Short Season Gives Fans Case of Short-Term Memory

Gee, already?

Talk about a great season. OK, there was that lockout and the schedule was hard on players and coaches, but no one else seemed to mind a truncated, squashed campaign.

Actually, we’d like more of them. NBC’s ratings for the start of the post-Michael Jordan era actually went up, the playoffs came that much more quickly, so how bad was that?

The league seems to have recovered nicely. Take my brother-in-law, Chuck, from Philadelphia. He’s a typical 76er fan--he was friendly with owner Pat Croce in high school, and when Croce made exhibition tickets part of the season package, Chuck stuffed his in Croce’s mail box with a note, “You need these more than I do.”

During the lockout, Chuck said he was so angry, he wanted to give up his tickets--if he could get them back next season. This is a key to NBA attendance. Even in Philadelphia, where the playoffs were a rumor through the ‘90s, the priority is maintaining one’s location for the postseason, should it ever visit.

Of course, these are heady days in Philly. Chuck was asked the other day what he thought of the lockout, in retrospect.

“What lockout?” he asked.

In the hope such a thing will never recur, at least not in my working lifetime, here are my annual Iconoclast Awards. (Our motto: How did everyone else get so misguided?)

* MVP--Karl Malone, Utah Jazz.

My colleagues voted him one on sentiment two years ago, which should have gone to Jordan, who was only about 20 times as good as Malone or anyone else. Now Mailman deserves it.

Nevertheless, the Miami Heat’s Alonzo Mourning could win, because balloting often breaks along east-west lines and there are more candidates here (Malone, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd, Shaquille O’Neal if you overlook his personnel moves), than there (Mourning, Allen Iverson, Grant Hill.)

Mourning had a fine season, recovering from near self-immolation as labor leader-gone-berserk, but if he’s the MVP, what is his teammate, Tim Hardaway, who gets the ball in crunch time, a god?

My vote: 1--Malone; 2--Iverson (out of control but what a little warrior); 3--Hill (why does everyone overlook a guy who takes a nothing team to 29-21 while leading them in points, rebounds and assists?); 4--Mourning, and 5--Duncan (if you think he’s great now, check back in three years).

* Coach of the year--Larry Brown, 76ers.

A lot of coaches--Mike Dunleavy, Chuck Daly, George Karl, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan--did great jobs, but Brown breathed life into a woebegone franchise, sliding the itchy-fingered Iverson to shooting guard alongside Eric Snow, a third-stringer in Seattle. The front line included career backups George Lynch and Theo Ratliff. Only you, Larry Brown.

* Defensive player of the year--Mourning.

He blocked 3.91 shots a game to runner-up Shawn Bradley’s 3.24. In other words, Mourning was 21% ahead of the pack.

* Rookie of the year--Vince Carter, Toronto Raptors.

Amazingly, it was a great class. Paul Pierce averaged 20 points in February, 19 in April but only 11 in March after a run-in with Coach Rick Pitino. Jason Williams was the most exciting point since Pete Maravich but went bonkers, shooting whether or not he saw the whites of anyone’s eyes.

Meanwhile, all the spectacular Carter did was get better. No, he isn’t Jordan and he may not even be Kobe Bryant, but he’s right there.

* Sixth man--Darrell Armstrong, Orlando Magic.

Shaq’s little buddy made himself a player after four seasons in Orlando--and several in the Continental Basketball Assn., United States Basketball League, Global League, Cyprus and Spain. Averaged 13 points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals in 27 minutes, before Daly gave up and put him in the lineup, probably, to stay.

* Most improved--Danny Fortson, Denver Nuggets.

A little bear at 6-foot-7, 260 pounds, this second-year, second coming of Wes Unseld was thrown in at center after Raef LaFrentz was hurt because the Nuggets had no one else and became the NBA’s fourth-leading rebounder.

Edges Armstrong and the Dallas Mavericks’ Gary Trent, who averaged 19.5 points and nine rebounds after moving into the starting lineup.

* Executive of the year--Glen Grunwald, Toronto.

He looked like Isiah Thomas’ gofer until he took over, traded for Charles Oakley, drafted Carter and turned the franchise around. The Raptors are the new model for a young team, with veterans like Oakley and Kevin Willis to make up for the fact today’s kids are really young.

Edges Bob Whitsitt, Portland Trail Blazers, and John Gabriel, Orlando.

* Crummy executive of the year--Tie between Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago Bulls, who turned a dynasty into an expansion team overnight, and Jerry Buss, Lakers, who let Dennis Rodman on the lot.

