This is going to get interesting once the dust settles -- from Indianapolis to New York City -- as Donnie Walsh moves from the city where he developed an elite reputation with the Pacers to his hometown where the Knicks are in ruins.
But he met with Knicks owner Jim Dolan last week, and the rumors have been rampant ever since based on the obvious situation in Indy -- either the 67-year-old CEO or Larry Bird, the 51-year-old president, had to go.
The latest thought was that Walsh turned down the Knicks and Bird was on his way out.
That’s why Pacers owner Herb Simon cleared the air Monday.
“I think everyone was getting confused,” Simon said. “There were a lot of rumors and we just thought if this was something that was really going to happen and once I was convinced Donnie was really leaving, I thought it would just be best to let everyone else know.”
Although they all said he would finish the season or stay "until they throw me out," as Walsh cracked wise. Most of it is contingent on the Knicks, despite Walsh’s refusal to comment on the reports that have him already coming to an agreement on a contract.
“I'm not commenting on anything that I'm going to do in the future because I'm unclear about it,” Walsh said. “And I'm just not going to comment on it until the time is right.”
That could be right around the corner, but we’ll get back to that later. Right now, we’re trying to figure out what went wrong here. We just don’t know whether it was Bird making the bad personnel decisions or Walsh. Or maybe it was simply the problem of having two people making the decisions instead of one.
Actually, everyone has been confused about the Pacers for quite some time, with the timing of their precipitous fall from grace in the East coinciding with their notorious brawl in the Palace of Auburn Hills with Pistons fans in November of 2004.
Since then, they have gone straight downhill. From being a model of NBA success in the glorious basketball heartland of Indiana in their perpetually sold out state-of-the-art Conseco Fieldhouse on their way to six conference finals under Walsh to the unequivocal decline the past four years. They failed to make the playoffs last season for the first time in a decade, have the worst attendance in the NBA and are on the brink of missing the postseason for the second year in a row – something that hasn’t happened here in nearly 20 years.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Bird took his present post five years ago, maybe not. Nonetheless, the perception of the Pacers as bad guys – from Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson to Jamaal Tinsley, Marquis Daniels and Shawne Williams – hasn’t gone away, and that combined with failure on the court has fractured the fan base. Walsh had said all along this would be his final season, but nobody believed him until now.
At least now we'll know who is making all the calls. And to this point, it would be fair to say nobody has been impressed with anything Bird has done in the front office.
“I think that's maybe one of the side benefits of clarifying the situation, having Larry's voice being the only voice,” Simon insisted. “Some people got confused. I liked having both of them but I think we're going to do very well with Larry.”
We’ll see. Walsh set up Bird with this job five years ago with the intention of him taking over completely one day, but nobody expected it to be under these circumstances. The Pacers had been too stable. Now they’re not.
“It's sad to see him go,” Bird said. “ I know there's a lot of speculation out there about whether he's going to stay or go but from day one he told me exactly what he was going to do and today, you always know it's coming but when it does happen you have different emotions and different feelings about it.
“We've talked about this before and I've always said that one voice is what you have, no matter if it's business or basketball. Learning this position through Donnie, there was a lot of confusion out there but now that he's stepping down I have no doubts in my ability to lead and do the things necessary to get this team back to the elite level.”
That has yet to be proven. On the court, Bird controlled his team's performance. He hasn’t shown the ability to build a successful team yet, and until then it’s ludicrous to compare Bird the player to Bird the president.
We already know what his predecessor has done, and now, unless a lot of people are sadly mistaken, it’s on to New York for Walsh. And it is home. Walsh grew up in the Bronx, played ball for Frank McGuire at South Carolina and cut his teeth coaching with Dean Smith and Larry Brown under McGuire. He earned his law degree, and once he moved from assistant coach to president of the Pacers in 1986, things quickly changed. The only thing that didn’t work was a meek attempt at changing his name from “Donnie” to “Don” as president of the organization. Included on his resume is an Eastern Conference title in 2000 before losing to the Lakers. There's also six trips to the conference finals and four division championships.
