since our foundingback in 1997, this is our first print endeavor. We have put countless hours of research, planning, writing andinterviewing into making this issue possible – and we thank all ofyou that have assisted in helping us to realize this vision. While there are dozens upon dozens of “lifestyle” sports maga-zines out there, we have made a conscious effort to make SwishMagazine, more newsworthy, and less flash and pomp. We are“substance over style” and plan to stay that way.

Throughout the course of Swish, we will be looking to bring you interview basedinsight into the professional basketball world, and specifically the NBA. Our aim is toshowcase the business, the personalities and professionals that surround the gameand the business of professional basketball.

Along the way we hope to entertain you, enlighten you and expose you to the NBA aswe experience it, not only as professional journalists, but also as serious basketball fans.

Swish Magazine will start out as a quarterly magazine and as we grow, so will thefrequency of our publication.

We are not trying to be as big as some of the other sports magazines, but we dofeel that with our focus and our passion we are likely to become more relevant.

We hope you enjoy Swish #1 – and we hope you’ll be excited to see Swish #2 inApril of 2005.

As always – we’d love to hear from you.Drop us some feedback at [email protected]

Enjoy-

Letter from the Editor

Table of Contents01.05

Features

Back to the LabThe Raptors have totally retooled their frontoffice and coaching staff and it is clear theroster is next, as the Raptors retool and reload.

8

16

21 Risk & Reward:

Life in the 2nd RoundThe 2nd round of the NBA draft isn’t whatit used to be as more and more talentslides in the draft.

Changes in LatitudeThis year’s Olympic Bronze medal was theproving point that USA Basketball is no longerelite, international players and their team firstattitude are coming into the NBA in droves.

Still Standing

Visions of Winning

The Lifestyle

The Man Behind

The Name

Inside Arena

Get The Slide Rule

Society of Sports

Heat and Soul

Collectors Corner

Underrated &

Underestimated

Dog With a Bone

The Last Word

departments

5

6

12

13

14

20

24

25

26

27

28

29

Steve Kyler

Editor & Publisher Swish Magazine

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EDITORIAL STAFF

Jason Fleming, Darren Andrade,Bill Ingram, Steve Kyler

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Tom House, Jason Fleming,Darren Andrade, Bill Ingram,

Steve Kyler

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January 2005 Volume 1 Issue 1

SWISH MAGZINE is a quarterlybasketball news publication, pro-duced by Basketball News Ser-vices. With more than 50 basket-ball writers and contributors inalmost every major basketballcity, Basketball News Servicesoffers year round coverage ofbasketball and the NBA. Formore information please visithttp://www.swishmagazine.com

Januaryw2005 5SWISH MAGAZINE

STILL STANDING Grant Hill

The Once AndFuture King?By Sean King

Grant Hill. This was once a name synony-mous with everything right in the NBA. Fromthe professional manner in which he con-ducted himself on and off the floor, to hischaritable contributions in the community andall-around good guy demeanor, Hill was thetemplate for what a professional athleteshould ideally be. He’s continually faced eachnew challenge head on and he never turnsback to ponder conceivable failure.

Odds are he never thought he’d be fac-ing a possible end to his illustrious career,much less due to something as seeminglytrivial as a fractured left ankle. Several yearswould pass and surgery after surgery wouldbe conducted, but nothing could make thenightmare end. Then finally, Hill decided itwas time for something radical.

That’s when his doctors determined thatmerely fixing what was broken was notenough. This is because something al-ways cropped up to stifle Hill’s progress.Bone spurs, separate bones in the anklerubbing together and an over-anxiousnessto return to the court all served as stum-bling blocks along the comeback trail.

This time, Hill would have his entire leftleg realigned along with the usual procedure,making sure that there would be nothing tostop the ankle from properly healing. Addto that his longest recovery time to date andit seems that Hill was at long last given anhonest chance at a full recovery.

So far, so good.We’re already nearing late November and

Hill has played eight pain-free games. Heno longer looks for ways to work aroundlingering soreness, but rather ways to workaround strong defenders. Just two weeksinto the season Hill found himself going toe-to-toe with Utah Jazz defensive ace AndreiKirilenko. The long-armed Russian could dolittle to hinder Hill’s progress. The oncecrowned prince of the league went for 32points against the man they call AK-47, themost he has accumulated in four years.

Hill used a variety of moves to beatKirilenko. He drove past him more than

once and even displayed that lightningquick stop-and-pop jumper, a maneuverthat often left Kirilenko looking like he hadjust learned to walk earlier in the day. Let’sjust say it, this was vintage Grant Hill.

It wasn’t a mirage or an old documentary;it was real, live, an actual occurrence thatmany will have to see to believe this season.Not only is Hill back, but he’s playing morethan he has ever been able to since the origi-nal injury. Against the Jazz, he played 41 min-utes and looked like he could have gone foranother quarter or two if necessary.

“I feel good, you know, it’s fun to play,”said Hill, who is averaging 20.5 points inthe team’s first eight games.

“I don’t like coming out of games, I ac-tually get kind of ticked off. But I under-stand the big picture.”

The big picture is exactly what every-one in Orlando and really the sporting na-tion at large is wondering about.

Will Hill be able to stay healthy? Further-more, if he can stay healthy, can he actuallyclaw his way back to the All-NBA level heonce maintained steadily? It once seemedimpossible, but while watching the ol’ BlueDevil lead an early season resurgence inOrlando, you have to believe that Hill iscloser than ever to his former glory. Fromhere, it’s all a matter of shaking off the rustand keeping a positive mindset. And really,is anyone more optimistic than this man?

Optimistic, yet realistic at the sametime. Hill is less ready than most to pro-claim himself ‘back’ and will remain sountil at least the All-Star break. It’s a longseason and several four-inch screws stillreside in that ankle, lest we forget.

Still, reality has been kind. Especially foran Orlando team that rebuilt itself this off-season by dealing away superstar TracyMcGrady and the rest of that rotten core,

while reloading with Steve Francis, CuttinoMobley, Kelvin Cato, Tony Battie and HedoTurkoglu- not to mention the top High Schooland Collegiate players from a year ago-Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson.

While none of these players have faced any-thing like what Hill has gone through, all arehungry and have something to prove. Someare looking to prove they can make it in theleague, like Howard and Nelson. While othersare looking to prove they can carry a team intothe postseason, such as Francis and Mobley.

It’s a dynamic formula made possible bythe determination and resilience Hill hasshown these four long years.

He never doubted he could return toform, even while nearly every so-calledexpert in the country considered him agoner or at best, a long shot.

People always ask the question, “Sowhat’s so different about this time?” Whyshould we believe this guy is actually back?”

The answer is in Hill’s face, mannerismsand overall attitude. This is not a man la-boring and bitterly living in the past. Hill hasthe swagger and stride of a man reborn.

“I never count a guy out and he was agreat player to begin with,” says Utah JazzCoach Jerry Sloan. “You just knew if heever got healthy, there was no reason whyhe would have lost anything.

“I’m happy for him,” Sloan continued.“With all the stuff he’s had to go throughhe just had to stick with it and now it lookslike he’s in a great situation.”

So far, Hill is at long last making good on hispromise to lead the Magic back into conten-tion. Actually, scratch that. We’ve been say-ing ‘so far’ for so long that it has become atired way of saying that we still don’t believeor have faith in Grant Hill. Well folks, I’m hereto tell you that you can once again believe inmiracles, at least as they pertain to Hill.

“You just knew if he ever gothealthy, there was no reason why

he would have lost anything.”Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan


VISIONS OF WINNING Kiki Vandeweghe

The AlchemistPhilip Maymin

Denver was founded almost 150 years agoas a waypoint for Gold Rushers to markettheir precious commodity. Perched on ahigh plateau with few trade routes, it wasan unlikely place to prosper. All around thoseearly settlers the majesty of the RockyMountains mocked their own flat desert city.Denver’s saving grace seemed to be thatunlike other short-lived towns, its houseswere built with brick. These brick structuresand the presence of gold soon even broughta U.S. Mint to town, one of only two facili-ties still producing coins today.

A few years ago, the Nuggets fran-chise looked as desolate as a ghosttown. Most fans barely acknowledgedtheir team’s existence. Free agentsshied away. Other teams glistened withpromise while the Nuggets were thebutt of Simpsons jokes as late as Febru-ary of last year.

The solution? Build with brick. “Our firstgoal,” said Nuggets General Manager KikiVandeweghe, “was to change the cultureof the franchise.” Vandeweghe tore downold, ponderous contracts and started re-building from scratch. He instituted mea-sures such as open tryouts to bridge thegap with a community that had “really feltdisconnected with the Nuggets.” Denverthe city had been built on a community ofprospectors discussing nuggets 24/7.Vandeweghe looked to create the samebuzz around Denver the team.

Vandeweghe’s staff “set out to clearas much cap space as we could in orderto field a competitive team that had capflexibility.” Within a year, they clearedover $100 million in guaranteed contractsand got three lottery-selected players inaddition to Juwan Howard and MarcusCamby and a future draft pick. That setup the major offseason immigration thatwill forever be known to Nuggets fansas the summer that Carmelo Anthonycame to town.

“Carmelo had an outstanding season,”Vandeweghe said. “He was everything wehad hoped for and more.” Carmelo turned

because they were more accustomedto the altitude than the visiting teams,were one of just nine teams to recordat least 29 home victories.

Bringing in coach Moe also helped forgea tradition with the Nuggets. “Havingplayed here,” Vandeweghe said, “I knewwhat a close-knit community we have. Youwere a part of a family when you playedfor the Nuggets.” Now the family atmo-sphere is back, but younger. The Nuggetshadn’t won 43 games since the 1989-1990season, coach Moe’s last. That season,the Nuggets roster held aging veterans,like old prospectors going for one last dig.Today’s team has no key players overthirty. The nucleus has an average age ofjust 25; these young gold diggers aren’tleaving without that 24k vermeil LarryO’Brien trophy in their hands.

With nostalgia, up-tempo basketball,community involvement, open tryouts,and even a wildly successful trainingcamp documentary, observers wonder,where do these ideas come from? “Wetry and think outside the box in everythingwe do,” Vandeweghe explained. His goalis simple: “We want people to feel likethey are part of our team and when theyleave a game, we want them to feel theywere entertained.” He and his staff evalu-ate all ideas to see if they help them reachthis goal. As two-time Nobel Prize Win-ner Linus Pauling famously said, “Theway to get good ideas is to get lots ofideas and then throw the bad onesaway.” Exactly like prospecting.

It’s working. “The city really got behindus,” Vandeweghe said, “and we had a lotof fun.” The fun looks to continue thisseason with the addition of All-Star KenyonMartin to the frontcourt, whose presencehelps solidify the Nuggets as one of thetop championship contenders.

Vandeweghe is a basketball explorer. Hehas been an All-Star, a developmentalcoach, a big man skills instructor, and afinancial planner. What advice would heoffer rookie GMs looking to follow his suc-cessful trail?

The ultimate credo of both the explorerand the alchemist: “Don’t be afraid to trynew things.”

“Our first goalwas to changethe culture ofthe franchise.” Nuggets General Manager

Kiki Vandeweghe

out to be the embodiment of the present-day Mint. His jersey sales were second onlyto LeBron James in the entire league, as fansagreed that “Carmelo is a winner and he’lldo whatever it takes to win.” The Nuggetscracked into the top 10 best-selling teams.

But Carmelo “The Mint” Anthony wasfar from the only reason for Denver’srecord-setting turnaround season. “Obvi-ously drafting Carmelo was a big move forus,” Vandeweghe continued, “but everyfree agent we brought in had an outstand-

ing season.” From point guards AndreMiller and Earl Boykins to veteran shoot-ing guard Voshon Lenard, everyonebrought in during the Carmelo offseasonhad near All-Star-caliber years.

What aspect of Vandeweghe’s visionunified these players so quickly and letthem play at such a high level? Quite lit-eral ly, i t was Denver’s high level.Vandeweghe, a Nugget himself from1980-1984, wanted the Nuggets to re-turn to the frenetic fast-break pace he’denjoyed under head coach Doug Moetwo decades earlier.

The Nuggets are un ique, Van -deweghe explained, in that they play amile above sea level. “We wanted toput together a team that would run andtake advantage of the altitude.” Whobetter to bring in than coach Moe him-self? The prodigal coach returned andthe Nuggets led the league both in fastbreak points scored and allowed, and,

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FEATURE

Retooling theToronto RaptorsBy Darren Andrade

“Look, the relationship between VinceCarter and the Toronto Raptors didn’t gobad in one day,” says Toronto Raptors headcoach Sam Mitchell. “So it’s not going tobe resolved in one day.”

