| |
 Inside the NBA
Posted: Tuesday April 13, 1999 03:42 PM Bench Marked | Around The Rim Spotlignt: Haywoode Workman Charles Barkley tears into Allen Iverson and Clyde Drexler and... By Jackie MacMullan
Sir Charles would like to add a real title to his name. Although he's 36 years old and at least five inches shorter than many of the men he battles under the boards each night, Charles Barkley wants to win the NBA rebounding title. "Who is the oldest guy ever to lead the league in rebounding?" says Barkley. "Maybe it can be me."
Last year such a goal would have been unthinkable for Barkley. He missed 15 games battling an array of injuries, including a torn right triceps, and although he averaged 15.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, he was no longer a dominant player, as he is the first to admit. At times he looked overmatched against young players such as Webber and Antonio McDyess, and he threatened numerous times to retire. Some of his friends privately hoped he would, but Barkley says they weren't taking all factors into consideration. "What they didn't understand was I was never healthy," Barkley says. "And the attitude here [in Houston] didn't help. It was a nightmare last season." Barkley says that Clyde Drexler and Mario Elie were so consumed with locking up new contracts that they destroyed team chemistry on and off the floor. "What it came down to was money," Barkley says. "Everyone said Clyde and I didn't get along, but it was about guys bent on getting their contracts redone, and when that didn't happen, those guys decided, 'I'm going to make it miserable around here.'" Houston finished 41-41 and was bounced in the first round of the playoffs by Utah. Drexler retired after last season to coach at the University of Houston. Elie became a free agent and signed with San Antonio. Both dispute Barkley's version of last season's events. "My response to Charles is 'Grow up,'" says Drexler. "He was the one who was 28 pounds overweight last year. Not me." Says Elie, "I played hurt, and I played sick for those guys. We expected a lot from Charles. He should have gone out and done it, not talked about it. We did just fine without him before he got to Houston. We won two championships." Elie's unspoken barb is that Barkley has not won any NBA titles. That's the black mark on a resume that includes 11 All-Star selections and a 1993 MVP trophy. Michael Jordan joked at his retirement press conference that he never worried about Barkley challenging him for a championship because Barkley wasn't willing to work hard enough. That doesn't seem to be true this year. Barkley hired trainer Tim Grover, who oversaw Jordan's conditioning and has worked with Scottie Pippen. "I think [Jordan] struck a nerve in Charles," Grover says. "The day I got off the plane in Houston in February, he told me, 'I've been waiting for you.'" Barkley began working the weights at nine o'clock every morning with Pippen. By March, Hakeem Olajuwon had joined them. "It's working," Barkley says. "I feel 75 percent stronger than when I started." The one thing Grover can't do for the Rockets is play guard, which is where the team is weakest. The Rockets start an all-rookie backcourt of Cuttino Mobley at the point and Michael Dickerson at shooting guard, and with Brent Price sidelined for at least three weeks after having arthroscopic surgery on April 7 on his right knee, the first guard off the bench is rookie Bryce Drew. "Bryce Drew will end up being the best of them in the long run," Barkley predicts. "He knows the game. The other guys, we've got to bring them along." Barkley has also schooled the Houston youngsters on respecting their elders. He laments that the league is "loaded with bad basketball and bad players and young guys whose memories are too short. Take [Allen] Iverson. I can't stand that guy. He has to show up for practice every day. He has a responsibility to cut the crap and not have some drama with the coach every week. He's showing no respect to anyone, least of all the game." Sir Charles has become a Stephon Marbury fan and gleefully charts the progress of Toronto rookie Vince Carter, his choice for rookie of the year. Barkley's MVP vote goes to Miami center Alonzo Mourning "because he's been the best player on that team, and he's got the least to work with of all the good teams." Barkley admits that Portland's explosiveness and depth terrify him, which is why he gives Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy the nod as coach of the year. "I don't want to see Portland anytime soon in the playoffs," he says. Barkley insists that Houston can win it all this year, yet there are signs that suggest otherwise. Pippen often remains a frustrated observer in an offense that revolves around Olajuwon. In a loss to San Antonio last week, Pippen scored four points and was shaking his head as he walked off the court. The Rockets also have not fared well against playoff-bound teams; as of Sunday, Houston's record against the top eight clubs in the West was 4-10. Even if he doesn't win the championship -- or the rebounding title -- Barkley has no regrets about his decision to re-up with the Rockets for the $1 million veteran's exemption. "It ain't about the money anymore," he says. "We've got great guys on this team. We've got guys who pull for each other. As long as we've got that, I'll always believe we have a chance."
