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Kings reluctant to trade Williams
Updated: Thursday May 24, 2001 8:09 AM
After being buried on the bench for much of the playoffs, Kings point guard Jason Williams has made it clear that he would be open to a trade. Owners Joe and Gavin Maloof met with Williams' father last week and told him they're not actively looking for a deal. But after three seasons of wildly inconsistent play and moodiness off the court from Williams, Sacramento isn't going to just wait patiently and hope that he finally matures as a player and person, either. The Kings are planning to use summer league play to find out whether Hedo Turkoglu, the 6-foot-8 swingman who played so well in the playoffs against the Lakers, can handle a switch to the point. If the experiment works, Sacramento might be more willing to trade Williams. But there's one factor that would still make it difficult for the Maloof brothers to approve a deal, and insiders say it's not as insignificant as it seems: J-Will is their mother's favorite player.
Wondering about StevieThe U.S. roster for the Goodwill Games includes some fine young players, including Orlando's Mike Miller, the 2001 Rookie of the Year, Phoenix's Shawn Marion and Charlotte's Baron Davis, but it's lacking in star power, partly because the team is limited to players who are either under 23 or were chosen in one of the last two drafts.That's why it's hard to understand why the selection committee bypassed a young star who meets that criteria and would have been happy to play in the Games -- Houston's Steve Francis. Francis has said many times that he wants to win an Olympic gold medal, and playing for the U.S. in the Goodwill Games would have put him on the Olympic track. Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich says he's "shocked and disappointed" that Francis wasn't chosen. For overlooking him, the committee should be charged with a turnover. Costly loss?If the Lakers and 76ers meet in the NBA Finals, Philadelphia coach Larry Brown may wind up regretting a seemingly harmless decision he made at the end of the regular season. The two teams finished with the same 56-26 record and split their two games against each other, but in the Finals the Lakers would have the homecourt advantage because of the next tiebreaker, record against the other conference. The Lakers were 22-8 against the East while the Sixers were 16-12 against the West. But the Sixers could have avoided all the tiebreaking procedures and earned the homecourt advantage if they hadn't essentially given away the last game of the regular season to the woeful Bulls. Having clinched the best record in the East, the Sixers played that game without Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutombo, and the other starters all played very reduced minutes. The result was a 92-86 Bulls win that kept the Sixers from finishing one game better than the Lakers. Who says the regular season is meaningless? Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor covers the NBA beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his NBA mailbag.
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