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Houston, Sprewell

admit bad judgment

by Terry Brown

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Also Below: Ricky Davis the prophet? | Portland fans aren't standing pat | Peep Show

New York Knick head coach Don Chaney didn't exactly grab Latrell Sprewell by the ear with one hand and Allan Houston with the other as he walked them down the hall, but somehow both players ended up in his office with some explaining to do.

"I'm their coach," Chaney told the New York Times. "I'm going to try to work this thing the best that I can in terms of getting this team to win and I want to keep them together. I want to play to everybody's strengths. The bottom line is to win. But I do know that you win as a team."

Allan Houston

Guard

New York Knicks

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

18 23.5 2.6 2.9 .441 .904

Sprewell and Houston, it seems, learned their lesson.

After losing three consecutive games to fall to 5-13, the two players went directly to the New York media and anyone else who would listen to air out their complaints. Anyone else, that is, except Chaney.

They said they wanted the ball more, that they should be the ones handling the offense, that the team's best two players, win or lose, should decide the fate of the team and that it was about time that a team 9.5 games behind first-place Philadelphia after only 20 games played should drop this nonsense about a motion offense that attempted to get everyone involved.

Latrell Sprewell

Guard-Forward

New York Knicks

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

7 16.9 3.1 4.3 .393 .786

"We talked this morning and told Don we probably used bad judgment saying things in the media first," Houston told the Times. "Spree and I just want to be in places we think we can be effective and help the team."

Both players went on to say that they didn't necessarily want to shoot the ball every time, but rather the opportunity to create those shots for themselves or their teammates instead of delegating that responsibility to the entire team. The motion offense in place was designed around a nucleus of four players capable of scoring big numbers with able-bodied role players to fill in. But Antonio McDyess, the centerpiece of the franchise, went down with a season-ending injury. Sprewell has missed most of the season with a broken hand, and no other players besides Houston and Kurt Thomas have been able to score consistently.

But that, says Chaney, is no excuse.

"The team policy is that my door is always open and everybody knows that," Chaney told the New York Post. "It should come to me first, and if we can't get it solved, then they can do whatever they want to do from there."

Sprewell seemed contrite.

"He didn't want to feel like we couldn't talk to him," he told the Post. "That was his issue. I think he's just disappointed that some of that stuff got out."

Both players were not sent directly to their rooms, as far as we know had a full dinner and are expected to be in good form for tonight's game against the Seattle Sonics at Madison Square Garden.

Chaney Chastises Two Stars for Gripes

Steve Popper / New York Times

Chaney Clears Air With Spree, Houston

Mark Hale / New York Post

Chaney whistles Allan, Spree

Frank Isola / New York Daily News

Allan, Spree: Don, Our Bad

Laura Price-Brown / Newsday

Ricky Davis the prophet?

Shooting guard, team cancer, leading scorer for the Cleveland Cavaliers. You can call Ricky Davis a lot of things, but liar isn't one of them.

Ricky Davis

Guard-Forward

Cleveland Cavaliers

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

20 21.5 4.1 3.8 .430 .752

Several games after being disciplined by team officials for conduct detrimental to the team, Davis lit up the Milwaukee Bucks for 45 points Monday night on 16 of 33 shooting, including 6 of 8 from three-point range while teammate Tyrone Hill chipped in nine points, 11 rebounds, a steal and a block, and point guard Bimbo Coles was placed on injured reserve with a left quad contusion.

Sure, the Cavs lost in double overtime, 140-133, but what a game! And, after all, the Cavs are 3-13 on the year. What did you expect?

Certainly not seven assists from rookie guard Dajuan Wagner. Or eight assists from backup rookie point guard Smush Parker. Even though that's exactly what Davis said a few weeks ago when he pointed out that all the Cavaliers needed was a legitimate player to run the offense for them to be more successful.

He also chastised the play of power forward Hill, who had averaged 10.1 points and 11.6 rebounds in his first 10 games of the year, but only 7.1 points and eight rebounds per game in his last seven.

Bimbo Coles, the starting point guard at the time, may not have liked it. Hill may not have liked it. Cavalier management, which traded away NBA assist leader Andre Miller, may not have liked it, either. But the simple fact is that with Coles out (who averaged only 2.8 apg this season and 2.3 last year) and Hill playing like before, Davis scored the third-highest total in Cavs history while Monday night's game was the highest point total in Gund Arena history.

