UPDATED THROUGHOUT
Once you've been told "no" by the Knicks, I'm not sure where else there is to go. But I hear Europe is pretty nice this time of year.
The sad decline of Allen Iverson's once-brilliant career continued Friday when he was informed that, yes, there is an NBA player too controversial, too high-maintenance, and too wrong for the Knicks. And he was handed a mirror to help him figure out who that player is.
This isn't good news or bad news for the Knicks, who aren't going anywhere before July 1, 2010 with or without Iverson. But it's terrible news for Iverson, because New York might've been his last hope for a dignified exit from the NBA.
After the Knicks, the line of interested parties appears to be shorter than the line outside Edward Scissorhands' barber shop. The two most recent members of the cutting-off-nose-to-spite-face club -- Detroit and Memphis -- serve as Exhibits A and B in the perils that accompany one of the most talented, unique, and maddening players ever to suit up in the NBA.
What about the Magic, who just lost point guard Jameer Nelson for at least a month due to a knee injury? "I like where my team sits right now," GM Otis Smith told me Friday. The Nuggets, who enjoyed a mostly positive experience with A.I.? "Zero interest," said a person familiar with their plans. Iverson's former coach, Larry Brown, has been quick to call every team on his speed dial and recommend his former point guard/nemesis. But that says everything you need to know. Imagine getting a call from a colleague recommending that you hire someone. Aren't you just dying to ask, "If this guy's so good, why don't you hire him?"
The Knicks' decision to back away came hours after Iverson, released by the Grizzlies after playing only three games, cleared waivers Thursday night. At one point during the Knicks' deliberations, some members of the team's hierarchy, including coach Mike D'Antoni, were willing to take a chance on the multiple-time scoring champion as a way to infuse some life into a 2-9 team that is struggling to score points.
The tipping point was that the baggage and controversy Iverson would bring with him to the Knicks, a franchise trying to emerge from years of drama and negative publicity, outweighed the potential gains.
"I've always admired him," Knicks president Donnie Walsh told reporters at the team's Westchester County practice facility. "I think he'd be a great addition for a team that's in a different position than we're in, and I hope he gets picked up."
D'Antoni said Iverson's desire to play 40 minutes a game, which was his undoing in Detroit and Memphis, wouldn't have worked.
"We just didn't think right now we wanted to have that dominant force on the team," D'Antoni said. "We're going to stick with the plan and it just wasn't the right situation. Allen is a great player, no doubt about it, but that's not the route we're going to take right now."
For the Knicks, that route is something that resembles sanity, which has been in short supply at Madison Square Garden for the past decade. If the Knicks had gone through with this with Iverson, you wouldn't have heard one word of criticism from me. Iverson would've made the Knicks watchable for the rest of this miserable season, and signing him wouldn't have affected the plans to clear cap space for 2010.
But I also have no problem with Walsh and D'Antoni looking into the eye of a franchise wrecking ball and concluding that the Knicks couldn't afford any more scrapes. If Isiah Thomas were still running things, the buzz up in Greenburgh, N.Y., would've been generated by an Iverson press conference capped off by his first day of practice. Under Walsh and D'Antoni, short-term fixes and moves motivated by short-sighted desperation are no longer requirements for the job.
Iverson, 34, would've provided a spark for the Knicks' moribund offense and generated fan interest in a team with no marquee star as the franchise limps through the last season of a salary-cap purge to prepare for the free-agent bonanza of 2010. But the Knicks, who've endured years of dysfunction, also are trying to turn the page on the kind of controversy, headlines, and distractions that have accompanied years of losing.
While the team was deliberating Iverson's value over the past few days, a second source with knowledge of the team's strategy said it appeared likely the Knicks would go forward with a contract offer. But the source cautioned that there was the potential for "hang-ups" in the process. In the end, there may have been cause for concern on both sides. If Iverson didn't hear what he wanted to hear about his potential role with the Knicks, it was for the best that this didn't work out.
So where else can he go? The Miami Heat have been mentioned as another potential suitor, but Dwyane Wade would have to sign off on such a controversial addition. A prolific scorer when in his prime, Iverson can still get to the basket and put up numbers. But it appears that his hopes of landing with a contending team are over; there were no takers over the summer when he opted to sign with the Grizzlies.
The Bobcats? Again, if Brown thinks signing Iverson is such a great idea, then he should go ahead and do it. The only problem is, Charlotte just acquired Stephen Jackson, another controversial scorer, and there's little reason to believe Iverson would be any happier in Charlotte than he was in Memphis.
