| Monday, November 29
By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com |
|
Scottie. Charles. Together again. This Friday, at a Rose Garden near
you.
|  | | Charles Barkley and the Rockets get to see old pal Scottie on Friday. |
Two months after Charles Barkley said Scottie Pippen owed him an apology for wanting to
play for the Lakers, and after Pippen replied that Barkley should apologize
to him "for coming down to play with his sorry, fat butt," the Blazers and
Rockets hook up. The Blazers are a juggernaut, this league's version of the
Yankees, a solely professional outfit that wins dispassionately. They're
what the Rockets were supposed to be last season. The Rockets are, um,
hurting.
Regrets? Pip has but one.
"Probably just the way things came out between me and Charles," Pippen
said last week. "I looked at it as an opportunity for trying to get out of
there and go play in L.A. I wasn't trying to disrupt any relationships,
until all that all started, when Charles was saying I owe him and the city
an apology. When I spoke with him it was between me and him and it wasn't
for public knowledge at that time."
In Portland, Pippen has rediscovered his game. Found his defensive
wingspan, which makes easy entry impossible. Found his sorties to the basket,
which were run to such devastating effect in Chicago. Found his ballhandling
skills. Found his voice for a team that craved leadership after imploding
against the Spurs in the Western Conference finals. Found a policeman in the
locker room for coach Mike Dunleavy.
"With Steve (Smith) and Scottie, I think Mike, he probably trusts them
a little bit more than he did with J.R. and Jimmy," Damon Stoudamire says, referring to the players in the Steve Smith deal, Isaiah Rider and Jimmy Jackson.
"He's allowed them to be more vocal. And sometimes, he doesn't have to coach
as much. It's almost like we're coaching ourselves."
It is as if last season didn't happen. Did Pippen play in Houston,
looking lost? Was that just a figment of his imagination? Was it like the
season of "Dallas" that Pam Ewing dreamed? Rudy Tomjanovich tried to find
ways to get him involved, but the results were the same -- Hakeem and Barkley
posting up. In Portland, Pippen is a top-50 player again.
"I'm not just standing out there, feeling like I'm in isolation, waving
for the ball, just spotting up," Pippen said. "I've got opportunities to
cut. I've got guys here that can step off the post, which opens up the lane
and gives us the ability to create shots for one another. In Houston, they
didn't really give me those opportunities, things that I've sort of
characterized my game after my whole career. Being able to be a guy that can
catch, shoot, pass, create shots. When you've got Charles and Dream each on
the block, it's hard to get to the lane, because the defenders are just
standing there waiting for you."
But Tomjanovich kept saying that he was doing things to free Pippen up,
that Pippen wasn't just throwing the ball in and spotting up.
"Did you watch the games?" Pippen snorts. "They all looked the same to
me. When he says he was trying to do things, I don't understand ... I told him
I didn't care for the 3-point shot. I told him I'd shoot it, but it's
not my forte, standing out there shooting threes."
So far, everything is working. The Blazers had six guys score 11 points
in Orlando, "and nobody bitched about it," Smith said. Even if Dunleavy
thinks his '91 Lakers team is better than this bunch -- "Magic Johnson, Byron
Scott, James Worthy, Vlade Divac, Elden Campbell coming off the bench," he
said -- this group will have to prove itself in June, deep in the heat of the
playoffs. Last year, the Blazers ripped off their shirts after winning a
measly second-round series against Utah. That won't happen this time around.
"We're just trying to help the young guys grow, get them going in the
right direction," Pippen said. "We realize that every little bit of success
is going to be a lot of fun for them, but we can't let it soak in yet.
Ultimately, we have to try to achieve our goals."
Mentoring program really works
Leon Smith's tragic turn in Dallas is moving some to action. Union head
Billy Hunter has spent several days in Dallas with Smith, and the union is
looking to develop a mentoring program for its youngest players, coupling
them with older guys on each team.
