NBA Insider with Ken Berger

There’s lots of buzz in the blogosphere about LeBron James’ arrogant swipe at Stephon Marbury’s $14.98 shoes. Judging from the King’s comments, Marbury must be onto something.

Truehoop’s Henry Abbott is all over the sneaker war; he was all over it even before LeBron came into the Garden last night and said he couldn’t imagine endorsing a $15 shoe because, “Me being with Nike, we hold our standards high.”

Marbury’s response was priceless: “I’d rather own than be owned.” Even though there’s a professional rivalry between them, understand that Steph and LeBron get along well and respect each other. But hey, you don’t dis a man’s kicks.

Check out all these comments to a Truehoop post earlier this week, and it’s obvious Marbury’s sneaker and apparel movement has struck a nerve. And whether people wear Nikes, Starburys, or knockoffs, clearly they don’t appreciate a star like LeBron taking shots at Marbury, who has won enormous image points with his bold stance against ultra-expensive shoes.

If you want to read my take on how LeBron's game is not living up to his royal hype, check out this column from Wednesday's paper.

To be fair, LeBron did have some nice things to say about Starburys. Before he knocked them, he said, “Growing up in the inner city, you know at times a family can’t afford $120 shoes or $90 shoes. So you get an opportunity the way you can play basketball in shoes you can afford and your family lifestyle doesn’t change. It’s definitely smart on their part.”

I just hope everyone remembers LeBron saying that $15 shoes don’t meet Nike’s “high standards” when the day comes for Nike to produce a low-priced shoe to recoup whatever market share it is losing to Starbury.

Example: Does anyone remember the first fast-food restaurant to have a dollar menu? All of them have one now.

I was happy to see my Sunday column on Kobe Bryant generated so many intelligent comments from readers.

So many of you took the time to post comments on the article that I thought it was only fair to respond.

I appreciate Danny's assertion -- "Ken Berger, you are an idiot" -- and the assessment of Andi from Los Angeles that I need therapy, but was especially intrigued that the article prompted someone as far away as London to offer his two cents. Thanks for reading, Uzair.

Though some used more colorful language than others, you all essentially made the same point: That I failed to point out that Jordan -- unlike Kobe -- did not have to face zone defenses. Very fair point, and something I should have included in my analysis.

But rather than further aggravate you with my own analysis, I posed the Kobe-Jordan question to David Thorpe of Scouts Inc. today when I was speaking with him for a different upcoming column. Here is what he said when I asked him to evaluate Jordan's and Kobe's 50-point streaks in light of the two rules changes that have taken effect in the past few years:

"Here is how you do it," Thorpe said. "Jordan’s the only guy of his generation to do what he did. With the new rules, against zone defenses and quicker whistles, no one else has done it. In fact, no one’s come close to doing it.
In the last two years with the new rules interpretations and zone defenses being allowed, who else has even done two in a row?"

I took Thorpe's advice and called Elias, which reported that since zone defenses were allowed in the NBA starting with the 2001-02 season, there had been only one other instance of consecutive 50-point games before Bryant's four in a row. Allen Iverson had two in a row in 2004.

This period includes the rules interpretation I emphasized in the column, no hand-checking or impeding on the perimeter, which began last season.

"Because of rule differences, it really becomes apples and oranges," Thorpe said. "You could argue that it was tougher for Jordan. I probably would agree with that. But I'm not sure that it’s relevant. What’s relevant is, in the last three years, no one’s done back to back 50s and he did four of them. So in its own time, it is the best there is."

So there you have it. Thanks for all your comments, and hopefully that clears things up.

Spoke with Glen Grunwald yesterday before the Knicks failed to show up in a home game they needed badly, losing to the Portland Trail Blazers – without Zach Randolph – 92-86.

Grunwald, Isiah Thomas’ right-hand man as the Knicks’ senior vice president for basketball operations, hadn’t done an interview with a New York media outlet since the last day of training camp in October. He shared his thoughts on the plan for improving a roster that is projected to be at least $30 million over the salary cap next season.

The bottom line, as you can read in today’s paper, is there’s not much Grunwald can do for the foreseeable future in terms of franchise-shaping moves. The Knicks are capped out, don’t have many desirable contracts to move in sign-and-trades, and will have to rely mostly on their young core of Eddy Curry, Channing Frye, and David Lee to get better.

Unless, of course, they decide to trade one or more of those players. But speaking with Grunwald on the phone from his office at Madison Square Garden, I didn’t get the sense that’s a strategy he’s too keen on implementing.

Anyway, you can decide for yourself. Here are some highlights from the interview. Comments are welcome.