Iverson's personal manager, Gary Moore, said recently that A.I. is determined to hook up with another NBA team this season and conclude his career on a positive note. But I keep going back to the moment last season in the visiting locker room in New Jersey, when Iverson vowed to retire before coming off the bench for another team. I've known him for nearly 14 years, so that statement didn't surprise me. "Playing every game like it's my last" has been the mantra that's sustained him. Now, that last game might've already come and gone.
Iverson: If not New York, then where? (UPDATE)
Why I love N.Y. with A.I.
A source with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com Thursday that the Knicks are expected to offer Iverson a contract once certain issues are resolved. Iverson clears waivers at 6 p.m., and the source said there are potential "hang-ups" that could delay a meeting of the minds.
Despite A.I.'s ugly breakups with the Pistons and Grizzlies, the Knicks will be different for him. They have absolutely nothing to lose -- zero -- other than a few million dollars. And those millions are for this season, and this season alone. Iverson won't affect the Knicks' cap-clearing endeavors. They get a marketable talent, albeit one past his prime, who will finally be enthusiastic about the situation he's in. If Iverson can't get on board with finishing his career in New York as opposed to Memphis, then he's more hopeless than I think.
There's no way Iverson, 34, refuses to appreciate what an opportunity this would be. He will play in front of a full house on the biggest stage in basketball. He will play an up-tempo style that will allow him to handle the ball, but one that also will require him to move it, as well. My word of caution to Iverson is that the ball cannot stick in Mike D'Antoni's offense. But at least it will be in better hands with Iverson than with Chris Duhon.
From the Knicks' perspective, this goes beyond the desperation of a losing, boring team that needs to sell tickets until the 2010 fun begins. Yes, the Knicks need Iverson for his ability to produce a watchable sideshow to keep the mind-numbed masses interested for the rest of this otherwise abysmal season. But they also need a scorer, and a closer. Despite Iverson's age, stubbornness, occasional petulance, and addiction to ball-dominance, he can still do both of those things fairly well. Better than Larry Hughes and Toney Douglas, certainly. Better than Al Harrington, too.
Will Iverson's presence slow the growth of Douglas? That's a possibility. But I think D'Antoni can find 36 minutes a night for Iverson and still keep Douglas in the rotation enough. And facts are facts. Nobody's paying big money to go to the Garden and watch Toney Douglas.
Is Iverson 100 percent guaranteed to start with the Knicks? Hey, if he's terrible, he'll have to be man enough to recognize it and do what's best for the team. But this makes no sense without the assumption that a starting job will be Iverson's to lose, which is why Donnie Walsh said Thursday he wants to have "conversations" with Iverson before committing to the idea.
One way to make this work is to keep Duhon at the point with Iverson starting at shooting guard. That's been his best position the past few years, and it accomplishes a few things. It allows Iverson to run around screens to get his shots, as opposed to getting them off the dribble. The latter would bog down the offense and expose the step Iverson has lost; he simply can't get to the basket and finish like he used to. Besides that, such a move would keep Duhon, a team captain, involved in the offense in a way that takes shooting and dribble-penetration off his list of responsibilities. He'd become Eric Snow.
Is this the ideal scenario for both the Knicks and Iverson? Not even close. Iverson should've accepted that he's a bench player at this point in his career and signed with a contender. The Knicks hoped to be better than 2-9, and thus not in any hurry to make such a move. But desperation loves company, and to this extent, the Knicks and Iverson are perfect for each other. It's sad, in a way, but undeniably true.
Weekly Post-Ups
Allen Iverson in New York? There is legitimate interest percolating in Madison Square Garden, according to a high-level source familiar with the Knicks' front-office discussions. Before Iverson signed with the Grizzlies, the Knicks had flat-out zero interest in Iverson. So what's changed? That's the leading topic of this week's Post-Ups:
* Look at every box and put a check in it. The Knicks can't score (check), have a terrible point guard (Chris Duhon, check), are 1-9 (check), and have given their fans virtually no reason to be invested in the team before the roster is revamped next summer (check). The Knicks make as much sense as anybody. Besides, even at 34, Iverson would be the best offensive player on a roster that has been scaled down to the bare bones in preparation for the 2010 free-agent bonanza.
One caveat: Iverson's agent is Leon Rose, who also happens to represent a certain 2010 free agent who wears Yankees hats and loves to play in the Garden. Don't rule out the possibility that the Knicks are expressing interest in Iverson as a favor to Rose, who could use that interest as leverage.
More to the point, don't rule out an even more tantalizing possibility: With few, if any teams willing to take the plunge with Iverson given his recent history with the Pistons and Grizzlies, how indebted would Rose be to Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni if they opened the floor to the World's Most Famous Arena and let Iverson finish his career with some dignity? Very indebted, is all I'm saying.
