The Basketball World Championships Are Not More Important than Olympic Basketball

The 2008 USA players aren't the only missing stars in the FIBA World Championships
(Richard Giles)

Over and over again, ESPN loves touting the line that the FIBA World Championships means more to the world than Olympic basketball does. That the world consider the World Championships to have the same importance for basketball that the World Cup does for soccer/futbol. That only we ignorant, isolated, backwater Americans still consider Olympic basketball to be the most important international basketball event.

Please cut the crap.

Take a look at the list of prominent basketball players who aren't joining their teams in Turkey. These are all uninjured players who have played for their national teams in the past but personally chose not to play this time.

• Manu Ginobili (Argentina)
• Jamaal Magloire (Canada)
• Samuel Dalembert (Canada)
• Steve Nash (Canada)
• Joakim Noah (France)
• Mickael Pietrus (France)
• Tony Parker (France)
• Chris Kaman (Germany)
• Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
• Theo Papaloukas (Greece)
• Darius Songaila (Lithuania)
• Sarunas Jasikevicius (Lithuania)
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania)
• Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)
• Viktor Khryapa (Russia)
• Darko Milicic (Serbia)
• Peja Stojakovic (Serbia)
• Sasha Pavlovic (Serbia)
• Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia)
• Beno Udrih (Slovenia)
• Sasha Vujacic (Slovenia)
• Pau Gasol (Spain)
• Entire 2008 USA Olympic Basketball Team (USA)

All of the listed countries are missing a top-three player. Some of the countries (e.g. Argentina, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, USA) are without their best player (unless you think Kevin Durant is the best basketball player in America).

You could easily add Yao Ming to this list, too. He's participating in basketball drills now but staying out of the tournament to rest his recovering foot. If the World Championship had the significance of the World Cup, would he still be in Houston right now instead of Turkey? Did injuries keep Wayne Rooney and Jozy Altidore from playing in South Africa?

If China cared about the World Championships, particularly after all the embarrassing stories of their absence at the World Cup, wouldn't they have pushed Yao to speed up his rehab and play like they did to him at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

But they didn't. Why? Because they don't give a damn about the FIBA World Championships. Are TV ratings for the World Championships higher than for Olympic basketball? Are national basketball organizations spending more money for the World Championships than the Olympics? What makes ESPN so sure anyone cares more about it?

One can understand why basketball purists love the FIBA World Championships. Many more teams participate, and it runs longer and deeper than the Olympics. But even diehard fans would need to be delusional to think the grander format equals greater international significance.

All I can say for sure is that some of the best basketball players in the world have chosen not to participate in the World Championships, and even the most hardcore national programs (i.e. China, USA) are giving them a pass. Ginobili even came out on his blog and specifically said, "I am just prioritizing London 2012 to Turkey 2010."

Sure, he and his wife had twins three months ago, and he wants to be there for them. Yet you can't deny the title of that post. Later, he even goes on to say, "[M]y two previous experiences on the Olympics were the best thing that ever happened to me as an athlete, including the NBA rings, European championships and everything I lived on my almost 15 years of career, and I have no doubts in my head that I would like to live that again."

The Olympics. Not the World Championships. Can't get much clearer than that.

The Best Player in Europe: How Good Is He in the NBA?

Thank you, Darko Milicic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili. Because of guys like you two and your combined 8.5 career NBA points-per-game average, the NBA trend of drafting young, unproven European league players in the hopes of finding the next Dirk Nowitzki or Pau Gasol is nearly extinct.

Lately NBA teams have either drafted talent that they know will stay and develop for a few years in Europe or directly signed European vets who already have accomplished resumes.

This year, the Spurs eagerly anticipate the arrival of 2009 Liga ACB MVP Tiago Splitter. Rudy Fernandez, the 2007 Euroleague Rising Star and 2008 Eurocup Finals MVP, is commanding serious trade interest from Chicago, New York, and Boston as the most affordable young star on the trading block. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Timberwolves are still wringing their hands over when, if ever, 2007 ACB Rising Star and 2010 Euroleague Rising Star Ricky Rubio will come play for their maligned franchise.

Many of these players have been billed by the press with such unofficial, unauthoritative titles as The Best Player in Europe, The Best Young Prospect in Europe, or The Best Point Guard/Big Man/Etc. in Europe. Yet how do Europe's best translate when they come across the pond to play in Liga Americana?

To answer that, we examine the major award winners over the last decade from Liga ACB, considered by many to be the most talented basketball league outside the NBA, and the Euroleague tournament. These are players that arrived in the NBA at or approaching the top of their games. We're not talking about the Tony Parkers and Nicolas Batums of the world; we're looking at the players with real credentials on their European resumes only.

Manu Ginobili

Ginobiliiiiiiii!!!! (Photo Credit Unknown)

European Awards: 2001 Euroleague Final Four MVP

NBA Career, 2002-Present: Now this is some value. The San Antonio Spurs drafted him with the second to last spot in the second round of the 1999 draft. He received a lot of buzz before joining the Spurs in 2002, leading the Argentina team that beat Team USA on its way to a silver medal in that summer's FIBA world championships.

Ginobili did not disappoint in San Antonio, playing a crucial part in winning three NBA championships. He's been an All-Star, a Sixth Man of the Year, All-NBA Third Team, and Charles Barkley's favorite international player. ESPN's John Hollinger has even (crazily) argued Ginobili's output is comparable to Kobe Bryant's.

Also, if Tony Parker deserved to be Finals MVP of the 2007 Finals (he didn't), then Manu Ginobili should've been Finals MVP in 2005. And Ginobili was being guarded by Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, not Boobie Gibson and 34-year old Eric Snow.