Everything else flowed until 2004.
But he’s a natural hire for New York. He’s proven to be a master of the salary cap, capable of rebuilding a team while still competing in the playoffs. One of those periods came with present Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as the Pacers coach, which is why this appears to be inevitable. Whether Thomas would stay on as coach or not depends on Dolan since Thomas is still owed so much money in the wake of an extension given last season. On the other hand, he has eaten the huge contracts of Lenny Wilkens and Larry Brown, so that may not be a factor in Dolan's decision.
Regardless, it will be up to Walsh to clean up this mess of a franchise that is presently 19-51 and hasn’t won a playoff series since 2005. They are light years over the salary cap and into luxury tax as the highest salaried team in the NBA. So Walsh will have his work cut out for him – perhaps to hire a new coach in the process – maybe even former Pacer and Knick and present broadcast analyst Mark Jackson.
Reports of Walsh accepting a three-year, $15 million deal from the Knicks are creating a positive buzz in New York. Consider these words of wisdom as we watch what happens.
“The league is its own life form in a way,” Walsh said in part on Monday. “It kind of evolves the way it evolves.”
Or devolves, as both the Knicks and Pacers have done in recent years … and as a byproduct, nobody is better prepared for New York than Donnie Walsh.
The consolation prize is dangling with the enticement of a toxic carrot for one team in the Eastern Conference to back into the eighth playoff spot. And the good news is most of the inter-conference play is over, which means they’ll essentially be slugging it out between themselves for the distinction of being put to bed by the powerful Celtics.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t the obvious benefit of experience and extra money for teams that haven’t been there forever like the currently No. 8 Atlanta Hawks. Their last postseason was nine years ago, so both general manager Billy Knight and coach Mike Woodson have been regarded as on the verge of being unemployed because of that familiar underachievement song.
Or consider the long-shot Charlotte Bobcats, suddenly five games behind the Hawks with 15 to play. . They were in the mix to crash the party for the first time in the five-year history of the franchise until the past week under rookie coach Sam Vincent; a four-game tailspin has essentially taken them out of the picture.
And in between we’re left with the New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers – all of whom have suffered horribly disappointing seasons. Playing for the final spot as opposed to home court brings to mind whether their preference is to make the playoffs or slip into the draft lottery with the infinitesimal odds of moving into the top four in the NBA Draft.
In the case of the Hawks, it’s a moot point because their pick goes to the Phoenix Suns as part of the payback from the controversial Joe Johnson sign-and-trade acquisition in the summer of 2005 that created a split in the ownership group that continues even today. With a half-game lead over the Nets, they desperately need to get into the playoffs – particularly after swinging the trade for Mike Bibby last month that presumably ended the perpetual need for a point guard.
Despite their recent three-game winning streak that pushed them ahead of the Nets, they Hawks have won only four of their last 10 games – so vulnerability lingers. But on the bright side, eight of their final 15 games are at home, with only three of those games against teams playing better than .500 ball. In many ways, this is the perfect opportunity for Johnson, who has averaged 27.8 points and 7.1 assists over the past nine games, to prove he’s more than just a token All-Star and the guy who can carry them to a new height.
It’s a different deal for the Nets. They’ve been in the playoffs the past six years and into the second round the last two. President Rod Thorn is rebuilding them on the fly – unloading discontented Jason Kidd and adding youth around veterans Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson – the most prominent being Kidd’s replacement Devin Harris.
The Nets seemingly have the edge – certainly in experience and generally speaking in talent. However, nine of their final 16 games are on the road, with six of those games against winning teams. And we’ll learn a lot quickly, with New Jersey playing at Chicago tonight before the Hawks come to Meadowlands in a big one tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Bulls and Pacers have been dancing around each other most of the season as they generally do, only this season while languishing. The Bulls are still trying to see if their new pieces fit. Ten of their final 16 games are at home, including the next four against the Nets, Spurs, Pacers and Hawks. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll find out how well Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden add to the cause less than a month after their big three-way trade with Cleveland and Seattle.