* Don't be fooled by the Heat's 7-2 record to this point. Look at their schedule: The seven teams they've beaten have a combined winning percentage of .345 (19-36). Miami plays 21 of its first 33 games at home. The ugly flip side: 19 of its next 24 are on the road.
* After losing to the Hawks for the second time this season Monday night, the Trail Blazers are now 6-1 with a three-guard starting lineup that includes Brandon Roy and two point guards, Steve Blake and Andre Miller. The ball movement has improved with two point guards on the floor, and Miller no longer has to get exposed defensively because he can use his size to defend slower three-men instead of chasing quicker points. So the move by coach Nate McMillan has placated Miller -- for now.
But on Monday night, the Blazers closed the game with Miller on the bench, something Miller understands but isn't going to be pleased with long term. "As long as we're winning, that's all that really matters," Miller said." ... We're pretty much interchangeable."
But McMillan closed Monday night with Blake instead of Miller to improve the spacing and take advantage of Blake's shooting range. Look for two things to happen: The small starting lineup won't be a viable option when Portland begins a stretch of playing teams with more size, and Miller will want to close games, too.
"I don't really try to get too settled," Miller said. "Anything can happen. I was starting to get settled in Philadelphia, so you never know."
* The rookies who are commanding the most attention thus far aren't the top picks, but the ones from No. 10 on down, starting with Brandon Jennings, whose 55-point outburst against Golden State on Saturday night has become a YouTube sensation. But Jennings isn't alone. Denver's Ty Lawson (18th), Utah's Eric Maynor (20th), Sacramento's Omri Casspi (23rd), Dallas' Rodrigue Beaubois (25th), New York's Toney Douglas (29), and of course, San Antonio's DeJuan Blair (37th) have made big impacts. Among the next picks from the teens and beyond to start turning heads will be Indiana's Tyler Hansbrough (13th), who is off to an impressive start after missing time with a leg injury, and Portland's Dante Cunningham (33rd), who will see more time in the Blazers' deep rotation due to injuries suffered by Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw.
* Solid quote, by the way, from Dallas coach Rick Carlisle on Jennings: "Nobody had him in the top 10 of the draft. Nobody. And he was a guy that many people thought would slip to the lower first and maybe into the second. John Hammond and Scott Skiles deserve tons of credit for having the guts to take a chance on him."
* Greg Oden's sophomore season (if you remove his lost rookie season from the memory banks) has been an up-and-down experience. McMillan says Oden is experiencing the typically steep learning curve associated with all big men. At times, his defense at the basket -- and his enthusiasm, a rare sight last season -- have helped the Blazers become a more cohesive defensive team. But the big fella is still very much a work in progress. One scout on hand to watch the Blazers-Hawks on Monday night said Oden has a long way to go in two important categories: shot selection and basketball IQ.
* Sad news on Shaun Livingston, who is trying to come back from horrific knee injuries. He'll have his left knee scoped after experiencing swelling. The team says the knee is structurally sound, but it's a clear setback for a player everyone is rooting for to regain some semblance of his previous form.
* Since I don't do power rankings, I have no right to criticize those who do them. I'll just note how strange it is to see the Atlanta Hawks atop such rankings on ESPN.com and NBA.com. Dave Del Grande of CBSSports.com has the Hawks second, behind the Cavs. I'm not so much skeptical of Atlanta's current placement in the rankings, but it's disarming, to say the least. Hawks fans apparently agreed: Philips Arena was barely half-full for the Blazers on Monday night. Unless you're a Hawks fan, you can't possibly understand how it's possible to sneeze at their résumé thus far. It includes impressive wins over Portland (twice), Boston, and Denver, and Atlanta is 4-2 on the road.
* Gilbert Arenas' comment this week that he's become a "thinker" instead of a "reactor" only underscores the difficulty of his adjustment to Flip Saunders' offense. No conclusions can be drawn about the Wizards until they're healthy, but Arenas' identity crisis is something to watch.
Blazers' thoughts with Allen
Team owner Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and one of the most envied and respected owners in the NBA, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The diagnosis came about a month ago, just when it appeared that Allen had beaten another health hurdle after undergoing heart surgery during the offseason. Nearly 25 years ago, Allen overcame Hodgkin's disease.
"He is optimistic he can beat this, too," wrote his sister, Jody Allen, CEO of Allen's company, Vulcan, in a memo published on CNET's news site.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with him," McMillan said. "We just hope that he has a speedy recovery and he can get back to us as soon as possible. We’ve been thinking about him and praying for him. He’s a fighter, and we wish him well."