The Air Canada Centre is a perfect exampleof the new-and-old culture in Toronto. Builton the site of its first postal building, some ofthe old structure has been incorporated intothe new. In front of the arena at 40 Bay Street,gigantic rustic cones form a modern statuethat shoot upward like the flood lights be-hind it stretching into the sky above. Upwardlike a young franchise player with a rising starand a franchise firmly attached to it. For sixseasons Vince Carter has been that for theToronto Raptors but it may all be coming toan end. If you are a basketball fan the ACC isthe house that Vince built, mostly becausehe led the Raptors to their first ever playoffappearance in 2000 and to within a close-but-no-cigar jump shot of the Eastern Con-ference Finals in 2001. Carter hasn’t playedin a playoff game since capping that mete-oric rise, back when the Raptors were con-sidered one of the most promising franchisesin the league. Right around the time Carter’sknee problems surfaced and his reluctanceto stake claim as the undisputed leader ofthe team became apparent, Maple LeafSports and Entertainment Limited lost itsmomentum where the Raptors are con-cerned. It exposed the brass as vulnerableand indecisive when rattled and the knockwas that there were few real basketballminds upstairs.

“I’m the businessman here,” says Rich-ard Peddie, president of the Raptors andLeafs and CEO of MLSEL.

Part of Peddie’s business last summer wasto find a new general manager after firingGlen Grunwald. The club was on the verge

of the playoffs for the second consecutiveseason when the long time GM was axed, amove followed quickly by the firing of first-year head coach Kevin O’Neill. The tensionbetween the two men was real. Reports offormer Raptors players bashing O’Neill anda lack of communication between the frontoffice and the coaching staff led to disarray.The Raptors folded quickly down the stretchwith seven straight losses and 10 defeats intheir last 13 games. Did they eliminate the com-mon denominator in Grunwald? Some wouldargue that type of blame belongs to Carter.Others would be quick to pin it on Peddie.

“The players don’t have an appreciation forwhat’s involved in a general manager’s job,”said Peddie during the GM search. “It’s al-ways interesting who they might want asgeneral manager but it’s not their call.”

It’s that type of attitude that has Carterruffled. Has him asking for a trade. He’d becrazy to think he’d have input on the finalword but as the franchise player he wants tobe in the loop. Peddie admits he could havedone a better job of that.

“I think you should be talking to your fran-chise players a lot,” says Peddie. “Commu-nication is a two way street but you have tobe reachable, too. I’ve said I could have com-municated better with Vince, the rest is upto him and our organization.”

When the search for a GM began eye-brows were raised. Peddie and team con-sultant Jack McClosky had constructed aChristmas list of potentials, most of themfirst-timers. The sprawling search suggestedthat the club didn’t know what it was lookingfor. That’s when Carter re-iterated his choicefor GM - Julius “Dr. J” Erving. The Hall-of-Famer would bring instant credibility to thecompany but they were never convinced hehad the right stuff. They waived off the no-tion before reluctantly arranging to meet withthe legend. It played like a token gesture andshortly before the club announced the hiringof their new GM, there was McClosky brush-ing off talk that Dr. J was being seriously con-sidered. The back-and-forth nature of the pro-cess and the apparent lack of interest in thesuggestion of their franchise player did noth-

ing to dim the perception that the Raptorswere a club in chaos.

“That perception is inaccurate,” explainsLarry Tanenbaum, minority owner and Chair-man of the Board with MLSEL. “We have torealize that it’s also a perception that is di-rected toward a lot of teams - none more sothan the Los Angeles Lakers. Those samethings are being said about most teams inthe league.”

On June 7, 2004 the Raptors hired RobBabcock as the third GM in club history.Babcock had spent the last 12 years with theMinnesota Timberwolves as director of playerpersonnel and vice-president of player per-sonnel and came highly recommended byMcClosky, himself a former TimberwolvesGM. But like his predecessors Grunwald andIsiah Thomas, Babcock has never played GMbefore. It’s hard to ignore the role inexperi-ence has played in the stop and go progressof the organization. With the exception ofLenny Wilkens, five out of the six headcoaches in the Raptors’ ten-year history havebeen rookies too. There have been threehead coaches in as many years and now anew management team in year-one of a yetanother philosophy. That type of revolvingdoor makes new beginnings a hard sell.

“It’s not easy,” said Babcock on imple-menting his plan. “Players who have beenhere the last two years will be very skepti-cal. But we’ve got multi-year contracts, thecoaches and myself, and a commitmentfrom the organization that they believe inmy philosophy.”

Grunwald earned respect as a straight-upguy who liked to keep things in house. Heaccommodated players, even when theywhined to be traded. That nice guy skin mayhave contributed to his demise in the no-holds-barred world of professional sports. Itdoesn’t send a good message when youslight players, but what does it say when youcave in? Antonio Davis, Tracy McGrady andthe Raptors’ first franchise player DamonStoudamire all wanted out under Grunwald.He sent them to Chicago, Orlando and Port-land respectively – exactly where they askedto go. That coddling seems to be out the door


under this new regime.“That’s something that was missing here

before,” says Tanenbaum of the veteranmanagement crew. “I don’t think you canhave too much expertise on your staff, pro-viding that everyone shares the same phi-losophy, which is true of the staff we nowhave in place.”

Babcock’s supporting cast reads like adream team. Hall-of-Famer Wayne Embry,the NBA’s first African-American generalmanager (Milwaukee Bucks, 1972) and presi-dent (Cleveland Cavaliers, 1994) is on boardas senior advisor. Alex English, another Hall-of-Famer and 11th all-time NBA scoring leader,was added as both Director of Player Devel-opment and assistant coach. Babcock alsohired his brother Pete, a 30-year front officeveteran of six other NBA teams, as Directorof Player Personnel.

“It’s unbelievable how valuable it is to haveall these people around,” says Babcock.“During the draft preparation time, which wasof course very short because I just got thejob June 7, to be able to go into a room withWayne and Jack McClosky and Pete - whocombined between the three of them havemore than 50 years of experience as a GMin this league - to run things by them and gettheir take taken on it? Man, that was just un-believably valuable.”

It’s the type of freedom to hire Grunwaldnever had.

“I think we erred in hindsight not havingan assistant general manager around to workwith Glen,” says Peddie.

At the very least these steps have leadthem away from a lingering expansion teammentality, though the continual hire of un-tested - and therefore cheaper – personnelto fill top roles in the club isn’t all good

Babcock’s first step in making it happenwas to hire Mitchell who had been sharpen-ing his teeth as an assistant coach for theMilwaukee Bucks after he retired from thegame in 2002. If the fans were annoyed byWilkens’ casual approach or tired of O’Neill’sflaming, Mitchell threatens to be somewherein between. He was in the running for thegig last year but lost out to O’Neill.

“I didn’t get overly excited about it,” saysMitchell about the second chance. At thetime he was an assistant coach with the ex-pansion Charlotte Bobcats. “Not that last yearleft a bad taste in my mouth but there wasjust some things that happened last yearduring the process that I thought were verypositive and that put me in a position to actu-ally get the job.

“I wanted the job really bad last year. I thinkthis year I didn’t really care if I got the job.Not to say ‘I didn’t care’ but I had just taken

the job in Charlotte. I was happy in Charlotte.”“He doesn’t have the experience of a lot

of the people we interviewed,” explainsBabcock, “but we realize his potential andwhat he can be. He’s someone who has thesame philosophy as I do and there is a greattrust and loyalty between us.”

“Experience doesn’t automatically lead towinning,” agrees Tanenbaum. “What youneed is someone with an understanding ofthe game, an understanding of today’s player,an ability to communicate with players, offi-cials and front office personnel, and some-one who will set an example with a strongwork ethic. Those qualities can be found inindividuals of any age, and the current castof head coaches in the NBA bears that out.”

Even before his playing days were overMitchell was being pegged as a head coach.His ascension came quickly.

“I have a military background, I had a sec-ond lieutenant commission,” says Mitchell.“I played in Europe, I played in the CBA, Iplayed in a small school and I always had toprove myself. When you come from a smallschool and you’re trying to make it to theNBA, if you have a feeling of being over-whelmed you’ll never make it.

“I know people are concerned that I’ve onlybeen coaching two years. That’s fine. Peoplewere concerned that I played at a small school.I’ve been successful because I look at that asa challenge and I don’t take it in a negativeway. It’s just another step for me to provemyself and to prove other people wrong.”

The challenge is steep with a roster almost

untouched from last year’s brood that finished33-49. Babcock also inherited a nightmare ofa salary cap situation that leaves little roomto maneuver on the market. He started hislegacy by drafting BYU center Rafael “Hoffa”Araujo with the eighth overall pick in the 2004NBA draft. Risky. He followed that up on thefree agent front by agreeing with point guardRafer Alston on a six-year, $30M contract.With resident starter Alvin Williams ailing (heis due to miss the entire season after lateNovember knee surgery) Babcock anticipatedthe need for a younger, healthier point guard.Another surprise, with Alston having provedhimself to be little more than a good secondstringer on three different teams in four sea-sons in the NBA, including a previous half-

season stint with Toronto in 2003. That sum-mer Grunwald let him walk. Swing manMorris Peterson was also signed to a three-year $15M deal.

Then there is the Carter situation. He feelsthe club hasn’t done enough to acquire freeagent star power and he’s right. The Raptorshave been fine at re-signing their own butoften they’ve had to overpay to do so. Thebiggest outside free agent signing in teamhistory was guard Mark Jackson who wastraded away in the first year of his ridiculous$14M pact. It is also hard for a player to growwhen he faces a new coach and philosophyeach year and for Carter it will be his fourthin seven seasons. He might feel like he isowed more input but how much weightshould he be pushing?

“It depends on what you told him,” says

“I know people are con-cerned that I’ve only been

coaching two years .That’s fine. People were

concerned that I played ata small school. I’ve beensuccessful because I lookat that as a challenge andI don’t take it in a nega-tive way. It’s just another

step for me to provemyself and to prove other

people wrong.”Raptors Head Coach

Sam Mitchell


Mitchell. “I wasn’t here but ifyou tell a guy that you’re go-ing to consult with him on “X”amount of things and youdon’t (then) that’s a mistakethat you make.”

“I talk to players about play-ers they played with, playedagainst in college, alumni andthat sort of thing,” addsBabcock. “But that’s as far asit goes. In my philosophy younever have a player be in-volved in the actual decision-making process on who youhire in any capacity.”

One trade rumor had prin-ciples Carter and guard JalenRose being shipped to the Port-land Trail Blazers for power for-ward Shareef Abdur-Rahim andguards Derek Anderson or NickVan Exel. Cap-wise it madesense because of Abdur-Rahim’s expensive ending con-tract would allow the Raptorsto make a run at a star freeagent while removing the enor-mous (and longer) contracts ofCarter and Rose. The risk? Ifthe acquired players walk at theend of the season and the teamcraps out on the free agentmarket, they would have essentially tradedaway their marquee player for nothing. Theclub never had much luck attracting freeagents with Carter around so it’s hard to be-lieve they will fair better without him.

Even with Carter still in the fold and evenwith the NHL on strike in this hockey-firstcity, attendance at the ACC has been belowaverage. They registered a franchise low 13,863 for the Raptors’ third game of the sea-son against the Trail Blazers. During the 2001-02 campaign they sold out 40 of their 41home games and were a top road draw aswell. This year the only sellout was theirhome opener.

Fans in Toronto may be finally getting overthe past; the great 2001 playoffs and the in-jury plagued seasons since mingle like a pret-zel, frustratingly twisted into hope and de-spair. Like the old Canada Post building thesethings remain embedded in the walls of theACC. They float around on game-days for aveteran Raptor like Carter, who made hisdemand for a trade public by telling TheToronto Star “It’s time to move on.”

“I want to coach Vince Carter,” saysMitchell. “That was one of the appealingthings about this job.

“There is no issue that can’t be resolved.”It would seem the resolution might be to

trade Vinsanity. Has Mitchell been covertlypreparing his team for the inevitable block-buster deal that will send Carter packing?Mitchell has benched him for long stretchesand twice for the fourth quarter during ralliesin close games against the Utah Jazz and SanAntonio Spurs. The win against the Spurswas a 19-point comeback victory, a franchiserecord. Taking him out of crunch-time wouldhave been unthinkable at any other time inRaptors history.

“My frustration comes from the fact thatwe have not been able to create an equationto win ball games,” Carter wrote on his website last summer. “I am at the point in mycareer where I do not have time to wait twoto four years for a team to mature.”

Carter averaged 16.1 points and 3.6 re-bounds in 30.9 minutes in November, all ca-reer lows. Don’t sleep though; he remains adeadly scorer that defends well when moti-vated. Carter will have to play his way out oftown if Babcock stays true to his word andholds out for something more sweet thansour. For his part Carter has picked it upafter a slow start but the Raptors lost 9 of

12 after starting the season 4-1.That combo is part of the writ-ing on the wall.

