The Bulls get to see the league’s brightest new prospect in Kevin Durant and the NBA’s most cynical organization, the Oklahoma City/Seattle SuperSonics, when they visit the United Center on Tuesday night. This is truly the one team in the NBA whose mission appears to be to lose games to further alienate its community and make relocating easier.
“They didn’t give it a chance,” says former Sonic and current Celtic Ray Allen. “Now with Durant, everything goes on top of him. He’s taking tough shots, learning in the fire as opposed to having myself and (Orlando’s) Rashard (Lewis) out there taking the pressure off but allowing him to build himself into an offensive player and legitimate scorer.
“You can’t put everything on a young player. It takes a while. You need good veterans around to be successful. But it was a decision they made.”
It was one that helped turn the Celtics (17-2) and the Magic (16-5) into legitimate championship contenders. The joke around the NBA is Minnesota general manager Kevin McHale and Seattle GM Sam Presti are battling for executive of the year for building the Celtics and Magic.
The Celtics and Magic, running 1-2 in the East, are a combined 10-3 against Western teams, with the Magic an impressive 11-2 on the road. With Allen supporting Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and Lewis teaming with Dwight Howard and a revived Hedo Turkoglu, both teams have the kind of Big Threes made for the playoffs. In fact, Orlando’s three average 60.9 per game to 59.1 for Boston’s. And the Celtics and Magic are Nos. 1 and 2 in the league in opponents’ field-goal defense.
How good could Seattle have been if it had kept Lewis, who says he wanted to stay, and Allen, who never asked to leave? The Sonics lucked into the No. 2 pick after a season marred by injury. They had two All-Stars. In players like Nick Collison, Chris Wilcox and Earl Watson, they had the role players to bolster the offensive stars. And they would have been in good position to add an interested Grant Hill with a full salary-cap exception instead of the approximately one-third Hill signed for in Phoenix.
The Sonics looked like a team that would have been competing for a top-four spot in the Western Conference with a high-scoring, open-court game.
Sources say Lewis even agreed before last season to a short-term extension of $25 million over two years, but it was not offered because the new ownership didn’t want to spend the money. After opting out of his contract and becoming a free agent, Lewis then said he was prepared to accept an offer from Presti, the new GM, but none came. Instead, Allen was traded to the Celtics for spare parts and Lewis was let go for more detritus, all apparently in a not-so-transparent attempt to begin building a team for the next city.
It’s not like anyone in the NBA is going to stand in the way. Commissioner David Stern is said to be upset about the way he was treated by the state legislature in talks about a new arena, and NBA owners generally couldn’t care less whether the Sonics move. Unlike in other sports, NBA teams don’t share gate receipts, so owners usually don’t care where a team plays. Some owners say they’ll benefit from a Sonics move because a hefty relocation fee will be split among all the owners, plus a future franchise fee if the league ever decides to return to Seattle.
The new ownership from Oklahoma City and the city of Seattle are fighting over the arena lease, though it’s a matter of when they leave, not if. The sad part for the sake of competition is Seattle had the pieces in place and a reasonable payroll to have a terrific team this season. Instead, it chose a callous plan of surrender.
“Patience is a virtue in this league, to let a team mature,” Allen said. “But they wanted to have their own team and their own guys.”
And, we presume, their own, different city.
Unhappy star of the week
That’s Jason Kidd. Some big name seems to be offered in a trade scenario almost every week. This time it’s Kidd, who skipped a game with a “migraine headache.” Questions then arose about whether he was unhappy about his contract, about the Nets’ failure to trade him to LeBron James and the Cavaliers or Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, or about still having to live in New Jersey.
Kidd denied the speculation, though you can believe Nets officials thought Kidd was AWOL. Just about every New York-area newspaper and several national Internet sites quoted “league sources” that Kidd had blown off the game. Must have been a coincidence they all got the same negative story at the same time.
Kidd has been bashing the underachieving Nets much of the season, and he’ll probably be traded with the team going nowhere. I got a few e-mails about this with Kirk Hinrich’s struggles, but Kidd won’t be dealt within the Eastern Conference. The belief is he’ll end up with the Dallas Mavericks, where he started his career.
The Mavs have regressed, especially on defense, and hardly look like a serious contender anymore. Dirk Nowitzki clearly is carrying the sting of consecutive playoff embarrassments. They need a jump-start, and few players provide it like Kidd, who once revitalized the Nets. He’s ready to go, and they’re ready for change. The Mavs’ strength has been depth, and they have the pieces to satisfy the Nets with a young but struggling point guard in Devin Harris and some pieces like Jerry Stackhouse and Jason Terry.