On working with Thomas: “To have a sounding board or a different perspective from someone else with a different viewpoint, that’s good. I think we have a good relationship, so we can have candid conversations and we can express our opinions. He makes the final decisions, but I’m very comfortable expressing what I think are things we should do.”

On his reputation as the man in Toronto who talked Thomas out of rash decisions on personnel: “I give my opinion of what I think we should be doing. I don’t necessarily disagree with anything we’ve done. I’m just here to generate some ideas, generate some leads, go from plans and then try and present them to Isiah and management and see if we can keep moving in a positive direction. I don’t think I have to say that I’m keeping Isiah under control. He knows what he’s doing. It’s just another perspective and some different ideas and we all buy into the same thing once we agree on it.”

On his philosophy for acquiring players: “The versatile, athletic, long players are something that we think can be very helpful to a team and help build a successful franchise. Given where we’re at in terms of the salary cap, the need to not lose players is very important and to continue to accumulate good players is very important.”

On how he’d assess the Knicks’ cap situation: “We’re over the cap right now and next year, too. For two years, we’re pretty much going to be over the cap and then it’s our job to provide some different alternatives in two years. Whether we stay over the cap or try to get under the cap, those are things that we’re looking at and trying to manage right now and plan for.”

On his plan for improving the team: “We like our young players. We think our core, young group of bigs is as good a group of players as any in the league, probably, from a young player perspective. We see that as very positive for our future. We like a lot of our players. We can only play five at a time, but we think we have good players. I think what’s important for us right now is that we continue to build value in our team and in our players in the event that we do decide to make a trade in the future.

“I think since I’ve been on the staff here, I’ve seen the value of our players – not that we’ve had any trades – but in discussions with other teams, the value of our players has increased over the course of the season right up to the trade deadline.”

On how much flexibility he has to make an impact move in the offseason: “We’re looking to improve our team. Whenever that deal would be, Steve Mills and Mr. Dolan have all been very supportive about various things that we’ve talked about to them. And I think they have trust in Isiah and his staff to do the right things. Obviously nothing big has happened this year. But I think if an opportunity presents itself, we’ll be able to seize it.”

On whether a few buyouts would help the cap situation this summer: “No, I don’t think that’s a realistic possibility right now to get cap room in the next two years, frankly. There’s no great value from a cap perspective in buying out players.”

On whether a buyout has been discussed with Steve Francis or his agent, Jeff Fried: “The whole Steve Francis thing, I don’t know where that started, but there’s no truth to that. I don’t know how that still has legs, but no, that’s not true.”

On the upcoming draft, where the Knicks will likely have a first-round pick in the 20s: “It looks like a good draft. It’s too early to say how good it will be because so much of it always depends on underclassmen and their decisions to enter the draft or not. It could be a very good draft, and I think we could get a very good player if things go as predicted.”

On whether anyone on the roster is untouchable: “Some people are more available than others, but my position has always been that unless there’s a no-trade clause in someone’s contract, then you always have to look at whatever can improve the team. That’s not to say that we’re trying to trade anyone or anything like that, but I think we have to be honest with our team. They have to understand that we’re going to do everything we can for them while they’re here and treat them fairly if it ever comes to a time when we think it’s in the best interests of the team to make a trade.”

On why he was brought in to run the day-to-day basketball operations: “I think the franchise needed some stability this year. I think to make significant changes, unless it was going to dramatically improve us in some fashion, probably would have not been the right thing to do. I think we needed to get the franchise stabilized and set and get the group playing together for some time and experiencing some success together, and I think that’s what’s happening right now.”

On how close the Knicks were to making a trade at the deadline: “We had our discussions, but I would say the quote from Isiah was, we weren’t really in any deals that came close.”

On his job so far: “It’s been good. It’s been a great learning experience getting to know the team and the players and the organization and the city. So it’s been a great experience for me so far. And the more we win, the more fun it’ll be.”

Greenburgh, N.Y. – Jamal Crawford just got finished speaking with reporters for the first time since he had surgery on his right ankle, and he sounded reasonably optimistic that he could return at some point during a first-round playoff series if the Knicks make it there.

Crawford is in a walking boot and will be on crutches for about another week. Then comes cardio work, and eventually, on-court drills.

He didn’t entirely rule out returning for the last couple of games of the regular season, but that doesn’t appear likely at all given two interesting revelations from the interview at the Knicks’ practice facility: 1) Crawford said the stress fracture in his right ankle could have become a Grant Hill-type injury if it had been detected any later; and 2) He was pretty specific that he’d be iffy for the first game or two of a first-round playoff series, saying he’d have a better chance of coming back at some point after that.

Crawford said he was fine with how the team handled his injury. But his revelation that he felt pain in the ankle for about two months before he was given X-rays and a CT scan will only fuel more questions about the Knicks’ medical staff.

