Though no one among the Bulls is going to admit it, the beginning of the end for Ben Wallace probably came Saturday night. It was against the Pistons with Joakim Noah taking all the minutes down the stretch as the ball-deflecting, shot-blocking, offensive-rebounding, bad-free-throw-shooting, bad-hair guy.
It was an inevitable progression, one likely scheduled to have begun next season after a winning 2007-08. The events of the last month probably sped up the pace, so now the question is what to do with Wallace.
Ride him until there’s nothing left?
Wish for a spark and a turnaround, as interim coach Jim Boylan has been hoping for?
Or help out Phil Jackson?
First, Wallace isn’t done.
The notion is Wallace’s contract, with two seasons after this totaling $28.5 million, is unmovable. (We always say things like that and then guys like Juwan Howard and Shawn Kemp are traded.) Wallace makes sense for the Lakers with Andrew Bynum’s injury, and they can give the Bulls enough to make sense of a deal.
You take Kwame Brown’s expiring contact of $9 million and add Vladimir Radmanovic at $5.6 million and it’s a deal. The Bulls wouldn’t want to take on Radmanovic’s deal, which goes through 2010-11, but it’s much cheaper than Wallace and may be the best way to get out from under his deal.
Wallace was supposed to be coming to a competing team; the Bulls were that last season. Wallace helped, no matter what revisionist history says. The Bulls are hardly dead, but they are in transition and Noah can play that defensive center position. And he’s 7 feet tall. Wallace once played like he was. No more at 33.
But Wallace can be effective in the right circumstances.
Bynum is expected to return in two months, but the Lakers could fall badly in that time. Bynum was a legitimate second scoring option, giving relief to Kobe Bryant. Wallace doesn’t replace that, but he’s the kind of player Jackson likes.
With Dennis Rodman and Horace Grant — the latter much later in his career — Jackson knows the value in power forwards who can rebound on the offensive end and do the dirty work. Plus, the West has smaller players at power forward with Shawn Marion in Phoenix, Carlos Boozer in Utah, the midget of the day in Golden State and even the Spurs playing non-scorers like Fabricio Oberto or Francisco Elson.
Perhaps Wallace helps hold the fort for a while until Bynum returns.
When the Bulls and Lakers were in talks about Bryant, the Lakers wanted Wallace. Initially Bryant said he wanted to play with Wallace, then retracted.
Nothing was ever particularly close, but the outline of one deal had Wallace, Kirk Hinrich, Noah and a No. 1 pick going to the Lakers. But the Bulls also had to use other players to try for an All-Star player from another team since they didn’t have one, which was the reason for the cursory talks with the Kings.
Clearly, the Lakers are not going to deal Bryant now given the success they had with Bynum healthy — he’ll return for a playoff run. Wallace could look pretty good next to him to do some of that playoff dirty work.
Electoral college eligibility
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has some in the NBA getting involved in a very public way. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar endorsed Obama while former teammate Magic Johnson came out strongly for Hillary Clinton. Johnson said campaigning in South Carolina, “We won our first game on a last-second shot. I was so hyped. But the captain of my team (Abdul-Jabbar) said, ‘Take it easy rookie, it’s a long season, it’s a long road to the championship.’ He was right. I’ll always want the most prepared and experienced person leading my team.”
Of course, it was Johnson who stepped in for Abdul-Jabbar to win that final game of his rookie season for the championship.
The sharpest controversy came from Michael Jordan’s partner, Bobcats owner Robert Johnson, who is a supporter of Clinton and even said he had Bill Clinton call NBA Commissioner David Stern when Johnson was trying to acquire the rights to the Bobcats. “We’ve always said we need a perfect, well-spoken, Harvard-educated black candidate who would prove we’ve transcended race,” Johnson told the Washington Post. “Well, now we’ve got him and nobody knows how to campaign against him.”
Noah told a French newspaper he is supporting Obama.
Pardon me for getting back to basketball, but Noah is working on becoming a member of the French national team for the 2010 World Championships. Luol Deng is set to play for Britain, perhaps along with Ben Gordon. Thabo Sefolosha plans to play if Switzerland is involved.
Memphis blues
The Bulls are in Memphis on Monday for the big Martin Luther King Jr. Day game. I have been there on that holiday and it’s one of the best days in the NBA after a trip through the National Civil Rights Museum.
