NBA Insider with Ken Berger

By Ken Berger

Tonight’s blog entry comes to you from Continental Airlines Arena, where I caught up with Richard Jefferson and his walking boot, and also tried to clear up what’s going on between Pistons coach Flip Saunders and his tempestuous star, Rasheed Wallace.

Both Saunders and ‘Sheed were aggravated by a recent online report that Wallace “hates” his coach. Not so, said Saunders, but he also didn’t make it seem like he and ‘Sheed were ready to sit down for lunch and enjoy one of the fine, underrated hot dogs Detroit has to offer any time soon.

“We’ve got a coach-player relationship,” Saunders said. “We have a good relationship. That’s it.”

When asked if there’s anything to the report, which came after a sulking Wallace walked away from a huddle prematurely during a timeout in Chris Webber’s debut with the Pistons against the Jazz on Jan. 17, Saunders said, somewhat curtly, “Not at all. Nope. Not at all.”

Wallace wanted to wait until after the Pistons blew out the Nets, 113-89, before weighing in on the subject.

“None of that was true,” Wallace said of the report about his alleged hatred for Saunders, which obviously struck a nerve.

In this business, the reports that get people the most riled up often are the ones with a ring of truth to them. Then again, when presenting the world according to Rasheed, it’s always good to have a few grains of salt handy.

“It was all hearsay,” Wallace said. “The snake trying to start something in the Garden of Eden. Yeah, me and Flip, we’re cool.”

The Pistons certainly seemed all right tonight in their eighth game with Webber in the lineup. Webber had 17 points, made 6 of 7 shots from the field, and had five assists. The Pistons, who are 5-0 when Webber scores at least 10 points and 0-3 when he doesn’t, seem to be getting their swagger back for the first time since Ben Wallace left to sign with the Bulls last summer.

“We haven’t had him very long, so it’s going to take him time,” Saunders said of Webber. “Part of that, too, is in the games he hasn’t scored 10 or more, he hasn’t had lively legs.”

The Pistons are waiting to hear how many players they’ll send to the All-Star game as reserves – probably only Chauncey Billups. But if Wallace had his way, no one on his team would go. The Pistons sent four to the game last year, and both Wallace and Saunders said it was draining.

“I would have rather been at home or somewhere else just relaxing,” Wallace said. “If someone does make it, then good for them. But I wouldn’t want to risk no injuries playing in that B.S. game. That’s just on a personal level. Some guys do deserve it, and if they make it, as a friend I’ll be happy. But as a teammate, I’ll just tell them to be careful.”

As for Jefferson, the Nets’ forward said he wants to take it slow in his comeback from Jan. 22 arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle. He’s been told that he faces a timetable of 1-2 months, but is likely looking at more like six weeks.

“You don’t want to be dumb about it,” Jefferson said. “You want to be smart. There’s no need in coming back too early, hurting yourself and missing more time.”

Jefferson is supposed to be in his walking boot for a few more days before he can begin rehab. The Nets lost the first three games without Jefferson – each by one point on a West Coast trip – but rallied to close out the trip with victories at Denver and Utah.

“They had a tough road trip and played well, and I’m just looking for them to continue that,” Jefferson said.

By Ken Berger

With the news that you won't see Kobe Bryant at the Garden tonight because he's been suspended for one game for clubbing Manu Ginobili in the head -- unintentionally, Bryant says -- this seems like as good a time as any to start Newsday’s NBA blog.

I won’t waste your time with pleasantries or introductions; I’ll get right to the news, because one of my goals for this blog is to bring you news and reaction from around the NBA during the many hours of the day when Newsday’s presses aren’t churning. So here we go:

Kobe got off the plane last night in Newark and the team had a message that NBA security needed to speak with him. For those who didn’t see it, Bryant hit Ginobili in the face with his shooting hand while following through on a missed jumper with 2.7 seconds left in regulation of L.A.’s 96-94 overtime loss to the Spurs on Sunday at the Staples Center.