Crawford added that he didn’t tell anyone about the pain for three or four weeks. After that, he said he was told the injury might have been tendinitis.

Channing Frye, who suffered a scratched cornea last night against the Mavericks, allegedly is practicing with protective goggles as we speak. That’s the news for now. Check back a little later for further updates and quotes from Crawford.

UPDATE: My bad for forgetting to update the blog with more stuff on Crawford, as promised. With so many injuries to follow, I feel like they have all transferred to my body. My head hurts. Now I understand why Alan writes about Flava Flav and Mike & the Mad Dog all the time. A blog is maddening to maintain when you're dealing with the Knicks.

Bottom line is this: According to a prominent orthopedic surgeon I spoke with today, the Knicks handled Crawford's injury properly, based on the information I was able to convey to him. The doc says it's reasonable that Crawford could return to play about eight weeks after surgery, which would put him in the middle of a potential first-round playoff series.

Frye is playing tomorrow night, with goggles to protect his scratched right cornea. No Quentin Richardson, and probably no David Lee -- although it looks like Lee could be back Friday night at Cleveland or Monday against Orlando. Stephon Marbury is fine -- relatively speaking -- after sustaining a neck stinger against Dallas and will play against Portland. Eddy Curry's back -- which stiffened up during a two-hour traffic jam on the Major Deegan on Monday -- seemed to have loosened up yesterday.

Unrelated item: Frank Isola of the Daily News apparently is posting on my blog under the name Mitchell. Check it out:

The problem with the NBA are the officials. You have probably the greatest athletes in the world competing, where most games are decided in the last 2-3 minutes. Inevitably, the winner is based on the officiating--who gets the calls and who doesn't during those last few minutes. And, these officials are all jokes, mostly as they are biased, usually as evidenced by the disparity of team records at home and away.
At some point, some sportswriter will be smart enough to point out how silly this great game has become.

Thanks for stopping by, Frank.

On another note, Henry Abbott has made it big. His Truehoop blog debuted at its new home today, ESPN.com. It's a must read if you follow the NBA.

It is a rule: When you interview the Blogmaverick himself, you must write a blog entry about it.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was compelling enough to write about in the traditional newspaper column, but the finite nature of newsprint doesn’t do him justice. So here are the highlights of Cuban’s only visit of the season to Madison Square Garden, which is dangerously close to the NBA offices – which, as you might have heard, Cuban has dubbed “David Stern University.”

Did he spend any time with the commissioner, you ask?

“Since I haven’t been fined, they didn’t have any money for donuts or anything,” Cuban said. “So I volunteered to make donuts. That was my home ec project. Whether or not they’re any good, I don’t know. I forgot the sprinkles, so that might hurt my grade.”

Did he really try to buy the Chicago Cubs?

“I made inquiries, but they’re not separating out the Cubs,” Cuban said of the Tribune Company, which owns this blog. “You guys read the press as much as I do. I know some people who are active in trying to buy the Tribune Company that if they got the company and they were willing to split it up, I’d be willing to talk. But I’m not in any active discussions.”

Unfortunately, Cuban isn’t interested in buying Newsday.

He did elaborate on a revelation he made a couple of weeks ago on a TV show: That he considered selling the Mavericks after they lost to the Heat in the NBA Finals last June. This was serious, with investment bankers taking bids from “more than three but less than 20” potential suitors.

It started in June and lasted until September or October, Cuban said – a major effort resulting from his disillusionment over, among other things, being repeatedly fined by Stern.

A month after he shut down the bidding and decided to keep the team, the NBA Board of Governors passed the “Mark Cuban Rule,” meant to keep team owners off the bench, out of the huddle, and out of the referees’ ears.

Cuban’s interest in getting out of the NBA also was prompted by his feeling that the refs heavily favored Miami in its comeback from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Mavericks in the Finals.

“I told Stern, I told other owners that I was out,” Cuban said. “Given what happened in June, there were a lot of things that I wasn’t comfortable with. But as I told the guys in Dallas, there’s more to it than just that. The connection with the players and an obligation to the players, I felt I owed them more.”

Cuban said he “hung out” with Dirk Nowitzki in July and started to change his mind, but the process continued for several more months.

“I wouldn’t have regretted it at all, because that would have been a nice opportunity to get some things off my chest, which I would have enjoyed immensely,” Cuban said.

Other highlights:

* On his relationship with Stern: “I’ll give him a kiss on the cheek when I see him. It’s the same. As long as we don’t talk about sex, politics, and religion, we’re OK.”
* When asked why he would kiss Stern’s cheek and not his ring: “You know, because his toes were covered.”
* On what would happen if David Stern University merged with Donald Trump University (Trump is another Cuban nemesis): “All fines are named for Donald Trump. Like the Trumpster $1,000, the Trumpster $2,000.”
* On Stephon Marbury’s Starbury line of $14.98 shoes: “The NBA has never, ever done anything that is as impactful as what he’s done.”