John Canzano of the Oregonian captured what Allen, 56, means to the Blazers in this preseason column, in which he explained Allen's sickly appearance late last season and during Portland's playoff run. Having undergone a prior valve surgery, Allen had another heart operation during the summer, when the Blazers' front office was busy trying to give $50 million of Allen's money to Hedo Turkoglu, who didn't want it.
"I'm fine, finally," Allen said during training camp. "I'm much, much better. I hit a few bumps in the road. Your health ... is the most important thing in the world, isn't it?"
Oh, what a dozen or more coaches and GMs in the NBA would do to have an owner like Allen. He doesn't meddle; well, OK, only a little. He runs the team in a first-class way, spends some of the billions he has earned, and cares about what happens. He cares about the fans because, well, he is a fan. Assuming he was watching on TV Monday night, he would've been disappointed that the Blazers frittered away a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. But he would've understood why. His team returns home to the Rose Garden to face the Pistons Wednesday night, having just won four road games in five nights before falling in overtime to the Hawks.
"He’s always done whatever our organization needed for him to do to put us in the best position," McMillan said. "We just wish him well."
Allen also owns the Seattle Seahawks, but everybody knows his heart beats to the rhythm of the Blazers. Here's hoping for the kind of comeback he loves to applaud.
Iverson: What's next?
Now that Allen Iverson's career with the Memphis Grizzlies has come to its predictable end, the question is: What about the rest of his career?
Is there any career left?
Crickets were all I heard in my admittedly unscientific polling of NBA front office executives Monday night as to where Iverson might go next. Nowhere for a while, seems to be the consensus. But at some point, something will happen -- an injury, for example -- and A.I. will be back in play.
"Down the road, I think so," one front-office executive said. "I say someone will take the plunge."
But who? Depends on the circumstances. And if we've learned anything from Iverson's two most recent basketball experiences, any team picking up the phone had better be doing it for the right reasons. Iverson has made it quite clear he does not view himself as a bench player, even though I believe that's a role he could've thrived in with a contending team. But if there was ever an NBA player who was built to play one way, and one way only, it was Iverson. He's not changing.
Neither I nor the basketball minds I consulted can see any viable fit for Iverson at the moment. But things change. People get hurt. Championship contenders get anxious, and teams on the cusp of making the playoffs get dazzled by the potential revenue from a few home playoff dates. As I said, though: Proceed with extreme caution.
While still with the Pistons, Iverson said last season that he'd retire before ever coming off the bench for another team. He has remained true to the spirit of that threat. And indeed, retirement may turn out to be his only option. Does anyone see Iverson as the mercenary type who'd go get lost in the oblivion of some European league just to continue playing basketball? Not me. He loves basketball, but he loves being the center of attention. Starting and scoring and trying to do the things he's done for 13 years is what drives him, not merely lacing up his sneakers just for the sake of it.
I leave you with a scenario that is purely speculation, but it's speculation offered by an Eastern Conference front office source, so it has merit from that standpoint. It's also a scenario that I'd pay to see happen, as someone who has followed Iverson from his very first significant moment on an NBA court -- the rookie game at the '97 All-Star weekend in Cleveland.
What if the Lakers at some point in the next few months become afraid of the fact that Derek Fisher isn't getting any younger? What if they come to realize that Jordan Farmar is never going to be a big-minute option at point guard on a championship contending team? What if the stars aligned for Iverson and Kobe Bryant, who came into the league together and dueled famously in that All-Star rookie game, to go out together, too?
I'm not saying it's likely, or any more likely than another scenario that might present itself. But Iverson playing with Kobe and Ron Artest? Iverson being coached by Phil Jackson? Who among us wouldn't want to see that happen? Count me in. And in the meantime, don't hold your breath waiting for another team to make the same mistake Memphis made.
Maybe I'm a hopeless holdover from the NBA that Iverson helped create after the 76ers made him the No. 1 overall pick way back in 1996. Maybe I'm not ready to see his career come to this kind of unceremonious end. But I'm not ready to say we've seen the last of the little fella with the cornrows. Retirement doesn't suit him any more than Memphis did.
Somebody will take the plunge. They always do.
Report: Grizzlies to waive Iverson
Iverston smiled when I joked that his name is only one letter off from a certain unhappy point guard who is hanging around these parts. And he'll be here for a while, from the looks of things, as the Memphis Commercial Appeal has reported that the Grizzlies have agreed to waive the disgruntled former scoring champion.