Overshadowed By: Nobody. Alongside Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, Ginobili was part of the most successful Big Three of the 2000s.

Post-NBA Career: He will likely retire a Spur after his current contract, but he hasn't forgotten FIBA rules, leading Argentina to gold in Athens during the 2004 Olympics.

Andres Nocioni

The Red Bull (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

European Awards: 2004 ACB MVP

NBA Careers, 2004-Present: Fresh off winning the gold with Manu in 2004, Nocioni signed with the Chicago Bulls, where his aggressive, physical style of play earned him the nickname "Red Bull." He completely outshone the more hyped Luol Deng in the 2006 playoffs, averaging 22.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in six games against Miami.

But the next year Deng came back with a vengeance and helped Chicago steamroll Miami before losing in six to Detroit. That, by the way, was the highest point the Chicago Bulls would ever reach in the decade. Meanwhile, various injuries derailed Nocioni's career as he bounced from Chicago to Sacramento to Philadelphia.

Overshadowed By: Luol Deng.

Post-NBA Career: Still in the league now, but these days he's showing a level of disgruntlement that usually precedes a contract paid out in euros.

Anthony Parker

The Other Tony Parker (Photo Credit Unknown)

European Awards: 2004 Euroleague Final Four MVP, 2005 & 2006 All-Euroleague MVP

NBA Career, 2007-Present: Signed by the Raptors in 2007, Parker had a decent run in Toronto before being stranded with other mediocre wings Jamario Moon, Danny Green, Joey Graham, and Jawad Williams on the post-LeBron Cavaliers. Still, he's been a consistent starting shooting guard, solid perimeter defender, and three-point specialist, averaging over 112 threes a season in his four NBA years after Europe.

Overshadowed By: Candace Parker, his much more famous little sister. She's the LeBron James of the WNBA, except she makes a hell of a lot less money, no one cares about her games, and she married a mangalore.

Candace Parker with husband Shelden Williams (Photo Credit Unknown)

Post-NBA Career: Still in the league now, but will probably be making Gatorade runs for his sister in a few years.

The Point Guards

Juan Carlos Navarro and his very unambiguous Euroleague trophies (Euroleague.net)

European Awards: 2005 ACB Rising Star (Rodriguez), 2005 Euroleague Final Four MVP (Jasikevicius), 2006 ACB MVP (Navarro)

NBA Careers, 2006-10: Several European point guards have come over billed as The Best Point Guard or Point Guard Prospect in Europe (Re: Ricky Rubio). When the Portland Trailblazers bought his draft rights from the cheapskate Sarver Suns in 2006, Sergio Rodriguez was a highly touted prospect with a cool if unoriginal nickname (Spanish Chocolate!). Portland waited for him to bloom and take over the point guard position for three years before bouncing him to Sacramento and New York. And he lasted the longest.

In 2005, Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas pushed hard to get his Lithuanian countryman Sarunas Jasikevicius to join the Cavs, but Jasikevicius felt the Indiana Pacers were closer to a title and signed with them. They certainly were deeper at point guard, as he struggled to get regular minutes before being traded to the Warriors the next year and perfectly playing the role of towel-waving 12th man during their historic 2007 playoff run.

Juan Carlos Navarro signed with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2007 to join his best friend Pau Gasol. That same season, Gasol was traded to the Lakers and joined Kobe to start their string of three straight Finals appearances. Meanwhile his best bud stayed in Memphis and hit 156 three-pointers. Woohoo!

Overshadowed By: Other point guards on their team. Despite their hype, none of them could ever seize the starting spot. Rodriguez was the third man in point guard battles between Juan Dixon and Jarrett Jack and then Jarret Jack and Steve Blake before Jerryd Bayless took over the point guard of the future mantle in Portland.

Similarly, Jasikevicius couldn't get regular minutes behind Jamaal Tinsley and Anthony Johnson in Indiana, and Navarro played in a three-headed rotation with Mike Conley and Kyle Lowry.

Post-NBA Career: After two NBA years, Jasikevicius signed with Panathinaikos, which immediately rode him and Vassilis Spanoulis (another Euro with a failed NBA career) to the Euroleague championship.

Navarro peaced out after just one year in Memphis, signed with FC Barcelona, won All-Euroleague MVP in 2009, and won Euroleague Final Four MVP in 2010 while taking Barcelona to the Euroleague championship.

Rodriguez signed a three-year deal with Real Madrid this summer, and, if history is any guide, they'll probably win Euroleague either this year or next.

The Big Men

The gritty Luis Scola (Photo Credit Unknown)

European Awards: 2006 Euroleague Rising Star (Bargnani), 2005 & 2007 ACB MVP (Scola), 2008 ACB MVP (Gasol)

NBA Career, 2006-Present: Good news for Tiago Splitter: unlike their point guard counterparts, the European big men have seen quite a bit more NBA success.

While Andrea Bargnani is cut from the same Darko/Skita mold of finesse big men, the former number one overall pick has shown an offensive aggressiveness the past two years that those two never possessed. His defense is still a work nonexistent, but so was Dirk's at this point in his career. Although, to be fair, Dirk was averaging 23/10 for a 57-win Mavericks team in his fourth year, not 17/6 for a Raptors team that couldn't make the playoffs after Chris Bosh quit on them.

The two ACB MVPs, on the other hand, are definitely bruisers. After five years waiting for Luis Scola to come to the NBA, the Spurs traded him to the Houston Rockets and watched him become a crucial power forward for that team, making the All-Rookie first team and signing a five-year $47 million contract after averaging 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds last year.

