COMMENTARY : When NBA Is at Top of Its Game

We have reached that time of year where there is no use for pageantry. Thankfully, we are rid of students with painted faces and school bands and zone defenses. No longer do we have to tune in to games and listen to an announcer tell us that the coach imposing his will on every single dribble is such a genius. March Madness is hype; the NBA playoffs are the art of basketball.

The first round of these playoffs had more artistry than the last three NCAA tournaments combined. There were the Golden State Warriors, with a bunch of short guys carrying slingshots, eliminating San Antonio and David Robinson. There were three series that went the full five games, including ones involving defending champion Detroit and favored Portland. There were three favorites -- San Antonio, Phoenix and Milwaukee -- losing despite having home-court advantage.

Who would have thought Eddie Johnson, who cried crocodile tears when he was traded from Phoenix to Seattle, would last longer in the playoffs than his highly touted ex-teammates? Or that the three best centers in the game -- Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing -- would combine to win one playoff game?

There was Chuck Person pronouncing he would shock the world -- znd coming frighteningly close to doing it. Once, he backpeddled downcourt after connecting on a three-pointer and screamed I’m a baaaaad man! And there was Larry Joe Bird coming out of traction early and back from a broken face late to Willis Reed the Pacers in Game 5 at Boston Garden. And this was only the first round.

In Auburn Hills, Mich., P.A. announcer Ken Calvert, before introducing both teams, welcomes fans to see “Some of the World’s Greatest Athletes.” If you’ve watched any of these playoffs, particularly Boston vs. Indiana in Game 5, you’d know it’s not propaganda. Isiah Thomas can barely move his injured right wrist. He’s wearing some contraption that makes it look as if he’s going bowling for dollars. Yet, in Game 5 against the Hawks, Isiah scored 26 points and had 11 assists. Charles Barkley, fresh off a knee injury, is dragging around some apparatus that stabilizes his knee. That didn’t prevent him from making 10 of 13 shots against Chicago Saturday. And Bird can barely move. He definitely has no basketball moves left in him. Not right, not left. Still, he scored 32 points against the Pacers Sunday.

There is something those players share. Guile, guts and gamesmanship. Most players don’t have time to develop that in college, and the ones who do are often stifled by their coaches, which is largely why you have all those upsets in the NCAA tournament. In the NBA, the disparity in talent isn’t as much as people think, especially at the all-star level. Is there anything Michael Jordan can do with a basketball that Dominique Wilkins can’t? Probably not. The playoff games are played between the ears and from the gut much more so than above the rim. That’s why the Atlanta Hawks are at home early. Again. Remember how the 76ers of the late ‘70s told their fans, “We owe you one” after turning to mush against Portland? The Hawks, the biggest underachievers in the league, have a decade’s worth of IOUs stashed in a bag.

Cunning is why the Celtics are still alive. And it’s why Boston vs. Detroit could be a classic even though the players on these teams average about 40 years.

The only bad thing about the Game 5 epic in Boston is that it overshadowed the first-round work of the Warriors, definitely the most exciting team to watch in the playoffs. Don Nelson decided after a loss in Game 1 that since his team had nobody to match up with David Robinson, why play one of his big, slow giants at all? Nelson would go with what the Warriors do best, which is handle the ball, run and shoot.

The reason Nelson should be called a genius is that he understands the game is not about his system, but any system that maximizes the talents of its best players. The most startling thing about Golden State’s offense is that parts of it look suspiciously similar to stuff the Soviets ran in Seoul in 1988. Perhaps then it’s no coincidence that the player who has raised his level of play the most is the Lithuanian guard Marciulionis. If Chris Mullin, who has gone from all-star to great player, makes it back quickly from his knee strain, the Warriors could give the Lakers fits.

I used to think the college game was better, that the pros didn’t play any defense. But sitting through one series of Boston vs. Detroit in 1987 changed all that. Once the interminable regular season is over, nobody plays defense like the pros. The game is played at a pace and with a fierceness that amazes even the best college players. Celtics rookie guard Dee Brown was a blur in the regular season; in the final minutes of Game 5 Sunday, he looked like a deer confronting headlights in the night. As the pretenders continue to drop by the wayside, and we are left with Magic and Bird, Jordan and Drexler, the level of competition will only soar higher, and so will the drama.