For perhaps the first time since they were winning with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the early ’70s, the Milwaukee Bucks have their antlers sharpened and are a threat to those hunting for bigger games.
After the Bucks went 30-52 in 2004-05, general manager Larry Harris re-signed Michael Redd, added free agent Bobby Simmons, drafted Andrew Bogut and got T.J. Ford back from injury.
“We came into the season as a team expecting to make the playoffs,” Harris said. “Now we’re a team we think can go deeper than we thought.”
That’s because last week the Bucks may have pulled off the coup of the off-season by acquiring 6-foot-11-inch center Jamaal Magloire, a former All-Star, from the New Orleans Hornets for Desmond Mason and a first-round pick. “This gives us a quality starter at all five positions,” Harris said.
Magloire is a quality low-post presence to deal with the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Jermaine O’Neal and Rasheed Wallace. He also enables the team to play Bogut, the No. 1 overall draft pick, off the bench along with what’s shaping up as a solid group of reserves in Dan Gadzuric, Mo Williams and Toni Kukoc.
“It’s a new team and a new coach (Terry Stotts),” Harris acknowledged, “but we know expectations will now be higher.”
For a small-market team, the Bucks had a remarkable off-season. If they can improve their defense, there’s no reason the Bucks can’t make a run for the top of the Eastern Conference. They might need to do it quickly because Magloire long has expressed a desire to play in his native Canada and can be a free agent after next season. But the Bucks are counting on Bogut being ready to make a major contribution by then. For now, he will back up Magloire and Joe Smith at power forward.
Mason first called Harris “a snake in the grass” for making the trade after allegedly getting assurances he wouldn’t be dealt. Mason later reversed course and said he actually asked to be traded after the Bucks acquired Simmons, who plays the same position.
Either way, Mason, an exciting player and spectacular dunker, ends up in Oklahoma City, temporary home of the Hornets.
Dynamic duo split
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Yes, it narrows your field when you want to run a sports league. NBA Commissioner David Stern’s last major domo, Gary Bettman, got the NHL, but it doesn’t look like Stern is going anywhere for a while. So Russ Granik, Stern’s current deputy, apparently decided to look around. He will finish this season and call it a career after 30 years with the league.
“David asked if I’d do the [second round of the] draft one more time,” Granik said. “I just felt it was time to try something else.”
He has been the ultimate NBA assistant coach, the guy who calmed the league and the owners in the wake of the often-volatile Stern, his famous temper one of the great untold stories of the NBA. Granik, a New York lawyer who once directed league public relations, was instrumental in labor negotiations, the NBA’s Olympics role and was chief owners liaison. A student of political history, he came to the NBA for the opportunity to work with top Democrat Larry O’Brien, once a victim of the Watergate burglaries. And now he leaves proud to be Scottie Pippen to the NBA’s Michael Jordan.
“I had a great run,” says the amiable and popular Granik, who will be replaced by NBA Entertainment President Adam Silver. “Being the No. 2 guy isn’t bad. But when you’re No. 2 everyone thinks your entire focus is on No. 1. Three and four don’t think that way. I never expected David to go anywhere.”
Stern was fond of turning to Granik when asked a tough question at a news conference and saying, “Why don’t you handle that one, Russ?”
He showed he could handle just about anything.
A partly sunny outlook
It sounds more likely that Amare Stoudemire won’t play this season, but innovative Suns coach Mike D’Antoni remains optimistic the team will be highly competitive and exciting–if struggling to get to the free-throw line without Stoudemire.
Said D’Antoni: “We have a team that will hit the open guy, hit the open shots. What we don’t have is the `wow’ factor. But the chemistry is good. Boris Diaw will help us in the post, James Jones fits as a gunslinger. Come two months from now I might be in the fetal position being beaten like a dead horse, but I’m really confident and excited now.”
Getting your Phil
There’s only so much Phil Jackson was willing to do for his woman, Jeannie Buss. Said Buss to the Los Angeles Times of marriage to Jackson, which she has openly campaigned for: “I feel so bad that it’s become such an issue. There’s nothing on the horizon. It’s probably never going to happen. But if Phil said to me, `Jeanie you can have one of two things: One, we can get married, or two, I’ll come back and coach the Lakers,’ I would say my wish is for you to come back and coach the Lakers. I’ve gotten my wish to come true. Hopefully he’ll be giving me another championship ring.”
Meantime, Jackson watched the World Series with interest and said: “I don’t know if any team has vanquished their opponents as smartly as the Sox did this year, not really dominating, but very efficiently.”
Not green with envy
Boston looks as if it will come into the season with five second-round picks on the roster with Orien Greene from Louisiana-Lafayette as perhaps a starter at guard. Gerald Green, who is trying to make the jump from high school, is said to be far from contributing. . . . The Spurs’ Tony Parker, a poor perimeter shooter, likens his changes to Tiger Woods changing his golf swing as he reworks all his shot mechanics under shooting coach Chip Engelland, Steve Kerr’s longtime shooting coach. . . . You wonder how this will play in Indiana. Rookie Danny Granger is a devout Jehovah’s Witness and doesn’t salute the flag. Instead, Granger turns sideways for the national anthem and doesn’t look at the American flag. . . . Word out of Detroit is that high-ranking Pistons officials leaked Larry Brown’s in-season courtship with the Cavaliers to the New York Times as a way of putting Brown on the defensive and easing the sting of his departure. What, no special prosecutor yet? . . . Brown reportedly wants to reunite with George Lynch, currently out of work. Will Eric Snow and Tyrone Hill be next?
Rudy T in retirement
Rudy Tomjanovich is back living in Houston and fulfilling his deal with the Lakers by scouting games. Said Tomjanovich: “I’ve never been happier.” . . . With Jeff Foster hurt, the Pacers probably will follow the Suns’ small-ball model and open the season with Jermaine O’Neal at center. . . . Toronto general manager Rob Babcock said he thought the team might not be as good as last season’s 33 wins. Meanwhile, new Portland coach Nate McMillan came out of the preseason and declared: “We’re years away from getting this team right.” A starting backcourt of Sebastian Telfair and journeyman Charles Smith (instead of a disappointing Juan Dixon) probably didn’t encourage McMillan. Portland rookie Martell Webster, also far from helping, was an AAU teammate of McMillan’s son. . . . New Seattle coach Bob Weiss is noted for soft practices and plenty of time off, which doesn’t bode well for his longevity with this breed of NBA players. Says Weiss: “One of the points I tried to stress to Nate was you have to enjoy this while you are here too. You can’t let it consume you.” . . . Robert “Tractor” Traylor is planning heart surgery for an enlarged aortic valve this winter.
Final shots
The Knicks’ Quentin Richardson is off to a tough start. He has been sidelined all preseason with injury, apparently upset over his trade from Phoenix and now word comes that he was dumped by fiance Brandy, who had her back tattoo of him changed into a cat. No word on what happened to the $1 million engagement ring he gave her. . . . Former Peoria star Shaun Livingston will miss at least the first month of his second season with the Clippers. He is starting to remind many of the always-injured high school bust Jonathan Bender. . . . Can’t remember if the ’86 Celtics did this: Cleveland’s Damon Jones, Larry Hughes and LeBron James have rehearsed a routine for introductions in which they give each other two low fives, a wave and then pose with their arms crossed. “We’re all just superheroes,” explained Jones.
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