Marc Gasol has made the Grizzlies actually look slightly less egregious in trading older brother Pau to the Lakers for his rights and Kwame Brown's remains, nearly averaging a double-double last year while teaming up with Zach Randolph to form a beefy and surprisingly effective low post tandem.

Overshadowed By: If the Raptors drafted LaMarcus Aldridge instead of Bargnani, they still could've gotten a jump-shooting, barely-rebounding big man, but also with the ability to play low post and a Texas connection that might've convinced Chris Bosh to stay.

While moving Carl Landry last year unfortunately put an end to the Carluis Scolandry era in Houston, it helped solidify Scola's position on the team.

Unless you count big brother Pau in L.A., the only shadow cast over Marc Gasol these days is Zach Randolph's when Gasol gets in his way to the buffet line.

Post-NBA Career: All still in the league and looking like they'll be staying for a while.

Rudy Fernandez

Rudy Fernandez in his glory days, pre-NBA (The Oregonian)

European Awards: 2007 Euroleague Rising Star, 2008 Eurocup Finals MVP

NBA Career, 2008-Present: After seeing him tear through the Team USA defense in the 2008 Olympics, USA assistant coach and Portland head coach Nate McMillan salivated at the thought of Fernandez playing alongside Brandon Roy on the wing in Portland.

Didn't quite work out the way he thought it would. Fernandez, known as an elite athlete and all-around player in Europe, somehow fell into the familiar European transplant role of three-point specialist. His rookie season was highlighted by setting the NBA rookie record for three-pointers (159) and embarrassing himself after getting voted into the dunk contest while Joe Alexander sat at home with nothing to do.

He actively joined this summer of player discontent by refusing to answer Portland's phone calls and threatening to sit out the remaining two years of his contract. Hopefully now McMillan realizes the only Spanish prospects worth drooling over are more like 5'10" and a C-cup.

Overshadowed By: Himself, 2008 version.

Post-NBA Career: If his demands are met, this could happen pretty soon. But we've seen this before with Andrei Kirilenko. He's not going to give up two years of his professional basketball career and paycheck just to be a prick.

Danillo Gallinari

Rooster (Photo Credit Unknown)

European Awards: 2008 Euroleague Rising Star

NBA Career, 2008-Present: The Rooster's rookie season was a wash, as back problems kept him out of basically the entire season. But Rooster came back strong the next season, becoming--what else?--a three-point specialist for the Knicks, hitting 186 three pointers at a 38.1% clip.

That apparently was good enough for the Knicks to include Rooster along with Wilson Chandler and Toney Douglas as part of their core team to pitch to LeBron this summer, which is like trying to pick up a supermodel while rolling in a Mazda Miata.

Neverthless, Rooster is the still best nickname in the league, in case you couldn't already tell how I felt about it. Rooster.

Overshadowed By: If the Knicks picked Brook Lopez instead of Gallinari in 2008, they still could've been in position to get Ty Lawson if not Brandon Jennings in 2009.

Knowing how effective Lawson was last year in his few games filling in for Chauncey Billups and how fantastic Brook Lopez is period, could the Knicks then have snagged LeBron? Who knows. They're certainly not Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but are they that far off from Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah? It would have at least given some sort of basketball legitimacy to the Knicks's pitch.

Post-NBA Career: He's signed through 2012, so unless he pulls a Rudy Fernandez, he'll be in the league for at least a couple more years.

The Best in Europe?

Despite the hype surrounding established European players entering the NBA, none of them have had the same type of success as their colleagues who came over younger and learned the American game earlier. The lone exception is Manu Ginobili. Otherwise, the results seem to be either a lot of grit or a lot of three pointers.

Does playing a different style of basketball ingrain these European players with instincts that are too difficult to shake? Is the option of returning to Europe where they know they can succeed preventing them from trying their hardest to adapt to the NBA game? Or is the sample size just too small, and we're bound to see another Manu Ginobili or better soon?

In Defense of Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame this week, but his credentials extend far beyond being Michael Jordan’s sidekick.

Scottie Pippen. (Steve Lipofsky/Basketballphoto.com)

Three years ago, I was in Shanghai Pudong airport with some friends when two gorgeous flight attendants walked toward us. When I finally looked passed them to see who was important enough to merit such an escort, I saw a 6’7” man wearing a black leather jacket and dark sunglasses. Like any idiot caught off guard by a celebrity sighting, I blurted out the first words that came to my head: his name.

“Scottie Pippen!”

“Excuse me,” he said in his low rumble, right before splitting the defense between my friend E-Y and his mom, and then bolting down the escalator to the VIP lounges. I dropped my suitcase and unzipped it, frantically looking for my camera. I couldn’t find it, but I pulled out something else that I thought might be relevant: my gray Nike Air Pippens.

“Hey Scottie!” I shouted down the escalator. “I bought your shoes!” Dude ran like I was 1989 Dennis Rodman coming up behind him on the fast break.

Nike Air Pippens. Still got'em! (The NBA from the Cheap Seats)

A Stronger Argument for Scottie Pippen

So I may not be the most unbiased source of Scottie Pippen information. More than any other basketball player, I admire Pippen’s skill set. A six-foot-seven small forward who had court vision and handled the ball like a point guard but still had the length and quickness to guard four positions and the power and athleticism to unleash thunderous dunks on the league’s best big men. People say LeBron James has no historical comparison? Pippen was clearly the template for LeBron (insert Dwyane Wade’s sidekick joke here). LeBron is just Pippen on steroids (“on steroids” just an expression, that needs to be clarified these days).

