Friday Insider

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1. Who gets to dunk on Yao Ming first?

Quentin Richardson? Shawn Marion? Jason Richardson? Or any other player devoid of postseason aspirations in sore need of motivation. Sorry. It's Steve Francis, of course. With all the ulterior motivation in the world. The Rockets were a pseudo-center away from doing some serious damage in the postseason. Instead, they've got a 7-foot-5 three-point specialist who will be fishing in the Yangtze river come the first round of the playoffs. The Rockets missed the postseason by two games two seasons ago. This past season, they missed them by 16. You get the idea. Imagine what that No. 1 pick would have fetched in trade. Now, imagine Steve Franchise running the point with Pau Gasol and Drew Gooden on the wings.

2. What is Donald Sterling doing on top of that turnip truck?

Michael Olowokandi may very well be the second best center in the NBA, but that just means that No. 2 is a heck of a lot closer to No. 29 than No. 1 in this math book, somewhere mixed in with Adonal Foyle grinning incisor to incisor, Bill Wennington in three-piece suit, John Amaechi's pinky finger extended and Alonzo Mourning running up and down the court in full kidney arrest dragging along a dialysis machine and I.V. stand. By the way, Kandi averaged 2.6 more points, 2.5 more rebounds and almost half a block more than the season before, is still 7-feet tall and, by all indications, a nice kid. Incidentally, the Clippers have also averaged 3.2 more points as a team in the last year while winning eight more games. This, after winning 16 more games than the year before that. He's also the ghost of Christmas past, present and future for his current owner and it's still only July. His services as well as what's left of Donald Sterling's pride are up for bidding in about a year or so if Scrooge allows him to become an unrestricted free agent.

3. Why can't Eddy Curry spell his last name yet? The same goes for Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Maybyner Hilario, the most recent 19-year-old teammates in charge of saving their respective franchises. Curry and Tyson Chandler combined for a whopping 12.8 points per game last year for the Bulls. Tskitishvili and Hilario will be lucky to do the same for the Nuggets. Mike Dunleavy? Dajuan Wagner? Chris Wilcox? We may never know how good these guys could have become because of their draft day fates. Forget Jerry Krause. It was Jerry West who said that players may win games, but franchises win championships. That's why two teams, the Lakers and Celtics, have won 30 of the NBA's 55 Titles. We've seen players released, coaches fired, cities fled and general managers re-assigned. Getting rid of incompetent owners should be equally easy.

4. When did Mike Bibby start stuffing his bra?

Real point guards average more than five assists per game. Real superstars average more than 13.7 points per game. Real NBA players average more than 16 one-night performances in a career before demanding maximum contracts. Bibby is absolutely unreal. He isn't even the second-best player on his team. And after maxing him out in the next month or so, the Kings are going to find out that not every good looking blonde you meet at the bar late at night is really good looking or even blonde.

5. Does Mark Cuban need a lap dance?

Money can buy you a lear jet, HDTVs in the locker room and nice reptile-skinned travel bags. But Larry O'Brien love is a whole different thing. The Mavericks have too many coaches to count, almost twice as many players on payroll and millions soon in luxury taxes. But don't blame him because the Mavs are one of the best teams in the league and he's able to pay free agent-to-be Raef LaFrentz more money to block fewer shots and score fewer points. Paul Allen can't live without Shawn Kemp one moment and can't live with Dale Davis the next. The Knicks paid Charlie Ward $5.1 million to score 5.2 points per game, leading Rashard Lewis to believe the Sonics should pay him double-digit millions to score little more than double-digit points. Or else. At the same time, the Clippers have refused to pay anyone on their roster more than $4.7 million. Four of the top 10 NBA teams with the highest salaries didn't even make the playoffs this year (New York, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Denver). Meanwhile, the Lakers won it all with the 13th highest (or 17th lowest, if you prefer) and five of the bottom 10 NBA teams with the lowest payrolls joined them in the postseason. The NBA has a collective bargaining agreement that has resulted in 18 of 29 teams NOT paying their best player the most money. And they're worried about zone defenses failing to stop Shaq.

6. Was that Antonio McDyess kissing Jason Kidd's sister? Parity sucks. It's like finishing a big game all tied up. Who won? Who lost? Who's good? Who's bad? Over the last three season, six different Eastern Conference teams have played in the Conference Finals. And all New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Indiana and New York have to show for it are five NBA Finals wins in four years. The Pistons, Celtics and Nets finished with the three best records in the East without even making the playoffs the year before. Milwaukee, Atlanta, Miami and New York could do the same next year. The teams are so evenly mediocre that a single player can alter the entire conference. Who's next? Who cares? How much money would it take for you to kiss your sister?

