Most NBA teams reached the midway point of the season this past weekend. It hasn’t been a great first half for the NBA, with attendance and scoring down amid calls for radical changes to the game.
On the positive side, Dennis Rodman’s efforts to return have been rebuffed. On the negative side, Mark Cuban kept Rodman’s how-to-act manual after Rodman moved out of Cuban’s coach house last year.
The NBA has been stunned by the Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant feud breaking into the open, and not so surprised that Rick Pitino finally acted on one of his dozens of threats to resign.
The West isn’t quite as strong as first suspected with San Antonio, Utah and Phoenix struggling, and the East is not quite as weak with the 76ers and Knicks knocking off Western teams. The Finals shape up as a Portland-Philadelphia rematch from 1977 as Jerry Krause and Michael Jordan battle it out for the biggest smile on lottery day.
Here’s a look at the NBA’s first half:
Teams:
1. Portland: Just trying to get more wins than Rasheed Wallace gets technicals. Deeper than any other team, though yet to find the guy to carry it through the last quarter of a Game 7.
2. Philadelphia: Two more Allen Iverson-Larry Brown blowups and nobody will catch the Sixers. The NBA’s most fundamentally sound, hard-working, dysfunctional team.
3. Sacramento: Next the Kings will get Vlade Divac to play defense. Not likely, but most everyone else is, and if they can ever find the missing Nick Anderson, who knows how far they can go. Chris Webber looks like the league’s MVP instead of its bad guy.
4. Lakers: Talk about dysfunctional families. Shaq and Kobe hate one another even more than you can imagine. Kobe doesn’t even care for Phil Jackson. But they’re too good a pair to be ignored completely.
5. San Antonio: Soft? Yes, the Spurs are. No, they aren’t. Yes, they are. They’re too skilled to lose the label, but they need the old, pre-surgery Tim Duncan to return to make a move.
6. New York: The Knicks are small, but they don’t run. They’re best at recovering and helping on defense . . . and sparking trade rumors. If they don’t get to the Finals, Jeff Van Gundy fights Oscar De La Hoya in June.
7. Utah: Like the traveling Mormon settlers from the 19th Century, the Jazz is tiring and looking for a place to settle. But it’s still smarter than all the high-jumping kids.
8. Milwaukee: Most improved team since November. The Bucks are actually playing some of George Karl’s trapping defenses, but they live and die by the 20-footer.
9. Phoenix: Penny Hardaway and Tom Gugliotta are making so much for doing so little they ought to be with Portland. Jason Kidd’s assault of his wife is just another issue in a developing lost season.
10. Dallas: First the owner practiced with the team. Now he overshadows it. League’s poorest rebounding team, but three potential All-Stars in Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash.
11. Denver: Got some toughness with the addition of Kevin Willis, but nothing helped like the threatened game boycott. If the Nuggets threaten to boycott the season they could go all the way.
12. Charlotte: More size than any team in the East, though Derrick Coleman and Elden Campbell are more like Sunday school teachers–they work one day a week.
13. Minnesota: Still a shame Stephon Marbury wasn’t about being with a winning team. Kevin Garnett can only do so much, and a shakeup is coming with a Terrell Brandon deal.
14. Miami: You never see stagecoach drivers in the old Western movies with slicked-back hair, but Pat Riley drives this team of horses farther than anyone can imagine.
15. Indiana: Isiah Thomas isn’t buying into the youth movement, other than Jermaine O’Neal. Pacers still have enough good veterans to scare someone in the playoffs.
16. Houston: Scariest backcourt in the league with Cuttino Mobley starting with Steve Francis. Can’t be defended and can’t guard anyone. Rockets are the old Hakeem Olajuwon away from being a great team.
17. Seattle: The coaching-change boost has worn off and Sonics are back to being a .500 team. One more playoff miss and the Gary Payton auction begins. Maybe sooner.
18. Toronto: Hard to make Vince Carter a star if he watches the playoffs . . . the way he watches his man go by him almost every time. Too slow after losing Doug Christie and Tracy McGrady.
19. Orlando: It’s a shame McGrady couldn’t team with Carter. Free agency may be the main reason there will never be another great team. Without Grant Hill, Magic is just another off-Disney attraction.
20. Cleveland: Had a chance for the playoffs if Zydrunas Ilgauskas hadn’t broken his foot again, which is like saying cows could fly if they had wings.