Yet some critics still find ways to detract from his accomplishments. Critics like ESPN’s Skip Bayless, whom I am absolutely positive does not believe half the garbage he says and deliberately chooses the most inane angles on sports arguments just to sound ridiculous. Fine, that’s his schtick. I get it. What aggravates me is that ESPN puts him up against a creampuff like Jemele Hill who rambles off a bunch of subjective statements (“There are a lot of players who would’ve been too intimidated to shine the way he did [next to Jordan].” Yeah, put that on Pippen’s HOF plaque.) and can’t connect even against these softballs Bayless lobs at her.

Not a clue on either side of this table. (ESPN)

Since Hill won’t give Pippen a proper defense, I will. Let’s tackle Bayless’s jokes in reverse order:

Joke #1 — In his five years with Houston and Portland, Scottie Pippen averaged 14.5, 12.5, 11.3, 10.6, and 10.8 ppg.

How weak is your position when you resort to points-per-game to argue a man’s Hall of Fame credentials? Pippen joined a Houston team with Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and no real point guard. He joined a Trailblazers team with Rasheed Wallace, Steve Smith, Damon Stoudamire, Arvydas
Sabonis, Bonzi Wells, and Detlef Schrempf. On neither of those teams was he asked to carry the scoring load. He fit in because his talents are so multi-faceted that he could play other roles—like facilitator and defensive stopper—that those teams needed.

Here are the yearly career PPG averages of another Hall-of-Famer: 14.7, 16.6, 16.7, 18.7, 18.2, 16.9, 18.9, 16.8, 15.0, 14.1, 12.9, 13.3, 12.5, 9.9. This bum couldn’t even crack 20 ppg in any single year. How the hell could he possibly make it into the HOF? Perhaps on account on his 11 championship titles, considering we’re talking about Bill Russell. Not every player makes his impact through scoring. Duh.

Joke #2 — At age 34, Michael Jordan averaged 29-6-4, led the NBA in scoring, was first-team All-NBA, and won his sixth Finals MVP while leading the Bulls to their sixth title. At 34, Pippen was a role player on the Trailblazers.

The only reason Bayless picked 34 was because that was the age at which Jordan won his last title. Let’s play along and assume there is some type of magical significance associated with that number. Yes, even at 34, Michael Jordan was sublime, but what if we hold other top HOF swingmen to his standard at that age?

• Elgin Baylor 25-10-5. First-team All-NBA, All-Star. His Lakers lost in seven in the Finals to the Boston Celtics. Jordanesque, though Jerry West was clearly the leader on that team, and they also got a 20-20 year out of Wilt Chamberlain.
• Jerry West 23-4-9. Trailed only Gail Goodrich on his team for points but led it in assists. First-team All-NBA, All-Star. His Lakers lost in the Finals to the New York Knicks. So far so good!
• Oscar Robertson 16-5-8. Fourth highest scorer on his team, though he did lead it in assists. His Milwaukee Bucks lost in the playoff semifinals to the Golden State Warriors. Bit of a drop-off now.
• John Havlicek 19-6-5. Played all 82 games. Second-team All-NBA, first-team All-Defense, All-Star. Helped the Dave Cowens Celtics to the Conference Finals, where they lost to the Bullets.
• Earl Monroe 12-3-1. Came off the bench, and played only the eighth most minutes. His Knicks didn’t make the playoffs.
• Rick Barry 14-6-4. Acted as facilitator for the Moses Malone/Calvin Murphy/Rudy Tomjanovich Houston Rockets that got swept by the Hawks in the first round.
• Julius Erving 20-5-3. All-Star. Helped a stacked Philadelphia 76ers team with Moses Malone and Andrew Toney in their primes plus rookie Charles Barkley to the Conference Finals, where they lost to the Celtics.
• Adrian Dantley 6-1-1. Played only 10 games for the Milwaukee Bucks.
• Larry Bird 19-9-7. Led his team in minutes and points and was second in rebounds and assists, but missed 22 games. All Star. His Boston Celtics lost to the Pistons in the Semifinals.
• Dominique Wilkins 24-6-2 for the Hawks before trade. 29-7-2 for the Clippers after. Still a scoring machine if no longer a highlight reel. Third-team All-NBA, All-Star. His Clippers did not make the playoffs.
• Clyde Drexler 18-6-6. Third wheel for those Hakeem/Barkley Rockets, but he missed 20 games. All-Star. His Rockets lost in the Conference Finals that year to Utah.
• Joe Dumars 13-4-1. His Pistons didn’t make the playoffs. 
• Reggie Miller 18-3-2. Missed just one game. All-Star. Led Indiana Pacers team that lost in the Finals to the Lakers, though Jalen Rose carried an equal share of those Pacers. Reggie isn’t HOF yet, but he played in the same era and just happened not to retire until later.
• James Worthy, George Gervin, and Pete Maravich were no longer playing in the NBA at 34.

Now for Pippen:

The defensive-minded Pippen. (NBA)

• Scottie Pippen 13-6-5. Played all 82 games. On that stacked Blazers team, he was second in minutes, second in assists, third in rebounds, and third in points. Second-team All-Defense. This is the Blazers team that had the infamous collapse in Game 7 of the Conference Finals against the Lakers and let a 17-point lead slip away in the fourth quarter.

Few approached Michael Jordan’s standard. None reached it. Obviously. He's Michael Goddamn Jordan.

While Pippen may be in the bottom half when comparing his age-34 production against the best Hall of Fame shooting guards and small forwards of all  time, he is still firmly in the conversation.

Joke #3 — Michael Jordan made Scottie Pippen.

