Twins Desire to Walk in Other’s Shoes

They’re identical twins, Horace and Harvey Grant, but their basketball lives bear virtually no resemblance, the irony of which escapes neither of them as they negotiate radically different paths hoping someday to become connected again.

Horace, the elder by a couple of minutes and the power forward for the two-time defending NBA champion Chicago Bulls, could be the most underappreciated player in the league. He’s the new Buck Williams, the hardest working man in basketball.

“He’s the guy who comes to the mill every day and does the dirtiest job,” Bulls assistant coach John Bach says. Horace has averaged 12 points per game during his career, mostly off offensive rebounds. A play is almost never designed for Horace because he’s the fifth option, after Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bill Cartwright, and B.J. Armstrong or John Paxson.

Defensively, all the Bulls ask Grant to do is guard the other team’s biggest, meanest, most mobile guy -- their Karl Malone or Shawn Kemp -- while also helping out when it’s necessary to double team a big-time scorer. They also ask him to lead the team in rebounding, which he has in each of the last four seasons.

Harvey, with his $17.1 million salary over six years, makes more money. A lot more. The Washington Bullets design plays for him all the time. Two inches shorter and a better ballhandler in the open floor, Harvey is a small forward, a shooter, a scorer.

Three times in recent games he tied or broke his career high in scoring. He’s averaging a nice, even 20 points per game, and when he doesn’t score big his team has a real problem winning. Harvey is so appreciated the Knicks tried to take him away and the Bullets cried foul in the process.

Horace’s career, devoid of individual honors, has been all team; he has two championship rings. Harvey’s career, which has had some nice individual moments, has been devoid of team success; he has yet to play in a playoff game.

But then, the grass is always greener, isn’t it? Horace, while he wouldn’t trade his championships for anything, wonders from time to time how it would feel to be The Man, the guy who’s asked to take the final shot with his team trailing by one, the guy who two teams would fight (and pay handsomely) to get, the guy to whom a team’s offense is tilted -- in other words how it feels to be his twin brother.

Harvey, meanwhile, wonders every time he practices or suits up, what it feels like to be a champion, to be part of a team that is beloved and embraced and celebrated in every single city -- in other words how it feels to be his twin brother.

Immediately after the Bulls’ victory over the Bullets Thursday night, a game in which Harvey couldn’t play because of shin splints, The Man walked over to the visitors locker room to be with The Champ. “You know I’d trade a whole lot of shots and points and other stuff too for a chance to win a championship,” Harvey said. “It’s eating away at me that I’m in my fifth year and I haven’t made the playoffs. I’ve got to make the playoffs. Not just make them, but get a ring. He’s got two rings.”

Horace told reporters in Chicago earlier this week he’d like to have more shots, that the Bulls offense ought to seek him out now and again.

“I wasn’t complaining, really,” Horace said. “If the opportunity presented itself, I could easily average 20 points. But if it took away from the other things I do, I don’t think the team would be as effective.

Harvey piped in: “Horace could average 20 easy, real easy if they ran plays for him. I know he’s the same player I am, except he’s bulkier. (Horace is 6-10, 235, Harvey 6-8, 210.) Can you imagine him in our system, having plays run for him?”

As is, Horace is one of the most-efficient players in the league. Five years ago, when the Bulls traded rebound-machine Charles Oakley, the stat-maniacs moaned. But being a Horace Grant watcher, I thought it was the best trade the Bulls could make.

In six seasons, I’ve never seen him take a bad shot. Rarely does he turn over the ball.

Still. When did a few extra shots ever kill a guy? Bach, a Horace Grant fan to be sure, said, “I’m a twin myself, and I understand (the dynamics). I tried to put it in cold terms. I said, ‘Horace, you have two championship rings, a fine contract ($2 million per year), the respect of a team and of people around the league. Why would you want to go in search of shots, which may get you some limited reward, but not the ultimate reward of winning? Of playing with Michael Jordan, with Scottie Pippen?”

Harvey has no such teammates, not yet anyway. “He hasn’t been to the playoffs yet, but he’s showing he can do all these things and he’s happier mentally,” Horace said. “Harvey’s playing his butt off. I can’t say enough about him. He took it upon himself to be their leader. ... I knew Harvey had it in him. When you’re the man like that, you get to show all the things you can do.”

Actually, they both show the resourcefulness and inner-toughness that coaches like to see.

Horace never has been afraid to challenge Jordan when he thought it necessary. Harvey has been pushing himself to do more and be more simply because he was taught that you earn your keep, and $3 million a year is a lot of keep. He should have sat out some games on the West Coast.

Horace has followed the deprived, indigent kids who hang around Chicago Stadium back to their homes in the projects and spent quality time, not just autograph time, with them. You could go on and on about the Grants. They were just ... well ... raised right.

They dream of playing together. Harvey’s contract enables him to become an unrestricted free agent after next season. Can’t you see a lineup of Grant, Grant, Jordan, Pippen and Toni Kukoc? On the other hand, if Horace really wants to find out what it’s like to be Harvey, perhaps he’ll tire of being the fifth wheel and engineer some deal that will land him on the Bullets.

The Bullets could put Horace, Googs and Pervis up front with Michael Adams and Rex in the backcourt. Whoaaaa! That makes Harvey sixth man. A guy would never do that to his twin brother, would he?