It turns out Dirk Nowitzki went out for sushi yesterday after his marathon, solo practice session at Columbia University. He looked fine at shootaround this morning at the Garden, so the Knicks made their first mistake against the Mavericks.

Couldn’t someone in the MSG reconnaissance department have trailed him and paid the sushi chef to serve Dirk some tainted tuna?

Nowitzki said the sushi was “damn good,” although it must not have been that good because he couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant. Assistant coach Del Harris was pleased with his meal and the surroundings at Kean’s, the old-school steakhouse in Midtown.

None of this will matter tonight at 7:30, when the Mavericks figure to carve up the Knicks like a filet mignon.

Avery Johnson must come from the same poor-mouth school of coaching as Isiah Thomas, because he kept going on and on about how the Mavericks, with the best record in the NBA at 54-11, aren’t the same team without role players Devean George and Greg Buckner. Against the Knicks, they’ll miss Buckner only from the standpoint that he does the best imitation of Johnson on the team.

Phoenix and Dallas both are stumbling a bit since their epic overtime clash last Wednesday night, but don’t expect a letdown from the Mavericks tonight. Nowitzki said he respects the Knicks and hasn’t forgotten the Mavericks’ overtime loss here last January.

“We know the Knicks are a capable team,” Nowitzki said. “They can beat you any given night. They’re a physical team. They go to the glass hard. I guess if we play our game we’ve got a pretty good shot at winning. But for us getting ready for the playoffs, we have to know how to win on the road and we want to come in here, hopefully play well and win.”

I figure the Knicks will make a game of it tonight, because they always seem to play well against teams they have no business beating. It’s the lesser teams – like the Hornets last Friday night – that give them trouble.

But to beat the Mavericks, you have to do two things: 1) Shoot better than 40 percent from the three-point line; and 2) Score 100 or more points. Seven of the Mavericks’ 11 losses have come when the opponent shot at least 40 percent on three-pointers, and they’re 4-6 on the road this season when allowing 100 or more points.

Without Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson, you can forget a big outside shooting night for the Knicks, who have hit the century mark only twice in the last 12 games.

I’ve got to give Alan Hahn props for panning Mike & the Mad Dog in his blog. Driving home from the Dallas shootaround a while ago, when Mike and Dog were handicapping the Knicks’ playoff chances, it sounded like they were reading from Hahn’s blog.

I’ll be looking for Alan’s advance copy of Steve Somers’ transcript for the ride home tonight.

It is time to unburden my notebook and brain of its contents after a pretty interesting week of basketball around here.

First, some highlights of a bonus NBA Notes column, called the NBA Shootaround, which appears only on Newsday.com, in case you missed it on Sunday:

* The Nets’ Richard Jefferson is liable to say anything, which explains why he told me before the Nets lost to the Heat Thursday night that New Jersey is the best team in the Eastern Conference. Huh?

“I don’t really think there’s a team in the East that’s better than us,” Jefferson said. “We’re one of the best teams. This is not like crazy talk, I just believe that when we’re healthy, we’ve proved that we can beat everybody.”

The Nets, of course, are not even assured of making the playoffs.

Jefferson also took a shot at Phoenix and Dallas, who have the two best records in the NBA, saying their achievements have been inflated by all the injuries in the league this season. I’ll be sure to get some reaction today from the Mavericks, who are practicing in the city for tomorrow night’s game against the Knicks.

“San Antonio has primarily been healthy,” Jefferson said. “Phoenix has primarily been healthy. Dallas has primarily been healthy. So a team that’s already going to be good, and they’re healthy, going against teams that are beat up, I think that’s why you’re seeing so many dominant teams.”

* After getting his contract extension last week, Isiah Thomas lavished some well-deserved praise on his coaching staff, correctly noting that the Knicks wouldn’t even be in the playoff race without the contributions of right-hand man Brendan Suhr and fellow assistants Mark Aguirre and Herb Williams.

Suhr was a top assistant on Chuck Daly’s staff in Detroit when Thomas played there, and Thomas has adapted a lot of the preparation methods and strategy nuances that Suhr and Daly used.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the Knicks’ coaching staff has been the way Dave Hanners and Phil Ford, holdovers from Larry Brown’s staff, have thrived in what could have been an almost impossible situation, given the rift between Thomas and Brown.

When Brown was fired after only one season, the Garden didn’t want to let Hanners and Ford out of their contracts. So Thomas was left to figure out how to make them loyal to him.