This argument can be deconstructed in two ways. First, look at Michael Jordan’s career without Scottie Pippen. Number of MVP awards won: five. Number of MVP awards without Pippen: zero. Number of Championships won: six. Number of championships without Pippen: zero. Number of first-team All-NBA’s: 10. Number of first-team All-NBA’s without Pippen: one.

You can look at Jordan’s first-team All-NBA in 1987 without Pippen and say he was already on his way even if Pippen never came along, and you’d be right. But how far was he going to get without Pippen? Couldn’t you also say Pippen would have been on his way even if Jordan never came along? No logic can extract how much of those Bulls teams’ success belonged to Jordan, how much to Pippen, and how much to Phil Jackson. All those elements affected each other, and no one with a functional brain can say one of them completely manufactured another (unless you’re Skip Bayless and blowing smoke up everybody’s asses for kicks, of course).

It's Pippen's time!
(Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images)

Second, look at Pippen’s career without Jordan. Since we already discussed his roles on the Rockets and Blazers, we’ll focus on the two years Pippen played in his prime when Jordan was playing baseball. In 1993-1994, Scottie Pippen averaged a monstrous 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, 0.8 blocks, and 2.7 three-pointers. He led the Bulls in points, assists, steals, and 3s along with field goals made and attempted and free throws made and attempted. He finished second to Horace Grant in rebounds and blocks.

Finally out of Jordan’s shadow, he received his first first-team All-NBA selection, remained first-team All-Defense, and finished third in MVP voting. He even won the All-Star game MVP. He led that Bulls team to 55 wins, but ultimately lost in seven to the New York Knicks. This was the series that featured his infamous refusal to come back into a game after Phil Jackson drew up a last shot play for Toni Kukoc, an admittedly selfish decision that sadly has been given far too much weight in determining Pippen’s legacy.

Unfortunately, I don’t know Pippen’s splits in 1994-1995 before and after Michael Jordan came back. I do know Jordan returned late in the season and averaged an astounding 27-7-5 over 17 games with virtually no time to prep for the season, which showed in his paltry 41.1% field goal percentage.

Still, this Bulls season belonged to Pippen, who went 21-8-5 over 79 game, received his second first-team All-NBA selection, and continued to remain first-team All-Defense. Over the entire season, Pippen led the team in total points, rebounds, assists, steals (league-leader), blocks, minutes, field goals made and attempted, and free throws made and attempted.

You’ve Got to Do a Better Job Arguing for Pippen than That

Do I expect Jemele Hill to know all of these points when arguing for Pippen? You’re goddamn right I do! You get time to prepare for these debates, and you know Bayless is going to come at you with the dumbest possible angles.

Even without preparation, anyone familiar with Pippen should be able to throw out the 55-win season, Pippen’s two All-NBA first-team selections (mostly) sans Jordan, the versatile roles Pippen was asked to play on those Rockets (point forward) and Blazers (defensive stopper) teams, the fact that saying Jordan made Pippen is just as illogical as saying Pippen made Jordan, and the fact that judging a player’s value based on PPG is makes about as much sense as using height and weight.

This is all before mentioning that Jordan himself acknowledged Pippen, an eight-time All-Defense first-team selection, may have been an even better defender than he was, as noted in David Halberstram’s seminal book on Jordan, Playing for Keeps. If Michael Jordan is giving the speech to induct Scottie Pippen into the Basketball Hall of Fame, if His Airness himself says Pippen is HOF-worthy, who is Skip Bayless to say he isn’t?

That’s right. Bayless is nobody. Congratulations, Scottie Pippen.

(Andy Hayt/NBAE/Getty Images)

Breaking Down the Four-Team Trade that Put Darren Collison in Indiana and Trevor Ariza in New Orleans

How far will Darren Collison and Trevor Ariza take their new teams?

Four teams traded five players today as the Indiana Pacers got their latest and perhaps most promising point guard experiment and the New Orleans Hornets tried to demonstrate their seriousness to Chris Paul by filling the gap at small forward with a talented player entering his prime.

When all was complete, Trevor Ariza went to the New Orleans Hornets, Darren Collison and James Posey went to the Indiana Pacers, Troy Murphy went to the New Jersey Nets, and Courtney Lee went to the Houston Rockets.

Read up on the full breakdown of the moves on Suite 101.

The Case for Isiah

Isiah Thomas returns from NBA exile to the Knicks.

The prodigal son has returned to New York. Last Friday, the New York Knicks announced that former coach and president of basketball operations Isiah Thomas would return to the organization as a part-time consultant. Thomas touted this role as an opportunity for the Knicks to take “full advantage of [his] skill set as an evaluator of basketball talent.”

Current Knicks president Donnie Walsh isn’t impressed, with reports surfacing that he nearly resigned when he learned Knicks owner and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan went over Walsh’s head to hire Thomas. Many believe this is a sign that Thomas is angling to claim the GM position and usurp control over the Knicks operations back from Walsh.

As expected, the always zealous New York media is rampantly battering this decision, although New York fans don’t appear to be as unilaterally against Thomas’s return or his intentions. However, assuming David Stern doesn’t quash the entire idea due to the potential conflict of interest with Thomas’s current job at Florida International University, are there merits to having Thomas as a Knicks consultant?

Isiah Thomas: Skilled Evaluator of Talent?

Thomas with David Lee, not a bad draft pick.