Details are still emerging, but the move was a foregone conclusion once the Grizzlies came to terms with Jamaal Tinsley over the weekend. Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley, whose idea it was to sign Iverson to a one-year, $3.1 million contract, then gave Iverson an ultimatum to decide whether he is returning to the team.
The question now is whether another team will take a chance on Iverson or whether he simply will do what he said last season he would do if confronted with the reality of no longer being an NBA starter: retire.
Jackson gone; now the real fun begins
The Warriors obliged Jackson's trade request Monday, sending the disgruntled swingman to the Bobcats along with Acie Law for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. The deal resolves one of many complicated plotlines for the tumultuous Warriors, but leaves several others still unsettled.
Jackson was miserable with the Warriors, despite having been rewarded with a three-year, $28 million extension that kicks in next season. Jackson and Monta Ellis, who was even more richly appeased with a $66 million deal two summers ago, believe Warriors management failed to deliver on promises to add a veteran, playoff-caliber supporting cast this past offseason.
The arrangement with Charlotte put a crimp in the Cavaliers' plans to add more scoring punch to their lineup via Jackson; several members of the Cavs organization have a history with S-Jax and believe that could've tamed his wild side, a task that now falls to that noted lover of reclamation projects, Larry Brown. It also avoids what would've been a circus-like atmosphere Tuesday night, when the Warriors pay a visit to the Cavs.
UPDATE: The removal of Jackson lowers the volume on the circus music emanating from the Warriors for the time being. As CBSSports.com reported Friday, an alternative to an imminent Jackson trade that gained renewed traction last week was a scenario that would've seen coach Don Nelson step into a consultant role with lead assistant Keith Smart taking over the head coaching duties. Despite denials from team president Robert Rowell, who was scheduled to meet with Nelson after the team's current road trip to discuss the direction of the team, the rise of Smart to the first seat on the bench is an option that has been contemplated since last season. In fact, Smart already has been assured that he is Nelson's heir apparent, according to three people familiar with the situation.
One of the sources with knowledge of the team's plans to address the chaos generated by Nelson's rifts with Jackson and Ellis said Sunday that the possibility of accelerating Smart's takeover emerged as an agenda item around the middle of last week. Nelson, who has vowed to honor the two-year, $12 million extension he signed this past summer, was in full control of that scenario, added a source who said the timing of any handoff to Smart would be Nellie's call. Nelson, who is 20 victories away from becoming the NBA's all-time winningest coach, would still be honoring his contract even if he'd concluded that it was time for Smart to take over.
Concerns that airing Nelson's plans would hinder the team's efforts to trade Jackson are now moot. Thus, the coaching succession plan will likely return to the back burner. But one transfer of power will occur without delay: Ellis taking over Jackson's role as the team's disgruntled star.
UPDATE: Why does Charlotte do this trade? Beats me. Why does a Brown-coached team do any trade, besides for the fun of having to someday undo it? Here's one theory: Vlad-Rad's contract is much worse than Jackson's; at least with Jackson, you get a productive player for $10 million a year. The Warriors are now stuck with Radmanovic's $6.9 million next season, though Bell's $5.3 million comes off the books in '10-'11.
More importantly, where were the Cavs in all of this? All indications point to the fact that Jackson was Danny Ferry's for the taking, and he opted not to be a taker.
Hey, LeBron: Stick to 2010 talk
"It's a nice gesture," Van Gundy said Friday, "but he is not Jackie Robinson."
Nor is he Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, or Oscar Robertson. No basketball league retires No. 23 until those other numbers are retired, too.
Retiring jersey numbers is a team decision, not a league decision. Funny, I thought it was a LeBron decision. I thought everything was up to LeBron. I wouldn't be surprised if LeBron wanted No. 23 retired because it's his number.
What made this even more comical was that LeBron said he'd be switching to No. 6 out of deference to Jordan -- but not out of deference to Russell, evidently.
LeBron's insistence on sucking up to Jordan is, to borrow a phrase from the King himself, getting old. He should go back to talking about how humbled he is that half the teams in the NBA want him to wear their jersey, regardless of the number on it.
And one more suggestion: If any numbers get retired, it should be those worn by the actual pioneers who broke the NBA's color barrier: Chuck Cooper (first black player drafted), Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (first signed), and Earl Lloyd (first to play in a regular season game).
Nellie addresses rifts with Jackson, Monta
"I disciplined a player in practice, and that’s part of my job description," Nelson told CBSSports.com after the shootaround in preparation for Friday night's game against the Knicks. "I've done it before and I’ll do it again, and that’s all I’ve got to say about it."
Nelson confirmed that it was Ellis, his $66 million guard, who received the brunt of the discipline. "Yes, it was Monta," he said. "But I'm not going to go into it. I disciplined the player, it’s over, and that’s all I have to say about it."
