Magic and Michael: Old-School Competitors Or Old-School Haters?

I've been a little interested in recent stories about Michael Jordan and now Magic Johnson coming out and saying they could never have joined forces with each other (and Larry Bird) in an effort to win an NBA championship.

As some of you may have heard, the Miami Heat have secured commitments from free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh as they begin a quest for an NBA title. Last year, James pursued one with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wade with the Heat and Bosh with the Toronto Raptors. Wade has already won a championship in Miami, when he teamed with Shaquille O'Neal a few years back, and now is aiming for a second one with James and Bosh as teammates.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, times were different. Bird, Johnson and Jordan pursued NBA titles with their own teams and achieved glory. Jordan won six with the Chicago Bulls, Johnson won five with the Lakers and Bird won three with the Celtics.

In their prime, Bird, Johnson and Jordan stayed with their teams and won championships.

Jordan recently said, "There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team,' but that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."

Johnson added, "We didn't think about it 'cause that's not what we were about," Johnson said at Baruch College in New York, according to Bloomberg News. "From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird."

Are Johnson and Jordan telling it like it is, in the simplest of terms, or acting out like old-school haters?

Is David Stern The Master Of Puppets?

No, I’m not talking about the old-school Metallica song when I ask: Is David Stern the master of puppets? Many people who follow the NBA live and breathe conspiracy theories: teams with star players are supposed to win, the refs protect star players, the refs and the league join forces to secure predetermined outcomes … yadda, yadda, yadda. I could write forever on all of the conspiracy theories.

In this year’s playoffs, the conspiracy theorists believe the NBA has already decided which two teams should be in the 2009 NBA Finals. Obviously, the two teams that are supposed to play in the Finals are the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers. Why? The Cleveland Cavaliers have LeBron James and the Lakers have Kobe Bryant.

Isn’t that what NBA Commissioner David Stern wants? Doesn’t the commish want to see his two biggest stars playing on the league’s biggest stage for pro basketball’s greatest prize? The devoted conspiracy theorists certainly believe that is the case.

But, two problems exist for what many people feel is Stern’s dream NBA Finals showdown: (1) the Orlando Magic and (2) the Denver Nuggets. Many of the conspiracy theorists tend to believe that Stern is loving sleep and increasing the amount of white hair on his head with thoughts of Denver and Orlando locking horns in the NBA Finals – rather than having LeBron and Kobe going at it on center stage … for real … not as puppets in well-done Nike commercials.

Right now, it’s not looking good for conspiracy theorists: LeBron’s Cavaliers are on the brink of elimination (entering Thursday night’s game) and the Lakers (feeling better than Cleveland) are clinging to a 3-2 series lead heading back to Denver for Game 6.

We’ll see if David Stern is the master of puppets, as so many conspiracy theorists think, or if (at least in this case) the players truly control their own destiny.

Dahntay Jones Avoids Suspension … For Now

ESPN’s Marc Stein is reporting that Denver Nuggets guard Dahntay Jones will not be suspended for his dangerous and intentional trip of Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant during Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

Wrote Stein on ESPN’s Web site:

Denver Nuggets guard Dahntay Jones is on the brink of a one-game suspension after the NBA upgraded his Game 4 trip of Kobe Bryant to a flagrant foul.

The foul — deemed a flagrant foul 1 by league officials — is Jones’ third flagrant of the postseason and his second in the past two games in the Western Conference finals. That gives Jones three flagrant-foul points in the playoffs, with players receiving an automatic one-game ban when they exceed three points.

The league confirmed Tuesday night that Jones’ third-quarter trip — which was not spotted by the officiating crew — has been reclassified as a flagrant 1.It also confirmed that Andrew Bynum’s fourth-quarter flagrant 1 against Denver’s Chris Andersen has been downgraded to a personal foul.

The NBA didn’t quite have the guts to do what needed to be done. Instead, the league seems to have decided to let Jones (earning a reputation among some people as a dirty player), in essence, suspend himself with his next flagrant foul. I can understand not wanting to let a suspension play a factor in this important playoff series, but that was not Jones’ first cheap shot of Bryant. On the other hand, the league needs to be tougher on habitual offenders in regard to dangerous plays like that one.

Heaven only knows what referee Bennett Salvatore (who called nothing) was looking at … standing right in front of the play.

I still contend, buig playoff series or not, Dahntay Jones deserved a one-game suspension for the trip (that followed up the dangerous push of a mid-air Bryant).

ESPN:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4207241