One reputation Isiah Thomas has picked up is that he’s a master at the draft. When he actually keeps the draft picks to use, as opposed to trading them so he can throw bloated contracts at mediocre talents like Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury, Thomas has often found success. His credits:

• 1995 Toronto Raptors – #7 Damon Stoudamire, #35 Jimmy King. The first ever pick in Toronto Raptors history was heavily booed, as Raptors fans wanted UCLA hero Ed O’Bannon. Yet, in a rookie class featuring Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, and Kevin Garnett (all of whom were picked before #7), Stoudamire ended up winning Rookie of the Year. Clearly, he was the right choice, as knee injuries ended O’Bannon’s career after only two years. Jimmy King was the last member of the Fab Five and accomplished little professionally.
• 1996 Toronto Raptors – #2 Marcus Camby. After Allen Iverson was selected #1, Naismith College Player of the Year Marcus Camby was a no-brainer. Although injuries muddled the middle of his career, Camby has Defensive Player of the Year, four All-Defensive Teams, and All-Rookie First Team awards on his mantle and continues to be a force in the middle for the Portland Trailblazers.
• 1997 Toronto Raptors – #9 Tracy McGrady. Thomas’s pick in 1996 would look even brighter had that draft not been arguably the deepest ever. Of course he missed out on Kobe Bryant at #13, but no one–NO ONE–predicted the career Kobe would have. Thomas would not miss the high school phenom of the 1997 class, however, selecting McGrady after such luminaries as Keith Van Horn, Antonio Daniels, Tony Battie, Ron Mercer, Tim Thomas, and Adonal Foyle were off the board. Seven-time All-Star McGrady was the last pick of any value in this draft until Stephen Jackson at #43.

Following an unsuccessful bid to buy the Raptors in 1998, Thomas resigned, tried broadcasting, ruined the CBA, did a stint as coach of the Pacers, and didn’t re-surface in another front office until Crazy Jimmy Dolan hired him late in 2003.

• 2004 New York Knicks – #43 Trevor Ariza. With only one pick, Thomas still managed to find value with the athletic swingman from UCLA. Ariza was a critical component to the Lakers 2008 title run and a highly sought-after free agent the following summer. Nobody drafted after Ariza is still in the league, and only two others from the second round (Anderson Varejao and Chris Duhon) also still collect NBA paychecks.
• 2005 New York Knicks – #8 Channing Frye, #21 Nate Robinson (via Phoenix), #30 David Lee. People forget that Channing Frye was the consensus second-best center in that draft (after Andrew Bogut) and actually showed quite a bit of promise his rookie year (All-Rookie First Team) before losing steam and then finding his role as a floor-spacing big man for the Suns. David Lee has been a revelation, as his new six-year $80 million contract demonstrates. The Knicks bought Nate Robinson from notorious Phoenix cheapskate Robert Sarver, and, after some turbulent seasons in New York, Robinson became a playoff hero in Boston last year and proved to be better than your average 21^st pick.
• 2006 New York Knicks – #20 Renaldo Balkman, #29 Mardy Collins. Here’s where it gets dicey. Renaldo Balkman wasn’t a bad player, but Thomas drafted him right before Rajon Rondo and several picks before Kyle Lowry, Shannon Brown, and Jordan Farmar. The Knicks did have both Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury at the time, but Balkman apologists can’t play the “We didn’t need a point guard!” card because Thomas drafted PG Mardy Collins at #29. Worse, Balkman was a total unknown, which led to an entire summer of awful “Did he think he was getting Rolando Blackman?” jokes. Collins, meanwhile, is still best known for getting slapped by Carmelo Anthony.
• 2007 New York Knicks – #23 Wilson Chandler. Another relative unknown. The big knock here is that he was drafted one spot ahead of Rudy Fernandez, but Chandler actually outplayed Fernandez last year. No, Chandler hasn’t been as good as Carl Landry or Marc Gasol nor as beneficial to his team as Glen Davis (all picked in the second round), so this will go down as a solid pick for its position rather than another home-run.

Good evaluation of talent? Evidence supports it. The ESPN D.R.A.F.T. Initiative agrees, calling Thomas the second-best drafting GM of the past 20 years. On the other hand, first was Bryan Colangelo, who has been widely panned for the sorry state of the current Raptors, and third was Jim Paxson, who was chased out of Cleveland with sticks and burning copies of DeSagana Diop’s contract.

Clearly there is more to being a good GM than simply drafting.

Isiah Thomas: Credibility with Current Players?

Despite what Crazy Jimmy Dolan wants you to believe, 
this image had nothing to do with Isiah Thomas.

When Mike D’Antoni and Donnie Walsh pitched LeBron James in Cleveland this summer, they presented him with a Tony Soprano shout-out and spent hours talking X’s and O’s to convince him that the Knicks franchise and team were right for him. All seemed to go well, but word after the meeting was that Team LeBron now considered the Knicks out of the running.

Who did Crazy Jimmy Dolan send back to make the final plea? The same man responsible for the embarrassing quagmire that Walsh had to untangle even to have a chance at LeBron – Isiah Thomas. Thomas did get a meeting with one of LeBron’s representatives, which was good enough for Crazy Jimmy to decide Thomas had credibility with players that both Walsh and D’Antoni lacked. Like most decisions made during Crazy Jimmy Dolan’s reign of incompetence, a shred of logic led to a narrow-sighted leap off a cliff.

Yet there is that shred of logic. As much as the media and NBA offices lambast Isiah Thomas for his executive career, many NBA players still remember him as the greatest small point guard of all time and a member of the NBA’s 50 Best Players.

Forget the rumors that Thomas recruited Stoudemire, which appears questionable at best. Even without that, there is no question that Isiah has the charisma to charm even his biggest detractors in person, as well as the two championship rings to back up his words.

Is Isiah a Good Rehire?

Not better than the guy on the left.

The ultimate question. Yes, if he is coming onboard as a consultant. The ramifications this will create for the FIU basketball program and NCAA recruiting in general will be a bigger trainwreck than the one Thomas left in New York, but this can be good for the Knicks.