The model would be the Antonio Davis-Al
Harrington relationship in Indiana last year, when Davis let the 18-year-old live in his home during the lockout. Now, Harrington has blossomed into a consistent scorer for the Pacers, and wants to do the same thing for rookie Jonathan Bender that Davis did for him.
"It makes me feel great," Davis said. "Somebody did it for me. And for
me to have done something like that and not even think it was a big deal,
and for it to stick in his head, then we're going to continue to help
people. A lot of the players in the league are talking about mentoring,
helping the young guys. Because we put a lot of pressure on them. The teams
put a lot of pressure on them. These guys that are coming in at 17, 18,
that's tough right there. You need somebody to kind of take you by the head
sometimes and give you a pep talk, or take some of that daily stress off of
your shoulders."
Ironically, of course, it was the trade of Davis to Toronto that
brought Bender to Indiana and cleared out more playing time for Harrington.
"I'm so proud of him, man," Davis said. "I turn on the satellite every
time they're playing. He's just fun to watch. He's playing aggressive,
making the right decisions. They're letting him handle the ball a little
bit, which is great. I think he's going to do this the whole year. Al's
biggest problem was he needed an opportunity. It was hard on him. They had a
lot of guys who had a lot more experience, and Larry Bird had a lot more
confidence in guys ahead of him. But now, it's forced Larry Bird to play
him."
News & Notes
Stephon Marbury's already-dangerous dance with the Nets took a bad turn
last week when his mother criticized his teammates within earshot of
reporters. Now, the Nets are looking to limit the damage done by their terrible start and Marbury's problems with his teammates. "He's not a bad kid," says a Nets insider, who nonetheless admits there's a significant problem between Marbury and Keith Van Horn. Van Horn doesn't get off scot-free, either; his defense has been so bad that opposing teams are getting points at will by sending their second-best low-post options at him. Meanwhile, no one in the organization should feel secure. Nets recently offered league VP of operations Rod Thorn an executive position that would have taken some of the basketball responsibilities from current GM John Nash. Thorn turned them down.
The Sonics are deliriously happy with Ruben Patterson, who's stepped into the
starting lineup at small forward and is shooting 58 percent from the floor,
flushing with abandon and trash-talking at Gary Payton levels. "We don't run
a play for him and he's averaging 15 a game," crows GM Wally Walker.
Patterson is gloating himself after the Lakers showed no interest in
re-signing him after his rookie season. Phil Jackson didn't think he was
smart enough to pick up the triangle offense; Jerry West, who drafted
Patterson, wanted to keep him around. "Coach (Paul Westphal) lets us play," Patterson said. "I love GP. He's always on me."
Allen Iverson's injury
isn't good news for the Sixers, but at least it'll free up some shots for
others. Larry Brown's battles with Larry Hughes and his ongoing saga with Iverson has sapped the rest of the team. "It's a circus around here," one player said.
Rod Strickland says the problem in Washington is him, not Gar
Heard. "I'm struggling; I'm struggling bad," Strickland said. "I know I'm
100 percent better than this." Meanwhile, his backcourt mate, Mitch
Richmond, is slowly working his way back into shape after suffering a pulled
hamstring and two sore knees during training camp. "I've been to every
health food store in the city," said the Rock, who also visited an
acupuncturist to try and get relief.
For all the (correct) talk about Lamar
Odom's impact with the Clippers, they need Michael Olowokandi to play like
the 7-1 center he is every night. "He's never experienced playground
basketball, AAU basketball," coach Chris Ford says. "He hasn't played
against this kind of competition. Never. He's got some skills, if he would
just try to work with us a little bit and see the things we're trying to get
him to do. He's got a nice jump hook, but he doesn't go to it as many times
as I think he should. He turns and shoots those jump shots, and he doesn't
jump ... there's a little bit of stubbornness. He'll work with us a little
bit, and all of a sudden he'll do it for a period of time and have success
with it. And then, he'll revert back."
|  |
Aldridge: Spree's return true Bay watch