“I’ll be honest with you,”says Mitchell with a chuckle.“It’s amazing. Your path kindof chooses you, you don’tchoose your path, you under-stand what I’m saying?Coaching chose me. It’s justsomething that came naturalfor me. Like the military.

“I do believe God wastelling me ‘Hey, if you just lis-ten to this little voice, if youfollow the path I set forth foryou then you’re going to besuccessful’. It’s like going toMilwaukee, I told my wifeand it’s funny. When I tookthe job in Milwaukee I knewI would only be there for twoyears. I just knew it.”

How long Mitchell will lastin Toronto? No head coach haslasted more than three full sea-sons in Hogtown, but that waswhen the coach’s corner wasa trap door and Carter was anuntouchable. Those days aregone. There has already beensome locker room moaningabout his willingness to sit his

starters, (Alston threatened to retire after onebenching, Rose expects to be traded) butMitchell’s plan is to run and go deep into hisbench. It’s all about adjustment and Babcockhas Mitchell’s back in the grand scheme.There is a hard-line approach to retooling theteam and now play for pay is the word onthe street. Carter? Like the old postal build-ing he is part of the foundation, but not es-sential to the future. At the time of this print-ing he was still a Raptor but it could be just amatter of time. Or not. He hasn’t backed offof his demand but maintains he is happy.Good soldier or convert? Then again, his faceno longer fronts the club’s marketing effortsand his trade request has separated him fromfans that once embraced him tightly. Nowhe gets booed inside the ACC, on his ownturf in the house that Vince built. Not exactlythe way they wanted to be celebrating theirten-year anniversary but just as they were in1995, the Raptors are preparing for a newbeginning. If happiness comes from pain thenthis year of change should bode well for thefuture. Armed with an all-star brain trust anda decade worth of education, the TorontoRaptors have finally grown up.

That was just a matter of time too.


THE LIFESTYLE Quentin Richardson

“We were good too so we couldn’treally go anywhere because everybody

knew who we were. That was coolbecause Chicago is my home city too.”

Quentin Richardson

Life in Phoenixis Nice…By Greg White

Making the jump to the NBA is a prettymonumental task for most, if not all NBAplayers. It isn’t just playing the gameagainst bigger, stronger, and faster playersbut also the life off the court that is just asbig of an adjustment. Some players canhandle it and some can’t. Interviews andother aspects of the media are where someplayers get caught up. Sometimes you re-ally want to know what your favorite bas-ketball player likes, what he’s into off thecourt, and how he handles the fame.

Although Charles Barkley uttered the fa-mous words, “I am not a role model,”most fans still look at athletes as beingbigger than life and therefore consequen-tial in our lives. Since the proliferation ofthe internet, fans have wanted to getdeeper and deeper into players’ lives. In asense, it normalizes them to us - it allowsus to see them as ourselves.

Quentin Richardson of the Phoenix Sunsis one who doesn’t mind giving a little bitof himself in an interview, and he’s thesubject of our study today. Q hit the scenein 2000 with the Los Angeles Clippers andwas part of an exciting group of playersincluding his childhood friend Darius Miles.Q and Darius became famous for theirdouble fisted head tap after made three-pointers or exciting dunks. After four up-and-down losing seasons in LA, Q madethe move to the Phoenix Suns this pastoffseason along with his famous fiancé,

R&B sensation Brandy, with whom hebecame engaged to over the summer.

Q: What is your favorite music/artist?A: (Laughs) Man you know it is Brandy.

I like R&B and Hip Hop but man you know,without question it is Brandy.

Q: Speaking of your fiancé Brandy how isthe move for both you and her to Phoenix?

A: It’s real cool man, more laid back andchill here in Phoenix. Brandy, man she likesit, she likes it a lot. She likes the scenery,and plus I think she just needed a changeof pace from LA.

Q: When did you know you were fa-mous? What happened that let you knowthat you had arrived as a famous person?

A: I would have to say in college when Iwas on the cover of a (national sports)magazine. You know Chicago is a big city,MJ had retired, and the baseball teamsweren’t really good so we (at DePaul)were the biggest thing in town. We weregood too so we couldn’t really go any-where because everybody knew who wewere. That was cool because Chicago ismy home city too.

Q: What was the first thing you went outand bought once you made it to the league?

A: Man you know, I don’t really remem-ber. I didn’t really do anything really biglike that, just small things: electronics,house, car - things like that, nothing crazy.I took it slow; I had really good financialadvisors, so they helped me keep it cool.

Q: With everybody blinging right now,what kind of rides do you have?

A: I got a Range Rover, two Benzes, anInfiniti truck, and my girl has a Chrysler300. And yes, they are all pimped out.

Q: How do you prepare for the game, isthere any pre-game ritual that you do be-fore every game?

A: Nah man nothing special, just regu-lar stuff to get myself ready.

Q: What about on off days, what do youget into? Do you hit the movies, mall,video games, etc?

A: Yeah we play a lot of video games.Madden, stuff like that.

Q: Besides the video games, what elsedo you get into especially on road trips?

A: I just really hang out, go to dinner. Iwatch a lot of movies, man all kinds ofmovies. Sometimes my fiancé meets me,we go to dinner, and just chill.

Q: You know I have to ask, who is thebest at Madden?

A: Oh that would be me! Some peoplewould probably disagree with that, but Iwould have to say that would be me!

Q: What do you like to do in theoffseason? Any vacation spots you like tohit up to free your mind for the next sea-son?

A: Um, just be with my family hangingout. This summer I am going to try to do avacation, but I have never really done toomuch vacationing. I have been to Atlantis(Bahamas), but other than that I haven’treally experienced any other vacations. Iusually use the offseason to dedicatemyself to working. I am still going to dothe same things, but I am definitely goingto get a few trips in here and there. I mayuse my honeymoon to just get away.

Q: Do you have any pets?A: No not right now. We may get a dog,

but with our traveling, we haven’t reallygotten any pets yet.

Q: Do you follow any other sports? Fa-vorite teams?

A: Yeah I am a big football fan. Youknow I am a Bears fan, but my cousinCarlos Emmons plays for the Giants so Iam a big Giants fan right now. I followthe Eagles too.

With the divide we see between the ev-eryday fan and the professional athlete,it’s times like this that we can sit back andsee that players like Quentin Richardsonare a lot like you and I. The only differ-ence is that he’s on TV.


THE MAN BEHIND THE NAME Bobby Simmons

Flashback:February 27, 2004.

The New York Knicks in town. TheLos Angeles Clippers down by apoint with less than 30 seconds leftwith possession. Point guardMarko Jaric drives the lane andfinds small forward BobbySimmons open in the corner.

The shot was never in doubt . . . swish.Quick, get back on defense! The

Clippers up 95-94, 21 seconds left.The play is to Tim Thomas in thepost. Thomas battles for positionbut Simmons literally smothershim. The Knicks can’t get the ballinside and they panic. The rockgets swung around to a cold andout of position Kurt Thomas whothrows up a wild airball.

Clippers win.Elton Brand raved after the game

“It’s not just tonight. Bobby willtake the big shot and he plays de-fense. I mean Tim Thomas couldn’teven touch the ball.”

“I think everyone on the ball clubcan hit a game winning shot.”Bobby answers. “Tonight was justmy night I guess.”

Most players in the league gotheir entire careers without hittinga game winning shot. There’ssomething about that final minutethat causes a players’ muscles totighten. It’s barely perceptible, justenough to force the ball millimetersto the side or just a touch too hard.

No. Game winners are rare . . .particularly for the Clippers who wononly 28 games total last season.

From The BottomTo The TopBy Eric Pincus

The Los Angeles Clippers had their sec-ond best November in franchise history.Much of the credit can be attributed tothe small forward who has turned headswith his 16.3 ppg on 55.0% shooting fromthe field.

Signed as a free agent in 2003, BobbySimmons quickly became a fan favoriteas the hustle player off the bench. It wasthis most recent summer of change thatinspired Simmons to shoot 1,000 jump-ers a day.

After coming up short in the pursuit ofKobe Bryant, the Clippers decided to letQuentin Richardson leave through freeagency. Just who would be the third scor-ing option behind the steady duo of EltonBrand and Corey Maggette was unknown.

Not to Bobby.“I worked on everything over the sum-

mer to improve. I got a lot faster and stron-ger. I trimmed down a bit. I put up a tonof shots every day. The hard hours arepaying off for me now.”

Sensing the opportunity, he spent theentire summer in the gym preparing forwhat he knew would be his best NBAseason to date.

Simmons’ career had already seen itsshares of ups and downs. He played threeseasons with the DePaul Blue Demonsand stands as the only player in team his-tory to notch 1,000 points, 700 rebounds,200 assists and 100 three-point field goals.

After getting drafted by the Seattle Su-personics (42nd pick), Bobby was tradedto the Washington Wizards.

“Going into my second year I wassigned with the Wizards but I was in atrade with Rip Hamilton which sent me toDetroit. The Pistons didn’t have a rosterspot so they waived me. The Wizardspicked me back up from waivers but I hadto fight to make the team in trainingcamp.”

So after one season in the NBA, Bobbyhad already been traded twice. It got even

worse the day before the 2002-3 seasonbegan . . . the Wizards waived him.

Bobby found himself without a job sohe signed with the Mobile Revelers of theNBDL. He played 14 games for the teamand averaged 17.1 ppg.

“The transition between the NBDL andthe NBA, back and forth . . . just that onetime was enough for me. The travel, ac-commodations, lifestyle in general, is to-tally different in the NBDL.”

Re-signed later that season with Wash-ington, playing alongside Michael Jordancertainly was an NBA education in itself.

“Watching him everyday, how he main-tained himself throughout the season, Ilearned that every time you step on thefloor, every basket, and every ball youbounce you have to give it your all.”

Bobby joined the Clippers as a freeagent because he liked what he saw whenBrand and Maggette signed long-termcontracts. He especially liked the idea ofplaying steady minutes. After averaging11 mpg with Washington, Bobby got asteady 25 mpg in his first season with LA.

Maggette describes Simmons as a“great teammate” who is “rugged andgets down and dirty. He does the littlethings and the big things to help the teamwin.”

Broadcaster Ralph Lawler has seen justabout everything Clipper in his twenty-fiveyears with the team. He marvels at whatSimmons brings to the table.

“His versatility is one of the great things.If he misses a game, it’s like missing twoor three guys because he can play threedifferent positions. He can guard prettymuch anybody on the court. He’s theteam’s best man-on-man defender.”

Bobby is well liked in the locker room.His teammates appreciate his work ethicand pride in playing defense. With hismuch improved shooting touch, nowthey’ve come to rely on him as an integralpart of their offense.

Simmons has already gained insight thata coddled first round draft pick may neverattain. His experience in the NBDL onlymade him hungrier. Unwilling to let hisdreams die, Bobby has emerged as a MostImproved Player of the Year candidate.

“I’d like to be a ten year or more vet-eran,” Bobby confesses. “I’d like to bean All-Star player in this league.”

A free agent after this season, you canbet every GM in the league knows exactlywho Bobby Simmons is.

“When I’m all done I want people to beable to say ‘Bobby Simmons? Now thatwas a great player.’”


Inside the AAC

The American Airline CenterBy Tom House

In each issue of SWISH we are going to look at the inner workings of aworld class NBA arena. We chose to start with the home of the DallasMavericks, the AmericanAirlines Center because its opening in July of2001 set the standard for the newest generation of NBA arenas whichhave opened since: Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, Memphis, and soonCharlotte and Brooklyn, as well.

“The biggest difference in our operation and the ‘average’ arena is weare not an average arena,” we were told when interviewing Mr. BobJordan, who served as Director of Operations for the AAC from its con-ception and planning phase until his recent resignation.

“Once we opened up here everyone since then is coming in to get theright starting point and then going back to adapt their concepts. Past thatpoint they are still moving the line up because of how much we accom-plished between the Ross Perot ownership group under which the AACproject was born and the point at which the Mark Cuban team took over.The standard from the beginning was ‘No we’re not going to look back andno we’re not going to have people bellowing later on that we could havedone it better than that. No, we were out to set the new standard.”

From its wide concourses, easy to navigate even in a sold-out venue likeany Mavericks game, to the retractable seating system in the lower bowlthat bestows versatility in its seating, the AAC was imagined first and fore-most to be fan friendly and no one can challenge the success evident afterthose initial dreams were translated into reality.

