The weekly half-hour NBA basketball news and features program is hosted by MSG Network's Mike Breen and will be on Tuesday nights at 11:00 p.m. In addition to a weekly one-on-one interview with a key NBA personality, the show will also feature news and notes from around the league, Breen's "Unsung Hero of the Week" award, and a show-closing roundtable discussion from New York City's Tick Tock Diner.
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Highlights and quotes from the twelfth episode!
24 (24 seconds to cover issues from around the league)
1) MVP - This year’s MVP race is the toughest to pick in all of my years covering the league. If you told me you were picking Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, or McGrady I wouldn’t argue with any of them. But my pick for this year’s MVP is Kevin Garnett. I think Garnett’s all-round game at both ends of the floor has become even better this season. He is double - and triple-teamed every night. The T’Wolves second best player, Wally Szczerbiak, was out a good portion of the year. KG doesn’t have an all-star supporting cast. Garnett’s value to the T’Wolves is off the charts.
2) Coach of the Year - Another award with several deserving candidates. But my pick is a rookie. What Eric Musselman at Golden State did was amazing. I know that they didn’t make the playoffs, but last year they won 21 games. This year they won almost 40 - with basically the same squad. The fact that Golden State even talked about the playoffs this year in the Western Conference is good enough for my vote. Special mention to Hubie Brown. Imagine if he had a training camp with the Grizzlies.
3) Rookie of the Year - Yao Ming of the Rocketts is my pick. I know that Amare Stoudemire of Phoenix and Caron Butler of Miami had strong impact years and deserve consideration, but the center from China had to deal with incredible scrutiny every single day. In each city he went to, it became a major event. Plus, he had the pressure of what his presence in the league meant to his native China. He handled it with grace and composure. And he can play. His shooting and passing abilities for somebody his size are amazing. Watch out next year.
4) 6th Man of the Year - Please don’t accuse me of a copout here, but it’s a tie. First Bobby Jackson of the Kings. Now he started a number of games early in the year when Mike Bibby was hurt, but Jackson’s their sixth-man. He is a fearless two-way player. He hits clutch shots and makes crunch-time stops. He shares the award with Nick Van Exel. Is there a more dangerous scorer off the bench? He still can give you 25 points a game and he would do so if he got the minutes. With all of the scorers the Mavs have, he is still one of their most feared.
"Court Vision Footlocker Profile" NBA Commissioner David Stern
Mike Breen: What is your favorite story about how far the game has come under your tenure?
David Stern: I guess my favorite story was in the Soviet Union in 1988. We were there with the Atlanta Hawks who played in Lithuania, Russia, and the Soviet Georgia. My wife and I were part of a small party that went to Zalgiris Kaunas, which is the second city in Lithuania and really the home of Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis, the Indianapolis, if you would of the Soviet Union. And we were sitting around the table in city hall and we meet the Soviet party and head of the city of Kaunas. We received the tour of the building and we exchanged gifts, and then we turned to discuss basketball. And the mayor or the communist party leader, I don’t remember the source exactly, wanted to talk about whether I thought it was unfair that the Portland Trailblazers had Sabonis on their draft list because they were over-the-cap. I knew then, that there was something going on with the sport of basketball on a global basis.
Mike Breen: What were your goals when you became the commissioner of the NBA?
David Stern: We only had one goal, and it was to get through the day! We were literally trying to, like the metaphor, we had bats and as the poles came in we would hit them off to sort of get through the day. We had a sense that we had a wonderful asset and a great game and we were going to really follow the game.
Mike Breen: Next year will be your 20th year as commissioner. Did you envision yourself being on the job this long?
David Stern: No. I just envisioned myself being in this job as long as it was fun. And it turned out that it was a lot of fun.
Mike Breen: Did you have a favorite team growing up as a kid in Manhattan? The Knicks?
David Stern: Yes. But I am not a Knick fan anymore of course. I want everyone to understand that I don’t root for those Knicks. I don’t root for anybody.
Mike Breen: Your father owned a deli in New York. Is that where you learned how to deal with people?
David Stern: Well, I would say, and I believe there is a book that says, everything I needed to know I learned in the garden, or something like that. I think waiting on people at a grocery delicatessen and doing the job there teaches you all that you need to know. Together with having to mop floors and pack out cases and worry about pennies is probably a good training for life. It’s something that I have always cherished.
Mike Breen: What was the most important decision that you made during your tenure as commissioner?
David Stern: I think the most important decision that we as a group at the NBA was the way we dealt with Magic Johnson. It influenced the discussion in this country on the subject of HIV and AIDS. We were able, because Magic was who he was, to profoundly change the way that people view HIV.
Mike Breen: What was your toughest day as commissioner?
David Stern: My toughest day was probably when we had to ban Micheal Ray Richardson from the league, because we were taking away someone’s career.
Mike Breen: Are there any decisions over the years that you think, maybe we should have handled that differently?