And lastly we have the broken-down Pacers, lost in the abyss since their brawl with Pistons fans 4½ years ago, they’ve been weighed down not only by uneven play on the court, but constant problems after hours. Nobody is happy with what has happened since Larry Bird presumably took the reins from Donnie Walsh as team president even before the brawl. And now the 67-year-old Walsh, with the title of CEO, apparently is either going to retire or take over another team next season. Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley have been broken the entire second half of the season – reflective of how Bird has waited far too long to move either player.
Nonetheless, they’ve been hanging in there since the All-Star break behind the sweet-shooting Mike Dunleavy’s career-best season, and they’ve got the best schedule – nine of 15 at home, with only two games against playoff-bound teams.
Logic says the Hawks are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1999 or, to put it into perspective, three jobs ago for their now-retired coach Lenny Wilkens. Not only is it huge for Woodson and Knight to keep their lofty positions, but it will show if Johnson has mentally grown into his immense talent. That’s not to diminish the value of Bibby, the multi-skilled Joshes – Smith and Childress, Marvin Williams or rookie-of-the-year candidate Al Horford. This is why they got Johnson in the first place.
For the better part of a dozen years, the Indiana Pacers were one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference and a blueprint of success.
Whether it was Larry Bird, Larry Brown or Rick Carlisle, they entered virtually every season as one of the favorites in the East, and reached the conference finals six times – winning the conference title in 2000 before losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
Donnie Walsh was one of the pre-eminent general managers in the league and a bona fide guru when it came to rebuilding while making the playoffs in the process. Even Conseco Fieldhouse, which opened in 1999, was unique in its combination of marvelous sightlines and the historic feel it radiated in the homeland of Indiana basketball. Success had become commonplace for owners Herb and Mel Simon, the mall magnates who saved the failing franchise from moving in 1983, and Conseco was the place to be in revitalized downtown Indy.
Now they are example of how quickly everything can deteriorate – from what figured to be just another emotional rivalry game against the Detroit Pistons in the Palace of Auburn Hills more than four years ago - to tonight’s game in the Palace that has virtually no meaning at all.
It’s the unsettling story of how they went from perennial contender with sellout crowds to their present state of 21-31 with flagging attendance. It is yet another warning shot to the rest of the league how quickly things can unravel. It happened in Portland before the Blazers reached their present encouraging state of reconstruction.
The Pacers have yet to find the antidote.
In case you’ve forgotten, this fall from grace all began with that flying cup of beer that precipitated the infamous brawl in the Palace on Nov. 19, 2004, and they’ve been sliding downhill ever since.
The Pacers were about to defeat the rival Pistons 97-82 when Pistons forward Ben Wallace shoved Pacers forward Ron Artest. Words were exchanged, a technical was called on Wallace and the mercurial Artest strangely laid on the scorer’s table, presumably to calm himself. A fan threw a cup of beer at him, and the place exploded.
Fights broke out everywhere in the building before police finally calmed the uprising. Nine players were suspended by the NBA, five of them Pacers. Artest (86), Stephen Jackson (30) and Jermaine O’Neal (15, reduced from 25) – all key players – were suspended a combined total of 131 games. Arrests were made out of the crowd. Lawsuits followed. The Pacers struggled from potential conference champs to 44-38. Somehow coach Rick Carlisle got them through the first round of the playoffs – but the dye had already been cast.
And they can’t seem to stop the bleeding.
Since the start of that 2004-05 season, the Pacers have a winning percentage of .473 entering tonight’s game at the Palace against Pistons. In the seven seasons prior to that they had won at a .625 clip. Fan reaction in Indianapolis to the team went downhill after the brawl and the attendance in their marvelous basketball cathedral has dropped more than 30 percent from consistent sellouts of more than 18,000 to last in the NBA at 12,314 as we pull into the All-Star break.