Amenities including Terrazzo floors, elegant crown moldings, and millionsof dollars in public art were included to esthetically please the most discrimi-nating eyes among its more than three million visitors each year. One amongits many plaudits came in 2002 when the AAC was given the EngineeringExcellence Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies.

No one can understand the complications involved in running an opera-tion like a modern state of the art sports arena until you begin talking indepth with someone who runs one on a day-to-day basis and to do thatwe returned to Bob Jordan.

“From the wall, floor, and seat finishes, the wood work in the facility, all theway through to the back of the house providing the ice control for NHL games,the telecommunications, the AAC is unique in many ways. The AAC wasfuture proofed as much as possible throughout the design and constructionphases in order to stay a state-of-the-art facility for as long as possible.”

In broadcasting, for example, they were on the cutting edge of every-thing when fiber was being considered and in looking ahead it was deter-mined that they had to go optic. Other innovations were incorporated, in-cluding when TV signals are sent around the building they are convertedfirst to digital to be sent through the building on fiber and then convertedback to analog on a digital level. Those saved literally miles and miles ofcopper and they provide no signal deprivation over the fiber.

With every detail as they went through the design process the questionwas asked... What’s standard today, what’s going to be standard tomor-row and still be the standard in the next decade? Using this as a guidelinethey were able to look ahead constantly to make sure they weren’t goingto be curtailed from doing anything feasible in the foreseeable future.

The AAC is a 24/7 operation in many ways resembling a small city.

INSIDE THE ARENA

They have their own welding shop as well as their ownseat shop to make repairs on call as needed. A full staffis on duty at any point in time.

If a pipe breaks, a piece of cable gets cut, or any contin-gency at all they have to be prepared to make sure it getsfixed immediately and the event then go on as scheduled.They have six complete operating kitchens, more than 40concession stands, and even their own phone company.

They occupy nearly a million square feet and can accom-modate over 600 people at any one time in the restrooms.There are more than 800 phone lines in the building plusthey’ve recently added wireless technology indoors.

“Our goal is always operational transparency,” addedMr. Jordan. “If we are doing everything right nobodyever knows we are here. One of the things we did tomake it different was when we designed the buildingour intent was to be able to provide the best possibleseating bowl for basketball and the best possible seat-ing bowl for hockey. We took on a new task of movingseats that no building has ever done before. We actu-ally move 5,000 seats for basketball to hockey and nobuilding had ever done half that number before.”

The sight lines for either sport are amazing from anypart of the bowl because the slope of the bowl actuallyvaries in the AAC and increases as you go up. This lay-out is what a lot of other buildings now copy.

It’s quite possible that there may never be another arenabuilt that makes such a gigantic leap from the run of the mill.

“This is a great place to come to work in,” was a com-mon theme to questions we asked players and coachesabout the AAC as they were uniformly complimentarybut that came as no surprise given the well-documentedpoints of Mark Cuban providing his players with any ame-nity imaginable. The Mavericks even have their own sepa-rate full size practice court adjacent to their locker room,which also includes a state of the art weight facility andany aid to training you could imagine.

Is the AAC perfect? No, there have been improve-ments made in the arenas opened since it but they arenot major and keep in mind that this was where muchof their inspiration originated.

POWERING NBA NEWSBasketball News Services is a full service basketball specific news resource. From firsthand interviews and game reviews to back-end content and content services, Basketball News Services provides a full range of professional, collegiate and amateur news products to print, radio, interactive and television media outlets.

Basketball News Services offers its clients access they generally cannot provide in areasonable manner. With more than 56 contributing writers and editors on staff, Basketball News Services powers notable websites like HOOPSWORLD.com, provides content and feature materials to print outlets like Swish Magazine, and articles and audio content to sports radio stations, like WNTS in Baltimore and ESPN Florida in Tampa, Orlando and Melbourne, as well as website content management services as provided to Drewgooden.net and other major NBA athletes.Basketball News Services personalities have been featured guests on NBATV’s The Insiders, as well as on radio stations throughout the US and Canada.

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The ChangingFace(s) of the NBABy Bill Ingram

Heads hung low after finishing sixth in the2002 World Championships, the UnitedStates men’s basketball team had to lookon as Yugoslavia, Argentina, and Germanystood on American soil and claimed themedals that seemed to rightfully belong tothe home team. They had beaten us at ourown game, and the pain of that beatingwould not quickly abate. This summer’sbronze medal finish did not exactly easethe sting of that disappointment, and itseems that Americans are finally realizingthat the road to the gold may not be thesame kind of journey that other “DreamTeams” faced. Recently it has been theopposition embracing the “dream,” whileTeam USA is left to ponder a “back to ba-sics” approach.

International players are bringing theoverall level of worldwide play up to a levelthat can challenge NBA-laden teams fromthe United States. Teams within the NBAare finding that players from those interna-tional programs are actually better, in manyinstances, than those kids coming up inAmerican high schools and colleges. Thereason behind that growing phenomenonhas to do with the differences in the waythe youth of America and their internationalcounterparts are prepared for life in profes-sional basketball. American kids start outplaying in middle school and high school,then go on to play college ball, and the bestof the best then proceed to the NBA.Some, like LeBron James, don’t even goto college. When they aren’t playing com-petitively with their scholastic teams, manyyoung Americans take part in AAU leagues.

The AAU is a summer league for ama-teur athletes. High school basketball play-

that young players need,” reveals CoachMauldin. “The guys who coach the teamsare really just promoters, who do AAUteams as a kind of side job. They go intocities, find the best players, and put to-gether teams based on talent. But theydon’t work with them on fundamentals, likeshooting form or how to run particularplays. They just put them out there and letthem play.” While there is something tobe said for allowing high school players togo out and play against some of the besthigh school players in the country, allow-ing them to do so without injecting funda-mental development is a big part of whyyoung American athletes are falling behindtheir international counterparts. WhileAmerican kids are playing street ball andfocusing on their individual skills, interna-tional players are immersed in team-ori-ented instruction from a very young age.

NBA Coach of the Year Hubie Brown isnot the least bit surprised that internationalplayers are overtaking the AAU-spawnedAmerican youths. “If you go across FIBA,FIBA is entrenched,” explains Brown. “In-stead of players going to high school andthen to college, players with talent are en-rolled immediately into their basketball pro-grams. They start in the junior teams andthen, if they’re talented enough, they goto the senior teams. They are schooled 12months out of the year. They do all of thefundamentals; they do them correctly. Theyare not involved in the kinds of things wehave going on in the U.S. In the UnitedStates, with all this AAU basketball, we getyoung players together, they run up anddown, they play a ton of games, but thereis very little teaching and very little forceddiscipline in the five-man game.”

This is not to say that American playersdo not have any advantages over playerswho grow up and develop their skills in for-eign countries. “If a player is born here andhe plays for a good high school coach, a

ers join AAU teams so that they can honetheir games against the best high schoolplayers in the nation. Teams are sponsoredby corporate America, many of them byshoe companies. It sounds good on the sur-face, but the AAU teams may actually bepart of the reason young American athletesfail to develop the fundamental skills theyneed to compete against the internation-ally trained athletes. Tony Mauldin is the

head basketball coach for the varsity teamat Lakeview Centennial High School in Gar-land, Texas. Mauldin has been coaching for29 years, 17 of those at the high schoollevel, nine at the collegiate level, and threeat the international level. In his many yearsof coaching, Mauldin has become inti-mately familiar with what AAU programshave to offer.

“AAU teams lack the kind of coaching

FEATURE


good college coach,” continues Brown,“he comes into the pros fully developedfrom the weight program. That is some-thing which is majorly lacking in the play-ers that come from Europe: body strengthand explosion. The weight trainers that wehave now, who we did not have in the 70’sand 80’s, but just came in in the 90’s, theirjob is to build upper body and that explo-sion - also adding the pounds, but not foot-ball pounds. What we’re talking about nowis that the player in the United States nowis coming with an advantage to play in thisgame. Also, if the foreign players comingin don’t understand English it’s a big draw-back. They have to understand the jive andthe basketball talk. Basketball talk is notnormal English conversation, so when thatEuropean player comes, he sits in front ofyou, he’s listening to you, he thinks he un-derstands, but he doesn’t. There are a lotof things that are going right by him. So,not only do you have the weight trainingpart of the game, there’s the communi-cation part of the game, and then the factthat this game is played a foot over therim. They’re not ready for that when theyfirst come.”

American athletes, then, tend to have anadvantage when it comes to physical train-ing and natural athletic talent. Where theforeign players excel is in the areas of teamconcept and work ethic. Sacramento Kingsassistant coach Elston Turner feels workethic, above all else, is what sets the for-eign player apart from today’s averageAmerican player. “They believe in workingextra,” explains Turner. “Peja (Stojakovic),even after long practices, is still going toget up a hundred, two hundred regularshots, another hundred three-pointers. Thatwork ethic was driven into them when theywere coming up in Yugoslavia or the coun-tries they were in. Hedo Turkoglu was thesame way when I had him. As a result ofthat, they become specialists at the thingsthey do well. Hedo and Peja are pure shoot-ers and they work at their crafts. Anotheroverall trend from overseas players hasbeen the bigger guy playing out on the floormore, bringing a different type of gamewhich is fun to watch. You have taller guyslike Toni Kukoc, Dirk Nowitzki, and Vlade

Divac who can handle the ball and it’stough to match up against that from acoaching standpoint. Foreign players areskilled, specifically skilled, and they havea great attitude. Vlade has been great inthe locker room, he’s a great passer, he’sgood to have.”

Peja Stojakovic agrees that the intensetraining foreign players receive gives theman advantage, and sees their success aspart of the reason that basketball is becom-ing more of a global sport. “It seems thatover the last couple of years teams arehaving more confidence in internationalplayers,” says Peja. “Look at the careersof some of us here in the NBA and youstart to see why. I think we gain somethingfrom playing professionally over there froma young age, especially when players herearen’t even finishing college. You can seethat in the West some of the best teamsare the ones that have major players fromoverseas. I’m not sure about our influence,but we have certainly made the NBA moreglobal and closer to the fans worldwide.”Peja is not alone in that assessment. Phoe-nix Suns point guard Steve Nash concurred,saying: “I just think the international play-ers are good. They are tremendously skilledand they’re becoming All-Stars in thisleague, not just fillers. The game hasgrown. The NBA’s exposure throughout theworld has inspired kids in many differentplaces to become basketball players andwe’re seeing some good ones.”

Foreign players like Dirk Nowitzki, SteveNash, and Eddie Najera have made a be-liever out of Mavericks head coach DonNelson. “I think everybody in basketballnow knows that there’s another basketballworld and that’s called Europe, maybe eventhe whole world,” says Nelson. “We don’tnecessarily have all the best players,they’re all over the place. As a result, ev-ery team has some, some more than oth-ers. Foreign players are doing extremelywell and will continue to.” Nellie sites theUtah Jazz as an example of how a teamfull of international players can achieve ata higher level than they are given credit for.“You just never know where their scoringis coming from,” explains the long-timeNBA coach. “Kirilenko’s not a bad place

“If a player is born hereand he plays for a good

high school coach, agood college coach he

comes into the pros fullydeveloped from the

weight program. That issomething which is

majorly lacking in theplayers that come fromEurope: body strength

and explosion.”Former Memphis

Grizzlies Head CoachHubie Brown

to start, he’s a pretty special player, butmostly on the defensive end. But youhave to prepare against Utah as a team,not individually.”

Jazz All-Star forward Andre Kirilenko hailsfrom Russia, yet he was taught the sameselfless, team-centered game that his for-eign brethren were taught. “Russian play-ers are more universal, fundamental play-ers. My coach, growing up, always tried tohelp me with basic skills, starting with de-fense and then offense. For example, Idon’t have a consistent shot, but I can im-prove that. All around game is more impor-tant, though. You will see next season, acouple of guys are going to come in fromRussia and they’re pretty much all-aroundfundamentally, as well. You see that withmost European guys. Dirk (Nowitzki) is all-around. He’s maybe not a great defensiveplayer, but he’s OK, and he’s improving.Look at Peja (Stojakovic). He has improvedhis defense a lot. Vlade Divac - great post-up defender and offensive player, as well.He does the little things. Pau Gasol, TonyParker, there are a lot of example of guyswho show the international style. Here, Ithink sometimes in university and college,guys are just taught to shoot the ball verywell. They don’t think about anything else.


Then they come to the NBA and they findthey have a problem and they have to startworking. Some guys come to the NBA andimprove their defense to fit the particularteams. They come from college withoutdefense and they start playing defense inthe NBA. The key to our success this sea-son is that we play like a team and we helpeach other and we don’t get greedy. Wejust try to get an open guy and get a shot.We don’t force anything. That’s our game.”

Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan accredits hisforeign players’ attitudes as the key to theirunexpected success this season,” explainsSloan. “The guys we have have tried to dowhat we’ve asked them to do. They’vebeen very coachable. If anything, some-times they don’t understand what we’retrying to do and that gets them in a little bitof trouble. I think deep down there is a prob-lem (with the language barrier) becausethey say “yes,” but I don’t think they reallyunderstand. That’s happened to us in some

games. <joking> I don’t really speak verygood English, so I’m not sure they under-stand what in the hell I’m talking aboutanyway. But it’s up to them to adjust tome and we’ll go from there.”

Gordan Giricek, who was one of the keyadditions to the Jazz roster last season,emphasizes his training when asked abouthis success in the NBA. “When I was akid we practiced a lot of fundamental stuff.Shooting, passing, back door cuts, give-and-go game, and stuff like that. Becausemaybe we didn’t have the ability to dunksand crossovers and stuff like that. We al-ways had the emphasis on moving theball, moving away from the ball and stufflike that.” As in so many countries, theCroatian teams that Giricek grew up on

focused on teamwork, as opposed to theAmerican style of isolation and taking op-ponents off the dribble. “It’s very hard toplay one-on-one all game,” says Giricek.“You can maybe beat your guy once,twice, but when you have help defenseit’s really hard. It’s much better to pass toone of your open guys. Maybe somebodyhas a shot a little bit closer or maybe I canmove myself a little bit further away andcreate space for a post up. Dribbling theball a lot is not good basketball. Maybesome guys are good enough to just try totake someone off the dribble all the time,but in my country we were taught to relyon our teammates.”

Things were not so different in Spain,where Raul Lopez took his first steps onthe basketball hardwood. “Growing up inSpain I always played on teams wherepeople like to pass the ball,” reveals theJazz guard. “I don’t know how it works inthe United States, but we have a coach

and our coach likes to play like this. I thinkit’s very important for any team to play likea team because basketball is five-on-fiveplus the bench. I think when you have ateam that plays like a team it makes themhard to beat. We have a system. Every-one can shoot the ball. On this team it’snot one scorer, the one biggest one to takeover the game. Everybody can play andwhen we play well it’s so fun.”

In China you find very much the samestory, though Houston center Yao Mingsays the American culture of glorifying andidentifying with one player is sneaking intothe Chinese culture. “I think China is a littlemore unique,” says Yao. “It’s constantlychanging right now. When I was playingthere it was always about the team, but

now, you can’t say it’s about individualplayers, but there is the realization that oneor two really good players are necessary tobe successful. Of course the team is themost important thing, but you still have tohave something to build a team around. It’strying to find the balance between the two.”

Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic,Tony Parker . . .as more and more of thetop players in the NBA come from foreignsoil, the challenge for Team USA to returnto international dominance grows expo-nentially. No longer can the United Statesafford to send second tier players – evensecond tier NBA players - to meet theiropposing countries in the field of battle.NBA commissioner David Stern has ex-pressed some concern that Team USAmay not be the best team in the world formuch longer. Is that time now? “I don’tknow if I’d go that far,” says Elston Turner,“but they will get more resistance, forsure. When we put our best players – ourbest players don’t always go on theseteams – if we put our best players outthere I still think we’re further along as faras the Olympics, but there’s no cake walkany more. They’re ready for us, they’refurther along in basketball fundamentals,and if we go over there and we’re notready to play we can get beat.”

Tim Duncan, Shawn Marion, AllenIverson, and LeBron James are amongthe latest NBA members of Team USAwho can attest to that fact. Duncan is aconsummate professional and teamplayer, but when you surround him withguys who are more about their one-on-one games, the result is still only a bronzemedal. There is a lot of talk about whatTeam USA will do differently next time.It seems likely that at the very least therewill be a two or three week long trainingcamp for the players to get to know eachother, work on some plays, and prepareto play together as a team. Simply show-ing up and trying to blow away foreignteams is no longer an effective way toapproach the Olympics. Foreign teamsare better prepared than their NBA coun-terparts, and the only way to combat thatfact is to make sure Team USA is betterprepared. The theme of the next TeamUSA has to be “Back to Basics.” As wesaw in the 2004 Summer Olympics, for-eign teams have made up for their lackof flash with outstanding fundamentalplay. Time for American players to getover themselves, check their egos at thedoor, and get ready for battle when therest of the world comes calling.

“I think everybodyin basketball nowknows that there’sanother basketball

world and that’scalled Europe,

maybe even thewhole world.”

Dallas MavericksCoach Don Nelson


THE SLIDE RULE Stats and Statistics

DraftingEfficientlyBy Eric Pincus

The NBA Draft is an event like noneother. Teams spend countlesshours searching for that one spe-cial player; that needle in a haystackthat can turn the franchise aroundovernight (LeBron James). Thosewith late picks look for the finalpiece of the puzzle that could pro-pel them to a championship(Tayshaun Prince). Ultimately, noone wants to make a mistake simi-lar to the Portland Trailblazerschoosing Sam Bowie over MichaelJordan back in 1984. It’s too early to tell how success-ful the 2004 draft picks will be, butthere are statistics that can be usedto analyze previous drafts. Overthe last four years (2000-2003), 114players have been chosen in thefirst round. Comparing and contrasting play-ers can be difficult proposition. Look-ing at the statistics, you can at leastcatch a glimpse of an individual’scontribution on the court. NBA.comuses an “Efficiency Formula” in aneffort to do so: (Points + Rebounds + Assists +Steals + Blocks) - (Missed Field Goals+ Missed Free Throws + Turnovers) The result is then divided by an82 to reflect a full season. The official NBA formula takesthe result and divides it by the num-ber of games played. The adjust-ment here to 82 is used to get aplayer’s contr ibut ion over thecourse of an entire season. Dura-bility is a crucial factor when ana-lyzing a player. Amare Stoudemirewould have been ranked higher butsince he only played in 55 gameslast season his average efficiencydropped significantly.

The Top Twenty Draft Picks (2000-2004) Based on Performance in the 2003-4 Season.

* Team traded to.The drafting team as listed is post any trades before the player joined their respectiveteam. For example, Nene was drafted by the New York Knicks but immediately tradedto the Denver Nuggets in a multi-player deal.

Rank Player Drafting Team Year Pick Eff.

1 Zach Randolph Portland 2001 19 20.52 Yao Ming Houston 2002 1 20.43 Richard Jefferson New Jersey 2001 13 18.74 Paul Gasol Memphis 2001 3 17.95 LeBron James Cleveland 2003 1 17.96 Jamaal Magloire New Orleans 2000 19 17.37 Carmelo Anthony Denver 2003 3 16.98 Kenyon Martin New Jersey 2000 1 16.09 Jason Richardson Golden State 2001 5 15.610 Joe Johnson Boston (*Phoenix) 2001 10 15.111 Jamal Crawford Chicago 2000 8 14.012 Nene Denver 2002 7 13.813 Samuel Dalembert Philadelphia 2001 26 13.714 Amare Stoudemire Phoenix 2002 9 13.115 Chris Bosh Toronto 2003 4 12.916 Desmond Mason Seattle (*Milwaukee) 2000 17 12.717 Kirk Hinrich Chicago 2003 7 12.718 Kwame Brown Washington 2001 1 12.719 Tony Parker San Antonio 2001 28 12.520 Tayshaun Prince Detroit 2002 23 12.4

The ResultsSuccess in the NBA Draft is a relative proposition. The best teams in the leagueget the lowest picks and are less likely to select an impact player. Bucking thetrend the San Antonio Spurs have somehow experienced the most success. They’vepicked just once over the last four years, but made it count by stealing eventualNBA Champion Tony Parker at 28. The Cleveland Cavaliers (eighth overall) had not been successful with low picksin the first round. Eventually the team play was bad enough to get LeBron Jamesat number one in 2003. Even failure in the long run can be a positive. Some teams aren’t patient enough and their prospects flourish on other teamslike Joe Johnson (tenth) after getting traded by the Celtics (21ST) to the Suns (14th). By the way, those boos heard each year as the Knicks (28th) drafted... the fans were right! This analysis doesn’t take into account the second round. Finds like CarlosBoozer and Michael Redd have efficiencies ranked among the top ten overall picks(although Boozer didn’t do the Cavs any favors this summer). Other great findsinclude Gilbert Arenas, Brian Cardinal, Mehmet Okur and Flip Murray. Unfortunately for the drafting teams, there is no concrete statistic like the effi-ciency formula to guide them in the War Room. Hindsight is 20-20 but Darko Milicic ahead of Carmelo Anthony? Looks like thatmay be another Bowie over Jordan. Perhaps the 2003-4 NBA Title has gotten Detroit Pistons’ (26th) boss Joe Dumarsoff the hook . . . for now. © Copyright 2004 by Swish Magazine, a Basketball News Services Exclusive


Life In the NBA’s2nd RoundBy Steve Kyler

Every year more and more talented andgifted players find themselves valued lessand less by a league looking for megastarsand willing to go deeper and deeper intothe talent pool to find them. Long goneare the days where heralded college play-ers find themselves the most coveted inthe land, as more and more attention isfocused on the raw and underdevelopedwho posses massive upside potential.With so much focus on promise and po-tential, real players find themselves rankedlower and lower each year.

The National Basketball Association se-lects a few dozen chosen athletes to bepart of its league each year, these covetedand hyped stars get a guaranteed lifestyle,and a chance to embrace their NBA dreamwith the security of a multi-year contract.At the same time dozens upon dozens ofNBA hopefuls watch as their dreams slideinto the non-guaranteed world that is theNBA’s 2nd Round Draft.

This year’s NBA poster child for secondround success is Carlos Boozer, whosigned a mega-deal with the Utah Jazz inthe summer of 2004. Carlos explained hissecond round selection wasn’t a slap inthe face as one might expect for a playerwith his collegiate hype. “It gave me asense of motivation to prove to everybodythat I can play at this level,” said Boozer.

Boozer is not alone in saying his sec-ond round selection served as motivation.

“It made me hungry.” Minnesota

Timberwolves stud Trenton Hassell whoalso signed a large contract in the sum-mer of 2004 says “It made me continueto play and work on my game, cause mycontract wasn’t guaranteed.”

Eduardo Najera, selected in the 2ndround by the Dallas Mavericks and tradedthis past off-season to the Golden StateWarriors explained the second round se-lection pushed him “I think it had a posi-tive impact. I wanted to work harder toprove myself.”

According to Lakers forward LukeWalton, who logged minutes in the NBAFinals as a 2nd round rookie last season,says “I got to come to LA, to a winningorganization - so far my NBA experiencehas been nothing but positive.”

“It was good for me,” said Marko Jaricof the LA Clippers “I was very disap-pointed to be in the second round but Irealized that life was not going to be thateasy. I figured out that it was going to betough for me to get my career where Iwanted it. I felt I was better than a lot of

the placers who were picked before meand it gave me a lot of anger to come overhere and prove myself in the NBA.”

NBA All-Star Michael Redd with the Mil-waukee Bucks believes his second roundselection was a gift. “I think it blessed mycareer” said Redd “That just gave meadded motivation to go out and prove thatI can play in this league, and that I canstay, that I can make a mark on this league.Even though I did get drafted in the 2ndround, I never lost my confidence. I justgained more and more as began to prac-tice with the guys and perform well inpractice and Coach Karl gave me an op-portunity the next year.”

When the National Basketball Associa-tion began in 1949 it began populating its17 team rosters from the collegiate ranksbased on a collegiate players proximity toa team, wherein star players from nearbycolleges became the property of the pro-fessional team closest to them. This con-cept was dubbed “The Draft,” as teamswere able to claim the rights to a player,regardless of whether the player wantedto play for that team.

The draft in its early days was not thepomp and spectacle it is today with pick-by-pick global coverage. In the beginningthe draft was nothing more than a confer-ence call in which teams announced whichplayers they wanted in a multi-round for-mat. At its highest point the NBA draft con-sisted of 21 rounds, and in 1968 WillieHorton became the 21st round selectionof the Chicago Bulls.

Teams were often publicly “accused”of losing games on purpose to obtain thebetter players via the draft. It was com-monplace for teams to sell off players or

FEATURE

“The risk is if you goin the 2nd round and

your not good enough,you might be out of the

league in two years.It’s basketball.”Lakers forward

Luke Walton

Januaryw2005 21


bench players to insure higher draft posi-tioning, and in a series of rule changes theNBA and its owners agreed to a “lottery”system, which replaced the coin-toss sys-tem adopted in 1966.

Under the coin-toss system the worsttwo teams flipped a coin to determinewhich team selected with the first pick.

The NBA Lottery was designed as a sys-tem in which teams drew “lots,” or num-bers, for the chance to obtain the higherdraft picks. It was this “lottery” thatstarted in 1985, which landed the NewYork Knicks the right to draft Patrick Ewing.In 1985 there were seven rounds in the1985 NBA Draft.