I saw the play, and I’ve never seen a player go quite as out of his way as Kobe did on that follow-through in an attempt to draw contact. Ginobili was really shaken up, missed the beginning of overtime with a bloody nose, and frankly I was surprised that more of a big deal wasn’t made of Kobe’s errant follow-through. I’m not saying he deliberately tried to hurt him, but let’s just say you would’ve thought Kobe believed it was cheap-shot artist Bruce Bowen coming at him from his blind side rather than Ginobili.

Anyway, here is some of what Kobe said at the Lakers’ shootaround today at the Garden:

“I’m extremely disappointed. I’ve been waiting to play here. This has always been a fun place for me to play, and I’m surprised and shocked by it, actually. I don’t know what to say.

“I unintentionally caught Manu Ginobili. What do you say? It’s a basketball game. You unintentionally catch people with elbows every once in a while. After the play, I just felt terrible about it. I went over to him, checked with him to make sure he’s OK. When we started overtime, I saw he wasn’t out on the floor. I went over to Tim [Duncan] and asked Tim, ‘Is Manu OK?’ I looked over at the bench, checked with him to make sure he was all right. He came back in the game, and I said, ‘I’m glad to see you’re doing all right. Is everything OK?’ I checked with him three times. It was unintentional, man. I felt horrible about it.

“I haven’t see a precedent for this. There are unintentional elbows that take place during the game all the time. I’m blown away by it, man. I really am. This makes no sense.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson hinted that perhaps the Spurs had drawn the league’s attention to the play, because that is what teams do after reviewing the film and seeing something potentially punishable. But why would Gregg Popovich, one of former Knicks coach Larry Brown’s best friends, want to cut Isiah Thomas any slack by getting Kobe suspended for the Knicks game?

“Nothing shocks me anymore with the NBA,” Jackson said. “We’re amazed. … Clearly when a guy is going up for a shot and he’s being contested, you want to draw contact. That’s part of the game you play. And we see that every day with Gilbert Arenas and all our great guards that go to the basket. When their shots are getting contested, they’re trying to get contact to make the foul, especially in the game with a shot like that.”

Jackson also referenced the Knicks-Nuggets brawl of Dec. 16 as a possible explanation for the heightened attention on what was mostly an innocuous play, and also took some shots at league disciplinarian Stu Jackson.

“That’s somebody making a judgment out there that doesn’t really know basketball or know how the game’s played – just how it looks,” Jackson said. “I think that’s the problem.”

So the Lakers’ one appearance of the season at the Garden will be without Kobe, and most fans certainly would agree with Jackson’s next point.

“To miss this game cheats the fans,” he said.

* * * * * * * * * * Now that the news is out of the way, a few words about the blog. Loyal Newsday readers will remember me as the Jets beat writer for the past six seasons, and incidentally, as the paper’s first pro beat writer to start a blog. Now, everybody is blogging – even NFL columnist Bob Glauber, who called to check in from Super Bowl media day as I was in the middle of writing this entry. Bob was a little distracted when we spoke, so I told him I’d catch up with him later. Anyway, after today I’m going to stay no-nonsense on this blog because I think keeping it newsy and informative is the way to go. When the Pistons come to town to play the Nets tomorrow, for example, you can come here before the game and find out if Rasheed Wallace and Flip Saunders have come to blows yet. I’m not going to blog just to give you my thoughts or ruminations on what it is like to cover the NBA. But if there’s news, rumors, and other stuff happening, you can read about it here. I do miss the football games, but I love covering the NBA. There’s always a controversy, trade rumor, or other banter to report or comment about. With my Jets coverage the past few years, I've been away from the NBA since my days as an AP sports writer in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where I reguarly covered Finals and All-Star games and got to know what a great talent and headache Allen Iverson can be. I'm looking forward to covering the upcoming Las Vegas All-Star game, but I have a hard time believing it's going to top the one in Cleveland in 1997 -- when the NBA showcased its 50 greatest players -- or the one at the Garden the following year, when I had a better seat than Prince.

Hopefully, I can inform you a lot, entertain you a little, and give you a place to post your own opinions. Occasionally, I hope to hit you over the head with news or observations even harder than Bryant hit Ginobili.