7. Has MJ tried viagra? Believe it or not, we need Michael Jordan. We tried Allen Iverson. Went big with Tim Duncan. Kevin Garnett? Chris Webber? But does it really matter who the next MVP is if Shaquille O'Neal keeps taking his lunch money in the playoffs? Don't get me wrong. Dynasties are good. They improve ratings, sell seats, build leagues. They let us marvel at the very things that make them great. Then they make us wonder what it will take to make us greater than them. But we need a challenger to make it all work. Russell had Wilt who had Kareem who begot Magic who had Bird who had Jordan. Stop. Now, we have Shaq, Shaq, Shaq. We had the Spurs, then the Blazers and now the Kings. Combine any of the two and then we might really have something. Or just add Michael to one of those teams. We need more Game 7s, more Anti-Shaqs, more drama, lest we let pass another era, another great, without being fully tested much less beaten. We all suffered when Michael left the game bored. Frustrated. O'Neal is the last of his breed, a race who once walked the earth with their backs to the baskets. Let us give him a death worthy of verse. It would be a shame if the greatest NBA drama each season was wondering what language the No.1 draft pick would be speaking.

Beware Scott Layden!

Just when you thought it was safe again to go into Madison Square Garden, Knick GM Scott Layden is back on the phone. Draft day is over but the offseason has just begun with free agency starting Monday.

Yes, he just finished a trade that brought Antonio McDyess into the fold.

Yes, he is again thinking about a Latrell Sprewell for Glenn Robinson and center Ervin Johnson trade with the Bucks.

Yes, he would still like to deal for Cleveland point guard Andre Miller.

Yes, he is pursuing a deal with the Mavericks for Nick Van Exel and trying to pry away free-agent centers Keon Clark of the Raptors, Michael Olowokandi of the Clippers and Radoslav Nesterovic of the Timberwolves.

There are no denials, no sleight of hand. Bits and pieces of these rumors have been heard before. Only this time, New Yorkers are taking them seriously. Layden wants a center. He wants a point guard. And he wants them now. No one thought Layden could save his job and pull of the McDyess deal and everyone is waiting to see if he can do it again.

"I'm just waiting for more trades to happen," Knick big man Kurt Thomas said. "I don't know if this is the end, or just the beginning.

"We need more additions," New York coach Don Chaney said.

"It's about just making the right deal to help us win," Layden said.

Knicks' Future Now, and It Looks OK

Greg Logan / Newsday

Knicks Ain't Done Yet

Marc Berman / New York Post

Thomas Awaiting Second Deal

Marc Berman / New York Post

Piston getting the point

Joe Dumars is happy that the Pistons won 50 games this year. He is happy that Tayshaun Prince was available on draft day to take with the 23rd pick. He is happy that all he really wants right now is a backup for starting point guard Chucky Atkins.

"I'm not looking at bringing in a whole lot of guys," Dumars said. "Sometimes your improvement comes from growth within. These guys have only been together for a year, so there is room for growth."

Mentioned for that spot are Chauncey Billups of Minnesota and Jeff McInnis of the Los Angeles Clippers. Also available through free agency are Chicago's Travis Best, Toronto's Chris Childs, San Antonio's Terry Porter and Miami's Rod Strickland. Jamal Crawford of the Bulls and Baron Davis of the Hornets are reportedly up for trade.

But don't expect Dumars to make any drastic moves. If the Pistons stand pat with the personnel that they have now, they will have more than $12M in cap room for the 2003 offseason when many of the more highly coveted free agents will be available.

Pistons' next project: Find help for Atkins

Perry A. Farrell / Detroit Free-Press

Pistons can't fail with draft choice

Chris McCosky / Detroit News

The Doc and the Pumpkin

Poof! The night ended and 6-foot-4 point guard Smush Parker was an undrafted basketball player from Fordham all over again with nothing but memories of dominating the New York City playgrounds as a youth.

Poof! The night ended and Magic coach Doc Rivers had three newcomers for his squad, but no one to run his offense to allow veteran guard Darrell Armstrong to come off the bench.

Poof! Rivers just invited Parker to join his organization for a few weeks, hoping maybe they could work something out. The Orlando Sentinel reports that he heads a list of about 20 players the Magic hope to bring in for summer-league play that begins July 9.