With the arrival of two new expansionteams in 1989 the NBA Draft was re-duced to just two rounds, each team inthe league having just two selectionsfrom the talent pool. This made the draftmuch more important for rising players,adding more and more emphasis on be-ing drafted as a means to making it to aprofessional team.

In the years from 1949 to present dayteam roster space has become a pre-mium, as teams are only permitted to carry15 player contracts so the odds of mak-ing the regular season roster of a NBAteam has become even harder.

Then, in 1994, a forward from Purduenamed Glenn Robinson forever changedthe landscape of the NBA draft, whenhe demanded a ten year $100 millioncontract from the Milwaukee Bucks,who had selected him as the #1 overalldraft pick in 1994.

Up until that point the NBA allowedteams to sign players without much interms of restrictions, prompting moreand players to demand and ultimately re-ceive contracts increasing both in dollaramount and length. It was GlennRobinson’s leverage in the situation thatforced the NBA’s hand and made theNBA draft what it is today. Glenn

Robinson did not make the NBA go to a“scaled” system, but he was clearly thestraw that broke the NBA’s back.

In the modern NBA draft, players se-lected in the first round are given pre-de-termined contracts, guaranteed for at leastthree years, and pre-calculated based onwhere that player was taken, with moremoney and emphasis on the player takenwith the first thirteen picks. The remain-ing twenty seven picks of the first roundreceive guarantees that have made moreand more teams “invest” in players ratherthan selecting players that could poten-tially help win games today.

In today’s NBA, more teams are draft-ing for reasons other than athletic ability.Teams must manage their roster, theirsalary cap and their rotations and oftentimes teams will draft players knowing fullwell they may not be used for some timeto come. Many General Managers will saythis stockpiling of talent, is a buy productof the guaranteed contract that is so preva-lent in the NBA.

Its this stockpiling of guarantees thathas made the NBA draft more about po-tential and where a player fits in the longterm plans, rather than putting winningteams on the floor. In some cases, teamsin the past few years have drafted play-ers they had no intention of signing or play-ing – prime examples would be Detroit’schoice to select Darko Milicic in with the#2 overall pick in 2003. Milicic was identi-fied as player that could develop and thePistons had no room or use for him in theiractive roster and found themselves with

the #2 pick, as a result of a very old tradewith the now Memphis Grizzlies. They se-lected him with every intention of lettinghim sit out his rookie year.

The Minnesota Timberwolves made asimilar decision in drafting Ndudi Ebi, apromising high school prospect fromWestbury Christian with the 22nd pick inthe 2003 NBA draft; who has yet to log

any meaningful minutes as a professional.Most executives in the NBA will tell

you that the guarantees a players re-ceives in the 1st round is giving way tomore and more focus on potential –rather than actual ability causing moreand more proven players to slide into theNBA’s second round.

In the last four years dozens of provencollegiate players have drifted in to thesecond round being passed over for un-proven or over hyped high schoolers.

“Scouts are funny” says Warriors for-ward Eduardo Najera “Over the last fewyears they have been looking for youngerand taller prospects. They’re raw, butthat’s what scouts like because teamswant to groom them their own way. Theydon’t want a grown man who alreadyknows how to play the game a certainway… teams can do pretty much what-ever they want with them.”

Stereotypes haven’t helped collegiateplayers either, as more teams expect apoint guard to be between 6’0 and 6’4,while a two guard should be no shorterthan 6’5, and a power forward need to be6’10 or bigger, leaving gaps for talentedguys that may be an inch shorter than theprototype, despite how well they play.

In trying to explain why so many teamspassed on him Utah’s Carlos Boozer sug-gested it was his height “I am only 6’9”said Boozer “You know a lot of people inmy position are 6’11 or seven foot.”

“I went to a small school.” explainedthe Timberwolves Trenton Hassell “I cameout with a lot of players that had biggernames, even though I feel my stats werejust as good... I am not the type of personwho has good workouts... That’s how theyjudge people, on workouts and individualwork and I am not one of them type ofplayers... I just like to play”

“Back then, when I was picked in thesecond round, they didn’t respect Euro-pean guards like they do now.” offers TheClippers Marko Jaric “They didn’t knowabout me and Ginobili and the guys likeus. We were winning championshipsover there.”

In the modern NBA, the first round re-ally has become about potential and starpower, where the second round becomesthe round of flexibility and experimenta-tion, mainly because second round draftpicks do not get guaranteed contracts.

“I think the way personnel people are”offers Bucks GM Larry Harris “I think theytake more risks in the second round andbecause they take those risks sometimes

“Over the last few years they have been lookingfor younger and taller prospects. They’re raw,

but that’s what scouts like because teamswant to groom them their own way.”Warriors forward Eduardo Najera.


the rewards can be much greater. Thereis not as much pressure for a secondround pick to make it, so your able toreach out a little more and maybe takea gamble and some t imes thosegambles work out.”

Not everything in the second roundis horrible, as Carlos Boozer proved inthe summer of 2004 signing a 6-year$68 million contract with the Utah Jazz,a year after second rounder Gilbert Are-nas signed a six-year, $64 million con-tract with the Washington Wizards. Thelong-term career and long-term paydaysare there for players that can play, andthere is a certain amount of freedom.

Warriors forward Eduardo Najera ex-plained “You do have a little more free-dom with your contract, but therearen’t very many players in the secondround who really make it. There are afew surprises, but obviously in the firstround you have more time to developand teams have more confidence inyou and give you more playing time toprove yourself.”

Milwaukee Bucks shooting guardMichael Redd was selected to the NBAAll-Star team in 2004 says it is part ofthe package “It’s a reward... It’s a re-ward...” said Redd looking at a poten-tial free agency payday in the summerof 2005 “I was a guy that averaged 20my whole career in college, and still goin the second round because of guyswith “potential” - and quite franklysome of the guys in my draft that wentin the first round - I don’t know wherethey are today.”

“If you go in the first round, and yourplaying as good as people like GilbertArenas and Carlos Boozer played, theywould both have been locked in for fouryears before they could have made amove.” According to Lakers forwardLuke Walton “Now they are both get-ting paid a ton of money.”

“I think there is an advantage to havinga guarantee.” said Wolves guard TrentonHassell “But an advantage to being a sec-ond rounder – you’re not in a long-termdeal and you could have a good year andgo and get contract - so it has its goodand bad points.”

“It’s a reward, after two years - you signa two year deal as a second round pick”Bucks star Michael Redd said “It rewardsguys, if you can play it’s gonna show andyou’re gonna be blessed for what you do.”

While the paydays in the second roundin recent years make headlines, for every

Carlos Boozer, there are a dozen playersthat do not make the cut, and the lack of aguaranteed contract makes them have towork their way back into the leaguethrough the NBA’s minor league systemthe NBDL or the Continental BasketballAssociation.

“You pick out Boozer and MichaelRedd and certain players, but really it’sironic the number of players that getdrafted and stick in the second round.”Bucks General Manager Larry Harrissaid, “They become fewer and fewer themore years that go by.”

It’s very much a “Risk Versus Reward”proposition.

“The way I look at it is if you’re playingin the NBA, you’re pretty much living thegood life, the risk really isn’t that bad, toget drafted in the first round and get stuckfor four years playing in the NBA.” saysthe Lakers Luke Walton “The risk is yougo in the 2nd round if your not goodenough, you might be out of the league intwo years. It’s basketball.”

And while players like Carlos Boozer andGilbert Arenas have made huge amountsof money as standouts in the secondround, the teams that drafted those play-ers still hold a tremendous amount of in-fluence over their futures according toPhoenix’s Jake Voskuhl “You can’t be anunrestricted free agent until after 4 yearsin the NBA” explains Voskuhl, who hasseen first hand how challenging the sec-ond round can be. “Teams basically willsit around and wait to see if you get an-other offer from another team, and thenthey’re like, ‘OK, we’ll match that.’”

“It puts no pressure on the team you’rewith to really step up and make an offer...they don’t...” offers a very blunt Voskuhl.“Teams wait, and then they’ll just matchit if you get another offer.”

“In the second round you got a situa-tion where generally its one year, in some

cases its two years. But the time to getback into free agency is usually a little bitearlier - so you can take advantage ofthat,” says Bucks GM Larry Harris

“It’s strictly circumstance.” according toUtah’s Carlos Boozer “It depends on whatsituation you’re in, I think that obviouslyguys like Gilbert Arenas, Rashard Lewisand myself - we’re on the brighter side ofthings, there are guys on the other end ofthing that it didn’t work out for them.”

“Of course it helps if you play well, butyou know if you play well, but not reallythat well, different people and different

clubs look at that and look in the booksand say well he got drafted there and theother kid got drafted there” Maciej Lampeoffers. “It helps down the road to bedrafted as high as possible for future deals.People are not always looking at you andhow you play and stuff.”

“You have some guys that haveproven they can play and slip down for‘potential’ players, but that’s the trendof the draft right now,” according toLakers forward Luke Walton. “Luck-ily for me, I was able to go to a win-ning team so that helped me a lot, asfar as playing - because I was alwayson winning teams. I wouldn’t knowhow to handle being on a losing team.It’s hard to just categorize first versussecond round players l ike that be-cause it’s different for every singleperson who gets drafted.”

But what isn’t hard to categorize, isthat real talent can now be found in thesecond round, and that talent often cansee bigger paydays and bigger eco-nomic success than even those playerstaken 20 to 25 picks before them, andwhile there is tremendous risk of anothing career in the 2nd round, thechance for greatness isn’t lost becausea players doesn’t shake David Stern’shand on draft night.

“I think they take more risks in the second round andbecause they take those risks sometimes the rewardscan be much greater. There is not as much pressurefor a second round pick to make it, so your able to

reach out a little more and maybe take a gamble andsome times those gambles work out.”

Larry Harris, General Manager of The Milwaukee Bucks


SONOFAGUN The Society of Sports

Hardcore Logo orNo-Go LogoBy Darren Andrade

Think of the National Basketball As-sociation and you think of Jerry West.After all, it’s his image – a player withthe rock in action – that is the whitesilhouette over the blue and red of theassociation’s emblem. Those colorsrepresent the Un i ted S ta tes o fAmerica but they no longer representthe players that make up the world’sgreatest basketball league.

This isn’t about whether or not Westdeserves to be Mr. Logo. It’s the big-ger picture. Then now, the league is adifferent place than the one West leftas a player – an era in which the doc-tors of the game believed it was nec-essary to have white stars to sell theirgame to ticket-buyers. 30 years laterthat segment is still mostly white, thebest players are mostly black and JWis stil l Mr. Logo. Thing is he is nolonger, and hasn’t been for some time,the f i rst name in basketbal l . Thatwould be Michael Jordan, the NBA’smoney-in-the-bank megastar that re-structured the game in almost everyaspect, from play to pay and from theshow to the biz.

Over 80 percent of the players in theNBA are black. As a result the leaguehas relied heavily on marketing itsproduct th rough h ip -hop cu l tu re ,which has come to greatly define theAmerican culture that most of its play-ers embrace. It is a part of black cul-ture that America at large has takenin. Rap music, clothing gear and ce-lebrity associations are used by theleague and its advertising partners topush the product to the masses. Itwas a marriage that the figure of Westcould never have arranged on its own.Indirectly his mug is part of that cul-ture now, fused moronically like anunwilling invasion.

Last June retired basketball legendLarry Bird told ESPN, “I think it’s goodfor a fan base because as we all know

the majority of the fans are whiteAmerica. And if you just had a coupleof white guys in there, you might getthem a little excited. But it is a blackman’s game, and it will be forever.”

For that reason the league remainsquick to jump on white-potential butthe bottom line is usually green, notblack or white. Commissioner DavidStern says that NBA income will ap-proach $3B in 2005. A huge chunk ofthat is in merchandising sales, all ofwhich are adorned with West’s image.It stares back at you. The NBA logolike a flag on the moon, one of the fewlogos in b ig business sports thatclearly identifies race. The NFL hasthe shield, as does the NHL. Thethinking there is that nobody is abovethe league - brothers behind thebadge. Major League Baseball depictsa batter on their logo but stops shortof assigning race.

The NBA has reached this level ofsuccess “as is”, logo intact. Sternrefuted Bird’s assert ion that theyneed more white stars, that while itmay have once been true it is thecase no longer. If that is the beliefof the league’s top officials then whynot a move to reflect this new un-derstanding?

Bringing society to grips isn’t theNBA’s role but, it is their fault that alogo shines from a time when they sayBird’s words had merit. If the imageof the league has changed as muchas Stern says it has then shouldn’t theonly race-conscious emblem in majorNorth American professional sportshave been considered for a faceliftsome time ago? No offense Mr. West,but if no one player is bigger than theleague then what gives?