It's no secret that Davis is playing for his NBA life despite his averaging career highs in minutes and points this year. In the last six seasons, he's played for three different teams, averaging only 17.1 minutes of game time. And with Wagner, Darius Miles and LeBron James, the local high school product expected to go No. 1 in the draft next year, possibly all on the Cav roster next season, Davis could be in trouble again.

With the high school phenom's next game set to be televised this Thursday night on ESPN2, the Cavs stormed back from a 15-point deficit in regulation while Davis hit a three-pointer with 8.6 remaining in the first overtime to extend the contest. Parker recorded season highs of 20 points and eight assists.

"I've been a fool for a long time but I'm not a fool today, he's going to play," head coach John Lucas said. "I love what Smush Parker did, and he can do more of that on a regular basis."

No record if Davis added an "I told you so."

Coles is placed on injured list

Branson Wright / Cleveland Plain Dealer

Walton is eager to see LeBron

Susan Vinella / Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cavs lose in 2 OTs

Branson Wright / Cleveland Plain Dealer

Portland fans aren't standing pat

Oregonians are organizing.

They're sick and tired of the behavior of their Portland Trail Blazers on and off the court and they're not going to take it anymore, Rachel Nichols of the Washington Post reports.

"There is absolutely nothing [including a title] that the Blazers could do to get me back as a fan," Portland resident Jim Mackey wrote in a recent open letter to a local newspaper.

Ron Tonkin, a high-profile local auto dealer, added his own letter, saying, "We have nearly 800 employees and now have to spend time to find enough people who want to see the game to fill our corporate box."

Another fan has posted a billboard downtown that reads "Boycott Blazers — we need a team that can beat L.A., not women and the justice system."

Another has started a Web site asking for money to buy the Blazers from billionaire owner Paul Allen. (More than $355,000 has been pledged.)

Who knows if it was the 50-32 record of 2001 that turned into the 49-33 record of 2002 or the current record of 9-9 this year despite having one of the top payrolls in the history of the NBA those past three seasons.

Or maybe it was Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire pleading not guilty to drug possession charges recently, or Ruben Patterson, a registered sex offender, getting off from a domestic violence charge because his wife refused to cooperate with police before that, or Bonzi Wells spitting on Spur forward Danny Ferry before that, or Stoudamire standing before a judge to tell him that the pound of marijuana found in his Portland home by police was acquired through an illegal search before that.

They are, respectively, the starting power forward, former starting point guard, reserve swingman and starting small forward, and point guard (again) of your Portland Trail Blazers.

"There are bad things going on around our team," Wells said recently, adding after last Sunday's game: "We all grew up in the 'hood. Stuff like this happens. As long as there is no death in the family, it's really not that serious."

And that was just this year.

"I've had better weeks, I'll tell you that," president and general manager Bob Whitsitt said. "This is embarrassing, it's disappointing, it's frustrating."

That may have included the past three seasons, including an incident in which he kicked a fan out of a game for protesting his methods of acquiring morally defective talent with a sign that read simply: Trade Bob.

"I always think that distractions tend to make things turn out a little more positive for you on the basketball court because it brings a little more focus to what you have to do," veteran guard Scottie Pippen said. "It's not working that way with us, but I don't think [it's because of the off-court issues.] We were playing bad before all this. Did you forget?"

Portland fans, it appears, have not.

In Portland, Fans Are Blazing Mad

Rachel Nichols / Washington Post

Peep Show

Kings: The people of Sacramento have spoken and been heard. Against objections from a federal prosecutor, the trial for Chris Webber on charges that he lied to grand jury will not happen until July 8, 2003. The NBA Finals are set to conclude no later than June 19. "You've got teammates, an organization, the citizens of Sacramento," Steve Fishman, Webber's lawyer, told the Detroit Free Press. "There's a lot more people than Chris Webber who are affected by this."

Kittles

Nets: Kerry Kittles has fallen and he's not exactly sure when he'll be able to get up. But it won't be Sunday, when the Nets play the Pistons and he's eligible to return after sitting the mandatory five games. "I don't think it's going to happen," Kittles, who has missed four games, told the New York Post. "I wish I had a timeframe because when you start doing stuff, you can say when you think you'll feel better. Now that I'm not doing anything, I can't say anything."