Thomas asked the advice of Garden chairman James Dolan and Ken Schanzer, president of NBC Sports, and they both told him the same thing.

“You always ask and you want loyalty, but sometimes you have to give that first before you can get it,” Thomas said. “With Dave and Phil, they’ve been in a very difficult situation and our whole staff was in a very difficult situation last year and coming into this year. I thought it was my job and my responsibility to give loyalty first and give them the opportunity and the chance to see it.”

* After Lakers coach Phil Jackson was slapped with a $50,000 fine this week for saying the NBA is on a “witch hunt” against Kobe Bryant, it seemed like a good time to ask Shaquille O’Neal if Kobe right to be concerned that he has an image problem.

“Image is reality, not what others create for you,” Shaq said. “You are what you are.”

Bryant, who lifted the Lakers out of their seven-game losing streak with a season-high 65 points Friday night in a 117-111 overtime victory over the Trail Blazers, has received two-one game suspensions for striking players in the face while following through on shots this season.

Then last week, the NBA retroactively assessed Bryant with a flagrant foul for elbowing the 76ers’ Kyle K
Korver, prompting Jackson’s rant.

Clearly, Bryant has been motivated by the controversy, following up his 65-point game with 50 in a 109-102 victory over Minnesota on Sunday. Bryant became the first Laker with two straight 50-point games since Elgin Baylor in 1962.

Check out what ESPN.com’s Marc Stein has to say about Kobe.

Now, back to Shaq, who also offered his list of the dirtiest players in NBA history Thursday night. O’Neal could only come up with three: Bill Laimbeer, Maurice Lucas, and Dennis Rodman.

* O’Neal also offered this doozy before the Nets game when asked if it’s possible to emulate his game: “I’m unemulatable. I took the files and deleted them, ate them, used them in the bathroom, flushed it, it went to a sewage plant and blew a sewage plant up. So there’s no way my style can be copied. It’s gone, forever.”

* For the second time in a week, Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell went to bat for Stephon Marbury, a former teammate of his in Minnesota. Mitchell, whose Raptors barely showed up in a 92-74 loss to the Knicks Sunday at noon in the Garden, also poked fun at reporters who had prematurely predicted Steve Francis’ demise.

It all started when I asked, innocently enough, what Mitchell had learned about the Knicks when his team beat them last week in Toronto.

“I learned that Stephon is back,” Mitchell said. “A lot of you guys had written him off and he’s playing very well. He’s playing like he used to play when I played with him a long time ago.

“I realized Steve Francis emerged from his death bed. For somebody who was dead and gone and out the door, he’s playing awfully well. It just goes to show you, take talented players and put them in the right environment and if they get their heads screwed on straight, they play. Talent prevails.

“I’ve got a soft spot for Stephon because we played together his first two years. I think he’s a really good guy. He’s a young man now – we used to call him a kid – but he’s a really good young man. You know, I never believed all the things people said about him because I played with him. I was in the locker room with him every day, and he was great. He’s a great teammate, a very good player, and sometimes we all get sidetracked a little bit. But he’s really showing a level of maturity.”

Off to see the Mavericks. Be sure to check back later for some observations as they prepare for their only game of the season at MSG tomorrow night.

This entry was updated at 11:53 p.m. after an interview with Miami Heat coach Pat Riley.

Any time Shaquille O’Neal shows up in the locker room, he’s always worth a listen. Tonight, he stopped by the visiting room at Continental Airlines Arena before the Heat played the Nets and weighed in on the Kobe Bryant situation.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson got fined $50,000 for defending Bryant and saying the league was on a “witch hunt” against him. Bryant has received two one-game suspensions for striking players in the face this season, serving one of them in the Lakers’ only trip to Madison Square Garden to face the Knicks. This week, Bryant was retroactively assessed a flagrant foul for elbowing Philadelphia’s Kyle Korver – a play that wasn’t even called a foul in the game.

O’Neal, whose feud with Kobe when they were teammates in Los Angeles has been well documented, was asked if Bryant has an image problem.

“Image is reality, not what others create for you,” Shaq said. “You are what you are.”

Then Shaq broke into some Eminem lyrics, saying, “And I am whatever you say I am. And if I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?”

Heat coach Pat Riley has a $50,000 fine on his resume from 2004, although he remembered it being more.

“Did I?” Riley said. “Fifty or seventy-five. I think I got mine back. I called David [Stern] and said the money goes to charity, so he sent it to a charity of mine. I don’t know, to be honest with you, what’s going on with Kobe. He’s just protecting his player.

“Plus, you know, [Jackson] makes $10 million, so...”

