COMMENTARY : Some Points of Note on Michael Adams

His defining moments come, on average, five times a game, when he studiously positions himself behind the three-point line and lets fly. Most NBA players take the 3 in urgency, desperate to catch up. Michael Adams will use it aggressively. He’ll stop and take it off a fast break, astounding the defender. Adams has no reservations about it whatsoever. He launches the 3 with murderous intention, to break the will of an opponent. “Three-point baskets hurt people,” he said happily.

It isn’t a pretty shot, the way Adams takes it. It appears to require every bit of his strength, and he pushes toward the basket like a shot putter, with a flat trajectory. “I’ve seen it on tape, and I’ll admit it can look ugly,” Adams said. “But it feels great.”

Most of the time, admittedly, it doesn’t drop. But Adams, the league’s newest all-star, rarely is scolded, because his timing is unerring. Given the Bullets’ underwhelming offense, they don’t often get chances to deliver the knockout blow. When they do, Adams is eager to seize the moment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. “When you’re on a run, and you’ve got the fans excited, that’s when the three-pointer can really be devastating,” Adams said. “My teammates are beginning to understand this is the way I play basketball.”

It is his signature shot, and most times he has to sign it on the run; he can’t spot up for it like other guards, because the Bullets don’t have enough muscle underneath to persuade defenses to sag. By now Adams is so used to the drill, he doesn’t even have to look down to find the line. “I know where the line is,” he said. “When I’m crossing half court, I’ll look up for it, but not after that. Seven out of 10 times, I’ll be within half a foot of the line just on feel.”

Sitting in his Mitchellville, Md. living room, Adams smiled thinking about those years of having to prove he belonged in the league. He spoke about the CBA gyms where he began experimenting with the 3. The CBA! How many CBA guys ever made an NBA all-star game? The NBA 3 is his baby now, his ride to Orlando on Sunday. “Maybe I’ll be a misfit there,” he said with a grin. “But no one can take it away from me. When you look back in the books, Michael Adams’s name is going to be there.”

These Bullets might not have been an especially good team even with Bernard King and John Williams. Without them, they’re drowning. Over the last 10 years, the story line for the Bullets can be summed up in three words: unavailable for duty. Gus Williams; Cliff Robinson; Jeff Ruland; Dan Roundfield; Frank Johnson; Jay Vincent; Williams. Each of them was brought here to fill a specific hole. However, by the time they arrived, the hole had grown larger, and they fell in. How could the Bullets become a basketball team, when they were vanishing faster than the ozone layer?

At least in Adams they’ve got the point guard they’ve pined for since Kevin Porter in the early 1970s. Last June, when Adams returned to the Bullets after four seasons in Denver, Abe Pollin welcomed him back by admitting that trading Adams-and keeping Muggsy Bogues instead-was “the worst mistake I ever made.” Many, though, were disgruntled by the Bullets’ surrendering the No. 8 pick in the draft to reacquire Adams. They saw too much downside in trying to jump-start a slow team with a spotty shooter who would be 29 midway through the season. By the time the Bullets got quick enough to run with Adams, he’d need a cane to get upcourt. Take Greg Anthony, they cautioned. Build for the future.

Maybe they’ll be proven correct. But Anthony’s numbers with the Knicks are minuscule. As dim as the Bullets’ season has been, Adams (along with Pervis Ellison and Harvey Grant) has been a candle in the rain. Night in, night out, he’s been their most exciting, most compelling player. Through his scoring (20.3 points) and passing (8.3 assists), Adams directly accounts for more than 36 percent of their offense. And Adams gives the Bullets something they haven’t had before: someone to draw out the defense. It’s wishful thinking, of course, but who doesn’t daydream about the damage two pure scorers like Adams and King might have done?

What a bright and shining moment for Adams, making the all-star team. Okay, it’s a backdoor deal; it took Larry Bird’s injury to make it happen. But they could have looked elsewere, to a powerful forward such as Horace Grant, or a sweet shooter such as Reggie Miller; both deserving. Instead they picked the figurine, finally certifying, in this, his seventh season, the simply irresistible ascendance of Michael Adams, a sprite whose whole is much greater than the sum of his parts.

His entire career has been a fight to overcome the prevailing skepticism. He stands 5 feet 10, too small, they said, to play in the NBA. He shoots under 40 percent, too erratic to thrive in the NBA. He careers around the court like a bumper car, too out of control to make it in the NBA.

Him, an all-star? In the NBA?

Surely you mean CBA.

“I like to think that by now most people know I can play,” Adamssaid.

Indeed, come Sunday afternoon in Orlando, in the exclusive companyof the Jordans, the Ewings, the Barkleys and, yes, even the Magics --the giants of the game -- there he’ll be. That little guy, thatwhirling dervish planting his feet behind the three-point line,shooting for the kill. That’s Michael Adams.

“I’ve waited a long time for this. I’m not simply going to passthe ball,” he said. “If I get five or 10 minutes out there, Ipromise one is going up.”

Him, an all-star? In the NBA? Surely you mean CBA. “I like to think that by now most people know I can play,” Adamssaid. Indeed, come Sunday afternoon in Orlando, in the exclusive companyof the Jordans, the Ewings, the Barkleys and, yes, even the Magics --the giants of the game -- there he’ll be. That little guy, thatwhirling dervish planting his feet behind the three-point line, shooting for the kill. That’s Michael Adams.

“I’ve waited a long time for this. I’m not simply going to pass the ball,” he said. “If I get five or 10 minutes out there, I promise one is going up.”