See, for me, summer is the preseason of NBA training camps, which is the preseason to the regular season, which, when you really think about it, is the preseason to the only season that really counts — the playoffs. To me, this is the time when every team in the league begins to choose up sides, like when you're playing pickup basketball on the playground or in the gym. All my fellas reading this who play ball know how it goes: you go to the park with some of your boys, but you don't have enough people, so you have to pick somebody up who's already out there.
But, before you pick one, you check out his game on the low to see if he can actually ball or if he's a scrub. If he's going to help you win or if he's going to sabotage the team with the general suckiness of his so-called "game." (Sorry, I just had flashbacks to a few particular "players" who scammed their way onto some of my teams). That, dear reader, is exactly what's happening in the NBA right now.
This is the time to wonder and speculate about players and coaches changing teams and the effect those changes will have on the league. This is the time to dream about what your favorite team would look like if (enter the name of any NBA superstar) was traded to your team. And, at a time when there's nothing on television but repeats, the NBA summer leagues provide us with the ultimate NBA reality drama: recent NBA draft picks and NBA-wannabees trying to impress fans and coaches while fighting for a job in the NBA. Take all of that and it's no wonder why, for me, the NBA never has an "offseason."
In fact, this summer has been anything but "off" for the NBA. First, and definitely most importantly, a potentially-devastating players' strike was averted before the two sides reached the proverbial "point of no return," thus ensuring that the league would continue without a work stoppage. It also proved once again why David Stern is the best commissioner in all of professional sports today, the "anti-Bud Selig," if you will.
But, if you're like most fans, the most important thing to you is which players moved where. In Houston, the Rockets signed an athletic and active power forward complement to Yao Ming in free agent pickup Stromile Swift, giving Jeff Van Gundy and Tracy McGrady another weapon in their battle against the San Antonio Spurs and Tim Duncan.
Down in South Beach, the Miami Heat signed Shaquille O'Neal, "The Big Graduate Student," to a monster contract extension, which actually turns out to be a pay-cut, and then participate in the largest player trade in NBA history. In it, the Heat received Antoine Walker from Boston and Jason Williams and James Posey from Memphis, while giving up only Eddie Jones and two backups. Shaq and Dwayne Wade get even more help for a team that had the best record in the East, while the rest of the conference see their championship aspirations become a little less bright.
Up in the swamp, known affectionately by the locals as "New Jersey," the Nets first agreed to add Shareef Abdur-Rahim to the triumvirate of Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and Vince Carter, only to reverse course and revoke the trade, due to a failed physical, and sign Marc Jackson and Jeff McInnis instead. Now, instead of Net fans having the brief vision of a potentially-dynamite fantasy basketball team come to life and a first round playoff exit, they are instead left with the vision of a team that may actually be better equipped to make a deeper playoff run.
Meanwhile, out in Hollywood, the next chapter was added to the league's longest-running and infinitely most compelling drama when Phil Jackson was re-hired to coach Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. While hiring Svengali Phil alone isn't enough to ensure a return to the playoffs for the Lake Show, it just proves once again that in sports, any bridge, regardless of the degree to which it was burned down, can be rebuilt — even after the book comes out.
The most consistent, and persistent, news story of the early summer, though, had to be the daily drama that I dubbed, "My Summer with Larry." Seriously, was it me or did it seem like every day there was more "news" about Larry Brown and his situation with the Detroit Pistons? One minute, Larry is the Pistons' coach and doesn't want to leave and the next minute he's telling everyone that the Knicks are his "dream job." One minute, he's healthy as an ox and can coach for years to come and the next minute he's weaker than a malnourished baby girl and can't ever coach again. One moment, his wife is telling everyone within earshot that the Browns aren't leaving Detroit and the next minute, they're putting out a welcome mat in the Hamptons.
Ultimately, what it boiled down to, without all of the Access Hollywood-styled drama, was that Larry Brown left behind a team he led to the NBA Finals two straight years for the massive reclamation project known as the New York Knickerbockers.
For a native New Yorker like myself, Larry Brown coaching the Knicks is huge news. The Knicks get their first coach since Jeff Van Gundy left and finally get an air of legitimacy and competence they had lacked in previous years. (Now, if only Isaiah Thomas could figure out how to stop ridiculously overpaying for mediocre talent, the Knicks could be a legitimate playoff team.) However, more than anything, this is a great basketball move for the current Knick team. The Knicks automatically became an improved team with Brown's addition and, with a little good fortune and a whole lot more inspired play, have an outside shot at making the playoffs.
One thing is for certain: Stephon Marbury, one of the league's most dynamic players and the self-described "best point guard in the NBA" has no more excuses. He finally gets to start his NBA career in earnest, getting a chance to learn how to really play basketball from one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time.
If Larry Brown can transform Chauncey Billups from a player who averaged 11 points and 4 assists a game, was traded three times, was a free agent pickup twice, and labeled as a first round bust before him, into a world champion, a player whose numbers increased to 16.5 points and 5 assists per game, Finals MVP, and recognition as one of the most clutch performers in the league today with him, imagine what he should be able to do for Marbury, whose career numbers far outweigh anything Billups has ever done in the league. Everything except winning that big, diamond-encrusted ring emblazoned with WORLD CHAMPIONS on it ... and maybe winning just one playoff series.
Because of Brown's presence, I predict big things from Marbury this year, allowing him to finally gain some recognition as one of the NBA's best players and hopefully losing the "selfish" tag and team chemistry-killer image that has followed him from Minnesota, to New Jersey to Phoenix, back home to New York. (As an aside, did you know the only other player in the history of the NBA other than Stephon Marbury to have career averages of 20 points and 8 assists per game is none other than the "Big O," Oscar Robertson?) With Larry Brown patrolling the sidelines of basketball's "Mecca," Madison Square Garden, the lights will again be very bright on Broadway.
As I said, lots of things can, and do, happen in the NBA during the summer. So, while most people are calculating baseball magic numbers and screaming at their football team's number one draft pick to finally sign a contract and show up at training camp, I'm sitting back and watching everything that's happening in the NBA, because as an NBA fan, I don't want to miss one thing — especially since the first preseason game is only seven weeks away.
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