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 Inside the NBA
Posted: Tuesday May 04, 1999 04:02 PM A Fine Line | Around The Rim Spotlight With MJ finally out of his way, Utah's Karl Malone has had an MVP year By Jackie MacMullan
It's time to cast votes -- well, just one vote, actually: mine -- for league honors. It has been a stunted season marred with sloppy play, in which All-NBA mainstays were bounced (bye-bye Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen and David Robinson), in which the Rookie of the Year has never been so easy to pick, and the MVP has never been quite so hard.
Most Valuable Player: Karl Malone, Jazz. While Alonzo Mourning has had a career year for Miami, and Tim Duncan has turned San Antonio into a bona fide title contender for the first time, Malone is still the toughest player in the league to guard and is the best player on the best team. Coach of the Year: Pat Riley, Heat. Miami, not a deep team in the best of times, played most of the season without two starters, Voshon Lenard and Jamal Mashburn, yet Riley's team had the best record in the East at week's end. Rookie of the Year: Vince Carter, Raptors. Celtics forward Paul Pierce has been strong all season, but Carter is the slam-dunk choice because of an electrifying scoring style that is backed up by old-school fundamentals. Carter has been the biggest highlight in a too-often grim season. Sixth Man Award: Rasheed Wallace, Trail Blazers. Wallace is the catalyst for a second unit that has made Portland the deepest team in the league. He noses out Indiana swing man Jalen Rose, who sparks the league's second-deepest team. Most Improved Player: Darrell Armstrong, Magic. He'll probably get more votes for Sixth Man, but Armstrong was on target to finish the year with 15 starts. Armstrong went from being a well-regarded reserve last season to his team's MVP this year. Defensive Player of the Year: Alonzo Mourning, Heat. In his best season as a pro, Mourning improved all facets of his game and finished the season as the league's top shot blocker with 3.98 per game.
All NBA / First Team
Second Team
Third Team Biggest Bang for the Buck: Forward Corliss Williamson, who re-signed with Sacramento for a mere $500,000 and was averaging 13.2 points and 4.2 rebounds at week's end. Smallest Bang for the Buck: Scottie Pippen, who got paid more than $13 million this season by Houston in the hope that he could deliver a championship. His scoring dipped 4.3 points per game, to 14.8. Best Crystal Ball: Former Lakers coach Del Harris, who told reporters the day he was dismissed, "This team is better than 6-6, and is just as likely to go off on a 10-game winning streak whether I'm here or not." The Lakers then immediately won 10 straight. Cracked Crystal Ball: Dallas G.M. and coach Don Nelson, who declared in February that Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki would be Rookie of the Year. The 20-year-old German averaged 8.2 points, 3.5 rebounds per game and started 22 games. Best Personnel Move: By Philadelphia coach Larry Brown, who shifted Allen Iverson from point to shooting guard and went from the lottery to the playoffs. W orst Personnel Move: By Pistons executive vice president and general manager of basketball operations Rick Sund, who signed Clippers free agent Loy Vaught, fresh off spinal-fusion surgery, instead of Suns free agent Clifford Robinson, who can guard three positions, shoot threes and wanted to sign with the Pistons. Vaught averaged 3.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game through Sunday; Robinson re-signed with the Suns and averaged 16.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Best Defense: The full-court press the Nuggets put on free agent Antonio McDyess, preventing his former Phoenix teammates, who flew on a chartered plane to Denver and sat for three hours huddled outside McNichols Arena in a snowstorm, from seeing him until after he signed. Worst Offense: The Chicago Bulls. Take away two legs of a triangle offense and you have ... a flat-liner. It's no fun being Wally Walker. The Sonics president and general manager has been hammered by his former coach, George Karl, whose cultlike popularity in Seattle grows with each Sonics loss under new coach Paul Westphal. With Seattle struggling (23-25 at week's end), such occasions have been all too frequent this season. Walker has been blasted for pushing Karl out, overpaying free-agent center Jim McIlvaine (who has since been traded) and allowing free agent Greg Anthony to sign with Portland for $1 million, where he has become a valuable backup to Damon Stoudamire. So the last thing Walker needed was for a local newspaperman to overhear Gary Payton's postgame tirade after a 35-point loss to Portland on April 28, and write that Payton had said, among other things, "I don't care about Wally." The implication of the story was that Payton was blaming this season on Walker. Within hours, Payton angrily denounced the account (his teammates backed him up), and said he does not have issues with Walker. "If I did," Payton said, "I'd talk to him about it." Payton also refuted a recent published report that he would demand a trade. Payton may not be railing against Walker or ready to walk, but he is clearly frustrated by the Sonics' downward spiral. "Gary is an emotional guy," says his agent, Aaron Goodwin. "He likes Seattle. He just doesn't like losing." Payton has made it clear he would like to see changes in the Sonics' roster this summer, and Walker will try to oblige him. Vin Baker will be a free agent, and even in the wake of his injury-plagued season, re-signing him will be the Sonics' top priority. Walker says he talked to his power forward last week, and that "Vin told me he wants to stay here." Goodwin, who also represents Baker, says, "We haven't talked about anyone but Seattle." As for the Sonics' other free-agents-to-be, center Olden Polynice, who has grumbled about his lack of playing time, is as good as gone, and veterans Hersey Hawkins and Detlef Schrempf, who both suffered through subpar seasons and who are 32 and 36 years old, respectively, are both big question marks. Walker may be inclined to pass on those two to make his team younger and quicker, but if he is, he's not saying. Can you blame him? No matter what he does, Wally Walker can't win.
A Fine Line: After a win over the Celtics in which Grant Hill scored 32 points, Detroit coach Gentry explained his strategy: "After we went to Grant we tried to go back to Grant, and when they made an adjustment, we went to Grant again, and after we went to Grant and they made another adjustment, we tried to go back to Grant." Washington's search for a coach has included chats with Doc Rivers , Dave Cowens , Mo Cheeks , Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and recently retired Knicks forward Buck Williams , but sources say Charlotte coach Paul Silas could still be in the running. Silas wants to stay with the Hornets, but if owner George Shinn tries to lowball him (as he did with Cowens), the Wizards would be a lucrative alternative.... Minnesota boss Kevin McHale considered adding big man Radoslav Nesterovic , the T-wolves' first-round pick last year, to the playoff roster (his season in Italy ended last week), but says, "I'm not sure it would be fair to throw him in and ask him to play." As for those rumors McHale will step down at the end of this season, he says, "There's a far better chance of me walking away when we've got it turned around than when things aren't going our way."... With the Glen Rice experiment exacerbating the chemistry problems in Los Angeles, the Lakers may explore a sign-and-trade agreement with him.... The change in ownership in Denver, from Ascent Entertainment Group Inc. to Bill and Nancy Laurie, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, bodes well for vice president and general manager Dan Issel and point guard Nick Van Exel , who will be re-signed to a new deal this summer, but team sources say the future may not be so golden for first-year coach Mike D'Antoni .... They say you should throw out regular-season results when you get into the playoffs. That's good news for Miami, which is 3-20 in Madison Square Garden. Issue date: May 10, 1999
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