Bird had it right. You might not likethe blunt delivery but why are thereso many mouths left agape in thewake of his comments? Why doessociety not elicit the same jaw drop-ping response when it comes to theproof of their claims?

When the NBA started getting richit was Jordan, the NBA’s greatestplayer, that was the big face fronting

their marketing push. It’s hard to ar-gue against West, a great all-star andHall-of-Fame player who has done justas much for the game as an execu-tive retiring in 1974. The champion-ships as a player and an executive to-tal nine, all with the Los Angeles Lak-ers. A solid Ambassador of the sport,he has never done anything “off-court” to tarnish the logo. Jordan isthe sport’s most celebrated and ac-complished champion, maybe the big-gest single reason why the league en-joys the success it does. However, themedia-blitzed era of entertainmentJordan came up in has also picked himapart at times with lingering hits to hischaracter. Sti l l , he represents thegame internationally as the sport’smost recognizable athlete.

The WNBA selected their “LogoWoman” from 50 different designsand the final choice was one that com-bined the poses of several differentplayers to produce their own silhou-etted version. Can the same logic notbe applied here? Does the league stillneed the c ru tch? Hard ly. A l lenIverson, the embodiment of the NBA’scross-culture of hoops and hip consis-tently ranks among the top jerseyssold. LeBron James and Carmelo An-thony now top that list, new-genera-tion players of the same breed.

Does anybody even care or is thisthe drivel of a maddened scribe witha skewered look at a world not sobad? Maybe it doesn’t matter if weare content to eat up the rest of theshow. Those bright lights and brighterstars cast their shadow over a logothat sits comfortably in our subcon-scious. The NBA has survived with itthere and done well without the evo-lution of its signature, so why the hellstart now?

Too easy. It’s time for a change andJordan is the front-runner. True, theNBA prides itself on pushing the newwhile preserving the old; but like par-quet floors, peach basket hoops andChuck Taylors for ballin’, the currentlogo belongs in a museum as a re-minder of a less… accurate time.


HEART & SOUL Mike Wilks

Putting the “Role”Back in Role ModelBy Bill Ingram

On December 30, 2003 Mike Wilks reachedwhat has, to date, been the pinnacle of his NBAcareer. The Rockets traded Moochie Norris tothe New York Knicks, which meant that Wilkswas suddenly thrust into the role of full-timeback-up to an All-Star. As the team prepared tohost the Philadelphia 76ers on the followingnight, Mike suddenly found himself at the cen-ter of attention in a locker room that had YaoMing sitting on one side and Steve Francis sit-ting on the other. Mike turned to head out for afew practice shots and was suddenly con-fronted by a host of microphones, spotlights,and television cameras. Everyone wanted toknow how Mike felt about his new role, butfew were prepared to hear what he had to say.

Sure, Mike gave the obligatory initial re-sponse. He was looking forward to helpingthe team and doing whatever coach Jeff VanGundy asked him to do. Mike then gave creditto God, but not in the way that most athletesdo. Mike didn’t just want to thank God for giv-ing him the opportunity to play, he wanted toexpress how important his faith had been ashe made the long journey from the minorleagues to the NBA. You see, at 5’11" and 180pounds, Mike was always told that he wasnot tall enough or not quick enough to make itin the NBA, but he kept the faith and neverlost sight of his dream. It was his rock solidfaith that enabled him to endure the doubtersand continue to work to make his dream areality. “My faith is huge, it’s everything, it’swhat keeps me stable,” said Mike at the time.“My life is a living testimony for what Godcan do in your life, not just because I’m a greatbasketball player, but by the grace of God Hehas chosen to place me here at this time.”

The cameras clicked off, the spotlightsbegan searching the room for Yao Ming,and the reporters began to roll their eyesand mumble. Yeah, he’s one of those Chris-tians. No story there, right? Wrong!

Mike Wilks was not spewing the usualgarbage about it being God’s will that he getmore playing time. It seems unlikely thatGod concerns Himself with boxscores. In-stead, Mike was conveying a much bigger

message, one that more players shouldembrace. How many multi-millionaire ath-letes take time out of their busy schedulesto really get involved with charitable causes?How many give those causes their time,which is at least as valuable as their money?Actually, there are more of them out therethan the average fan is probably aware of.Mike Wilks is one of those who truly shinesa light where darkness has long had lease.

“I have found, as an NBA player, that kidslook up to professional athletes,” saysMike. “Whether you have a belief or faithor not, kids need positive role models. Ifirmly believe that from those who aregiven, much is required, and I not only wantto be a good basketball player, I want to bea man of God. He has called me to be ev-erything that He wants me to be, and themain thing is to be a light - not only for kids,but to the world overall.” Note the refer-ence to Luke 12:48, which reads, “Muchwill be required from everyone to whommuch has been given. But even more willbe demanded from the one to whom muchhas been entrusted.” Much has been givento Mike, and he is working hard to live upto that responsibility. What could be moreimportant that being entrusted with thefuture of the youth of the community?

Mike explains: “Right now I’m working witha friend of mine, Cyril White, who started anorganization back in 1997 called ‘To God BeThe Glory.’ He started it as a small business,putting together camps out in the community,

putting together AAU teams, traveling over-seas, trying new and different ventures. I wasfortunate enough to get together with him thisyear and we’re collaborating to turn ‘To God BeThe Glory’ into a non-profit organization and takeit to the next level. This summer we worked toestablish that, do some fund raising, get somegrants from the government, and now we wantto build a facility that we can operate out of. Forme this is about giving back, giving back to ouryouth, and allowing the Lord to use us in what-ever way He sees fit. That’s where my focus isright now and I’m very excited about the op-portunity.” It may sound a little bit preachy, butrest assured that Mike is as honest and forth-right as they come. Mike speaks from the heart,and anyone who has ever taken a few mo-ments to talk to him knows his faith is the mostimportant thing in this young man’s life.

If you live in the Houston area and are inter-ested in information about the youth basket-ball camps Mike refers to, you can find themon the web at http://www.TGBTG.COM. “Thecamps are put together for different agegroups and the purpose of the camps is toteach kids about the fundamentals of basket-ball and work on their games,” explains Mike,“but also to use that as an avenue to bringkids to Christ. We encourage them to have arelationship with God. There are devotionalsthat go on and it’s basically about The Lord.We use basketball as a tool to reach out. Thecamps we do now usually last a couple ofdays, like over a weekend, and he does themaround significant times of the year. He doesone around Thanksgiving, one around Christ-mas, Spring Break, and bases them on a Godlyprinciple. He talks about the reason for theseason (at Christmas) or making sure kids un-derstand what they have to be thankful for (atThanksgiving). I’m really looking forward toworking with him in that venture.”

Mike Wilks is just one of many NBA play-ers who take a true and inspiring interest inthe lives of the youth of their communities.SWISH! Magazine is dedicated to bringingsome much-deserved attention to these ath-letes who are working to shine a light in aworld that is often tainted by those who donot take their responsibilities as role mod-els as seriously as Mike Wilks does. Wewish him the best as he begins his newcareer backing up Tony Parker as a mem-ber of the San Antonio Spurs.


COLLECTORS CORNER Remember When...

Younger Genera-tion Getting LeftBehindJason Fleming

Ten to fifteen years ago the youngergeneration made up a large part of thesportscard collecting market. A kidcould get his or her allowance or mowa couple lawns and then go out and buya box of sportscards for less than $20.Those days are long gone now. Insteadthe younger set has been priced com-pletely out of the market due to spiral-ing costs of packs and boxes - kids cansimply no longer afford to participatebecause their lawn mowing money willonly get them a pack or two of cards ormaybe a relatively inexpensive rookiecard of their favorite player.

It’s tough for the card producers be-cause they are losing money – well,relatively anyway. During the peak ofthis niche industry in the mid-ninetiessports cards were generating almost abillion dollars annually. The major cardcompanies (Topps, Fleer and UpperDeck) were forced into signing guaran-teed contracts with each sports’ play-ers’ unions and those deals didn’t takeinto account any shrinkage of the indus-try. Now that the market is smaller andcompanies are making less money,many of them have had to cut back onproducts and raise the costs to the con-sumer. Higher costs equal fewer kidsin the market.

That’s not the only issue. Another bigpiece is how many different productsare vying for kids’ entertainment dol-lars. There didn’t used to be muchinternet use and music downloading,Sony hadn’t come out wi th thePlayStation and the collectibles markethas yet to figure out a way to effec-tively compete.

“Products are too expensive and youhave way too many,” said Ed Wells,former proprietor of Sportsabilia in Port-land, Oregon. “I’m even confused so I

can imagine how the person whodoesn’t see the product every day isbeyond confused. It’s just stupid - thehobby has just gotten out of control.”

How is it confusing? Consider that inits heyday there were only a few differ-ent sets of cards: Topps, Fleer, SkyBox,and Upper Deck. Today Topps, Fleer,and Upper Deck are still around buteach one of the companies will producea multitude of products in one season.

For example Topps has F ines t ,Chrome and Pristine. Fleer and UpperDeck are the same way. Head spin-ning yet? It’s just too confusing forsomeone to make a decision on whatthey want, so a lot of times they endup not buying anything.

Topps says they try to keep kids inthe market by creating affordable prod-ucts. They do; but the problem is theyounger set doesn’t understand the rea-soning. They want the game-used cardsand the autographs that have to comein the more expensive sets. If they can’tget that in the cheap sets those prod-

ucts lose much of their luster. By cre-ating more exclusive sets the card com-panies have made it glaringly obviouswhat is missing from the lower end.According to Krause Publications it’s dif-ficult to pin down how much money thisindustry generates because only Toppsis publicly held and all the numbers theycan get are based on the price of theselling from the manufacturer to thewholesaler. After that the numbers aretough to follow. The entire market for2004 is roughly $300-$315 mill ion,about 17-20% of that which is basket-ball. Even with that number it’s ex-pected to go down for the 2004-05 sea-son because last year had the hype thatsurrounded rookies like LeBron James,Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade.

“During the last year we started tosee a resurgence into the market withsome new collectors and with manyolder collectors returning,” says KCKings Sportscards owner Bob Brill, whoalso writes a column for Beckett – thehobby’s recognized pricing authority.“That was good and maybe it was be-cause of Lebron James and some oth-ers but it was happening. Then stickershock kicked in and continued withmore higher-priced products. That surgeseems to have stopped now and I don’tknow if it will come back soon.”

As far as the costs of cards and whatthey are doing to the younger set in themarket, both Brill and Wells agree: Highcosts are slowly killing the industry. Un-fortunately both also feel there isn’t awhole lot they can do about it.

“I hope there is a ceiling (on the costsof cards),” Brill said. “Too much greedand short-sightedness is a real problemin our industry and while I feel $100 andup packs are killing us, there is a largeportion of the industry which just wantsto take the instant money and run.”

“It’s not collecting anymore, it’s almostlike Willy Wonka and the Golden Ticket,”Wells reasons. “People hit a big card andthen they turn around and sell it. Is thatcollecting or is that...gambling?”

Good question. It’s no wonder thatkids and adults alike are finding differ-ent places to spend their money.


UNDERESTIMATED & UNDERRATED Cuttino Mobley

Mobley Doesn’tNeed the SpotlightBy James Buell

To hear Cuttino Mobley say it, anonymityis both a blessing and a curse.

“You’ve got the guys that you can seeand you’ve got the guys that you don’tsee,” Mobley said. “I’m one of thosedudes and I can accept it”

The oversight of the viewing public isn’tforeign to Mobley. It dates back to hiscollege days at the University of RhodeIsland, where – as a 5th year senior – hegarnered little to no attention on the na-tional scene and was passed over in mostNBA Mock Drafts.

“Probably will end up a free agent camp sign-ing, CBA, or overseas.” – Usenet Mock Draft

This after guiding the Rams to the Elite8 of the NCAA Tournament. This after av-eraging 17.2 points per game (ppg) andshooting over 40% from the field andthree point line. This after taking home theAtlantic 10’s MVP award.

As it turns out, Cuttino was drafted. Hewas the 41st pick of the 1998 NBA Draft.The Houston Rockets took a chance onhim after selecting Michael Dickerson,Bryce Drew and Mirsad Turckan with the14th, 16th and 18th picks of the first round.None of three are in the NBA today.

Dickerson and Drew played the sameposition as Mobley and had guaranteedrookie contracts – something he did not.He came to a team that featured futureHall of Famers Hakeen Olajuwon andCharles Barkley who would likely see thebulk of the shots. On top of that, the 98-99 season was cut short by a lockout.