But will Pau Gasol see another?
The Grizzlies are now telling teams they are reassessing whether to deal Gasol. The Bulls were in preliminary talks a few weeks ago involving players like Andres Nocioni, Noah, Sefolosha and Chris Duhon, but the Grizzlies have backed off.
The feeling is maybe Gasol isn’t the problem. He is slightly above his career averages at 19.3 points and 8.8 rebounds. But Gasol remains unpopular locally after his frequent questions about staying in Memphis over the years.
A colleague reminded me the other day of the famous story of Ralph Kiner with the Pittsburgh Pirates being traded to the Cubs after being a home run leader. Pirate general manager Branch Rickey reportedly told Kiner, “We finished [last] with you, we can finish [last] without you.” And so it could be with the Grizzlies, 11-29 and in the West ahead of only Minnesota and Seattle, whose managements are trying to lose. The Grizzlies are losing millions annually and have been up for sale for two years. Gasol could net some young (also cheap) talent and save the club a fortune. It still seems he’ll be traded eventually.
Show him the money
You’ve got to give it to Pat Riley for trying.
He told Florida media last week he came up with this one, asking players whose faces were on American currency up to the $10,000 bill, which only NBA players are said to be allowed to carry. “Say buddy, got change for a 10 G?”
The answer? Salmon P. Chase, a Civil War era politician who was in Abraham Lincoln’s administration and helped create U.S. currency.
Riley’s message, which I didn’t fully understand, had something to do with not quitting. With the Heat 8-31 after 13 straight losses, we’re all waiting for Riley, et al., to begin bailing on this season.
Trade market
With fresh rumors of a Jermaine O’Neal trade to the Nets, the player the Nets are said to want to deal most is Vince Carter, not Jason Kidd. But O’Neal is now out again, this time with a knee bruise, and any deal seems unlikely with his declining health and expanding contract, though the Pacers certainly would like to move on.
The Celtics or Suns are said to be the likely destinations for Damon Stoudamire if he gets a buyout from Memphis. With several top teams seeking veteran point guards, there has been some speculation the Clippers could try to move Sam Cassell.
Anyone looking for small shooting guards could probably get Mike James from Houston or J.J. Redick from Orlando, neither of whom play much. Seattle also is a likely target with Wally Szczerbiak, Earl Watson and Luke Ridnour doing little and all available.
Ron Artest, with the Kings last week beating the Pistons and Pacers back to back, amazingly listed Indiana and Detroit — where his fight helped ruin the Pacers’ franchise — as two of his preferred destinations when he opts out after this season. He also said he could stay in Sacramento. Or go to New York or Miami. Teams looking at the Kings expect Sacramento to deal both Artest and Mike Bibby, the latter now playing more off the ball with Beno Udrih effective while Bibby was injured.
Just think if anyone noticed
New Orleans, a party city, will do well for All-Star weekend. But despite contending for the West’s best record, the Hornets are invisible there and drew an announced 9,882 for a home game last week. It looks worse in Miami, where all the lower-bowl seats are sold, but with so few fans showing up the team now is having contests and giving prizes for the lower sections that have the most people sitting in them. … A Sports Illustrated poll of NBA players listed Kwame Brown, Tim Thomas, Eddy Curry, Vince Carter and J.R. Smith as the players who get the least out of their talent. Three of the five (Thomas, Curry, Smith), all dealt, were on the Bulls’ roster in the last two years.
Tip-ins
Look, just about everyone speeds. If you do, you are as wrong as he was. LeBron James got caught doing 101 m.p.h., though it resonates more with the Cavs as former player Bobby Phills, then with Charlotte, was killed driving his Porsche 100 m.p.h. after a practice. … Celtics players were given a media training class and told to stop saying “You know” so much. Without that crutch, few American teenagers would ever speak. … Good news for Nene, whose testicular tumor was not cancerous. It was detected early in a league drug test. … New York media seem furious the Knicks won the season series from the Nets and now are beating up on the Nets as Kidd seemed to declare the obvious: “That’s who we are (a .500 team). It’s not a bad thing. It gets us in the playoffs. Everybody wants more, but unfortunately this is who are. There’s nothing wrong with that.” See, never give up … in the East.
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sasmith@tribune.com
