Transition Game

By MARK HEISLER

Feb. 11, 2000 12 AM PT

OAKLAND —

Where’s Mike?

For the first time since the mid-1990s, the NBA will hold an All-Star game without Michael Jordan, not to mention such longtime mainstays as Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing, all in retirement, or heading there.

In their places are seven first-time all-stars and six first-time all-star starters. In both categories is the league’s newest heartthrob, Toronto’s Vince Carter, the top vote-getter, now getting the kind of buildup that fell on the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant at New York in 1998.

Bryant, a West starter, and Carter are friendly rivals, going back to their prep days as AAU teammates. They have already hooked up once this season in a less-than-memorable duel in Toronto. Let’s just say, if Bryant doesn’t shoot 10 times in his first 11 touches, as he did in ’98 when he was hyped into taking on Jordan himself, West Coach Phil Jackson of the Lakers will consider it a good sign.

It’s a tender time for the NBA, returning to its routine after taking a year off to lock out, and seeking its level after its giddy ride in Jordan’s wake.

Today’s stars are promising to the max, as opposed to mega, and painfully young on top of it. Since none looks likely to win six titles in six seasons, this isn’t a torch any of them is in any position to accept. Not Carter, 23; Bryant, 21; Kevin Garnett, 23; Allen Iverson, 24, not even Tim Duncan, 23, the only one of them with four years of college and an NBA title.

As players, they are to die for, but as icons, well, it’s still a little early for them.

“The younger players haven’t emerged yet,” Indiana Pacer President Donnie Walsh says. “But we were just talking--some of the things these kids can do, it’s frightening. They’re so athletic and they’re so big. In about five years, this league is going to be awesome, with the stuff these kids can do.”

In the meantime . . .

This is also a tender time in NBA history because TV numbers are off, and attendance is soft, despite the opening of six new arenas. There are questions about ticket prices, which are now more expensive than the NFL’s, and the quality of the game.

Item: The Miami Heat, which just opened American Airlines Arena, is thinking of closing the balconies for weeknight games, cutting capacity by 3,600, since it can’t sell the seats and doesn’t like the forlorn backdrop they provide.

Item: The Orlando Magic, a pleasant surprise after divesting itself of most of its players to create cap room, has seen attendance plummet 20%.

Item: The Vancouver Grizzlies, who were being sold, dropped their policy of padding their attendance figures by including tickets they gave away and fell off by 3,000 a game.

Item: On Dec. 18, the Bulls announced their 575th consecutive sellout in the United Center--despite what the Daily Southtown, a Chicago-area newspaper, estimated as 4,000 empty seats.

Item: In his book, “A Good Man, The Pete Newell Story,” the mild-mannered, widely admired former coach told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins: “Football has constantly modified rules to tailor its game to the times and I think they’ve done a good job. What have we tried? Nothing. There hasn’t been one significant rule change in nearly 50 years, except for the three-point shot, and that only came in because of the ABA. . . .

“I read somewhere that David Stern is the best commissioner that any sport has ever had. Nobody can argue he has brought more money into the coffers or that he’s a shrewd bargainer with television and the players’ union. But that’s all he’s about. Money’s everything with this guy. Money, money, money, money. The last I heard, his own salary was around $10 million, including ancillary income, and it’s undoubtedly a hell of a lot more now. But when you look on the court, what do they have? A dull brand of basketball.”

Of course, scoring is up this season, the league hasn’t lost any games to labor actions, no player has choked a coach and no sentence handed down by the commissioner has been trimmed by an arbitrator, so you could say things have been worse.

“I think there are areas David wants to address,” says Neal Pilson, former CBS Sports president and now a prominent marketing consultant. “He has told the teams they have to do a better job of marketing themselves.

“But is anybody in trouble in the NBA? I don’t think so. Frankly, the single most important element right now for the future health of the major leagues is their collective bargaining agreement and the NBA, for better or for worse, has survived the crisis. And now you’re talking about managing the enterprise.”

Of course, some centuries are easier than others.

It’s a new day. No more of Jordan’s annual no-show for the Friday media session, obliging Stern to fine him--and finally Stern moving his Friday news conference to Saturday, so he wouldn’t have to announce Jordan’s fine until after Sunday’s early editions were gone.

Now it’s the young guys’ turn and the old guys know it, starting with Karl Malone, who wasn’t voted onto the starting team by the Happy Meal crowd and was threatening not to come.

In a sign of the times, though, the McDonald’s kids are all right. Garnett and Duncan were deserving selections, even above the venerable Mailman.

So here come the rest of the young guys: Iverson, the little warrior whose accomplishments are finally eclipsing his hip-hop image . . . Glenn Robinson, coming into his own at last . . . Ray Allen, better known as the star of “He Got Game” . . . Jerry Stackhouse, the four-year disappointment, emerging in Year 5 . . . the calm Allan Houston; the mysterious, smoldering Rasheed Wallace; the overlooked Michael Finley.

All are making their All-Star debuts. Carter, Iverson, Garnett, Duncan, Jason Kidd and Eddie Jones will be making their first starts.

With Garnett and Bryant, the West will have two starters who came right from high school and a lineup averaging 24 years of age.

The East’s Alonzo Mourning will be the oldest starter. He just turned 30.

For all the difficult comparisons and the spin control the weekend will occasion, it’s still an exciting coming-out party for those who haven’t been here before, which this year is most of them.

The high-flying Carter, Canada’s first all-star, will appear in the dunk contest--as long as he jams one cleanly, he’s the odds-on choice to walk away with it--and NBC will have him miked during the game. (What, the peacock worry about those ratings?)

Not that anticipation is running high in Toronto, but last week, Carter dropped a weight on the middle finger of his left--non-shooting--hand, bolted from practice, was escorted to a car and whisked to a hospital where he received three stitches, while late-night radio newscasts issued bulletins on his status for All-Star weekend.

Since Carter returned the next two games to score 70 points, it looks as though he may scrape by. As should this event, casting changes notwithstanding.

NBA ALL-STAR GAME

at Oakland

Sunday, 3 p.m.

Channel 4

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

First Timers

Only one other time, 1994, has an all-star team had seven new members:

1994 East

Kenny Anderson (New Jersey)

B.J. Armstrong (Chicago)

Mookie Blaylock (Atlanta)

Derrick Coleman (New Jersey)