It didn’t matter. Mobley started 37 of 49games and averaged nearly 10 ppg. Hewas named to the All-Rookie 2nd team andfinally – it seemed – had arrived.

“I really liked him,” former coach RudyTomjanovich said. “We were trying totrade up higher because I didn’t think hewas going to be there.”

Mobley was there. He had been looked overagain. Just like he was coming out of highschool in Philadelphia. Passed over by every

team in the NBA at least once. The Rocketshad gaffed three times, but Tomjanovich madesure they didn’t do it a fourth.

“I just liked the skills that I saw,” he said,“but then there was something in him atour meeting that I saw. He’s just a com-petitor. He’s going to be there. There’scertain guys that if you put them in agroup… they’re going to be in the heartof the scuffle.”

The “scuffle” continued for Mobley.Following his impressive rookie cam-paign, the Rockets made a blockbuster

trade for rookie Steve Francis. The movepushed Mobley out of the starting rota-tion and back in the shadows of some-one else’s spotlight.

“You have to have faith in yourself,”Mobley said. “I have faith in myself. I feelas though I can play with anybody. Withthe help of the Lord and my teammates,I’ve succeeded so far.”

Mobley’s averages went up that sea-son. He posted 15.8 ppg coming off thebench and helped form one of the mostdynamic backcourts in the NBA. Still,when it came time for accolades he waspassed over for the NBA’s Sixth Manaward in favor of the Orlando Magic’sDarrell Armstrong.

Flash-forward to present day andMobley goes seemingly unnoticedagain. When this summer’s blockbustertrades began, everyone was talkingabout the ramifications of a TracyMcGrady-Steve Francis swap. The in-clusion of the versatile Mobley seemedto be an afterthought.

During training camp and the exhibitionseason, all the talk centered on the re-emergence of Grant Hill, the play of rook-

ies Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson,and the domineering direction set forth byGM John Weisbrod.

“I don’t really care,” Mobley said. “I’mwho I am. I know I’m one of the top play-ers in the league.”

Out of his 1998 Draft class, Mobleyranks 5th is career scoring average behindonly Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, DirkNowitzki and Paul Pierce. Not bad for be-ing the 41st pick in the draft.

“Cuttino is really kind of special with hisone on one ability,” Tomjanovich said. “He

can make outside shots. He can drive. Hemade a lot of what we call ‘turnaroundplays’. If there’s a fastbreak going oneway, he goes back and blocks a shot.”

Another former coach agrees.“He’s an excellent defender,” Jeff Van

Gundy said, “a very good rebounder. Nota mistake player, he doesn’t turn it over.And he brings an intensity that you need,plus he’s a very good jump shooter.”

Still, after a summer that featuredtrade requests from so-called stars ofthe same ilk as Mobley, one has to won-der how long he’s willing to sit in some-one else’s shadow. He can opt out ofhis contract after this season if hewishes and test the waters of a freeagent pool that features only two otherprominent players (Michael Redd andRay Allen) at his position. Denver, NewJersey and Sacramento all could be inthe market for Mobley’s services.

“You never know,” Mobley said. “Itmight happen. I’m just playing rightnow and if I feel as though I’m treatedbad or anything like that than maybethe situation might change. Right now,I’m cool.”

“We were trying to trade uphigher because I didn’t thinkhe was going to be there.”former Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich


NBA ChampionRasheed WallaceDoesn’t DoInterviewsBy Eric Pincus

The Pistons are in Los Angeles to visit theClippers. The prospect of getting a fewminutes one-on-one with RasheedWallace is too tempting to pass up.

As a warm-up I hit defensive monsterin the middle, Ben Wallace.

How do the Pistons avoid complacency?“That’s where the love for the game

comes from.” Ben answers stoically. “Youhave to respect the game and go out andplay it the way you know how to play it.”

Later I find out Ben Wallace had just losthis brother, Sam Jr. Already in LA, Ben de-cided to play the game before headinghome to grieve with his family.

I head over to Finals MVP ChaunceyBillups, but he tells me after the game.Often times that means the player is blow-ing you off. Although slightly concernedthat the success has gone to Chauncey’shead, I figure he’s good for his word.

Finally, my prized quarry... Rasheed Wallace.He’s wearing headphones and staring

into space. We make first contact, andthus my first actual Wallace quote:

- “My man, can you move over a little?” he asks.Well it’s not quite the scoop I was look-

ing for, but at least he was actually staringat something... game tape of the Clippers.

“Do you mind answering a few ques-tions?” I ask hopefully.

He looks at me for the first time squarein the eyes and responds with what canonly be described as a snarl.

I move on, hopeful that it’s simply hispre-game ritual.

The game itself turns out to be dyna-mite with the Pistons winning in doubleovertime. LA had every chance to win butDetroit’s defense prevailed.

After the game, true to his word, Billupsgives me a nice interview. My fears ofpompousness after hoisting two trophieslast June were unfounded.

“I had big dreams . . . I never dreamtthat big, brother man. That’s heavensent,” said Chauncey about his success.I must act quickly as Rasheed is alreadydressed and headed for the exit.

“Can I ask you a few questions?” I ask.“I’m out the door, man” he replies as hewalks past me into the hallway.

It looks like my quest is a lost cause. Idejectedly watch him walk off.

Wait... he’s stopping. It’s Penny Marshall,noted NBA aficionado and former “Laverne”.He gives her a big hug and a yet unseen viva-cious personality emerges as they catch up.

Seems the man’s bark may be much worsethan his bite. That’s it, I’m going back in.

As he heads to the team charter, Idoggedly pursue.

He’s walking with big long strides; I’mdoing my best to keep up.

The Q&A session awkwardly begins:

A DOG WITH A BONE Rasheed Wallace

So after winning a championship

do you feel like you’ve achieved

your goal in the NBA?

- No, because there’s always more to get.

What would be the ultimate

achievement then?

- To get as many as I can before mytime is up with this [expletive]. That’sthe ultimate goal.

After some difficult years in Port-

land, do you feel like the Pistons are

the perfect fit for you?

- Yup, because I’m here. It workedfor us last year. It’s all gravy.

Did winning the championship heal any

of the wounds from losses in years past?

- No, because everybody lose. Youcan’t win them all.

What do you take out of a loss?

- You just have to go out there and playhard the next night.

What makes Larry Brown a unique coach?

- Cause he’s a gym rat. WhassupBlue? Where you at?

[Apparently, Rasheed has decided toavoid my questions by calling a friendon his cell. Karma swings my way asthe concrete pillars supporting StaplesCenter blocks his reception.]

Do you think that . . . ?

- Hello? Blue? Hello?

The team’s expectations are a lot

higher after wining the champion-

ship, would anything less than a

ring be a disappointment?

- Yeah. [Dejectedly accepting that I’mjust not going away.]

Are the Pistons a better team than

they were last year?

- Yeah.

How do the Pistons stay at the

same championship level?

- [Silence]

Do you have any comments or

words for your fans?

- [Silence]

I guess that’s that. We’re just about atthe bus anyway. I wish him luck and thankhim for answering my questions as hewalks away without another word.

I had bagged my prize. It wasn’t muchof a sit down as it was a jog. I would haveliked to know why he switched jerseynumber from 30 to 36 . . . but that willhave to be answered elsewhere.

Rasheed Wallace is certainly a character.He’s no longer the craziest in the NBA; RonArtest has long since taken over that role.He has mellowed from an anger-manage-ment case on the Trail Blazers to a contrib-uting part of the NBA Champion Pistons.

Still, I wonder if Wallace was always thisway. When he was drafted by the Wiz-ards back in 1995, did he give David Sternthe snarl at the podium? Perhaps thatgame seven collapse by the Blazers in 2000that led to the Laker three-peat still burns?

Most telling on the night was how forth-coming Ben Wallace was despite his grief.All he had to do was tell me “not today.”I would have learned as I did of his lossand understood.

Watching Rasheed turn his personalityon for Penny Marshall and then returningto the “crazy-man” persona for my ben-efit was amusing, but with Ben Wallace’spersonal tragedy as the backdrop . . . nowit just kind of makes me sad.


THE LAST WORD Steve Kyler

THE TRADE DEMAND…I have a differing view on the recent out-break of star players asking to betraded… Most pundits and purists be-l ieve that the guaranteed contractshould bind a player to a team for bet-ter or worse. I agree there should besome truth to that, considering teamscannot jump ship when a player playsbadly or gets hurt.

However… I would challenge that ifyou were working for a company thatmade bad decision after bad decisionand was clearly headed for bankruptcy– would you stick around?

If work conditions at your job contin-ued to degrade to the point of massivedepression in your life would you showup everyday with the same passion aswhen you first got the job?

I think you’ll find that the guaranteesa professional athlete is given financiallyare not as valuable as the environmentor manner in which they are paid. At theend of the day guys want to win – moreoften than they want to get paid.

Most players choose long-term con-tracts for security, but they also agreeto long-term contracts based on prom-ises made about being competitive andmaking decisions geared towards win-ning a title.

I f the Or lando Magic to ld TracyMcGrady that they were signing GrantHill to one-third of the salary cap, buthe wouldn’t play – Tracy would not havesigned his contract. If the Toronto Rap-tors had told Vince Carter that the teamwould run through four coaches in fouryears, he might not have had secondthoughts, as well.

It’s incredibly unfair to expect playersto live to different standards than wewould hold ourselves to, and while play-ers should be loyal to their team, ev-eryone is often reminded that the NBAis a business, especially after a playeris traded.

GOTTA BE A BETTER WAY…For years the NBA has scraped the bar-rel that is college basketball for the lastremnants of talent. Now that college

basketball is empty, the NBA has turnedto Europe and High School to fill itsever-growing need for youth andathleticism. Which begs the question,how young is too young?

NBA Commissioner David Stern oftenmakes a valid point when he says theNBA is sending the wrong message todeveloping players. Middle schoolersare no longer concerned with goodgrades, rather the focus is on good nu-trition and weight training so that stu-dent athlete can be a star as a fresh-man in high school to get enough at-tention to be a first rounder as a senior.

The NBA seems to want an age limit,but at the same time they continue toreward the ‘exceptions’ with high draftstatus. I t ’s hard to argue thatCleveland’s LeBron James was notready for the NBA; equally, it would behard to say that 2004’s top pick DwightHoward is not ready.

But for every LeBron or Dwight, thereis an Ndudi Ebi or DeSagna Diop, sit-ting on the bench of a NBA team, wait-ing to be cut.

The NBA may have found the right an-swer, but the Players Association maynever let the “Better Way” see the lightof day – The Call Up System.

The NBA will find that an age limit isan uphill battle, but imposing a rule thatallows players under 20 to be assignedfor a maximum of one year to a NBDLteam might be the middle ground.

Those players would still receive theirNBA compensation; the only differencewould be playing every night versuswatching every night, and after the Play-ers come to their senses it means moreyoung guys might stick in the NBA.There will also likely be a handful of ros-ter spaces currently being wasted thatcould be used on veteran players,meaning more NBA jobs.

There is little doubt the NBA needssome kind of age control, not becauseplayers are not ready physically, morebecause players are not ready men-tal ly. Riding the minor league busmight be just what the doctor or-dered for many of these pampered“wannabe” superstars.

THE FIGHT...The NBA really did reach its lowestpoint after the Indiana Pacers DetroitPistons brawl in late November - butas they often tell recovering alcohol-ics, sometimes you have to hit bot-tom to see that you have a problem.The NBA has a maturity problem…They have a separation problem anda clear disconnection with their life-blood: The Fan.

For years star players have shunnedthe media, have waved off the auto-graph request, and have skipped the PRevents designed to humanize them.

NBA players are viewed as over-priced, over-hyped and over-egoed bythe common fan, those same fans thatbuy jerseys, attend games, and watchtelevised matchups.

Somewhere, someone forgot to tellthe players that without the fans, therewould be no mega-money contracts andthat life as they know it is a direct re-sult of the fans. Respect for the fanshas been gone from the NBA game forsome time.

I am not saying that what the fans didin Detroit was anywhere close to justi-fiable, but it’s a product of the fan cul-ture – players are not human becausethey do not allow themselves to con-nect with fans.

From my cha i r, I have watchedplayers walk by with their eyes fixedforward, bypassing the out stretchedhands of fans, looking only for a sec-ond of that player’s attention. It isnot possible for a player to meet andgreet the 17,000 that attend a NBAgame, but i t is possible for themto try.

Until players understand their obli-gations to the fans, it’s going to be anuphill battle for the NBA to expectfans to uphold their obligations to theplayers.

It’s time for players to remember whothey are and how they got here, and bea little respectful of those that providefor them: The league, its owners, thegeneral managers and the fans.

And that’s The Last Word!

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