Bird is now in his fifth season as president of basketball operations, with Walsh bumped up to CEO and one personnel move after another has come up empty. Feeling compelled to part ways with Carlisle after last season, they surprised a lot of people by hiring harsh Jim O’Brien, who had some success for a couple of years before being run out of Boston, then had a tumultuous 2004-05 season before getting the boot in Philadelphia.
They hung on to Artest for a year before unloading him for Peja Stojakovic, who stunningly bolted as a free agent after less than a season with the Pacers. Fortunately, they coaxed the Hornets into a sign-and-trade, which gave the Pacers a trade exception large enough to regain popular and talented forward Al Harrington, who they had dealt for Jackson. Nonetheless, it also cost them their 2007 top pick. That deal didn’t work either, and ironically both Jackson and Harrington were part of an eight-player deal with Golden State that brought Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Ike Diogu to the Pacers.
Meanwhile, they held on to O’Neal and point guard Jamaal Tinsley far too long. O’Neal is three years past superstar status thanks to a variety of injuries – mostly knee-related – and he’s seriously damaged goods making an average of about $21 million over the next three seasons. He hasn’t played in a month and they can only hope he’s ready to go at some level after the All-Star weekend because his market value is virtually nil. Tinsley, who ran with Jackson off the court con####uously in the after-hours clubs, also is struggling physically and couldn’t be more unpopular with the fans. He’s missed six of the past nine games and won’t play tonight either.
Center David Harrison, their top pick in 2004, has been nothing but trouble on and off the floor. Marquis Daniels figured to give them lots of versatility after acquiring him for Dallas for Austin Croshere in 2006. Instead, he ended up being just another member of the Jackson and Tinsley crew in the heat of the night and an erratic performer on the floor.
Sure, they made a great draft pick in Danny Granger in 2005, a wonderfully talented all-around forward and the kind of good guy they sorely needed. Dunleavy is another positive, having his best season in the NBA and always a plus in the locker room and in the community. And yet, Murphy is erratic and injury prone, while Diogu still hasn’t come along as they had hoped. They remain optimistic about athletic 2006 top pick Shawne Williams, still a spot player at forward and only 22 (on Saturday). But what would have been the 10th overall pick in the talented 2007 draft was gone to Atlanta in reacquiring Harrington – and that hurt.
More recently, they’ve been very happy about what oft-traveled free agent Kareem Rush has brought off the bench shooting the 3-pointer and defensively. They also like what backup point guard Travis Diener does running the club, despite ankle problems. But let’s be honest … if they’re pumping up journeyman role players, it’s merely emblematic of how far they’ve fallen.
That would be 17.5 games behind the first place Pistons in the Central Division and two games ahead of the last place Bucks.
Maybe it’s just bad karma, maybe it’s just bad decisions by Bird. Whatever the case may be, since that notorious night four-plus years ago in the Palace, it’s been a nightmare. The good news is no matter what happens tonight, it has to be better than that.
We're at mid-season in the NBA, and there are some surprises, disappointments, but nothing extraordinary as we consider what will happen during the final 41 games of the 2007-08 campaign.
As anticipated from their super-deals of the offseason, the Boston Celtics have taken off in the Eastern Conference with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining forces with Paul Pierce, while showing the value of young point guard Rajon Rondo. They've got the best record in the East, ahead of the Detroit Pistons, while the Phoenix Suns are a nose ahead in the West, with the Dallas Mavericks and upstart New Orleans Hornets just a game behind them.
We figured the New York Knicks would be a mess this season too, but nobody believed it could deteriorate this much for Isiah Thomas – with a staged boycott featuring a giant pink slip to be signed by owner Jim Dolan as the featured attraction.