They edge Donald T. Sterling, whose team won nine games, and Vancouver General Manager Stu Jackson, whose team won eight.

FACES AND FIGURES

Heartening news for Laker fans, who could use some: Say what you want about Bryant but he’s trying, as evidenced by his assist average: 1.3 his rookie season, 2.5 his second, 3.1 in February, 3.3 in March, 4.8 in April. Likewise, Bryant’s refusal to run up his numbers at the end to protect his 20-point average (he finished at 19.9) and O’Neal’s disinclination to chase Iverson for the scoring title, suggest their heads are in the right place. . . . How eager was Miami to avoid another passion play of a first-round matchup with the Knicks? With the possibility alive that the Knicks could move up to No. 7, Pat Riley acted insulted at speculation the Heat would roll over--then started Duane Causwell and Rex Walters in place of Mourning and Hardaway. . . . They’re breaking up that old gang of theirs: SuperSonic insiders say Detlef Schrempf, a free agent, won’t return. “Offense, defense, commitment, attitude, work ethic, I’m not saying everything is bad, but there are so many things that are not right, not the way they should be,” Schrempf said. “Maybe they are just little things, but all added up they are depressing.” The “work ethic” remark is thought to be a shot at Gary Payton, who practices casually, freelances in games, irritating SuperSonic veterans such as Sam Perkins, who zinged Payton on the way out of town last season.

Just what the Celtics need, fiscal responsibility: Pitino, who has the final word on everything--except the budget--is putting the word out again that owner Don Gaston’s frugality may doom them to mediocrity. In a league in which glamour teams are often $10 million to $20 million over the cap, Gaston wants to hold the Celtics to the prescribed $32 million, plus another $3 million in exceptions. Responded Gaston: “The new collective bargaining agreement, while I think it is an improvement over the old one in many respects, still gives teams the ability to commit fiscal suicide. We are not going to be among those teams.” In other words, Pitino will try this for another year, but if he isn’t making major progress, may go back to college again. . . . Former Laker Eddie Jones, breaking his silence about the trade that turned out so well in Charlotte and not so well here: “In L.A., the game had become nothing but a business. Here, I’ve still got it in the back of my mind that it’s still a business. But I’ve found the love for the game again. It felt so good to hear that people were waiting on me. It felt so good to be wanted. My life was a distraction, a big distraction the last two years. The amazing thing is that I made the All-Star team and all-defense with all that going on.”

The Bulls’ first big-money free agent on their way back, or wherever, didn’t do as well as they hoped. Brent Barry, who got a six-year, $27-million deal, averaged 11 points and shot 39.6%. “He came into a situation that required some strength, being the only free agent,” Coach Tim Floyd said. “Guys were all leaving. So there was an adjustment period, which we all anticipated. I think he was a guy who needed camp, maybe more so than anybody. He went through an early transition period where he felt like he had a lot on him.”

Milwaukee’s Karl says he got the idea of hiring friends Rick Majerus and Del Harris for the playoffs from Don Nelson, who once brought in Karl in the same capacity: “What Nellie used to do is bring me or Del in and we kind of played the guy he’s working against,” Karl said. “ ‘What would you do in this situation? How are you going to cover our pick and rolls?’ I think Del will give us more preparation on how they’re going to coach against us.” Karl says Majerus, who grew up in Milwaukee, has already made a big contribution by showing him a great place for cheesecake. . . . Oh yes, the Bucks made yet another run at unsigned Kevin Johnson, who had said he’d wait for divine guidance to pick a team. Apparently, none came this time, either, and Johnson told the Bucks no.

Indiana Pacer Coach Larry Bird, who let assistants Dick Harter and Rick Carlisle do most of the X-and-O stuff last season, is asserting himself more. Said Bird: “You think, ‘If we’re going to lose, I might as well make the decisions.’ ” And Bird, on speculation he’ll leave if the Pacers don’t live up to his expectations: “I don’t want to get into this because it’s the players’ team and they have a great opportunity to do something nice, probably the best they’ll ever have. I want all the focus to be on the team.”

Soon-to-retire Joe Dumars, on not showing off: “Guys now are shaped by ‘SportsCenter.’ In my day you saw guys make plays and they simply turned around and went back down the court. You knew they made a great play, but they were always cool. I always thought it was pretty cool to do something and not do somersaults.” . . . Iverson on Dumars, who reached across the generations to become a friend and mentor: “He told me not to worry about negative things. He told me what to keep and what to throw away. To hear that advice from him, one of the greatest, it makes me feel like I have done something good with my life. His words I will take to my grave.”