Yet if the rumors about Thomas’s ambitions are true, and Crazy Jimmy Dolan plans to replace Walsh, the man who fixed the worst salary cap situation in the league, with Thomas, a man who may not even know what the salary cap is, then this hire marks the first step back to insignificance for the New York Knicks franchise.

Examining Atlanta Hawks GM Rick Sund, or The Man Who'd Rather Keep Playing Checkers when Everyone Else Is Playing Chess

Mr. Five Years Behind Everyone Else

One of the oddest asterisks in the NBA’s summer of 2010 free agent bonanza is that the biggest contract handed out did not go to any of the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, or Chris Bosh. It didn’t even go to Amar’e Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer, despite big men always commanding a premium.

No, the biggest contract of this summer, for $120 million over six years, went to Joe Johnson.

Joe Johnson who quietly threw down a 21-5-5 last year for the 53-29 Atlanta Hawks. Joe Johnson, who then averaged below 13-5-4 on 30.3% shooting when the Hawks were swept by a historic 25.3-point margin of victory by the Orlando Magic. Joe Johnson, who was last seen criticizing the people of Atlanta for not showing up and supporting the Hawks (which, to be honest, they didn’t). Joe Johnson, who is 29—three months older than Dwyane Wade, the oldest member of Miami’s new trio—and will be paid $24.1 million at age 35.

Joe Johnson, who needs to send a giant “Thank You” card with a blinged-out Jacob & Co. watch to his general manager Rick Sund, who made the biggest reach in a summer of reaches and will force poor Hawks fans to continue living with the smelly mess he grabbed.

Full details in the Suite 101 article.

King James Copies Big Z but Can't Duplicate Warm Fuzzy Feelings

Last Sunday, Zydrunas Ilgauskas placed a full-page ad in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer thanking Cavaliers fans for 14 years of supporting him. Today, LeBron James placed a similar full-page ad in the Akron Beacon-Journal stating that Akron has always been his home and central focus.

Ohioans have been very understanding and supportive of Ilgauskas's decision to leave and pursue a championship, even in Miami.

LeBron? Hahahaha! Full details in the Suite 101 article.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas's ad in the Plain Dealer
(Credit: The Plain Dealer)

LeBron James's ad in the Akron Beacon-Journal
(Credit: Akron Beacon-Journal)

Not sure what happened to all the capital "F"s in LeBron's ad. They might have left to join all the "uck You"s in the comments section.

Also, is it just me, or do all the kids look like they just wanted to get a bike and go home, not be part of the damn show?

What Would Be Yao Ming's Legacy if He Retired from Basketball Right Now?

Yao Ming is considering retirement after
this upcoming season.

Professional athletes have been known for some brazen arrogance. This can be particularly true when returning from a major injury. Witness Tracy McGrady’s assertion that he has rehabilitated himself to the point of being a starter again as exhibit #1.

The obvious reasoning is that teams are not likely to sign a player who’s going to fall apart before the ink dries on his contract. Beyond that, though, professional athletes require a phenomenal amount of confidence to play at the highest level of their sport. It’s the rung between talent and discipline on the giant ladder that separates them from pedestrians like us. Any chip to that confidence is like denting the armor that a warrior wears into battle.

Then again, Yao Ming has never been a typical professional athlete. After missing all of last season due to foot surgery (his third in the NBA, fifth overall), Houston Rockets fans have been hyped to see what last year’s scrappy team could do with their 7-foot-6 seven-time All-Star center returning to the court. If any fans harbored championship aspirations, however, Yao quickly put those thoughts to rest.

Yao has been the (strained) face of
Chinese basketball for nearly a decade.

“Talk about recovering my form is nothing but nonsense and will only be realized if I can get through the next season smoothly,” he told China Daily two weeks ago. “Then you will see results after that season.”

That statement was not nearly as shocking as the one he released last week to Chinese state media. “If the foot injury does not heal next season, I might choose to call it quits.”

Yao Ming retire? Can it be possible? The face of Chinese basketball for the last eight years added a poignant remark for his 1.6 billion fans in China and the legions of Chinese diaspora around the world to consider, “I'm 30. As an athlete, I am not the future of China basketball anymore.”


Yao Ming Becomes an All-Star, Later Actually Deserves It

It could have been very ugly. Following unprecedented hype from being selected first overall in the 2002 NBA draft (quickly eclipsed by the 2003 hype around some other #1 pick named LeBron James), Yao Ming struggled early in his rookie season. This prompted the infamous promise by TNT analyst Charles Barkley that he would kiss colleague Kenny Smith’s ass if Yao ever scored more than 19 points in a game during his rookie season.

Of course, Barkley kissed that ass (ultimately a donkey Kenny rented to save himself the embarrassment) when Yao scored 20 on a perfect 9 for 9 from the field and 2 for 2 from the line on November 17, 2002 against the Shaq-less Lakers. What people generally don’t remember is that Yao followed that up four nights later with a whopping 30 points and 16 rebounds against Dallas, then averaged 17 and 10 in December to claim his first Western Conference Rookie of the Month award. That made it official: Yao Ming was not Mengke Bateer or Wang Zhizhi, his Chinese predecessors in the NBA. Yao Ming could play ball.

No one considers Yao anything but a legitimate
All-Star these days.

Yet the controversy continued. With hundreds of millions of fervent Chinese supporters, Yao Ming has been voted a starter in the NBA All-Star game every year that he’s played in the league. It was a ridiculous affront to Shaquille O’Neal during Yao’s first two seasons, back when Shaq could still keep a few fingers around his self-assigned “Most Dominant Ever” title.