Another interesting exchange occurred when O’Neal was asked about Courtney Paris, the center on the Oklahoma women’s team who has said she wants to emulate him.

“Hopefully she’ll be allowed to do it, because they’re trying to ban what I used to do and what I do,” O’Neal said. “So I wish her well.”

And really, no one can emulate Shaq.

“I’m unemulatable,” Shaq said. “I took the files and deleted them, ate them, used them in the bathroom, flushed it, it went to a sewage plant and blew a sewage plant up. So there’s no way my style can be copied. It’s gone, forever.”

Here’s where you can go for a link to more Kobe stuff, some observations from basket-blogger extraordinaire Henry Abbott on the epic Suns-Mavericks game last night, and some highlight clips that seem to prove Magic Johnson couldn’t go to his left.

See you tomorrow night from the Garden, where we will find out if the Knicks beating the Hornets will be enough for Isiah Thomas to get another contract extension.

When I finish my work day, I am going to track down Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated and ask him for some stock picks, a horse or two for the Kentucky Derby, and some lottery numbers to play.

Intrigued by Larry Brown’s comments to the Philadelphia Inquirer about how it would be “almost impossible” for him to say no to Michael Jordan if asked to coach the Charlotte Bobcats, I started poking around the Internet to do some research. One of the first things that came up when I Googled Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas was the following passage posted by Thomsen on SI.com on July 21, 2005:

NBA colleagues are supplying Thomas with two pieces of advice. First, to understand that his relationship with Brown will ultimately end badly, because it usually does with Brown. Second, Thomas is being told to maintain firm control over his team. The internal fire that makes Brown an exceptional coach also makes him an erratic judge of talent, as he changes his opinions about players frequently. In spite of their ugly divorce, the Pistons feel that they achieved their goals with Brown because he won them a championship without being allowed to meddle with their well-balanced roster. The Knicks' lineup still requires a lot of improvement, but Thomas needs to cautious about taking too much advice from Brown about personnel, and always keep in mind that he is still going to be running the Knicks long after Brown is gone.

You can read the whole thing here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/ian_thomsen/07/21/artest/1.html

Does any of that sound familiar? All of it should. And that is why Jordan should proceed with caution when it comes to hiring Brown to be his coach in Charlotte.

Brown is still employed by the Philadelphia 76ers, but his flirtation with Jordan is starting out eerily similar to his flirtation with Isiah two years ago. Here is what Brown told Stephen A. Smith of the Inquirer and 1050 ESPN Radio yesterday, after Jordan announced that Bernie Bickerstaff will not be back to coach the Bobcats next season:

"I don't know about anything right now, and that includes Charlotte. No one has contacted me. I have no idea what to expect, and I really don't care, at the moment, because I'm enjoying my life watching the game of basketball, being around a lot of the coaches and just getting my enthusiasm back.

"As far as Charlotte goes, everyone knows I have a very special relationship with Michael. I've known him for years. We're family, and I love him. So saying 'no' to him would be almost impossible for me, just because it would be hard for me to say 'No' to him about anything. But I haven't heard anything from him and I have no idea what my future holds."

It’s all here: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/16899161.htm.

Everyone loves to say what a bad basketball executive Isiah has been. Well, the most recent and perhaps worst mistake he made was hiring Brown. Jordan’s bitter rivalry with Isiah goes back to the infamous All-Star freeze-out and the Dream Team’s snub of Zeke. Now M.J. has a chance to stick it to Isiah one more time. And in doing so, he’ll only be repeating Isiah’s biggest mistake.

Good luck, Michael.

Greenburgh, N.Y. – Welcome to beautiful Westchester, where a sprained ankle needing “days, not weeks” to heal can turn into a 4-to-6 week bone bruise – maybe even a stress fracture – before you know it.

That was the mostly bad news that came out today about David Lee, who not only has a bone bruise in his right leg but also must have incurred serious internal injuries from throwing himself under the bus.

We kid, because we care. But seriously, Lee’s prognosis was proved to be significantly worse after he received a second opinion from Dr. David Porter in Indianapolis yesterday. Lee could miss 3-4 more weeks, putting him dangerously close to missing the rest of the regular season, with what a CT scan proved is “something in between a bad bone bruise and a stress fracture.”

Lee initially was told by the Knicks’ medical staff that the injury he sustained from landing on Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut’s foot on Feb. 23 was a high ankle sprain that would keep him out for “days, not weeks.”

After practice today, Lee spent as much time defending the Knicks’ medical staff and blaming himself for his slow recovery as he did talking about the injury itself.

And unfortunately for the Knicks, who desperately need Lee’s rebounding and energy off the bench to hold onto the eighth playoff spot, the prognosis could get even worse before this is over. Porter, orthopedic consultant to the Indianapolis Colts, Indiana University, and Purdue University, is still reviewing Lee’s MRI results.

