| NO Teams that win NBA championships
-- the Lakers of today and the 1980s, the Bulls of the '90s, the Celtics
of the '60s and the '80s -- are almost invariably peopled with players
who act like professionals. Yet no sport keeps its bad boys, head cases
and out-and-out reprobates in play as persistently as pro hoops. It's
the Marvin Barnes Hope Springs Eternal syndrome. Four NBA teams and
another in the ABA gave the infamous Bad News Barnes (a rebounding fool
of a power forward who eventually racked up four prison terms and 19
stays in rehab) a chance in the '70s, and it never paid off. Hoping that
high-scoring swingman Isaiah Rider would eventually show up on time and
play hard, five NBA teams added the talented enigma to their rosters. He
disappointed every time. The Trail Blazers will not win as long as their
star forward, Rasheed Wallace, is a loutish technical-foul machine. The
Knicks may have come to the end of the road with All-Star guard-forward
Latrell Sprewell, who once choked his coach and sometimes barely makes
it to Madison Square Garden before tip-off.
Not all problem players can be herded into one corral. The 76ers'
Allen Iverson has a rap sheet, Rider's brand of alarm clock and a
legendary distaste for practice, but during games he busts his butt, and
his teammates respect that. Still, AI has already taken the Sixers as
far as he can (to the Finals), and his inability to lead like a true
franchise player makes it unlikely he'll take them there again. The link
between all of the problem players is that inevitably they bring the
team down from within while alienating the fans. "It sounds
harsh," says one G.M., "but we believe that once an a-hole,
always an a-hole. And you won't win with a-holes."
-- Jack
McCallum | |  | | YES It's hard
enough to beat the Lakers. Now teams are supposed to do it with a roster
vetted for miscreants? The mere suggestion could send Trail Blazers fans
into paroxysms of fear. This, after all, is the NBA, a league
responsible for popularizing the word allegedly. In the past year
alone some 5% of the NBA's workforce, from stars to scrubs, has been
arrested -- and that doesn't include the Pistons' Clifford Robinson,
who's facing a $20 million suit for allegedly giving a woman
herpes. (He denies the charge.)
Sure, it'd be swell if every player had the moral compass of, say,
Spurs center Tim Duncan. But franchises aim to field winning teams, not
Boy Scout troops. Where are the Nets without reformed wife-beater Jason
Kidd? The Kings without alleged perjurer Chris Webber? (He pleaded
innocent.) The Sixers without Allen Iverson, whose transgressions form
an epic? As for the idea that bad apples spoil whole teams, it just
ain't so. Often the knaves are popular teammates. (Rasheed Wallace is a
Portland co-captain.)
Delinquency doesn't even deter customers. A year after choking
Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo, Latrell Sprewell had a new shoe deal and
the adoration of Knicks fans. When Iverson was arrested in July for
allegedly threatening a man with a gun (the charges were thrown out),
sales of his Reeboks skyrocketed. "Kids in these neighborhoods know
what it's like to get a bum rap from the police, and they're showing
support," Iverson's adviser "Que" Gaskins told The
Wall Street Journal. Conversely, Gaskins says that Kobe Bryant, a
stranger to the police blotter, "lacks a little credibility"
on the street.
So there. The real crime in the NBA is neglecting to keep it real. If
you like your pro hoops played by sellouts who "lack a little
credibility" and don't get arrested, fear not. WNBA training camps
open in April.
-- L. Jon Wertheim |