As Shaq declined and Yao improved, however, the criticisms about Yao’s All-Star selections faded (Shaq moving to the Eastern Conference helped of course). Yao had his first 20/10 season, averaging 22.3 points and 10.2 rebounds, and picked up his second All-NBA third-team selection in 2005-06. Then, in 2006-07, Yao asserted himself as the most dominant center in the league, putting up a line of 25.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.0 blocks on 51.6% shooting from the field and 86.2% from the line.

Yao’s Achilles Heel … And Toe, And Foot, And Knee

Anyone who reads Yao Ming’s resume will notice two All-NBA second-team and three third-team selections, but no first-team honors. How could someone be the best center in 2006-07 but not make first-team All-NBA? It wasn’t due to his often-maligned defense, as the even more defensively criticized Amar’e Stoudemire was first-team that season. No, Yao missed his opportunity that season by missing 34 games due to injury, while Amar’e returned from microfracture knee surgery and played all 82.

Of all the criticisms on Yao’s legacy, injuries would be the most unfortunate. After playing an ironman 244 of 246 regular-season games in his first three seasons, Yao has only managed 237 of 410 in his most recent five. When a man stands 7-foot-6, weighs 310 lb, and plays basketball year-round for the NBA and the Chinese national team, his legs and feet will inevitably collapse and crumble.

One may wonder how Yao Ming’s career could have unfolded had his life paralleled that of his Houston Rockets predecessor Hakeem Olajuwon, joining the NBA at a time when professional basketball players couldn’t compete in international competition and hailing from a country that had no Olympic aspirations in basketball anyway. If Yao had spent every summer healing his injuries and improving his skills, rather than being forced to tax his body in more games for a cannibalistic national program, where would he be? What could he have accomplished? How would we view him?

Futile questions. He didn’t get to walk that path, so he had to forge a different type of legacy.

Thank God Yi Jianlian Wasn’t the First

As unfair as it is, NBA fans will naturally compare the first Chinese basketball player of any significance to the second Chinese basketball player of any significance. The problem is that the second Chinese basketball player of any significance happens to be not that good so far in his career. Blame Charles Barkley, who pulled an audible on Chinese athletes during Yi’s rookie-sophomore game and called him out as being a future star (while conspicuously not giving the same confidence to Kevin Durant). Barkley once again proved he’s infallibly entertaining and infallibly wrong. After three seasons, Yi Jianlian holds a 9.6 career scoring average, has been traded twice, and is, by one account, the softest power forward in the league.

By the way, the second time Yi was traded, it was for Quinton Ross. And New Jersey had to throw in an additional $3 million for Washington to take him. Ouch.

Why is Yao so much better than I am??

Three years into his career, Yi Jianlian is still best known for his holdout in the 2007 draft. This serves as a prime example of how, as Sean Deveney of the Sporting News put it, Yi is not Yao. After Yi was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, Yi’s handlers, a brain trust including executives from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and agent Dan Fegan, stalled and pressured Milwaukee to trade Yi to a bigger market. They were unsuccessful in extricating Yi, but they did succeed in creating several weeks of strained NBA-CBA relations and sportswriter fodder.

This is not to say that farce never could have happened with Yao, but Yao has demonstrated much more backbone in managing his own career. Before he was drafted, Yao’s CBA team, the Shanghai Sharks (which he now owns), also tried to pick Fegan as his agent, but Yao insisted on finding his own representation and did so. In 2003, when the CBA sold Yao’s image to Coca-Cola for an ad, Yao, then a Pepsi spokesman, fought the Chinese state-run regime and won. And despite China’s authoritarian sports association’s rambling criticisms of him, Yao remains one of China’s most popular figures and still has the cajones to shoot back his own critiques of their national basketball program.

Finally, Yao clearly wins when it comes to swagger on the court.

What is Yao Ming’s legacy?

Yao and Shaq will always be a chapter in each other's careers.

Yao Ming only turns 30 this year, and it would be a tragedy if he were retired by 31. Yet if the worst case scenario does happen and Yao hobbles his way through his last NBA season this year, how would we remember him?

• He was the first international player ever drafted first overall in the NBA draft.
• He was the key to David Stern’s aggressive NBA marketing campaign in China that created 300 million basketball fans.
• He made Charles Barkley kiss Kenny Smith’s ass.
• He is great friends with Shaquille O’Neal and was quite possibly the least-offended Asian in this country by Shaq’s purported racist comments toward him.
• He was the best offensive center in the NBA from 2005 to 2009. His career free throw percentageof 83.2% is unheard of at that center position.
• His defining game is Game 7 of the 2007 Western Conference First Round against the Utah Jazz. In this series-deciding game, Yao rumbled for 29 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, he also had no clue how to stop Carlos Boozer, who eviscerated him for 35 points and 14 rebounds in a four-point Jazz victory.
• He rebounded far less than one would expect from someone 7’6”. In that crucial game against Utah, he only managed six, and he averages 9.3 over 32 min for his career.
• He has made tireless efforts for charity in China. Buying the crappy Shanghai Sharks franchise that used to employ him must be included as part of that.
• And around the time he became really, really good was the same time he could never seem to stay healthy.

The strangest picture of Yao Ming ever.

If Hall-of-Fame applications were built on class and character alone, Yao Ming would be a shoo-in. But does his career to this point merit a spot in Springfield? Certainly six to eight more years in the league with a championship ring or two would solidify that honor. Yet even with the fatalistic prediction that we may have seen all there is of Yao Ming, the resume he has put together on and off the court screams for his induction.