Recognizing the best elder statesmen in the NBA

Though his dominance has waned, Shaquille O'Neal still packs a wallop as the league's oldest starting center. AP

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5 Starters on the All-Reggie Miller Team

As one cable network after another fills air time with horrid compilations of everything we already knew and were hoping to forget about 2007, now seems a good time to look at a bright side of the past. The All-Reggie Miller Team celebrates the most endangered species of NBA players who will be 35 or older during this regular season. A thorough review of league rosters Thursday turned up 20 of them, including a league-leading four Spurs (but not including Minnesota's Theo Ratliff, who will be 35 the day after the season ends).

One of them was lost Wednesday when 37-year-old Heat center Alonzo Mourning suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee. "It's over, it's over,'' he told teammate Udonis Haslem, before Mourning refused a stretcher in preference to limping off the court in Atlanta. "It's disappointing to even think my career will end this way,'' Mourning told reporters later.

When Miller was 35, he played 81 games and averaged 18.9 points (an improvement over his previous two seasons) in 39.3 minutes for Indiana in '00-01. In that spirit, the five survivors on this list should be celebrated for what they are still managing to do in an era when rules have been adapted to liberate and empower a younger generation of unprecedented athletic ability. In the right setting, each of these old men is still capable of helping a contender to the championship.

In each case, I'll also nominate a comparable player 23 or younger who has a chance to excel in his late 30s more than a decade from now.

5. Shaquille O'Neal, C, turns 36 in March

O'Neal routinely gets hammered for what he doesn't do, but put him in context of what he's still accomplishing as the league's oldest starting center in his 16th NBA season. He's still hard to defend one-on-one, he can still dominate for stretches, and if Miami had the wherewithal to surround him with scorers, then he surely could be a difference-maker when the games really matter in the spring.

The injury to Mourning is a big loss for O'Neal, who will feel an ever greater burden to carry his position. His numbers are down -- career lows of 14.4 points and 27.9 minutes through Thursday -- but O'Neal has been showing signs of feistiness. When I spoke with him last month, he was snapping back at accusations that he can't stay on the floor.

"We've got to do a better job of playing defense,'' he said. "I've been getting in foul trouble -- but I haven't fouled my man yet.''

While opponents used to complain that Shaq wasn't whistled enough, now in his old age the meter has swung the other way. He is routinely called for fouls that used to be ignored as incidental contact. He needs better players around him to create the kind of space that he can no longer make for himself between the limits of his age and the edicts of officials.

I'm not the only one who isn't ready to write off O'Neal.

"Look, I won three championships with the guy,'' Kobe Bryant said. "You can't win three championships [plus a fourth with Miami in 2005-06] if you don't have the heart of a lion.''

Heir Apparent: Dwight Howard, 22. Orlando's dynamic center has the physical presence to dominate deep into his 30s, with low-post skills that are bound to continue improving as he ages.

4. Kurt Thomas, F/C, turns 36 in October

Thomas missed nine early-season games for Seattle with a sore hamstring, but he's been a catalyst since his Nov. 23 return. The otherwise youthful Sonics are 6-7 when he starts and 1-12 when he doesn't.

The 6-foot-9 Thomas has averaged 9.7 rebounds in his last 11 games, including a win against Indiana in which he secured 18 boards. Thomas has taken the high road even though his team objectives plummeted from title hopeful Phoenix (which was forced to trade his salary for luxury-tax reasons) to rebuilding Seattle.

"To go from a team competing for a championship to a team at the other end of the spectrum, that's not what he would have on top of his wish list,'' Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo acknowledged. "But he's been great. We told him since the first day we were very confident of how good he'd be for us, and also that it could be good for him given he's in the last year of his contract and he would like to play some more. The thing we could offer that Phoenix couldn't was minutes. He's somebody we could play for 20 to 25 minutes and make us a better team because of all the things he does. You can't pick a better guy to show the young guys this is how you're supposed to play.''

Once upon a time, Thomas, as a senior at TCU in 1994-95, was the third player in NCAA history to lead the nation in points (28.9) and rebounds (14.6). But ankle injuries sabotaged his early career, morphing him into a blue-collar rebounder and defender with a reliable mid-range jump shot. Now he is creating opportunities for rookie Kevin Durant (19.6 points) to become the star Thomas might have been.

"We're just so much better when he's on the floor,'' Carlesimo said. "He is undersized whether you call him a center or power forward, but he plays post people as well as anybody in the league because you can't move him, he's so strong. I remember telling Kevin in summer league one night after Kevin got knocked down in one of the games, 'One of the things about Kurt Thomas, when something like this happens, you're going to appreciate what he's doing at the other end of the court. Because the guy who knocks you down is going to wind up getting knocked down by Kurt next time down the floor, or he'll be laying down holding his arms. Kurt's from the old school. He is going to have your back.' "

Heir Apparent: Al Jefferson, F/C, 22. The key acquisition by Minnesota in the Kevin Garnett trade with Boston, the 6-10 Jefferson (20.4 points, 12.0 rebounds) looks capable of rebounding and scoring around the basket for as long as he wants the paycheck.

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