But nobody could have figured the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls to be the two worst teams in the East, by a considerable amount – with Bulls coach Scott Skiles the first coach fired this season.
Those are just some of the issues that highlight/lowlight 2007-08 thus far as we provide the review:
Most Valuable Player: Kobe Bryant, Lakers
After a nightmarish summer of demands and rebuttals, no trade was made and Bryant led his young team to the best record in the West until young center Andrew Bynum dislocated his knee. Now young swingman Trevor Ariza broke his foot. It's beginning to look like a rerun of last season. Nonetheless, Bryant has been at his spectacular best both individually and in unison with his teammates. Also considered were Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and LeBron James.
Least Valuable Player: Stephon Marbury, Knicks
Wherever he's been the team is worse than when he got there. He is so gifted and so overpaid and so strange, it's hard to fathom what he is anymore. The general consensus is one-part point guard, one-part shooting guard, one-part sideshow, which leaves only two other spots on the floor. Nobody else is even close.
Best coach: Nate McMillan, Trail Blazers
McMillan has taken the youngest team in the NBA that won 53 games combined over the last two seasons, lost No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden before the season, has them just a half-game out of first in the Northwest Division. Even so, he's hardly a clear cut-choice over Hornets coach Byron Scott or the Celtics' Doc Rivers, with Washington's Eddie Jordan also a worthy candidate.
Worst combo exec-coach: Pat Riley, Heat
For the second time in this decade, it appears Riley the president has just about killed Riley the coach. With the rapid physical decline of Shaquille O'Neal, off-season surgery for Dwyane Wade and the remaining roster filled with some promising youth, but mostly marginal players, they are stunningly bad. If anything else happens to O'Neal or Wade, they're going to rival the Dolphins, or the Marlins … can't remember which team was worse.
Best rookie: Kevin Durant, Seattle Sonics
With no Oden, the wondrously gifted Durant appeared to be a lock for this, but no longer. Oh, he's still easily the best scoring rookie, but that's only because he's on an awful team and has the green light to shoot and shoot and shoot. The coaching staff has done little to develop him and his skinny frame is tired. Atlanta's Al Horford is gaining ground on him rapidly, though, and Yi Jianlian has come along much faster than many believed. As for the older crowd, I'll give some props for Jamario Moon, for fighting his way from nowhere at the age of 27 to become a significant factor for the Raptors. But I'm not jumping on the Juan Carlos Navarro bandwagon, not only because the Grizzlies are awful, but because he's a 10-year veteran from Barcelona –one of the great leagues in the world.
Disappointing rookie: Corey Brewer, Timberwolves
Joining Horford and Joakim Noah as one of three top 10 picks from the two-time champion Florida Gators, nobody questioned Brewer's athleticism. But his shooting, well, it appears he finally got it above 30 percent – even to 35 percent. But on a bad team like this, they needed a lot more than that from the seventh overall pick. Actually Noah isn't that far behind in the disappointment category, even being voted a two-game suspension by his teammates for mouthing off at assistant coach Ron Adams. But I still expect Noah to have a significant second half.
Best executive: Danny Ainge, Celtics
Considered by many to be gathering players to compete in the Big East as opposed the Atlantic Division, Ainge and his insistence on trying to discover high school superstars were widely thought to be, well, nuts. But the lack of success created this off-season monster with the additions of Garnett and Allen. He's still the easy winner, but the gutted roster has little wiggle room if injuries strike as they have Rondo.
Worst executive: Kevin McHale, Timberwolves
Just as easy as picking Ainge was the selection of his old buddy McHale on the flip side. Handing over one of the great players in the era in Garnett for practically nothing, McHale now has put together such a horrible team, they are serious contenders for the all-time record of just nine wins set by the 1972-73 Sixers.
