No Start, but It’s a Nice Finish

Mike to the rescue, one last time.

It’s a fortunate All-Star game that has an actual theme, as opposed to a lot of parties and made-for-TV-exhibitions, but this is one of the lucky ones, with Michael Jordan making his (presumed) farewell performance, just in time to overshadow less seemly facts of life, such as the game’s landmark status as the first demoted to cable TV and the league’s ongoing struggle, represented by the event hosts, the moribund Atlanta Hawks.

The rarest thing in this league or any other is actual grace, but it’s running over the brim here, with East starters Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson offering Jordan their spots in the starting lineup, Paul Pierce saying he wished he had a starting spot he could offer Mike, and Jordan declining, with thanks.

“I think it’s truly a good thing,” Jordan said Saturday. “... I would have done it easily because I think that sometimes, you have to pay respects.... And even if individuals don’t accept it, it’s just a good gesture for them to do that. It shows respect for the game, not just to Michael Jordan, but for the game.

“And the reason I wouldn’t accept it, and don’t want to accept it, it says a lot for them to go out and live up to what people expect of them, which is why they were voted as the starting five.

“I’d rather for it to happen that way because that’s the chain of change. I mean, that’s how things happen. That’s how change happens and I don’t want to break that chain.

“I’ve had my chances to start for 13 years. The 14th year, I’m not going to lose sleep about. I feel good that I’ve been there long enough to see that the fans want to see something else. And that doesn’t offend me. I think that’s how the game continues to live and survive....

“They’re going to be in the same boat down the road and some young kid probably would want to do the same for them somewhere down the road.... I would rather for them to pass it along just like I passed it along.”

Of course, every party needs a pooper, which must be why the fans voted in Vince Carter, an earnest young man who truly Doesn’t Get It, which is why he said he wasn’t giving up his spot, despite have played only 15 games.

Carter suffered more than any of the others at the comparisons with Jordan (not that that’s an issue for Carter anymore). Nevertheless, even if he couldn’t understand what this situation required, Carter was gracious about it, attending the media session in the full knowledge he’d take a lot of heat, explaining his reasons patiently, over and over, even if that stuff about what he felt he owed his voters made sense only to him.

With such widespread generosity as a backdrop, this event should even survive this city, which effectively dropped out of pro ball years ago.

All-Star games are intended as celebration of a league’s progress, which will flow easily enough from real circumstances next year when it’s in Los Angeles, where the NBA, or at least the Lakers, actually prosper.

On the other hand, there’s this place.

Atlanta got the game to celebrate its new arena and Ted Turner’s longtime broadcasting partnership with the league, but things went south from the day it was announced.

The Hawks are bad, and attendance -- an average of 12,021 (announced) in a two-year-old building -- is embarrassing.

Of course, who told them to put the new arena downtown?

Atlanta prides itself on its bustling growth, having staged an Olympics to enter the ranks of world capitals (or not, depending on what you thought of the ’96 Summer Games). However, rather than follow the demographics north to the suburbs, Turner put the new Philips Arena downtown on top of the old Omni, where the Hawks drew flies. Not coincidentally, Turner’s CNN Center was next door.

Then there was Ted’s cavalier style. He cared about the baseball Braves (“America’s Team”), even trying to manage them once, but the Hawks were simply programming that meant nothing at all, once they helped him land the NBA cable package.

Making their push this All-Star year, the Hawks acquired Glenn Robinson, who played well, not that it made any difference. The team stunk. Coach Lon Kruger was fired and General Manager Pete Babcock said it was actually his responsibility. All their best players are being shopped.

Of course, there’s Turner, the devil they know, and which bean counter comes next. Turner has just resigned his corporate post and everyone here is waiting to see what New York-based, financially strapped AOL Time Warner does with the Braves and Hawks.

Of course, that’s their problem. By Monday, we’ll all be gone and happy about it.

The good news for the NBA, the All-Star game always sells out, even here, and there’s so much warmth in town, they should be able to get out of here without having to reflect on where they were.

If you’re lucky, you’ll go home with a cherished memory, such as Jordan waving to the crowd, and maybe even a special souvenir, perhaps Jason Terry.

Faces and Figures

Not that he was ever, thankfully, as celebrated as LeBron James, but two years ago Chicago’s Tyson Chandler was the prep prospect of the year, driving an Escalade to Compton Dominguez High, before turning pro and struggling to make the jump. “I expected to be playing more minutes and doing a lot more for my team,” Chandler said. “It hasn’t worked out that way. I think I’ve underachieved this year. In high school, you see how glamorous the NBA is, the best players out there performing every night. The things you don’t see is what you have to do before that, all the stuff that surrounds it, the practice, lifting weights, conditioning, appearances and everything that goes with it.... I expected more of myself the second season with all the work I did in the off-season. I thought things would be different, but it hasn’t.” ... Phoenix’s Stephon Marbury, chiming in on the issue of the Chicago Bulls’ misusing Jay Williams: “He needs to be free. He needs to be a guy that you let go. When you’ve got a guy like that, you’ve pretty much tied his hands. He’s not that type of player. Everybody knows that. He’s out there hesitant. He’s not a guy to be passing and cutting and setting picks. He’s a guy that breaks people down and goes to the basket and dunks on you. It’s unfair to him. It’s even frustrating to me. Because I know that’s not how he plays.” ... Orlando’s Tracy McGrady, after the Magic fell at home to the rampaging Portland Trail Blazers: “They are right there at the top. They have a lot of talent. When those guys put their minds to it, put that craziness behind them and go out and play, they are one of the best teams in this league.”

Things are going from bad to worse in Philadelphia, where the 76ers really went into a funk after Coach Larry Brown suggested it might be time for him to leave, which he then, of course, retracted. The 76ers lost their last game before the break, at home, by 26 to the New Jersey Nets as owner Ed Snider huddled with General Manager Billy King during the fourth quarter.... On the other hand, who doesn’t have problems? As Miami’s Pat Riley noted of Brown: “He only gets neurotic once a month. I get it every night.” ... Life begins at 37: Memphis Coach Hubie Brown on Portland’s Scottie Pippen, who had 51 points, 23 rebounds and 11 assists in the Trail Blazers’ last two games: “People always want to downgrade him and say he was on Michael’s coattails. That’s like saying James Worthy was on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s coattails or Magic Johnson’s coattails with the Lakers. Or Robert Parish and Kevin McHale rode Larry Bird’s coattails in Boston.” ... By the way, even Portland officials concede/fear there’s an excellent chance that Pippen will be a Laker next season.... ESPN Insider’s Chad Ford, on Clipper GM Elgin Baylor’s insistence he always looks for the light at the end of the tunnel: “That is until Donald [Sterling] starts refusing to pay the electricity bill.”