Vindication for P.J.: After all he'd been through, Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo should have known better. "I said in preseason that if we really focused, we could make the playoffs," Carlesimo says. "Everyone laughed at me." Well, at least people were laughing instead of urging him to call the police. It was no joking matter last season when Latrell Sprewell grabbed Carlesimo and administered the choke heard round the world. Sprewell was suspended for the season, and Carlesimo became a national figure for all the wrong reasons. Making the worst of a bad situation, Carlesimo's team collapsed, never recovering from the loss of its best player or the controversy that dogged its coach. The healing began when Sprewell was traded to New York this preseason for veterans John Starks, Chris Mills and Terry Cummings. A new Golden State team -- a mix of those tough veterans, who have played in a total of 222 postseason games, and some young legs -- is just a few games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. That's a stunning turnaround for a team that won only 19 games last season. "What everyone forgot is that Spre didn't play last year," Carlesimo says. "So, in essence, when we traded him for all those guys, we were really losing nothing." Once Starks recovered from the shock of being dealt by his beloved Knicks, he assumed the role of Warriors leader and emotional spark, which is precisely what general manager Garry St. Jean was counting on when he pulled the trigger on the trade. There have been other bonuses, such as a career year from point guard Bimbo Coles, and late-developing story lines, such as the emergence of rookie forward Antawn Jamison. The Warriors took some early hits for taking Jamison instead of Vince Carter or Boston swingman Paul Pierce, who both got off to quick starts while Jamison sputtered in limited minutes backing up Mills. "It was a tough learning experience for him," Carlesimo says. "When it got to the middle of the year, and people started rating the rookies, no one was giving Antawn much credit, but our people knew he'd be fine." Jamison became a starter on March 24, and since then he had averaged 12.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and shot 51.4% through Sunday, vindicating his coach's faith in him. While Sprewell is still in the papers, mucking up the already muddy waters in New York, Carlesimo has faded from the headlines. He couldn't be happier. "My only hope this season was to get back to coaching, to just talk about wins and losses again," Carlesimo says. He got his wish, and that may be the most remarkable Golden State success story of all.
Bench Marked: A general manager who would like to remain anonymous recently told this story. When one of his young stars began raving about Vince Carter's athletic moves, the G.M. said Carter resembled a young Dominique Wilkins. The player stared blankly for a moment, then said, "You mean that old guy in Orlando?" Only 12 NBA players have scored 25,000 or more points. Wilkins is one of only three active players on that list (Hakeem Olajuwon and Karl Malone are the others), and he needs only 54 points in Orlando's final 12 games to pass Oscar Robertson and move to seventh on the alltime scoring list with 26,711 points. In the old days 'Nique could have put up 54 in one game. These days it could take him three weeks. The 39-year-old Wilkins is a bench warmer for the Magic, who led the Eastern Conference at week's end. He was averaging 5.3 points and 10.1 minutes a night. For anyone who saw Wilkins in his prime, his farewell tour has been painful to watch. They wonder why this surefire Hall of Famer hangs on and suffers the indignity of mop-up time. Teammate Penny Hardaway recently confessed, "It's sad. I hope I retire before it gets like that." Wilkins vehemently denies that he continues to play because he needs the money. "It's because I still love the game," he says. "The scary thing is, I'm still better at my position than 70 percent of the guys in the league." That may be overstating the case, but he can occasionally light it up. Against New Jersey on March 30, Wilkins hoisted up 13 shots in 13 minutes and scored 17 points. Wilkins says he rarely looks back, although the turning point in his career may have been signing with Boston in 1994 instead of taking less money to play for a contender. Had he done the latter, more of today's young stars might know how great he was. Even so, Wilkins remains optimistic and confident. He says that if the Magic gets to the Finals, it will need his instant offense. "Maybe," he says, chuckling, "the team is saving me." Don't be fooled by John Stockton's numbers (10.7 points, 7.3 assists and 28.1 minutes through Sunday). The only reason his stats are down is that Jazz coach Jerry Sloan finally has enough confidence in backup point Howard Eisley to give him meaningful minutes. Two seasons ago Sloan challenged Eisley to improve his range; at week's end Eisley had hit 48.4% of his threes this season. Last summer Sloan challenged Eisley to be more assertive; this season he's running the pick-and-roll like a Stockton clone. Look for the old -- and well-rested -- Stockton in the playoffs ... UConn sophomore guard Khalid El-Amin was talked out of declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft by his coaches, who persuaded him that if he hooked up with a personal trainer and dropped 20 pounds, he could be a lottery pick in the 2000 draft ... Former Wizards coach Bernie Bickerstaff should have started updating his résumé in February when executive vice president and general manager Wes Unseld insisted the team's center spot (Terry Davis, Otis Thorpe and Ben Wallace) was solid. One factor that led to Bickerstaff's firing was his quote in local papers after a loss to Miami on April 4 that Washington's talent didn't measure up. Sometimes, it doesn't pay to be right ... The firings of Bickerstaff, John Calipari and Del Harris and the resignation of Dave Cowens have moved Chicago coach Tim Floyd up to 25th on the NBA coaches' seniority list. Says Floyd, "I didn't even get to meet a couple of those guys." Issue date: April 19, 1999
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