Best defensive player: Marcus Camby, Nuggets
Not only is Camby leading the league in blocks at 4.0 a game, he's also averaging 14.3 rebounds. Twice this season he has recorded double-figures in blocks this season. Over the past 10 games, he's averaging 14.7 rebounds and 5.0 blocks, including last week's gem of 11 blocks, 24 rebounds and 2 steals in a key win over Utah.
Worst defensive player; Antoine Walker, Timberwolves
It's so sad to see guys with talent like this just float from team to team making so many millions of dollars to underachieve. That's what makes times like these so special – when they can recognized with such dubious distinction.
Best sixth man: Manu Ginobili, Spurs
The value of Ginobili as the sixth man of the Spurs can only be quantified as a left-handed version of what Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek did for so many championship teams in Boston in the 1960s-70s. There is non-stop energy on both ends of the floor and clutch play that helps his team win the biggest of games. Leandro Barbosa is worthy of mention, but he's not really close.
Worst starter: Quentin Richardson, Knicks
Brought in to be a shooter for the Knicks, the 'Q' rating has bottomed out. In 38 starts he's shooting .329 from the field, .293 from 3-point range and .595 from the free throw line. There's no reason for him to be playing with so many interchangeable parts on that roster.
Most improved player: Chris Kaman, Clippers
While it would be easy to take someone more visible and focus on Dwight Howard's leap into superstardom or LaMarcus Aldridge's great year despite Greg Oden's absence, Kaman has moved himself into the upper-echelon of NBA centers. Despite injuries that have crushed the Clippers (Elton Brand and Shaun Livingston) and the breaking down of Sam Cassell, Kaman has gotten better and better. He's averaging 17.4 points, 13.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks – all three career-highs. He's more than doubled his defensive rebounds per game and he's also a terrific passer.
Most deteriorated player: Jermaine O'Neal, Pacers
Although his numbers of 15.3 points, 7.3. rebounds and 2.2 blocks aren't bad, they do show how rapidly his once 20-point, 10-rebounds, 3-block stats have gone downhill from the 2004-05 season as O'Neal has gone from superstar billing to sometimes All-Star. He is damaged goods – shutting it down for at least the next couple of weeks and perhaps the entire season to rest his left knee. He's missed 89 games before this most recent announcement over the past 3½ seasons. Still only 29, O'Neal will average more than $21 million in salary over the next three seasons. They hung on to him way too long.
Surprise team: Hornets
Despite moving back and forth from Oklahoma City to New Orleans, with the league-low in attendance despite numerous giveaways, this team continues to improve behind the coaching of Byron Scott and the terrific young trio of Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and David West. They don't have much depth, with Peja Stojakovic still so fragile and Morris Peterson inconsistent from the wings, but they are still battling with Dallas and San Antonio for first place in the toughest division of basketball in the world. Can they hang there? Also the Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards deserve significant recognition.
Disappointing team: Bulls
For 10 years it's been tough for the Bulls, starting off the season with so many road games when the circus would come to town, but this year they became the circus. With contract offers spurned by Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, Scott Skiles' firing and all the pressure on John Paxson to make moves, they are slowly coming around with assistant Jim Boylan as the interim coach. But this never figured to be in the cards.
Best owner: Mark Cuban, Mavericks
Say what you want about him, he does whatever it takes for his team to win and gives them everything they need and much, much more just so they have the opportunity to succeed. He's as competitive as the players are, and mouthy, which makes him unpopular with so many. But so what? He doesn't care and they're winning at breakneck speed again.
Worst owner: Clay Bennett, SuperSonics
A tough situation was made worse when he bought the team prior to last season, and now they are in the throes of the worst two years in franchise history. He bought the team to move it Oklahoma City and he's torturing the fans and the city with horrible basketball so they'll let him go. The league should be ashamed of itself. He doesn't care about the team. He doesn't care about the fans. He just wants to take his ball and go home.