21. Vancouver: Better than the record. Again. Grizzlies may start to break up the roster instead of firing another coach. Figure Mike Bibby to go first, but Shareef Abdur-Rahim may be kept and built around.
22. Boston: Rick Pitino has left them like a group of preschoolers after playtime. Massive disarray, and no one quite knows if it can be cleaned up.
23. Atlanta: Lon Kruger might be able to coach in the NBA. Still need to deal Dikembe Mutumbo and end up with something useable.
24. Clippers: Youngsters will be bad, but they don’t have to be boring. Exciting young talent with Lamar Odom and Darius Miles, though they remain a few veterans away.
25. Golden State: Antawn Jamison scores 50 on consecutive nights and probably won’t be an All-Star. Some wins would help that. Still have too many players breaking down and not stepping up.
26. New Jersey: What a waste to have Marbury languishing with the usual epidemic of injuries and indifference. What was Byron Scott thinking?
27. Detroit: The Pistons are Jerry Stackhouse away from the CBA. Questionable whether they can keep Joe Smith. Their ’80s rivalry with Bulls about to heat up again as they fight to be least worst in the Great Lakes region.
28. Bulls: Better only than Washington because they haven’t given up. Not enough talent to compete, and no indication where the talent will come from. It will be a long way back.
29. Washington: The league’s embarrassment going into a second decade. Michael Jordan’s first year has been a disaster with dispirited play and few moves that appear they will translate into improving the team.
THE BEST OF THE NBA
MVP
Chris Webber, Sacramento Kings. Once you figured you’d see Webber in a police lineup before an MVP award line . . . just like the other top contenders, including Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace and Latrell Sprewell. Once regarded as the problem children of the NBA, they’re now carrying the best teams in the league. Shaquille O’Neal, last year’s MVP, and Kobe Bryant, trying to be this year’s, fade in the wake of their childish feud. Tim Duncan hasn’t quite come back from his surgery, Karl Malone has faded some and Jason Kidd is often too unselfish. Webber, though, stands out for keeping the Kings chasing the best record. He’s among the top five in scoring, rebounding and blocks.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Larry Brown, Philadelphia 76ers. He has never won the award in the NBA, which is a major injustice. He should be a unanimous choice this season for the way he has dealt with Iverson and produced a hard-working, defense-oriented, fundamentally sound team despite injuries to key players. “This is the best coaching job he’s ever done,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a former Brown assistant. “They do the fundamental things over 48 minutes for longer than any other team. They pick you up and play defense, they play weak-side defense, transition defense. They rebound, they use the shot clock, they move the ball, they rebound, they do all those things better and longer than anyone.”
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Marc Jackson, Golden State. A trend. Mommas, don’t let your babies go straight to the NBA. Baseball’s top rookie was a veteran of the Japanese leagues. College football’s Heisman trophy winner was a 28-year-old former baseball player. Jackson, who played three years in Europe out of Temple University, is the only NBA rookie truly having an impact on his team, even if the Warriors don’t win much. Most rookies now are too inexperienced and too young to contribute much their first year.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Theo Ratliff, 76ers. Anchors the hardest working defensive team in the NBA and is far and away the league leader in blocks. Great individual defenders such as Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen and Gary Payton have regressed, as has Shaquille O’Neal.
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
Steve Nash, Dallas Mavericks. Barely nudges out Sacramento’s Peja Stojakovic, who is the second big weapon on improved Kings. Nash has overcome injuries and insecurities to drive a Dallas team that will make the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Also under consideration: Bonzi Wells, Baron Davis, Jermaine O’Neal, Aaron McKie and Tracy McGrady.
SIXTH MAN
Steve Smith, Portland Trail Blazers. With the NBA so weak now, few teams can afford the luxury of a good player on the bench, which is why expected winner Cuttino Mobley of Houston is out after becoming a starter. Moving to the bench has been a perfect role for Smith.
ALL-STAR TEAMS
East: Centers: Theo Ratliff and Dikembe Mutombo; forwards: Vince Carter, Glenn Robinson, Brian Grant, Latrell Sprewell and Elton Brand; guards: Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Jerry Stackhouse, Stephon Marbury and Reggie Miller.
West: Centers: Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson; forwards: Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace, Dirk Nowitzki and Antonio McDyess; guards: Kobe Bryant, Michael Finley, Jason Kidd and Steve Francis.
