Reading Between the Lines of NBA’s Mixed Message

Stretched across the length of press row at the San Antonio Alamodome was a blue-and-white public service announcement, a courtside message board urging basketball fans everywhere to “READ TO ACHIEVE.”

Sharing commercial time with ads for beer, sports cars and fast-food restaurants were TV spots featuring Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson extolling the virtues of books, education and reading.

In living rooms across the country, parents pointed to the screen and nodded and told their children to pay attention to the important message the NBA was preaching during Game 1 of its Western Conference finals.

And then along came halftime, when those same impressionable youngsters were dealt one more subliminal lesson:

Never mind.

During intermission of Saturday’s game between the Lakers and the Spurs, NBC reported on a controversy brewing in the Toronto Raptors’ camp on the eve of the team’s Eastern Conference semifinal series decider: Vince Carter’s decision to attend his graduation ceremony at the University of North Carolina on the same day his Raptors were to play Philadelphia in all-important Game 7.

With the ceremony in Chapel Hill set for the morning and tipoff in Philadelphia scheduled for the evening, Carter planned to charter a plane to participate in both events. For the star player of a young team on the unprecedented precipice of the NBA’s final four, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to graduate twice in one day.

And, according to NBC’s Ahmad Rashad, “a source of growing tension on the Raptors.”

Andrea Joyce, reporting in Philadelphia, said Raptors’ management issued a statement indicating they were “proud of Vince, adding, however, that his decision to attend the graduation ceremony in North Carolina was his.”

Joyce also reported that Raptor Coach Lenny Wilkens was “tight-lipped” when asked about Carter’s decision and quoted one of Carter’s teammates, Antonio Davis, saying, “Hey, if it were me, I would not go. This is Game 7, and you need to do everything you can possibly do to make sure you’re prepared. . . . This is not tennis or boxing, you’ve got a lot of guys depending on you.”

Interestingly enough, Joyce added, “the person offering the most public support for Vince Carter’s decision was 76ers Coach Larry Brown.” Brown, according to Joyce, said he thinks it “sends a spectacular message to young people out there about the importance of education.”

Yes, that is interesting. In case of bad weather, a delayed flight and/or a jet-lagged Carter in the Toronto lineup, who stands to benefit more from Carter’s graduation appearance than Brown’s 76ers?

“I would think that Larry would also like to see Vince remain in Chapel Hill for a graduation party later in the day,” quipped Marv Albert.

And what say the other members of the U-NBC debate team?

P.J. Carlesimo and Doug Collins, having pledged the NBA coaching fraternity years ago, of course argued team responsibility over individual consideration.

Carlesimo: “You can’t criticize somebody going to graduation. That’s Mom and apple pie. But what about the obligation to your teammates? Is that the best preparation? I don’t expect the coaches or the players to come out and say it’s not a good thing. But I know if I’m sitting there as a coach, I’m very disappointed. . . . I hope Vince proves me wrong, but it’s a mistake.”

Collins: “What happens if there are weather problems and you end up missing the game? I mean, you’ve put yourself in a tough situation. Toronto is in there tonight preparing. They can be watching tape. Who knows, they may have a game-day shoot-around. So it’s more than just playing the game--it’s being with your teammates, looking in each other’s eyes and saying, ‘You know what, if we win, we’re going to the Eastern Conference finals, some place this organization has never been.’ ”

Counterpoint was provided by Kevin Johnson, who wondered, “Since when does attending your college graduation become controversial? Vince Carter is making the right decision. I think he’s putting education and family at the forefront.”

Johnson also predicted that Carter, upon returning to Philadelphia with diploma in hand, would have his best game of the playoffs.

This was a debate with legs--yes, NBC promised more to come during today’s pregame show. Not so with the recent NBA most-valuable-player voting, Albert insisted.

O’Neal may have finished third behind Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson and San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, but “I don’t think there can be any quarrel about that MVP vote,” Albert said. “Shaq did not have a strong first half of the season by Shaq standards.”

O’Neal would beg to differ, which is why he spent much of Saturday’s telecast dunking over Duncan and his teammates en route to a 104-90 Laker victory.

One more NBA lesson: You get your motivation where you can find it. The Spurs, for instance, might have found theirs if they had bothered to flip through the pages of O’Neal’s new book, which is called “Shaq Talks Back,” but ought to be subtitled, “Bad Stuff About David Robinson.”

Maybe the Spurs will pass the book around now after losing at home by 14 points. It could be worth a look. As the league advises, right there in plain view inside the Spurs’ home arena, Read To Achieve.