First team All-NBA
F-LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers F-Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics C-Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic G-Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers G-Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns
Last team All-NBA
F-Antoine Walker, Minnesota Timberwolves F-Quentin Richardson, New York Knicks C-Kwame Brown, Los Angeles Lakers G-Charlie Bell, Milwaukee Bucks G-Sebastian Telfair, Minnesota Timberwolves
This is and was clearly a case of should he or shouldn't he?
One was clearly right and one definitely wrong … unless you think differently.
The subject matters are Larry Bird, president of the Indiana Pacers and Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers.
As the Lakers are cruising along at 23-11 after Wednesday's games, just 1.5 games out of not only first place in the Pacific Division, but the Western Conference, the screaming for Kupchak's head in the wake of Kobe Bryant's off-season foot-stomping has ceased. In fact, you might take a look at what Kupchak has done with the roster, bringing back Derek Fisher -- and even adding Trevor Ariza -- and say, "Gee, maybe we were just a little harsh with ol' Mitch."
But that isn't even the point. We know the health of Lamar Odom as the yang to whatever Bryant opts to yin, is paramount to their success. And lately, it's been OK. But that's only part the equation. The other half is The Kid … Andrew Bynum. Yeah, you know the guy. He's the 20-year-old center Bryant belittled through every mode of communication imaginable from coast-to-coast: radio, television, web sites, cell phones, land lines and rumor has it he was so irritated at one point about the lack of action he picked up a megaphone and just started ranting from his SoCal rooftop.
Well, four months and 34 games later, Bynum is averaging 12.9 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.1 blocks under the tutelage of one Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And don't forget Bynum never went to college and had such little basketball experience through his senior year in high school, that it's a little awe-inspiring to consider what he'll be like as he physically and mentally matures.
So what does this have to with Bird, the erstwhile superstar player, good coach and unproven Pacers prez?
Well, Bird probably could have had Bynum in a package that would have brought Jermaine O'Neal to the Lakers. On the surface, it would have looked like a steal for the Lakers, considering the 6-11, 260-pound O'Neal was just shy of 29, a five-time All-Star and a legit 20-point, 10-rebound, 2-block possibility.
That's the perceived J-O, not the J-O of today. He's the one whose numbers aren't any better than Bynum's – averaging a few more points at 15.6, a tick more blocks at 2.2, but only 7.3 rebounds. Oh, and we might add he's played in 30 of the 37 games. That wouldn't necessarily be an issue had it not been an issue for the previous three years too.
Bynum is a young 20 by NBA standards. O'Neal is an old 29, having entered the league at 17. His numbers have dipped each of the past three seasons. You can look at his knee, shoulder, ankle and any other number of body parts to know he's breaking down. Including what he's played so far in 2007-08, he will average about 56 games a year and he makes $20 million.
This isn't to say Bynum will ever be a 20-10 guy. But the potential is certainly there and Kupchak now has a team that is improving daily for coach Phil Jackson and gaining confidence to the point that they will be dangerous late this season – health permitting. Kupchak did the right thing.
And to be fair, although O'Neal only has had two seasons during which he averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, he was close a few other occasions. But he's missed so many games, the line is blurred. Bird reportedly turned down a deal of O'Neal for Richard Jefferson and Nenad Krstic (who's battling back from his own knee surgery but is only 24). The buzz was also out that there were clusters of good young players available from the deep but redundant rosters of the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns.
Why would they all be interested? The NBA is preoccupied with size and O'Neal has it, provided he can actually run and jump on occasion. Has Bird waited too long? The perception was out there all off-season that O'Neal was the next best thing available to Kevin Garnett. Five year's ago he was a poor man's KG. Today, he is perhaps the broken down version.
He'll never get star quality in return at this point and the Pacers are 2.5 games out of the last playoff spot in the East. Isn't it time to cut and run with the Feb. 21 trade deadline looming?
And let's best honest, they're not going anywhere with O'Neal. They may as well take a shot at reconstruction using him as bait.
Just know that you won't find Bynum and Odom-plus for him now.