“The doctor in Indianapolis said that, in his opinion, it could be as much as 3-4 [more] weeks before I was back seeing action,” Lee said. “Although he’s still looking at the MRI’s today, he saw the CT scan that I had as well as the X-rays, and said that he would classify it as something in between a bad bone bruise and a stress fracture.

“Now don’t hear the stress fracture part and go there. It’s more so that you could possibly be classified somewhere similar to a stress reaction. I don’t believe it’s going to be a full stress fracture – and they’re still looking at the MRI – but it’s more going to be along the lines of a stress reaction, something that is similar to a bad bone bruise, and it’s just going to be time that’s going to heal it.”

Lee said Porter indicated that none of the shooting and conditioning work he’s been doing since the injury have hurt his recovery, that there will be no limitations on what he’ll be able to do once he comes back, and that there’s little risk of re-injuring the leg.

“He said basically from when this happened, it’s a 4-6 week injury and it’s been about 2 1-2 weeks,” Lee said.

He said Dr. Lisa Callahan, the Knicks’ director of player care, “apologized that it’s not going to be healed as quick as we had hoped. I said, ‘If you had told me when I came down on it that it was going to be 4-6 weeks, I would have laughed at you anyway. There was no point in telling me that because I wouldn’t have believed it anyway.”

That is significantly different from what Lee said Saturday in Washington, D.C., when he expressed frustration that the leg wasn’t responding after being told it the recovery process would be “day-to-day.”

“What’s been tough is, so far I think I’ve been continuing to test it every day and irritate it over and over, and I don’t think that has been helping the recovery because it hasn’t gotten much better,” Lee said on Saturday, before the seventh consecutive game he’s missed with the injury. “… If they would have said at the start, ‘I think it’s going to be four weeks or so,’ then we wouldn’t have been in this situation.”

After he said today that the initial prognosis and the one he received from Porter in Indianapolis were “very similar,”
I asked Lee if it was true that a day-to-day high ankle sprain and a 4-to-6 week bone bruise are, in fact, quite different.

“It is completely different,” Lee said. “And part of that, I’m going to put on my shoulders for trying to be optimistic because this is new territory to me. … Some injuries they tell you two months and it’s a couple of days, and some injuries, it goes the opposite way. So I can’t blame them for that.”

Lee did some bike work and jogging today without pain and continued to work on his shooting. He said Porter told him he could start thinking about returning to play once he can stand 10-15 minutes on the treadmill without “significant pain.”

“I mean, I realize that when I come back to play for us this season, I’m probably going to be playing in pain, but I’m not concerned about that,” Lee said. “The thing that I’m concerned about is that the leg is healed and that I can stand going out there and doing the things that I need to do to help this team.”

Washington – Just stopped by Antawn Jamison’s locker to get his take on what the Knicks did to the Wizards tonight, a 90-89 victory on Steve Francis’ buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Despite all the flaws that are magnified to those of us who watch them play every night, Jamison, for one, thinks the Knicks are a lock to make the playoffs and will be a tough out once they get there.

“They’ve got guard play, they’ve got guys that come off the bench and hustle, they’ve got guys who can knock jumpers down when Quentin [Richardson] is healthy, and they’ve got a big man in the post who can control the paint,” Jamison said. “So this team, I feel, definitely is going to make the playoffs, and once they make it, it’s going to be a difficult team to play.”

There was no Gilbert Arenas in the Wizards’ locker room after the game, making a trip to D.C. quite a bit less satisfying for yours truly and others like me with digital tape recorders and an appreciation for all things Gilbert.

But Antonio Daniels, who was dusted by Francis’ behind-the-back dribble that set up the game-winning three-pointer, was at his locker – to his credit. If he’d been wearing a hat, he would’ve taken it off to Francis.

“Hell, the guy hit a 30 footer going full speed,” Daniels said. “What can you do about that? Sometimes, there’s just things that you have to live with. And we have to live with the fact that he hit a 30 footer to win it.
“I was right there,” Daniels said. “I had my hand up, right in his face. If you hit it, more power to you. But the chances of that shot going in, out of 10? Maybe one, maybe two out of 10.”

If the season ended today, the Knicks would be in the playoffs. At 29-34, they’re tied with Orlando and would get in based on holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. Help continues to come pouring in, with the Nets and Indiana both losing tonight.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier, with two games each against Atlantic-leading Toronto, two against Dallas (which has the best record in the league), two against Cleveland (ever heard of LeBron James?) by the end of the month.

As difficult as it has been for the Knicks to get into a playoff position, it will be even more difficult to stay there.