Asked if he and Ellis were OK going forward, Nelson said, "You need to talk to Monta about that. I’m OK."
Ellis wasn't available for comment after shootaround.
The Ellis situation, which boiled over in full view of the team's beat writers and ended with Nelson waving his hands in disgust and Ellis barking at him, is hardly the only issue consuming the Warriors. Anthony Randolph's undefined role, the awkward attempt to pair Ellis and rookie Stephen Curry in the backcourt, and of course, Stephen Jackson's request to be traded have shadowed the team's every misstep on the way to a 2-5 start.
Nelson said Friday there were no developments in the team's attempt to oblige Jackson's trade request. As Nellie recently noted, Jackson is the definition of difficult to trade because of the three years and $28 million left on his contract after this season. But while other teams -- Indiana with Jamaal Tinsley, the Knicks with Stephon Marbury, and the Sixers with Allen Iverson -- have sent troublesome players home while attempting to trade them, Nelson said that's not an option with Jackson.
"Jack is a good player, and even though he may not be able to perform up to what he did a year ago because he doesn’t want to be here, he can still be a positive factor and help us win some games," Nelson said.
Speaking after shootaround, Jackson said he's still on speaking terms with Nelson, but added, "It's not what it used to be." No surprise there, considering Jackson's agent, Mark Stevens, recently ripped Nelson publicly by questioning his trustworthiness.
"I think at this point, I come out here and respect him as a coach and do my job and leave it at that," Jackson said. "I think that’s the best thing for me right now. Just give him the respect he deserves as a coach and do my job. And then once I leave the gym, I'm on my own."
Warriors in Chaos: Now it's Nellie vs. Monta
This time, it's Nellie and Monta Ellis butting heads. The two got into a brief but heated exchange after the team practiced in New York in advance of playing the Knicks Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
The whole thing unfolded in plain view -- and apparently within earshot -- of beat writers Marcus Thompson II and Rusty Simmons. Their skilled, detailed accounts of the latest Golden State blowup can be found here and here.
The condensed version is as follows: Ellis and guard Acie Law were sitting on the bench after practice when Nellie walked by. Ellis, known to be at his wit's end over the Warriors' dysfunction and his ill-fated pairing with Stephen Curry, asked Nelson, "Coach, why do I get blamed for everything?"
"What have I ever blamed you for?" Nelson responded, and away they went. The exchange ended with Nelson waving his hands in disgust and Ellis saying, "See, that's why I don't do it. I just won't do it."
More Friday from shootaround at MSG, where the Warriors will see if they can walk through their game plan -- assuming they have one -- without another hissy fit.
LeBron: No more 2010 talk
Our long national nightmare is over.
In a strange turn of events that could have -- some would say, should have -- taken place weeks, or even months ago, LeBron James announced Wednesday night that he will not answer any more questions about his impending free agency until after the season.
"Honestly, you know, this fee agency talk is getting old," LeBron said at the end of a seven-minute interview session with reporters before the Cavaliers played the Magic in a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals. "You know, it’s getting old. I'm gonna stop; I think tonight will probably be the last time I answer any more free agent questions until the offseason. I think I owe it to my teammates, I owe it to myself. It’s just getting old."
For a player who carefully calculates every word he speaks publicly, this seemed like a spontaneous decision. It was only five days ago when James went to New York and soaked up the atmosphere provided by one of the teams unabashedly clearing salary cap space for him. As he always does when visiting the Big Apple, LeBron seemed to relish all the attention being on him. He entertained every question, carefully constructing every phrase in a way that only further stoked the speculation.
On Wednesday night, prior to Cleveland's first meeting with the Magic since losing to them in the conference finals, James entertained several questions about free agency. At one point, he even admitted that he and pal Dwyane Wade -- whose Heat host the Cavs Thursday night -- have talked privately about playing together. (In case you've been hiding under a rock, both LeBron and Wade can opt out of their contracts next summer and become unrestricted free agents.)
Then, when someone exceeded the "last question" limit that had been set by one of the Cavs' media relations people and asked James again about playing with Wade, he fidgeted nervously and made his no-2010-talk proclamation.
"I'm focusing on this season and this is going to be a really good season for us," James said. "I don’t want to have any more distractions to my teammates, to my organization, to my family. This will be the last time I answer a free agent question for the rest of the year."
Injured Wizards set to add Boykins
Boykins hasn't played in the NBA since a stint with Charlotte in 2007-08. He spent last season with Vitrus Bologna, averaging 14.6 points, 3.6 assists, and 1.7 steals, logging 31 minutes per game in 35 games in Italy's top division.
