There’s Calm Amid the Storm

Boy, that was fun, around here, anyway.

It was OK everywhere else, too, until the final eight days, which was all the time it took the Lakers to close out the New Jersey Nets in what looked like, and turned out to be, the annual Foregone Conclusion.

Positives included a thrilling postseason (until then) and robust TV ratings (ditto), which suggested David Stern’s league was back (or half of it, anyway).

Also, a worthy challenger to the Lakers arose. Unfortunately for Stern, it was in the West, too.

Of course, East-West imbalances are cyclical, Stern noted last week for the third year in a row.

“We have seen it before, whether it’s the Celtics or the Bulls,” he said. “ ... I think that these things have a way of evening themselves out over time. I think over the last 20 years, I think we’re 10-10, East and West. So see us in 20 years and we’ll see how it works out.”

Trust me, in 20 years, I’ll have better things to worry about, like seeing what else is on TV if the NBA Finals are still only ceremonial.

Actually, the East leads the West, 11-9, over the last 20 years, but we haven’t seen anything this one-sided since the Boston Celtics were plowing the Lakers under annually in the ‘60s.

The Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls won five titles in a row from 1989 to 1993, losing only six postseason games during that run. However, the ’89 series went four games after Byron Scott and Magic Johnson went out with hamstring pulls.

The ’92 series was 2-2 before the Bulls won Game 5 in Portland. Then the Trail Blazers took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter of Game 6, looking as if they would force a Game 7, until the Bulls rallied.

In ‘93, the Bulls’ Jim Paxson had to make a dramatic, series-winning three-point basket with three seconds left to keep the Phoenix Suns from forcing a Game 7 on their court.

In the last four Finals, the West is 16-4 with East teams winning 1-2-1-0. The only East team to win two was the Indiana Pacers in 2000, after the Lakers went up, 3-1.

The problem isn’t the numbers, however. The problem is that most of the best big men have gone West and more may follow soon.

More and more, East general managers say they don’t need much size since no one else in the conference has much, either, and if they can make the Finals, anything can happen, etc ...

The only thing that winds up happening is Shaquille O’Neal stepping on their champion, not that that seems to be deterring them.

Now, the two best East centers are available and may be snatched up by desperate West teams.

The Philadelphia 76ers are open to moving Dikembe Mutombo, who’s 36 and makes $17 million a year through 2005, when he’ll be 39. The Miami Heat is shopping Alonzo Mourning, a 2003 free agent. The likeliest takers may be Portland’s Paul Allen and Dallas’ Mark Cuban, who have beaucoup money and nada concerns about the luxury tax.

It’s true, as East GMs also note, that Shaq, who casts a huge shadow over the West, as well as the East, distorts the difference.

“Shaquille, he’s a whole other ball game,” Kobe Bryant said last week. “He’s a whole other problem.

“I mean, if you’re talking about [the East finding] big guys to contend with some of the other players that we have in the Western Conference, that’s one thing. I think that will happen. But if you’re talking about Shaquille, you’re not going to find players in the West, East, North or South. Doesn’t matter.”

Says Celtic GM Chris Wallace: “I don’t know who out there can compete with him. He’s sort of like a weather phenomenon. You have to wait until it passes.”

Of course, who says the Big Storm won’t last two or three more Finals?

Let’s see what becomes possible (reseed the final four, anyone?) if ABC gets stuck with another walkover with a 10.2 rating next spring.

(Oh, Minnesota, which finished fifth in the West, has applied to go East for the 2003-04 season when New Orleans is expected to join the West. The Timberwolves had a .714 winning percentage, compared to the Nets’ .648, against common opponents in the East this season, suggesting they are as good as anyone over there.)

Not that a bad Finals rating is all-important now, since Stern just sold his TV rights for six seasons.

There were rumbles his owners were unhappy (with the old and new deals back-loaded, TV revenue goes down next season) but coming off down seasons in the midst of an advertising drought, Stern did some amazing sleight of hand to keep from taking a major cut, let alone get a raise.

Nevertheless, a bad Finals rating shapes insiders’ perceptions, which spread in a ripple effect.

In other words, if Steve Grubbs of the PHD ad agency is telling USA Today’s Rudy Martzke, “NBC is saying we made a good decision to get out,” that probably isn’t very good for your league.

Actually, the NBA is doing OK. The collective bargaining agreement has three years to run and looks better all the time as unrest mounts in baseball and hockey, where owners won few salary constraints the last time.

Stern went through rain and fire to get his contract, which looks as though it will remain the basis of future deals, even if the union leadership keeps acting as if it wants to rumble, going to arbitration on one thing after another.

However, the union members seem fine with a system that gives stars $100-million deals and veterans $1-million minimums. Compared to the NFL’s hard cap, the NBA deal is player-friendly.

The union now rumbles about collusion as owners pull up at the projected $52.5-million luxury tax threshold, but that’s $10 million over the agreed-to salary cap. Add in the fact the Trail Blazers and New York Knicks have $80 million-plus payrolls and good luck in court. Of course, it’s not easy being commish. Stern’s pet project, the WNBA, just bit his hand, threatening labor action with union head Pam Wheeler insisting her players want their “fair share.”

Actually, their league has been in the red from day one, so their fair share is zero.

Not that I’ve got anything against the WNBA. It’s just that neither Stern nor the players can accept it for what the market says it is.

If Stern wasn’t keeping their league afloat, the women would have to go back to playing overseas and NBA fans, who comprise a different constituency altogether, wouldn’t be barraged with “This is who I am” ads.

One way or another, hope always emerges triumphant.