Magic: Doc Rivers can count and he doesn't like the numbers he's coming up with. "Right now, we're seven or eight deep," Rivers told the Orlando Sentinel. "At times, we're six deep." Moving Mike Miller into a starting position has weakened an already thin bench and Rivers is worried that if Horace Grant doesn't heal up or Pat Burke doesn't get his production back up or Darrell Armstrong doesn't get out of his shooting slump, the kid is going right back to the bench. "It's not what I want," Rivers said. "The bottom line is, we're only going to have one or two guys who can score off the bench. That's just who we are."

Wizards: Youth be damned. Doug Collins is going with his veterans, and Kwame Brown and the rest of the younger players are just going to have to deal with it. "New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, they're all winning with guys who have experience," Collins told the Washington Times. "There are some new faces in new places, but the guys who are getting it done are the experienced guys." As a result, expect to see a lot more of Christian Laettner and Charles Oakley. "We went with the young kids for a long time, gave them a shot and now Doug is trying some other things, going with the veteran look out there," Laettner said. "It seems like the chemistry is a little better. You can call it experience. But the more minutes you play together in big games, the more you come together."

Pistons: The Pistons haven't lost three games in a row since last January. Well, until this week. "The disappointing thing about the past week is that as a team, we've been outworked three straight games," coach Rick Carlisle told the Detroit Free Press. "There's no getting around that. That's got to change. Because this team cannot survive if the effort isn't at full capacity." And the problem begins at the point. "Me and Chucky [Atkins] kind of took a step back from pressuring a little bit up front, and I think that's kind of been a snowball effect," starting point guard Chauncey Billups said. "It took the whole team's aggressiveness away on the defensive end. When they see myself and Chucky up there pressuring and causing a little havoc, that tends to make everybody else pick it up. So me and Chucky first and foremost have to pick up the intensity a little bit."

Miles

Cavs: It is Darius Miles in name only. He may be back on the active roster after missing 13 games because of patella tendinitis of the left knee, but won't actually play for at least another week. "He should be ready by the end of the week or the beginning of next week," Cavs coach John Lucas told the Lorain Morning Journal.

Hawks: Nazr Mohammed, who has missed all of Atlanta's 20 games this year, is back and practicing with the team after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot. Dunking is next. "My explosiveness is not there yet," Mohammed told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But I feel [my game] coming back. I think I'll be a boost. I just want to get out there. It's extremely frustrating just watching, when you want to be out there. I envisioned myself playing 82 games this season. Now that that's out of the question, it's time to finish the last 62 and go on into the playoffs." He could be activated in time for the Hawks' back-to-back road games against Detroit and Minnesota this week.

Webber trial set for July 8 -- after NBA Finals

Jim Schaefer / Detroit Free Press

Kittles' Return Is Cloudy

Fred Kerber / New York Post

Lack of depth worries Rivers

Jerry Brewer / Orlando Sentinel

Collins will lean on his veterans

John N. Mitchell / Washington Times

Hard work lacking in three-game skid

Helene St. James / Detroit Free Press

Miles activated, but out for a week

Bob Finnan / Lorain Morning Journal

Mohammed's time near

Michael Lee / Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[Guest]

Sure, the Cavs lost in double overtime, 140-133, but what a game! And, after all, the Cavs are 3-13 on the year. What did you expect?

Certainly not seven assists from rookie guard Dajuan Wagner. Or eight assists from backup rookie point guard Smush Parker. Even though that's exactly what Davis said a few weeks ago when he pointed out that all the Cavaliers needed was a legitimate player to run the offense for them to be more successful.

He also chastised the play of power forward Hill, who had averaged 10.1 points and 11.6 rebounds in his first 10 games of the year, but only 7.1 points and eight rebounds per game in his last seven.

Bimbo Coles, the starting point guard at the time, may not have liked it. Hill may not have liked it. Cavalier management, which traded away NBA assist leader Andre Miller, may not have liked it, either. But the simple fact is that with Coles out (who averaged only 2.8 apg this season and 2.3 last year) and Hill playing like before, Davis scored the third-highest total in Cavs history while Monday night's game was the highest point total in Gund Arena history."

And somebody wants to trade for Bimbo Coles to run the

offense?????

[swolehawk2]

Where the [censored] is Greg Anthony?