The Wizards, already without Mike James (hand) and Javaris Crittenton (foot), lost Randy Foye to an ankle injury suffered in Tuesday night's loss to Miami. Antawn Jamison and Mike Miller, both out with shoulder injuries, could return Saturday against the Pistons.
Boykins, who will join his ninth NBA team, is the second-shortest player in NBA history after 5-3 Muggsy Bogues.
Checking in with the Suns
GM Steve Kerr readily admits that he's to blame for the failed Shaq experiment, but he's erased that mistake and reinvigorated the roster faster than many thought possible. He resisted the temptation to blow it up and start over, something that would've clinched Steve Nash's departure and devastated the organization's ability to remain financially viable. With a meddling owner, Robert Sarver, whose proverbial eggs are in the ruinous banking and real estate baskets of the economy, this was no time for a rebuilding project. So Kerr signed Alvin Gentry, a Mike D’Antoni disciple, to a three-year deal, re-signed 37-year-old Grant Hill, and signed Nash to a two-year, $22 million extension.
"The most important thing to us was that we had good leadership and good mentors for all our young guys," Kerr told me. "So re-signing Grant and signing Steve to the extension was by design. First, they're still really good players. In Steve’s case, he's still an All-Star and in Grant's case, he’s still close to it. So not only do we have two good players, but they're as professional as they come. So we feel like we're making this transition towards the future in a really healthy way."
Here's what else you need to know about the resurgent Suns:
The stars
At 37, Hill is averaging 13.2 points per game and a team-high 8.6 rebounds. He and Jason Richardson (5.2 rebounds per game from the two-guard spot) have answered Gentry's call for the wing players to make up for Phoenix's lack of front-line size by crashing the boards.
Amar'e Stoudemire is still feeling his way after offseason eye surgery, but he's averaging 19 points and 8.5 rebounds while vowing to commit himself on the defensive end. Nash is, well, Nash; he already has five games with a dozen or more assists, including the 20 he dished out against Philadelphia on Monday night.
The bench
One of the byproducts of a soul-searching, 46-win, non-playoff season was the development of some reliable depth. Leandro Barbosa, Goran Dragic, Louis Amundson, and Jared Dudley form a versatile and effective second unit. Dudley already has made 11 3-pointers, nearly a third of his total in 68 games last season with Charlotte and Phoenix. The Suns have high hopes for first-round pick Earl Clark, whose locker has been strategically placed next to Hill's.
The newcomer
After wandering aimlessly through the first four years of his career in New York and Portland, Channing Frye has been a revelation. The Suns knew he could shoot when they signed him to a two-year, $3.8 million deal. They didn’t know he'd shoot with this kind of range. Frye is 22 for 50 from 3-point range and says the Suns' coaches "get mad when I don’t shoot."
Kerr, not a bad marksman himself back in the day, recalls being blown away in August when Frye showed up for workouts and pickup games.
"His first couple of years in New York, he was great from 21, 22 feet," Kerr said. "That would've been fine for us, too. What happened was, he came in and started working out and playing pickup games and was draining 3s from the wing and the top. We were like, 'Wow, this is more than we bargained for.'"
Frye's hard work paid off. He was up at 5 a.m. for weeks at a time during the early part of the summer, working on ball-handling and mid-range shots on the move from 6-9 a.m. He was back in the gym from 5-6 p.m. to shoot "nothing but 3s." Now he’s hitting nothing but net.
The numbers
It’s way too early to draw conclusions, but through eight games, the Suns are back to playing the style that made them so entertaining and successful under D'Antoni. It's not exactly seven seconds or less, but Phoenix is getting 39 percent of its attempts in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, according to 82games.com. That's comparable to the 43 percent achieved in 2006-07, the last time they got past the first round.
The Suns are averaging a league-high 110.9 points per game -- 114 per 100 possessions -- which is virtually identical to the 110.2 and 114 in '06-'07. Yes, defense is still an issue. Phoenix is allowing 105.8 points per game, which is sixth-worst in the league and nearly three points more per game than in D'Antoni’s next-to-last season before bolting for New York.
What's next
After a 4-1 road trip that included wins over Miami and Boston, the Suns return home Wednesday night to face the struggling Hornets. Then, it's off to L.A. to face Kobe and the Lakers on the back-end of a back-to-back.
The Suns ultimately will struggle against teams with size, and their style still doesn't translate to playoff success. But given the cards Kerr dealt himself when he reached for Shaq, Phoenix's resurgence is nothing to scoff at. At least the Suns are relevant and fun again.
