Nothing unusual, as it turns out, about that stormy Phil Jackson-Jerry Krause relationship.
Milwaukee coach George Karl was fined this season for his continuing attacks on Seattle General Manager Wally Walker, his old boss. Bitterness between Mike Fratello and GM Wayne Embry in Cleveland has been rumored for years, and last week Knicks GM Ernie Grunfeld was pushed through the revolving door ahead of his rival, coach Jeff Van Gundy.
“When you spend what we spend on talent, to be .500 is not acceptable,” said team President Dave Checketts, who is expected to fire Van Gundy if the Knicks miss the playoffs. Checketts may be trying to stave off his own dismissal.
Van Gundy was fairly open about his dislike of Grunfeld’s trade of Charles Oakley for Marcus Camby. Before the deal, the two were warned not to demean each other depending on how the trade worked out.
“This organization is not on the same page in a lot of categories,” Checketts acknowledged.
It’s a familiar conundrum in the NBA: The general manager makes deals to ensure the team’s future; the coach wants to win today.
Grunfeld, aware of Patrick Ewing’s decline, was trying to bring in younger talent such as Camby and Latrell Sprewell. Van Gundy preferred Oakley for his toughness and smarts.
Friction is also breaking out in Detroit, where the Pistons are stumbling toward missing the playoffs with six losses in seven games. Coach Alvin Gentry has been picking at GM Rick Sund.
After a recent loss to the Magic, Gentry described rookies Matt Harpring and Michael Doleac as “two great picks by Orlando, who drafted after us, by the way.” The Pistons’ off-season acquisition of Loy Vaught and Christian Laettner was geared more toward next season, making Gentry nervous.
Jerry Stackhouse, who has been limping on a bad ankle, reportedly traded punches with Laettner on the team plane Thursday following a dispute over a card game. With Bison Dele playing ineffectively and the Pistons routinely blowing late-game leads, Gentry lashed out after a loss to Charlotte last week.
“Right now we’re not even a playoff team,” he said. “We have not beaten anyone when it counted.”
So Grant Hill is going to want to stay there?
Mean Mailman: Luc Longley has been out since April 9 with a knee injury that he contends Karl Malone purposely caused. Advised of Longley’s charge, Malone said, “Luc should be proud he can come into our league and steal for as many years as he stole. Why in the world would I try to hurt Luc Longley?”
Malone says to consider the source when it comes to cheap-shot allegations. “I’m still waiting for a real player to show up (and make them). I’m looking for a guy worried about playing. If I showed up for two or three games every year and still got a nice contract, maybe I’d do it too. But I’d feel like I was stealing, and I wasn’t taught to do that.”
Coaches box: Danny Ainge and Don Nelson went at it last week after Nelson, the Mavericks coach/GM, complained that the Suns’ Ainge is the only coach in the league to violate an unwritten rule not to change a starting lineup once it’s submitted.
“It’s unprofessional,” Nelson said.
Responded Ainge: “I think Don is trying to divert attention from the other Mavs-Suns stories that keep coming up,” such as the one-sided Jason Kidd and Steve Nash trades.
The Mavericks, who face the Bulls on Monday, may be playing their best ball of the season after beating Houston and Phoenix, but they’re still the losingest team of the ’90s, assured of a ninth straight sub-.500 season. Nelson says it’s his fault.
“I’m very disappointed with myself,” Nelson said. “Next year will be my last and then I’m going to retire from coaching for good. I’ve paid the price.”
Nelson, who will turn the coaching job over to his son Donn, conceded that he put too much pressure on Dirk Nowitzki by predicting he’d be Rookie of the Year.
“It was a very stupid thing for me to do,” Nelson said. “I’m 58. I’m still learning.”
Magic wears off: Questionable decision by Orlando coach Chuck Daly to return the fragile Anfernee Hardaway to point guard and bench Darrell Armstrong before a loss to Miami on Thursday, which gave the Heat the edge for the conference’s best record.
Miami, which came on strong in the second half, rubbed it in. Said P.J. Brown: “That’s the difference between the great teams and the good teams. We made our charge and they didn’t know what hit them. Their eyes got watery, the vision blurry.”
There’s considerable animosity between the teams stemming from their first meeting of the season when Miami came back to win and Alonzo Mourning warned that the Heat couldn’t expect to do that against good teams. Daly pasted the quote on the bulletin board for the next game, which the Magic won easily after Hardaway said he would make Mourning eat his words.
Spurred on: San Antonio has been the hottest team since March 1, 24-4 going into Saturday’s game with the Lakers. But the Spurs, who held Utah, Houston and Portland to 37 percent shooting in consecutive games, still have skeptics.
“There’s no one they can’t beat right now, but they need to make the outside shot because their big guys will be double-teamed in the playoffs,” Don Nelson said. “They haven’t proved to me they can do that consistently.”
Which is one reason Steve Kerr has been averaging almost 20 minutes the last four games.
Fast breaks: Thursday’s driving-while-intoxicated arrest already is costing Scottie Pippen. In Japan, Mazda has stopped running TV ads featuring Pippen until the Houston case is resolved. . . . Not only is Pippen getting torched on the court–Nowitzki, Utah’s Bryon Russell, San Antonio’s Sean Elliott and the Clippers’ Tyrone Nesby have had big games against him recently–he’s hearing trash talk. Before the Rockets lost to Dallas last week, Gary Trent yelled at Pippen, “Only one No. 33’s going to show up tonight.” Pippen had four points and Trent had 24. . . . Will Perdue had surgery Friday for the fifth broken nose of his career, the latest when Rasheed Wallace accidently put his finger through a mask Perdue was wearing to protect against breaking his nose again. Said Perdue: “It was a 1-in-1,000 shot.” . . . So there was reason to worry about Derek Anderson’s knee. The Cleveland guard probably is out for the season again, having possibly damaged his medial meniscus during a celebratory chest bump with teammate Brevin Knight. . . . Charlotte insiders say if the team makes the move to let Michael Jordan buy in, it could come by May 12. That’s the renewal date for season tickets, and the Hornets have been averaging about 7,000 no-shows.
