Hakeem's injury may heal Rockets
Posted: Mon December 1, 1997 at 12:17 PM ET
Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor spoke with CNN/SI's
Larry Smith about the Rockets without Hakeem, the Scottie Pippen fiasco in Chicago, problems with the Detroit Pistons and Latrell Sprewell's next destination.
LS: One of the big stories this week has
been the Houston Rockets losing Hakeem
Olajuwon until the All-Star break due to a
knee injury. This may be a blessing in
disguise.
PT: That's right, Larry. This may not be the
worst thing in the world for the Rockets
because Olajuwon and Charles Barkley had
really been having a conflict over who was
going to be the go-to guy on that team and
take those shots down the stretch in close
games. Now with Olajuwon out, at least they
don't have to answer that question for a
while. They can let that situation cool off a
little bit. So you're right, it may not be the
worst thing to happen to Houston. It may be
a little bit of a blessing in disguise.
LS: Scottie Pippen has put himself in the
center of attention in Chicago without lacing
up the high tops. Will the Bulls' brass cave
in to his trade demands?
PT: No, they're definitely not going to.
Basically, the bottom line is Pippen is not
going anywhere, at least not any time soon,
because the Bulls know they hold all the
cards. Pippen needs to play this year in
order to prove that he's healthy and get
those free agent dollars that he's looking
for at the end of the season. So the Bulls
are saying this, "Listen, Scottie, you can
come back and play for us and try to win a
championship and then be a free agent. Or
you can sit out the rest of the year and cost
yourself millions of dollars on the free agent
market." They're betting that Pippen will
decide to put on a Bulls uniform again, and I
think they're right.
LS: Michael Jordan has been diplomatic in
his public comments but he can't be pleased
with this whole situation.
PT: No, he is really not, he's really very
frustrated because he went to bat at the
end last season, if you remember, to get
Pippen re-signed or to get him to return to
Chicago and keep him from being traded.
And now he's thinking that if Pippen really
wanted to leave all that time he should have
said so at the end of last season and not
now when it's too late and they would have
to really change their plans in order to win a
title. So he's a little bit frustrated with his
teammate right now.
LS: Detroit was anointed heir apparent to
the Bulls but the season is just a month old
and already the bickering between coach
Doug Collins and the players is back. How
does Grant Hill fit into this picture?
PT: Really, the problem is that Grant hasn't
tried to fit in at all into the picture. He really
needs to show that kind of forceful leader
personality in the locker room, like guys like
Jordan and Karl Malone do for their teams.
And in this sort of crisis situation where
there's a problem between the coach and
the players, a real star, a real leader, tells
his team that they cannot let this affect their
play on the court and forces them to stay on
track. Hill has been very quiet, and that's
been the big rap against him and why
people think that he's not quite ready to be
put in that same category as the other
superstars in the league.
LS: Latrell Sprewell is dying to leave Golden
State but isn't he going to extremes to get
his wish?
PT: He really is, he is really daring the
Warriors to trade him. He was late for a
flight recently, he showed up late to a game.
But the worst thing was that during a game
against San Antonio while a free throw was
being shot, Sprewell went over to Gregg
Popovich, the coach and the GM of the
Spurs, and kind of encouraged him to pull
the trigger on this rumored deal that would
bring Sprewell to San Antonio. During a
game he's trying to negotiate a trade --
that's probably going to get him out of town
pretty quickly.
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