Having played for Phil Jackson, Kerr believes that basketball teams take on a certain "life force." After a lifeless 2008-09, the Suns have been resuscitated.
"We got panned by a lot of people for not going young and breaking it up and starting over," Kerr said. "But we've seen a lot of teams do that and fail, too. If you go too young in this league, then you’re rudderless. You have guys fighting over shots and minutes, no hierarchy, no totem pole, and that's a recipe for disaster."
Howard's blog is fine-worthy
Now, Howard's social networking skills have cost him $15,000. The NBA has fined Howard for criticizing the officiating in a blog post he wrote last week. Howard vented after fouling out during the Magic's 85-80 loss to the Pistons on Nov. 3.
"I was on the floor for 16 minutes and fouled out!!!" Howard wrote. "Let me say that again: 17 minutes and six fouls!!!" (It was actually 16:49, but who's counting besides Stu Jackson?) "How can that be, ya’ll? It was crazy. They called me for a charge on a flop, a push off when the defender was on me, and two fouls on blocked shots. ... I haven’t played that little in a game since I was 10 years old in pee-wee ball."
A few thoughts: 1) Social networking has made life even more perilous for players who want to stay in touch with fans and do so honestly; 2) I wonder what I would have to write in this blog to get fined by the NBA? So far, all I get are occasional cage-rattling phone calls; and 3) I wish Rasheed Wallace had a blog.
Arenas, Flip not on the same page
Yes, it’s early, and the Wizards are without two key players, Antawn Jamison and Mike Miller. And yes, Sunday’s 102-90 loss to the Phoenix Suns came in a game that tipped off at 1 p.m. ET, an anomaly that elicited a smile and guffaw from the suddenly talkative Gilbert Arenas after the game. One thing you don’t want to do in the NBA is roll out of bed and start chasing Steve Nash and the Suns around.
The Wizards are too talented to be scuffling like this for long, and when they get healthy, they’ll be right about where people expected them to be – a team in the mid-40s in wins seeded somewhere in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But not if they don’t erase some bad habits that simply have no place in an offense constructed by Flip Saunders. And not until everyone understands what the problem is.
The good news is that defensively, the Wizards are no longer a pushover. I wasn’t as impressed with their defensive performance against Phoenix on Sunday as Saunders was, but maybe he was trying to mix in a little positive in his post-game analysis of an effort that produced only 15 assists – five of them by Fabricio Oberto. That was two fewer assists than Nash dished out all by himself.
Saunders was right when he described the Wizards’ offense as “stagnant.” Arenas was right when he said the team is still “trying to find out where we are, what we are.” The common ground ended there.
“We’re just trying to figure out how we can put the ball in the basket, what coach wants from each player,” Arenas said. “That’s what we’re struggling with.”
Once again on Sunday, the ball wasn’t moving, the cuts weren’t crisp enough, and there was little trust in the system that Saunders brought here. The typical offensive set consisted of someone getting the ball on the wing, dribbling toward the basket, and shooting. Yet listen to Arenas’ assessment: He thinks the Wizards aren’t shooting fast enough.
“I say it’s when we have shots open, we’re not taking them,” Arenas said. “We’re trying to do the extra dribble, or get closer to the rim, or pass the ball an extra time when we could just take the first shot. If you look at a team like Phoenix, the reason they don’t have turnovers is they’re launching ‘em. They’re letting it fly so they don’t have a chance to turn the ball over.”
Contrary to Arenas’ assessment, the Wizards’ brass knows the opposite is true. The Wiz need to play more structured offense and pass the ball more, not less. Under previous regimes, bad habits ruled. Saunders’ efforts to eradicate those bad habits have been met with the kind of resistance that results in a team with three 20-point scorers (when healthy) hitting the 100-point plateau only twice in seven games.
“We’ve just got to get better acquainted with one another and believe in one another,” said Caron Butler, who needed 20 field-goal attempts to score 19 points against the Suns. “But it’s early.”
It is, but the Wizards already are exhibiting some tell-tale signs of a team with fragile chemistry. After a deplorable 102-86 loss at Indiana Friday night, Jamison unleashed a profane tirade in the locker room. It was first reported that Jamison overturned a fruit tray in the process, but there were indications on Sunday that the perpetrator might’ve been Saunders, who wouldn’t fess up. Either way, somebody had better nail the postgame spreads to the table if the Wizards don’t get on the same page soon.
Jamison and Miller will be back in another week or so from their respective shoulder injuries, and things will get better. Until then, it doesn’t get any easier Tuesday night in Miami against Dwyane Wade. At least that game tips off after the sun goes down.