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Actually, a potentially nice collection of point guards could be available, with speculation centering on Andre Miller in Philadelphia, Mike Bibby in Sacramento and the demoted Luke Ridnour in Seattle. And of course, Stephon Marbury is always available from the Knicks, who will be in town Friday.
The real hero
Stephen Jackson has been getting a lot of credit for the Warriors’ run since his return from suspension, but their key remains Baron Davis, quietly averaging 23.2 points, 8.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 2.4 steals. And he seems to finally have some perspective, like in recent comments to the Sacramento Bee:
“When you come from where I came from and you come into a lot of money, a lot of people come out of the woodwork. Those weren’t the best people to have around. When you’re young, you allow that to happen. You feel a sense of guilt for your success. But you also want to help change people that you feel have potential and talent. But those people are there for a reason, and that’s to really become takers.”
A lot with a little
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan signed an extension for next season, which will be his 21st straight in Utah. And Sloan, long considered unbending, continues to show what makes him such a good coach.
Though the team’s new duo of Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams is likened to Karl Malone and John Stockton, there is little basketball comparison other than being All-Stars, as evidenced when Williams scored a career-high 41 Saturday night in a loss at Dallas as Josh Howard had 47.
The Jazz is giving up 100.7 per game, the first time in 15 years it’s yielding more than 100. The Jazz also is 21st in field-goal defense. It’s because Boozer’s and Williams’ idea of defense is to score after they are scored on.
Still, Sloan has accepted the attitudes so different from Malone and Stockton (and certainly his own) and has one of the league’s better teams.
Feeling more heat
Last week’s installment of “Days of Our Heat” included Udonis Haslem storming out of a huddle after arguing with coach Pat Riley, and Riley and Shaquille O’Neal getting into it at practice after Riley wanted to throw O’Neal out but was persuaded otherwise by Alonzo Mourning. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported players had questioned Riley putting his team through a tough game-day workout before what turned into a 91-76 blowout loss Nov. 13 at Charlotte.
“That’s just a typical players’ response to losing,” Riley said. “The last thing that players should want to do is say that they’re working too hard as an excuse. That’s a real cop-out. They’re hardly even working.” Said Smush Parker, away from the team awaiting an assault investigation: “[It’s] different from Phil Jackson and what [I was] used to. Phil didn’t yell at all. Here, the locker room is made for people who yell.”
Fast breaks
New Jersey media report the Nets are asking Seattle for permission to talk with former GM Rick Sund to replace Ed Stefanski, who replaced Billy King in Philadelphia last week. Former Atlanta GM Pete Babcock also is a candidate. Sund, a graduate of Northwestern, also is on the search committee’s list to replace Mark Murphy as Northwestern’s athletic director. … Maybe Antoine Walker went to the better team. The Timberwolves are just a game behind the Heat after beating the Suns on Saturday. Said Minnesota’s Marko Jaric: “Definitely this season, it’s the biggest of all three victories.” … Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman took last week off for back surgery. And we thought Riley would be the first coach to find something to be operated on. … When Denver’s Marcus Camby had a game of zero points and 20 rebounds, it brought up the career leader in that 0-20 category, Dennis Rodman, who had seven games of zero points and at least 20 rebounds. He has the record with 28 rebounds and zero points. … Still trying to figure out why they don’t teach math in Brazil. The Cavs, who had offered $32 million for five years, happily matched the Bobcats’ offer of $17 million for three for Anderson Varejao, who is saying how good his deal is because he can be a free agent after two years. Quick, everyone line up to pay a guy who can’t shoot and had his career numbers last season of 6.8 points and 6.7 rebounds. If the guy didn’t have a bad haircut, he’d be Chris Anstey. … Sitting around recuperating from microfracture surgery, Greg Oden is bulking up so much lifting weights that the Trail Blazers have asked him to back off for fear he’ll lose quickness when he returns next season. Oden said he had no timetable on when he’d start on-court drills. He recently told the Indianapolis Star he’s adjusting to Portland, though, Hoosier that he is, Oden said: “The city is nice. The only thing is, they don’t have any Wal-Marts near my house. I go to Best Buy or Target, but those places are pretty expensive.”
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