If It's Not Broken. . .

By J.A. ADANDE

May 23, 2001 12 AM PT

Rarely has a promotional campaign slogan been so completely appropriate.

In these NBA playoffs, we already have been treated to 40-point performances by Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki. Allen Iverson and Vince Carter have scored 50.

We had two decisive Game 5s in the first round and two Game 7s in the second round--one of them drawing NBC’s highest second-round television ratings in two years.

The Lakers are emerging as a dominant force that everyone can either love or hate but can’t ignore.

As the commercials say, “It’s all good.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern has his strut back. Was it really at this year’s All-Star game that people were saying the league was stuck in a post-Michael Jordan funk, with an unappealing crop of underachievers looking unfit to carry on the game’s legacy?

The NBA is A-OK. Most playoff games feature showcase performances, high drama, or both. And all of the stars leading the way are under 30, which means we should be watching these guys for years to come.

“It’s a wonderful game and it always takes care of itself,” Stern told reporters in San Antonio on Monday.

To which USA Today’s David DuPree shot back, “Then why’d you change all the damn rules?”

The NBA has already approved zone defenses, beginning next season. And if Stern gets his way, the league will put a minimum age limit of 20 on the draft.

It’s too late to do anything about the zones. They’re coming in 2001-02, and that means O’Neal can expect to be double-teamed constantly before he even gets the ball.

The arguments for zones are that no one can explain or figure out what the current defense rules are, and that they encourage teams to stand around, isolate one or two players on the court and watch them dribble the ball.

Except there’s one problem: None of the four teams remaining in the playoffs employs that style of play.

The Lakers run the flowing triangle offense, highlighted by the unique physical specimen of O’Neal and the wondrous flights of Bryant. The San Antonio Spurs play a smart brand of team ball that features the sound fundamentals of Duncan. The Milwaukee Bucks push the ball at you and let Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell fire away. Philadelphia’s Iverson is like a circus daredevil act.

The NBA’s emphasis on man-to-man defense allows these players to flourish. A zone--even one that prohibits defenders from camping in the lane for three seconds, as the new rule stipulates--will allow big men to hang around the baseline and let them swat away layups as if it were target practice.

Or, teams will go to box-and-one defenses.

Iverson’s ability to single-handedly push his 76ers into the conference playoffs has been one of the great playoff stories. It will be a thing of the past if other teams can let one man shadow him all over the court. Massachusetts once did it to him with Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla in an NCAA tournament regional game, so imagine what NBA teams could do.

Stern appointed a special committee to come up with new rules, then railroaded their suggestions through the board of governors.

It won’t be quite as easy for him in his crusade to slow the influx of young players. It will take the union’s cooperation, and unions generally aren’t in the business of denying potential members the opportunity to make millions of dollars.

Take a moment to think what impact a 20-year-old minimum-age requirement would have had on the Lakers.

No Magic Johnson, no Kobe Bryant and thus none of six championships the Lakers have won since 1980. Magic was 19 when the Lakers drafted him as a sophomore at Michigan State, and Bryant was only 17 when the Lakers got him straight out of high school. You could say both worked out pretty well.

Adding a year to the rookie scale contract for each year of college missed would be a manageable alternative. Making players wait longer to collect their big free-agent paydays would create a disincentive for players to leave early and also allow the teams that drafted them to let them develop.

And if general managers don’t think these teenagers will work out, there’s nothing that says they have to draft them. A few former high schoolers with no NBA contracts and no NCAA eligibility will make the next crop think twice about skipping college.

Stern used to think there was a racial tinge to complaints about basketball players, predominantly African American, turning pro early when no one complained about teenagers starting their careers in predominantly white sports such as tennis, baseball and hockey. He said that watching the growing wave of high school players--six have declared for this year’s draft--and “entire teams” of college players leaving school early has him concerned.

At least he isn’t keeping up the charade that this is about going to school.

“I don’t think it’s about lecturing about education,” Stern said. “I think it’s about sensible business from the NBA’s perspective.”

Too many unprepared players will dilute the quality of play, is the rationale. It will take several years for even the good ones to develop--remember, Bryant didn’t become a starter until his third season.

But if 18-year-olds are deemed responsible enough to serve in the armed forces and vote for the president of the United States, they can be responsible enough to take a chance on the NBA.

Yes, the more teenagers that come out in the hopes of becoming the next Kevin Garnett, the more chances there will be failures along the lines of Leon Smith. But don’t deny the ones who are ready just because others are not.

There’s a simple lesson to be learned from these playoffs: Let the players play. Young or old, they know how to put on a good show.

J.A. Adande can be reached at ja.adande@latimes.com.

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THE SERIES

Lakers vs.

San Antonio

Best of seven;

Lakers lead, 2-0

Game 1

Lakers 104,

San Antonio 90

Game 2