If they do, this game will go down as the turning point. But the way this season has gone, I suspect the real turning point hasn’t happened yet.

I have a lot more to say about the fallout from NBA Players Association president Billy Hunter’s comments about the All-Star Game in New Orleans next year. Some of those thoughts either don’t fit or don’t belong in the newspaper.

That is what a blog is for.

First, as I made clear in my column today, I really had no problem with the issues Hunter raised when I interviewed him Monday night at Madison Square Garden before the Knicks played the Miami Heat. I don’t really have a problem with those who criticized him, either. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

For the purposes of review, here are the two columns:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spberg275110781feb27,0,6399649.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spberg015113504mar01,0,1418912.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

But I do have a problem when other members of the media make it seem as though I got my quotes from Hunter in a sneaky, unprofessional way. That is what analyst Greg Anthony said on ESPN yesterday, when he presented the following blow-by-blow account of conversations that he most certainly did not witness.

Anthony said Hunter “was talking with Shaquille O’Neal and a bunch of the Miami Heat about other issues, and they were talking about New Orleans after what just happened in Las Vegas. And there was a reporter there who basically eavesdropped on the conversation and asked a hypothetical.”

If Anthony were a real journalist, he would know that eavesdropping is not an acceptable or ethical way to get comments from a public figure and print them in the newspaper. Sure, it would’ve been asking too much to expect Anthony to check out the account he was given to see if it was accurate. But at the very least, he should have divulged the source of his information.

The source was Hunter, and that’s where things get a little murky.

Anthony was one of three media members who spoke with Hunter on Tuesday, when he was in damage-control mode over comments he made in my interview with him about New Orleans’ viability as an All-Star host. Two of them essentially came away with the impression that I overheard Hunter’s conversations with Miami players, casually asked him one question, and then printed his answer as well as the content of his private conversations in the newspaper, thus creating a national controversy.

As Neil Best, our intrepid media watchdog, will explain in an upcoming column, this is not even close to what happened. I did see Hunter in the Heat locker room, and was standing right next to him while he had an interesting chat with Michael Doleac about pension benefits. I never heard him discuss the All-Star Game with anyone, but had previously made a mental note to ask him about the topic the next time I saw him.

When Hunter was finished doing business with the players, I followed him into the hallway and interviewed him for 10 minutes, digital recorder in plain view. The All-Star Game wasn’t even the first topic I asked him about, but it was the one that prompted the most newsworthy responses.

I thought it was a little odd that the Times-Picayune’s front-page story following up the controversy on Wednesday stated mysteriously that Hunter’s comments “showed up” in Newsday. The New Orleans paper wrote: “Newsday quoted Billy Hunter from a Madison Square Garden locker room, where he was conversing with players about the recent Las Vegas All-Star weekend.”

Hunter, through an intermediary, claimed that his account of what happened was misinterpreted by Anthony and the New Orleans writer. This made him perhaps the first person ever to be misquoted about being misquoted.

Unless James Dolan has piped hallucinogens through the air ducts at Madison Square Garden – which, come to think of it, is not beyond the realm of possibility – there was no ambiguity about how I got Hunter’s quotes. I got them by interviewing him with a recorder, face-to-face, for 10 minutes outside the locker room.

Stating that a reporter eavesdropped on private conversations and wrote them as if they were obtained legitimately is one of the worst falsehoods you could spread about a journalist. Hunter, I am certain, didn’t realize this. I don’t think he meant any harm, and to be fair, what he actually said to these media members is up for interpretation.

Given the fact that it’s entirely plausible that the three people who spoke with him Tuesday came away with three slightly different versions, I am willing to write it off as a bad game of telephone and move on.

That is why, despite the fact that my reputation could have suffered from this, I chose to defend Hunter’s comments yet again in my column today. I still don’t think he said anything particularly outrageous in the interview, and it would’ve been unfair for me to turn on him in print based on personal differences over how he handled the fallout.

I don’t know how long this All-Star story is going to linger. I do think it’s a good thing that the issue is out in the open. After criminal elements cropped up at the Vegas All-Star Game, isn’t it reasonable to wonder how those elements will be dealt with in a city struggling with law and order?

I’ll leave you with this: As I tried to point out with statistical evidence in my column today, hundreds of arrests are nothing out of the ordinary at any large gathering surrounding a sporting event. The problem is not exclusive to the NBA. In fact, with 1,010 arrests in Miami Beach last year during a five-day celebration for Memorial Day, throwing a lot of people in jail is not even unique to sports gatherings.

But when someone involved in the NBA opens his mouth about this, it’s always a big deal. I’d be curious to get your thoughts on why, as well as your opinion about anything I’ve written here or in the paper on these topics.

Debate is good, even if we disagree.