Jamaal Tinsley needs some heavy-duty counseling from former NBA point guard John Lucas, who went through everything over-indulged athletes experience away from the game and was so intrigued by the circumstances, he went through it again and again. Lucas used to say he just kept floating down that river in Egypt … better known as Da Nile. But it all came to light one summer day when he thought he was on his way to a road trip as the point guard for the Rockets six weeks after the season had ended.
So he put on his sports jacket and tie, his game shorts, socks and sneakers.
"Can you imagine what I looked like dressed like that," Lucas said. "I was stopped by a transvestite and she told me that I had some issues that needed to be cleaned up."
That's not to say Tinsley needs a transvestite to put him on the straight and narrow, but you would think with all the issues he's had in his life, that he'd realize nothing good can happen in downtown Indianapolis between 3 and 4 in the morning.
But once again, Tinsley is under the klieg lights and the Indiana Pacers are helpless but to hope he's learned his lesson. You see, around 3:40 a.m. Sunday, Tinsley and his friends (while rolling in his Rolls Royce, Mercedes and Dodge Charger) were getting taunted by some not-so-nice guys at a club outside downtown Indy. They opted to leave the scene and go to a downtown hotel, presuming it would be safer.
Who'd have thought they'd be wrong? Shots were fired by both groups, excluding Tinsley. His brother James Tinsley did, however, and Pacers equipment manager Joey Qatato was shot in both elbow by one of the bad guys.
Of course Tinsley has every right to be in any public area. This is a free country, which is why the thugs have every right to be out too. And that explains why he was wrong … potentially dead wrong. This is his third major incident in 14 months at a club in the middle of the night. He has been suspended, fined, indicted. He's not a stupid kid. He'll be 30 in February. He's a street-wise millionaire and a major target for jealous punks who play with guns the same way we used to play with Frisbees – and in this case it was a .223 assault rifle. Those weapons can hurt, as Qatato's now badly battered elbows can attest.
What we're left with is trying to figure out what Tinsley doesn't understand about the ills of 3:40 a.m. when alcohol, drugs and guns are involved. There is a culture clash of jealousy going on that has those who didn't make it off the street getting even angrier about those who did make it – especially when they see them flaunting their riches – say, like a Rolls, Mercedes and a Charger.
So let me spell it out for you Jamaal: Beware of your new friends, and be wary of the old ones. If you still don't get it, head down to Houston and check in with Lucas. He'll give it to you straight. If you want to party in the middle of the night, it's probably not too much of a stretch to presume that you've got a home that would be do just fine for late-night parties. Invite whomever you want. But maybe, just maybe, you could send just about everybody home by say, uh, 1 or 2 on a school night?
Meanwhile, they held on to O’Neal and point guard Jamaal Tinsley far too long. O’Neal is three years past superstar status thanks to a variety of injuries – mostly knee-related – and he’s seriously damaged goods making an average of about $21 million over the next three seasons. He hasn’t played in a month and they can only hope he’s ready to go at some level after the All-Star weekend because his market value is virtually nil. Tinsley, who ran with Jackson off the court con
But that isn't even the point. We know the health of Lamar Odom as the yang to whatever Bryant opts to yin, is paramount to their success. And lately, it's been OK. But that's only part the equation. The other half is The Kid … Andrew Bynum. Yeah, you know the guy. He's the 20-year-old center Bryant belittled through every mode of communication imaginable from coast-to-coast: radio, television, web sites, cell phones, land lines and rumor has it he was so irritated at one point about the lack of action he picked up a megaphone and just started ranting from his SoCal rooftop.
Bynum is a young 20 by NBA standards. O'Neal is an old 29, having entered the league at 17. His numbers have dipped each of the past three seasons. You can look at his knee, shoulder, ankle and any other number of body parts to know he's breaking down. Including what he's played so far in 2007-08, he will average about 56 games a year and he makes $20 million.