David Stern: I can’t really specifically give you one, but I assure you that there are hundreds. We are big second-guessers. I guess the biggest one in a business context is I wish there was a way that we could have figured out a way not to have had a lockout and eat up half of our season during 1998. I’m not really sure how we could have done it, but we second-guess ourselves a lot on what we might have done to avoid maybe the confrontation in the first place, and maybe even possibly the outcome because it was so costly to everyone involved.
Mike Breen: Speaking of collective bargaining, have you started chatting with Billy Hunter, and where does that stand now?
David Stern: We are scheduled to sit down with players and owners at some off-site meeting in May to begin batting some things around.
Mike Breen: One of the things that you have stressed over the years is community involvement by the teams. Where did that come from?
David Stern: It dawned on all of us early on that sports were in fact able to influence people. How fans feel about you is as important as what they think of you. Thinking is public relations and feeling is community relations.
Mike Breen: Do you have any concerns about player conduct that maybe at times it’s going the wrong way?
David Stern: I would rather that it didn’t. But that’s life. We are dealing with an age pool and pressure pool where things are going to happen. And I think that the more important issue is not that it happens, but making sure that we respond to it and that we use the opportunity to say, "Hey, this is not good. It is not right. And that it will be dealt with one way or another."
Mike Breen: What can you tell us about the state of the league now and the new thing on the horizon?
David Stern: Actually, the best thing about it is that we are talking about basketball. Isn’t it wonderful? We are not talking about drugs, traffic violations, or obscene gestures - these things that seem to have legs beyond their importance. People are saying, "Kobe is the MVP. No, McGrady, or Duncan, or Garnett, and even Iverson, and Shaq is the MVP."
Court Vision Grill Roundtable
MSG Network’s Mike Breen was joined by New York Daily News Knicks columnist Frank Isola and New York Times columnist Chris Broussard to discuss the topics of the best and the worst stories from the NBA this season.
Isola says that this year's best story is Yao Ming. Coming over to a new culture and a new team so gracefully and mature for a 22-year-old, performing not only the way he has on the court, but the way he has handled the off-court pressures as well is great for the game of basketball. Isola also likes what Earl Boykins done this year for all of the little guys out there. Boykins was basically working out at a health club when the season started and his contributions to the Warriors this season were unbelievable. Broussard says he actually played against Boykins when he was covering high school sports in Cleveland and that he scored 24 points on him, but Boykins lit Broussard up for 27 points. Broussard thinks that the Golden State Warriors as a team is a good story. He says that they have been a struggling franchise regardless of who was playing or coaching there and this year they amazingly found a way to win almost 40 games in a very difficult and competitive Western Conference with basically the same team as last year. Broussard also thinks the John Stockton and Karl Malone are again a great story. He says that fans and the media have made a big deal about Michael Jordan at age 40 averaging 20 points/game, but look at what Stockton and Malone are doing at the same age - and their team made it to the playoffs in the West Conference. Breen says that the Hubie Brown was a great story this season. He believes the impact that Brown had without a training camp was tremendous. He believes the Grizzlies were a fun team to watch and that they are learning to play the game the right way. Isola believes that it was all worth it to Brown to beat the Knicks at the Garden this season - that that game meant a lot to Brown. On the subject of worst stories, Broussard believes that it was sad to see Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers keep exploding the way he did this season because he is such a great player. Isola believes that the Portland Trailblazers problems this year have been bad for the league and for the fans in Oregon. Isola says that between the arrests, suspensions, and fights during practice, it’s completely distracted the product that the team puts on the court and he wonders just when is it going to stop. Breen says that some of the things a few of the young players have done this season just drives him nuts. He says that what Jason Richardson of the Warriors did to Carlos Boozer in the rookie/sophomore game, by dribbling the ball off of Boozer’s head was a "look a me" move and was a disrespect to the game. The Ricky Davis move against the Utah Jazz when he was trying to reach a triple/double was equally as disrespectful and disgraceful.
Court Vision Awards:
Most Improved Player - Often this is the most difficult award to give out, because a player’s numbers improve because he just gets more minutes - and I don’t think that that is what this award should be about. Like Gilbert Arenas of the Warriors. He had a great season, but he had that ability last year. He just needed to play. My pick for most improved player is his teammate Troy Murphy. The former Notre Dame star averaged 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per year as a rookie. This year, he has averaged a double-double, including being in the top ten in rebounds all season. He put on weight and muscle in the off-season and he went from being a poor defender to being a solid one. Murphy improved in a number of areas and not just because he received more playing time.
Executive of the Year - Joe Dumars of the Pistons. Last year his team had a great year. They were second in the East. But Dumars made a bold move. He traded his then-leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse for Richard Hamilton, who is a better fit for this unselfish team. He also signed free agents Chauncey Billups and former draft pick Mehmet Okur. This year the Pistons have the best record in the Eastern Conference.
All-NBA Defense - Often this is given on reputation. But from what I saw this year, this five guys are outstanding defensively.
Center - Ben Wallace
Forward - Kenyon Martin
Forward -Andrei Kirilenko
Guards - Ron Artest
Guards - Bruce Bowen
Guards - Eric Snow
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