If This Is Really a Dream, Stern Needs Wake-Up Call

Dreams, politics and the post-Michael Jordan era: Once the idea of NBA stars in the Olympics was so exciting, the league had only to donate the services of 12 obvious superstars and reap the windfall.

The operative word, however, is once, as in one time, 1992.

Since the original Dream Team charmed the world at Barcelona, everything else has been an embarrassment (Dream Team II at the 1994 Toronto World Games, led by Derrick Coleman, Larry Johnson and Shawn Kemp, none of whom would ever have been invited back even if their careers hadn’t nose-dived) or a bore (Dream Team III at Atlanta, 1996).

Nor is IV promising, with the USA Basketball selection committee having just filled the last spots without Vince Carter, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant, the game’s most popular young stars.

The real question is how David Stern, long presumed to be the 800-pound gorilla in the process, let this happen. If there’s one thing Stern, the salesman, knows, it’s giving the people what they want, rather than depending on them to consume whatever they’re offered. If Stern was ever that confident, he should be over it now, in the second season of the humbling post-Jordan era.

“This is one case where David’s reputation precedes him,” says a league source. “He has never gotten involved in talent.”

OK, time to start. This is what the commish gets for letting it go to committee.

The voting members--NBA general managers plus C.M. Newton and Mike Krzyzewski--have focused on manners since the debacle at Toronto. While players began treating selection as the ultimate honor, the committee was filling out squads with soft-spoken guys like Vin Baker and Tom Gugliotta, even if they weren’t the best players.

The rationale, says one committee member, is that someone has to sit so let’s take some guys who won’t complain.

This resulted in a numbers crunch. Nine players return from the team that qualified in Puerto Rico last summer, having been assured that if they gave up their precious time, they’d go to Sydney too.

They included low-flair guys like Baker, Gugliotta, Allan Houston and Steve Smith, along with some players somebody might actually want to see, such as Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Gary Payton.

The No. 10 spot was saved for a center, Shaquille O’Neal, who said no, or Alonzo Mourning, who accepted.

No. 11 was saved for establishment favorite Grant Hill, who didn’t go to Puerto Rico because he was getting married.

With one spot left, the committee compromised on nice, Ray Allen, who played on several USA Basketball teams, because everyone liked him--and because his selection wouldn’t offend Carter, Iverson or Bryant.

Indeed, Iverson said he’d have “freaked” if Carter had gone instead of him, but he could live with Allen. And the 76ers had a voice on the committee, Larry Brown’s proxy, General Manager Billy King.

Then there’s the generation gap. Iverson is actually an engaging tyke, but he’s also tattooed from head to foot. Says the committee member, alluding to the age of his fellow members, “That hip-hop stuff doesn’t fly.”

Carter, who can fly but won’t in the shadow of the Olympic rings before 2004, was so stung by the snub, he put up 14- and 13-point games, after having averaged 28 in December, before scoring 47 against the Bucks and Allen on Friday.

“He doesn’t understand how mean this business can be,” Raptor Coach Butch Carter said, “but he got a good taste of it today.”

Thus, a nice, quiet, polite U.S. team was pointed toward Australia at a time when the pros-in-Olympics story has already gotten old.

Watching the Red, White and Blue run it up on helpless Angolans started getting boring by the second game at Barcelona, when it became clear Charles Barkley wasn’t going to elbow anybody else. However, Juan Antonio Samaranch wants the pros, as do foreign teams and fans. It’s a marketing opportunity for Stern, so he isn’t likely to withdraw.

That’s why they make TV remotes, so you can click to something more competitive and exciting, such as archery, field hockey or ESPN Classic.

BOBBY RAY PHILLS II DEC. 20, 1969-JAN. 12, 2000

It’s a measure of the kind of man Bobby Phills was that the NBA seemed to grind to a halt at the news he had died in an auto accident.

The Charlotte Hornets called off their next two games. New York Knick players asked that the entire schedule be canceled.

Phills, a dark horse from the Continental Basketball Assn., was once praised by Jordan as the toughest defender he faced. Phills was liked by peers and respected by reporters as an unfailing stand-up guy. He ran a charitable foundation and was one of four finalists for last season NBA’s sportsman award.

“He was just one of those rare guys who came in pure,” said former coach Dave Cowens, “in the way he played basketball and the way he lived his life. Selfishness is what kills team sports, and he didn’t have any of it.”

Police said Phills and teammate David Wesley were racing their souped-up Porsches, estimating Phills’ speed at 75 mph in a 45-mph zone when his car swerved out of control on a five-lane road outside Charlotte Coliseum. As Tom Wolfe noted of jet pilots in “The Right Stuff,” there are many NBA players with fast cars who think they’re bulletproof.

Phills leaves behind a wife of six years, a 3-year-old son and a newborn daughter. It’s a terrible shame and one everybody ought to take to heart.

FACES AND FIGURES

See if this sounds familiar: Dennis Rodman’s agent asks the Dallas Mavericks for a job. Several months later, the Mavericks get a new owner, Mark Cuban, who’s interested. Cuban says he’ll need a meeting but is told Dennis isn’t available. Rodman’s agent, the famed Steve Chasman of ICM, says Dennis has two other teams on the line. (SOS: Same old story. First they’re begging for a job. Then they’re trying to drive the price up.) Rodman tells TNT confidant Craig Sager he can’t report until after the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl, because he has parties he has to go to. Chasman says the Mavericks’ lowly standing and lack of salary cap room make them an unlikely option. The Mavericks seem to be getting the idea this might not be for them. Bottom line: The wacko is still holding out for an invitation from the Lakers, who should be committed en masse if they ever subject themselves to his whims again.

The Spurs keep trying to get David Robinson, whose scoring average dipped as low as 12.9, almost three points below last season’s career low of 15.8, to take up the scoring slack. Some games it works, but others it doesn’t. Teammate Mario Elie: “I was talking to Dave the other day and he said, ‘Mario, some days my body feels great, but some days it just doesn’t feel right.’ ” The devout Robinson, once pictured as an angel on a Sports Illustrated cover, was even ejected for swearing at officials against Utah. Said Robinson of his transgressions: “I’ve been getting on my knees and praying.” So has Gregg Popovich.

Not that they can’t find a way to mess it up but: Derek Anderson, who asked for a $50-million deal and was turned down by the Clippers, still wants to re-sign with them. “I’m happy here,” he told Cleveland writers last week. “I wanted to be able to showcase what I’m capable of doing, and I’m getting that chance. I feel they’re interested in signing me. I won’t sign with anyone not wanting to win and I get the feeling they want to win.” I get the same feeling. If winning were free, Donald T. Sterling would be all over it.

A guy, a dream: Remember rapper Master P’s snit at being cut by the Raptors? He has been playing for the San Diego Stingrays of the International Basketball League under his real name, Percy Miller, averaging 6.8 points and shooting 29% from the field, or in other words, vindicating the Raptors. Miller is also an agent, but several star clients, such as Denver’s Ron Mercer, are dumping him because he’s so focused on playing, he doesn’t have time for them. . . . Warrior Coach Garry St. Jean, whose team’s marketing slogan is “It’s a Great Time Out,” after a home loss to the Mavericks: “This was like going to the orthodontist.”