The Power of Positive Thinking

Thank heavens, summer.

It was an exciting season -- well, in some cities -- if not exactly a triumphant one. The NBA, which thought it was still in its post-Michael Jordan transition, found it was in a post-Laker transition too. At this point, the league is tired of transitioning and would like to get somewhere.

Then there was the Palace rumble, where prominent players were caught on camera punching out customers. Even if they were only rowdy Detroit Piston fans and some of them asked for it, there was no way to put a positive spin on it.

Nevertheless, a lot of positive things did happen.

* The return of Phil Jackson. If you missed the Lakers, rest assured, so did David Stern.

It wasn’t good when Stern’s long-running reality show/soap opera was canceled and the No. 2 TV market went dark, joining New York, Chicago and Boston, Nos. 1, 3 and 5, respectively. (The league is so dead in Boston, former home of “the Celtic mystique,” the Finals drew a 4.0 rating, less than half the national 8.2.)

With all the story lines between Jackson and Kobe Bryant, if they can just stay in the hunt for the playoffs, the media will be in a tizzy all season. It won’t be like old times, but it won’t be like last season, either.

* The return of Shaquille O’Neal. Going back to the East, whence he came, began to right the long-tilted balance of power.

Hopefully for the league and Miami, which is about to give him $100 million through 2009, he has a few good, injury-free seasons in him. He has to miss only one Finals to let everyone know how much this league needs its Diesel.

* The return of Larry Brown. We just don’t know where.

Like a married couple with irreconcilable differences, he and the Pistons are having a problem figuring out who gets the house and what to tell the kids.

Brown doesn’t really want to stay, but he’s telling friends he’ll return, make them fire him and collect his pay.

The Pistons don’t really want him back but are talking about demanding a No. 1 pick from whoever wants him to let him out of his contract.

The New York Knicks look as if they’re still on hold for Brown. Team President Isiah Thomas, who kept interim Coach Herb Williams around just in case, began referring to Williams in the past tense, saying, “He did a fine job when he was here.”

* The return of competitive balance. The West has no more super teams. The East now has three good ones (Miami, Detroit, Indiana unless Ron Artest derails another season), and its second tier isn’t as lame as it was.

New Jersey will be back with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. Chicago and Washington are promising, if young. Milwaukee will be better with Andrew Bogut, Orlando with a coach and a general manager (Brian Hill and Dave Twardzik, replacing Johnny Davis and John Weisbrod, respectively), and Philadelphia with a coach everyone doesn’t hate (Mo Cheeks replacing Jim O’Brien). Oh, and Cleveland has LeBron James (for the moment).

The next thing you know, it’ll be just like a real conference!

* The return of the Bulls. Well, part way.

Promising as they are, they have more problems than a young team should have with management as erratic as the roster.

Negotiations with hyper-intense Coach Scott Skiles turned unexpectedly bitter, despite their $4 million-a-year offer. However, owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who once let popular Doug Collins go for less, neglected to pull it off the table and Skiles came to his senses and grabbed it.

They’re expected to offer Eddy Curry, just cleared by cardiologists, a short-term, incentive-laden deal, which he’s expected to reject.

With or without their low-post scorer, they know they’ll be hard-pressed to match last season’s 47 wins in a more balanced East. After that, stay tuned.

* The return of Dan Gilbert. After his pratfall in his debut as Cavalier owner when he fired his coach and general manager, his team fell apart and all the big guys he pursued turned him down, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

He wanted Jackson as coach and Brown as president but wound up with Mike Brown and Danny Ferry.

This led to last week’s strained news conference where Gilbert introduced Ferry as GM, adding, “As of now, Larry Brown is not coming to this organization.... There’s nothing else for me to say right now.”

Ferry was considered a bright young man in the San Antonio Spurs’ organization, but his hiring couldn’t be counted as a PR coup because he has a history there.

When he refused to sign with the Clippers as the No. 1 pick in the 1990 draft, he was traded to the Cavaliers for Ron Harper, who was then a young star. Because Ferry couldn’t even make the starting lineup for his 10-year, $34-million contract, it’s remembered as one of the dark days in Cavalier history and, with the injuries that eventually forced Brad Daugherty to retire, finished them off as a rising power.

The Cavaliers have $28 million worth of cap space to sign whichever center they want, Zydrunas Ilgauskas ... or Curry, who’s friends with James, which makes all the difference these days.

Gilbert is hyper-involved (he is thought to be the only owner ever to go to the Chicago pre-draft camp to scout). The owner is also bent on being buddies with James, who’s becoming less and less shy about saying what he wants.

For their first act, they traded Jiri Welsch, for whom the old administration had given up a No. 1 pick at midseason, to Milwaukee for a No. 2. Hopefully, they were just warming up.

Faces and Figures

The insanity begins: Just for the record, there’s no -- that’s none, nada, zip -- comparison between Andrew Bynum and O’Neal. When O’Neal entered the NBA in 1992, he weighed 300 pounds -- with 9% body fat. Even when Bynum trimmed down to 300 and began to happen this spring, nine teams passed on him before the Lakers took him with their first pick. At this point, he resembles Curry a lot more than O’Neal.... Prep guard Gerald Green turned the draft upside down, single-handedly. Portland at No. 6 debated between him and Martell Webster, whom they took, to the end. When Green dropped into the teens, the Trail Blazers tried to trade for Boston’s No. 18 pick to take Green too, but the Celtics wanted him.... Memphis’ Jerry West, drafting No. 19, had Green No. 3 on his board and watched with growing excitement as he dropped toward the Grizzlies -- only to be taken one pick before them. West settled for Hakim Warrick but was so deflated, he told the local press: “I really don’t have anything to say.”

Seattle’s Ray Allen, offered $75 million against a maximum of $110 million by hard-line owner Howard Schultz, is listening to offers from the Clippers and Cavaliers. However, the Clippers can’t pursue Allen and Bobby Simmons at the same time. Simmons is being wooed by Houston and Cleveland.... Cleveland in his rearview mirror: Ilgauskas’ agent, Herb Rudoy, says his client is “very interested in going to a different team, quite candidly.” That may mean Curry will wind up there. James must feel he can motivate Curry into averaging more than 4.9 rebounds.... Raja Bell, one of the few Utah Jazz players who kept trying last season when he averaged 12 points and shot 40% on three-pointers, agreed to terms with Phoenix, calling it “an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

The rule letting teams cut one player to avoid paying luxury tax on him is expected to dump Allan Houston and Michael Finley on the market. Phoenix is interested in Finley. Houston is reportedly telling friends he’d like to return to the Pistons. Meanwhile, Portland GM John Nash says he won’t drop Theo Ratliff.... No longer if but when: The Boston Globe reported the Celtics made up two brochures for season-ticket ads, one with Paul Pierce’s picture and one without. Coach Doc Rivers denied Pierce is on the block in such a way as to suggest it was true. “Someone said that a couple of GMs said he parties too much and all that,” Rivers said. “And I always say, whoever those GMs are, they should watch their own teams. Having said that, it’s not something you want said about one of your players, especially Paul.”

Stop me before I opine again: This season’s Loretta Summers Heisler Award for my worst call goes to me for saying there was no way Jackson would return to the Lakers. This beats out the time I told Emeka Okafor’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, that Ben Gordon was sure to beat his client out for rookie of the year. Then there was the time I condemned New Jersey for acquiring the obviously faint-hearted Carter, who recovered in a hurry. In other words, thank heaven for the off-season.... Badeeya, badeeya, badeeya, that’s all folks!