NBA Filled With Disgruntled Stars

By JIM LITKE AP Sports Writer The speaker is Miami Heat coach Pat Riley on the state of the NBA. Go ahead, try and guess the year. ``It's gotten to where it's all about 'me,'

Thursday, December 21st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer

The speaker is Miami Heat coach Pat Riley on the state of the NBA. Go ahead, try and guess the year.

``It's gotten to where it's all about 'me,' all about recognition, all about contracts, all about playing time, all about lack of rules and discipline.''

This year? Last year?

1995.

Long enough ago, in any case, for anybody to say the league couldn't see this epidemic of empty seats coming.

Good games are in shorter supply than ever. Bad actors are everywhere, burrowed deeper and deeper into the fabric of too many teams.

What happened between 1995 and today is that Michael Jordan returned from his brief baseball odyssey and diverted everybody's attention from the growing number of one-dimensional talents and mutinous punks filling out the rosters. Now that he's running the Washington Wizards from an executive suite instead of beating them on a court, even Jordan admits he's disgusted by the product he has to put on the floor every night.

Too many of us who marveled at what NBA commissioner David Stern had wrought for nearly two decades know only too well how Jordan feels. The cast of characters that inspired Riley's rant five years ago wasn't a third of the size it is now. And almost looks tame by comparison.

Back then, the salary spread between stars and coaches was much smaller and mutinies were generally one-man affairs, with little chance of success. A mutiny was Scottie Pippen staging a sitdown strike in the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game. Or Chris Morris refusing to lace up his sneakers during practice to show he didn't intend to run much. Or Derrick Coleman smugly handing Butch Beard, his coach at the time, a blank check to cover all the fines he promised to pile up. Or Isaiah Rider calling a press conference to respond to a suggestion from Bill Blair, his coach at the time, that he grow up.

Now, though, players have figured out just how much strength there is in numbers. And the number of discontented, disaffected millionaires in most NBA towns has swelled to the point where throwing the coach overboard â€” or better yet, making him walk the plank â€” is easier than organizing a pickup game in the offseason. All it takes is finding a few guys motivated enough to do a little extra work.

Last month, Gary Payton enlisted Vin Baker and a few other members of the SuperSonics and got coach Paul Westphal fired in Seattle. In Denver, players tired of Nuggets coach Dan Issel's screaming boycotted a practice and threatened to do the same on game night. The power grab was so raw, however, and the public outcry so loud, that the rebellious crew scattered before most of them were ever identified.

``The inmates have really taken over the asylum,'' Denver's Terry Davis told USA Today. ``Guys are selfish. They don't work hard. They don't come to practice. I don't think they have love for the game anymore,'' he added, ``and I'm not just talking about this team.''

A look around the NBA only Wednesday night hints at the size of the problem Stern faces.

Miami and Charlotte combined for the second-lowest scoring total since the league installed a 24-second clock. ``What can I say?'' Riley asked, then answered his own question. ``Probably one of the ugliest games of the year.''

Portland and Dallas, meanwhile, combined for 11 technicals in a game that featured foul-mouthed tirades and cheap shots. ``The playoffs are this intense,'' Mavericks coach Don Nelson said, ``but not this emotionally unstable.''

And that's what's plaguing the NBA at the moment: A growing sense among fans that too many players make too much money to respect authority or practice anything resembling impulse control. The play on the floor looks sloppy and selfish; what goes on off it sounds even more sordid.

In Philadelphia, coach Larry Brown returned from a sudden two-day absence from the 76ers and said he was temporarily worn out by a busy offseason and a just-ended, grueling road trip. Some of the wear and tear, no doubt, was the result of dueling almost nonstop with superstar Allen Iverson. It began when Brown took the job four years ago and flared up as recently as Saturday, just before Brown disappeared for a few days.

``I think our relationship is pretty good. I know it's good,'' Brown said upon his return Wednesday night. ``I know there will be bumps, but I can say that about any one of the other guys in the locker room.''

Now there's a comforting thought.

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Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org