The Magic still have their middle-class exception of $4.5 million, but are looking into center Rashard Griffith, who has experience overseas. Rivers, though, doesn't just want to bring in anybody.

"In three years I've had three completely different teams," Rivers said. "That's one of the things that's been difficult as a coach. This year at least it looks like the core guys will have been together now for a second year. I really believe we're starting to build something here."

Magic not done juggling roster

George Diaz / Orlando Sentinel

Dunleavys not joined at the hip

The Warriors selected Duke forward Mike Dunleavy Jr. with the No. 3 pick of the draft but are being very vocal in denying rumors that his father, Mike Dunleavy Sr., a former NBA coach, will have anything to do with the organization in the near future.

"We've never spoken about the job here. The way I look at it, Brian Winters is the coach," Dunleavy Sr. said. "Brian is a friend of mine. I hope he's the coach and does really well here," added Dunleavy Sr., the former Bucks, Lakers and Trail Blazers coach. "If at some point they don't have a coach, then I would talk to them. But up until that point, I wouldn't even speak about the job."

For his part, Dunleavy Jr said he would welcome the opportunity to be coached by his father at this level but quickly noted that nothing was in the works.

"It's certainly not a package deal. That's not the case," Dunleavy Jr. said. "My concern with it is just how it might be awkward with my teammates right at the start. But if it were to happen at some point, I know we could work it out."

His father isn't so sure.

"I have a great relationship with him," Dunleavy Sr. said. "The only way I could screw it up would be to probably coach him. In his case -- because he's so unselfish and only cares about winning -- it's something that we could do. But it's not something I would try to force one way or the other."

Dunleavys insist they aren't a package

Brad Weinstein / San Francisco Chronicle

Writers Bloc: The latest high school phenom

By now, you probably heard about the latest high school phenom to jump to the pros, maybe even seen him. But that's only part of the story. Dan Bickley from the Arizon Republic introduces Amare Stoudemire:

"There is steel in Amare Stoudemire's eyes, a cold and icy glare that tells you there is no middle ground. He is either a superstar in bloom or a disaster waiting to happen. 'I've struggled, man,' Stoudemire said. 'When you've struggled, it makes you that much hungrier.' And so, at age 19, Stoudemire enters the NBA with great promise, great intrigue and a suitcase full of red flags. There are the environmental factors, a kid who bounced among six high schools and a host of substitute parents. There are the basketball factors, a kid with frighteningly little experience, whose high school team was frighteningly average (16-13) in his senior year. And then there is the raw potential, some of the most dangerous words in sports. Stoudemire is 6-foot-9 3/4, 245 pounds and possesses a 38-inch vertical leap. He has a streak of nasty. He's a power forward whose growing days may not be over. He made his name with dominant performances at the cattle calls known as all-star camps. He's a player who likes nothing more than to catch the ball, back you down and dunk in your face. He is afraid of nothing."

Greg Ostertag, you know. He's the big, underachieving kid playing for the Jazz who makes a lot of money for doing very little. Well, yes and no. Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News explains:

"A donor gave up a kidney for his sister Thursday, which is rare and maybe even heroic, though this is what siblings do for each other. Anything unusual, doc? 'Only that we had to search around to find a table long enough to put him on,' said Dr. Butch Derrick, president of the Baylor University Medical Center staff. Even laid out a full 7 feet, 2 inches, Greg Ostertag never loomed larger. 'Sometimes I'm great, and sometimes I don't belong on the court,' he once told a Salt Lake City columnist. 'Some day, I'll figure it out, maybe as I get more mature. I'm working on it, I really am.' "

He is a semi-pro basketball player who has made more money than Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett combined and he is addressing the National Basketball Players Association during their annual meeting. Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times was there:

"It's likely the name Percy Miller doesn't mean much to you. Maybe you're more familiar with the 30-year-old hip-hop entertainer/actor/record producer/owner of No Limit Records and No Limit Films/agent and wannabe basketball player's adopted name -- Master P. P recently was mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-paid entertainer in the hip-hop industry. That may not sound like much, but consider the empires of folks like Death Row's Suge Knight, the ever-expanding Puff Daddy, and even the pallid Eminem before you pass judgment. What was the figure the Guinness folks put down for you? I asked P later. 'Five hundred million,' he replied. The point the business mogul with the full set of gold upper teeth, cornrows, shades and large diamond earring is making to the players is that they don't need to worry about what anybody says, they should just be themselves -- with tattoos, gangsta rap, posses, whatever it is that defines their spheres -- and make themselves happy and rich."