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Ballin'

Halfway There

By Randy Boyd
For Outsports.com

Half-empty or half-full? The outlook of the future of the NBA? The stands at Gund Arena during Cleveland Cavalier games? The defending champion Lakers playing .500 ball? 

Depends on how you look at it, but one thing’s for sure: The pro ball season is at its figurative halfway point. The Jordan Tribute otherwise known as the All-Star game on TNT is over. In a few short months, the league will no longer have His Airness to lean on for an assist in the pub department (at least on the court). After the buzzer has sounded on the last Wizards game, it will be entirely up to Kobe, Kevin, Dirk, Allen, Yao and a few select others (no, not Rasheed Wallace!) to sell pro hoops to the world and convince ABC, not cable outlets, to televise the league’s premiere mid-season event (hell, even hockey’s All-Star game made network TV. How embarrassing is that?). 

Can the league continue its enormous growth spurt? Will anyone care about the now-elongated first round of the playoffs? Or will we see the NBA finals once again on tape delay after your local late news (for all you youngsters, it happened for several years in the '70s and '80s)? 

First things first. The league needs competitive rivalries and glamorous and/or controversial champions, not additional games in the first round. The best-of-five series were nice and tight (get your mind back on the court!) and the higher seeded team usually wins anyway. Now the hoop playoffs will be excruciatingly longer, like the Stanley Cup playoffs. Then again, if it means more shots of Wally Szczerbiak, whose T’Wolves never make it out of the first round, what the hey. 

Here now, a look at the best bets for teams that will make it past the first round and have a shot a ring fitting come June. Or is it July now? 

1. Sacramento Kings: Played well against resurging Lakers even without injured Chris Webber and Bobby Jackson. A few less bonehead losses than Dallas and experience put them ahead of the Mavs.

2. Dallas Mavericks: Had they held onto their a gillion point lead against the Lakers, they’d be in the top spot. As it is, they still have something to prove.

3. Indiana Pacers: Ron Artest is a great player and a liability. But this team has played with as much consistency as anybody because of or despite their serious attitude problem.

4. New Jersey Nets: Quietly contending for the best record in the East. Still needs to do better against Western Conference.

5. San Antonio Spurs: Another team no one is talking much about or taking seriously, but can you blame them? The down-low approach might be their biggest asset.

6. LA Lakers: Still capable of beating anyone and in true Lakers fashion, starting to play well against the better teams. Kobe might have to will this team along.

7. Portland Trail Blazers: Ditch the red unis, fellas. Nice run before the all-star break but can Rasheed hold it together?

8. Detroit Pistons: Maybe good enough for another trip to the conference finals.

9. Phoenix Suns: Thanks to Amare Stoudemire, doing better than one would have predicted a few years ago when the team resembled a MASH unit.

10. Houston Rockets: Yao Ming, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley give this team a solid title-contending foundation that may come together soon after the new arena opens.

Randy's Outsports archive

Feb. 11, 2003