As they yell to the runners trying to break the five-hour mark in the marathons: You’re all winners! Well, pro sports isn’t that way. There’ll be one team declaring that two months from now, and in the weeks before then, the NBA will be announcing which individuals were special during the regular season. Here’s one ballot:
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Steve Nash, Suns: Mine was a two-man race between Nash and Kobe Bryant. LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki will get numerous first-place votes. Chauncey Billups, Elton Brand and Dwyane Wade will get their share too. Bryant was the best individual player in the game this season, but I went for Nash. His overall team play has virtually every member of the rotation, including himself, having career scoring seasons after the Suns lost high-scoring Amare Stoudemire. The Suns were still able to win the division and lead the league in scoring.
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COACH OF THE YEAR
Phil Jackson, Lakers: Jackson always said the award was bad luck because coaches invariably got fired within a few years of winning it. So I thought about voting for Jeff Van Gundy. I hate not voting for the Suns’ Mike D’Antoni because of the way he advocates the most enjoyable form of basketball played today. I could make good cases for Avery Johnson, Flip Saunders, Gregg Popovich and Mike Dunleavy. All you hear is Bryant doesn’t make teammates better, so then it has to be Jackson with Smush Parker, Brian Cook and Chris Mihm having career scoring years and Kwame Brown resurrected. The Lakers will end up with about a third more wins than a team with its talent level should win. Jackson, though certainly not an advocate of a one-man shooting show, demonstrated flexibility with Bryant to do what was necessary for team success.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Chris Paul, Hornets: He’ll probably be the unanimous choice, though Deron Williams came on strong and Charlie Villanueva, Andrew Bogut and Channing Frye showed promise as front-court players.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bruce Bowen, Spurs: Ben Wallace has been a perennial choice and a good one and Andrei Kirilenko puts up some amazing defensive numbers. Paul is probably the best rookie defender and Shawn Marion gets overlooked again. But it’s even harder now to defend on the perimeter with enforced fouling rules and Bowen continues to be relentless and bothersome, which takes more work than ever. Ron Artest just hasn’t played enough games, and wasn’t physically ready to play his usual outstanding defense when he went to the Kings.
MOST IMPROVED
Andres Nocioni, Bulls: Most of the sentiment is for the Suns’ Boris Diaw, who has improved remarkably across the board. Tony Parker, though good before, raised his game a level with fellow Spurs Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili injured. The Hornets’ David West and the Bobcats’ Gerald Wallace get mentions. But even though his numbers haven’t gone up as dramatically as Diaw’s or West’s, Nocioni defines this award. Slow and a poor long-distance perimeter shooter, Nocioni shot 39 percent on threes after 25 percent last year and raised his scoring about 50 percent. Plus he has been the Bulls’ best player the last month when the team needed it to make the playoffs.
SIXTH MAN
Mike Miller, Grizzlies: Ben Gordon doesn’t qualify because he’ll have started slightly more games than games coming off the bench. Some who do are Jerry Stackhouse, Michael Finley, Speedy Claxton, Leando Barbosa, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Antonio McDyess and Alonzo Mourning. But Miller has been the second-best scorer and rebounder for a solid Grizzlies team while also among the leaders in three-point shooting and should be an easy winner.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Elgin Baylor, Clippers: No more jokes. The Clippers made all the right moves and when I suggested the deal Corey Maggette for draft picks, I got a call and was told they’d never, ever make a move that doesn’t improve the team on the floor. Adding the backcourt of Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley gave the team spirit and credibility and one of its best seasons. They passed the NBA baton of ridicule to the Knicks.
ALL NBA
First Team: Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Ben Wallace.
Second team: Chauncey Billups, Dwyane Wade, Elton Brand, Shawn Marion and Shaquille O’Neal.
Third team: Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol and Yao Ming.
– – –
SAM’S WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Larry Krystkowiak
He finished his second season coaching his alma mater, the University of Montana, to a Big Sky Conference tournament championship, second straight NCAA appearance and a first-round victory over Nevada.
The tough power forward was a Bulls’ second-round draft pick in 1987, traded immediately for Steve Colter, who didn’t quite become the future running mate of Michael Jordan that Jerry Krause had envisioned. Krystkowiak came back to the Bulls for the 1994-95 season, but knee injuries during his best seasons for the Bucks were too much and he left the NBA and played a season in France. He went back to Montana to finish his degree in business administration.
“I decided it was time to get a real job,” Krystowiak said. “I had my degree, and it was time to enter the real world. But my heart kept calling me back and it kept saying, ‘Basketball.'”
He worked assistant jobs at Old Dominion, a high school in Norfolk, Va., and then coached in the CBA until returning to Missoula. With his wife and three children 7 and under, he is happy back home, but he’s destined to join an NBA staff.
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SAM’S GAME OF THE WEEK
Clippers at Memphis, 7 p.m. Tuesday
There’s plenty to be decided for positioning at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but the league will be watching this one carefully. In another quirk in the new seeding system with six divisions, the loser of this game could be a big winner. The loser probably falls to sixth, setting up a first-round series with Denver and home-court advantage, which goes strictly by record and not automatically to the division winner. The loser opens on the road, most likely against Dallas, which will have the conference’s second-best record.
SAM’S QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“He disabled Yao Ming! He’s more vicious than a capitalist!”–Letter to Chinese media from a fan about Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy playing Yao Ming late in a losing season and Yao suffering a broken foot that may force him to miss playing for China in the World Championships in August.