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Editor's note: As part of "The Stein Line" every Monday, senior NBA writer Marc Stein gives his take on things in "Slams and Dunks."
|  | | If you think the fuss over Yao Ming is too much, wait until LeBron James joins the NBA. |
Now that Denver is on a 25-win pace -- which will apparently include 12 or 13 wins at the buzzer -- the Nuggets need to be reminded that there's a downside for teams putting all their hope in the idea of winning the LeBron James draft lottery. Even if James shows up as good as Kobe Bryant was in 1996, Kobe needed four seasons -- and Shaquille O'Neal -- to win his first title. And Phil Jackson. And, worse yet, James will arrive with more scrutiny than Yao Ming faces now.
And if you think any of that will deter the Nugz or anyone else from lusting over this guy ...
If you're looking for a Grant Hill silver lining, and you are if you like Hill or the Magic, applaud the player and coach Doc Rivers for one thing: They're both being honest with each other. Hill is admitting now when he feels soreness; he didn't last season and that's partially why he lasted only 14 games. Rivers, meanwhile, is yanking Hill from games as soon as he hears the word "soreness." That hasn't done much for Orlando's 5-1 start (now an 8-7 start) but raises the possibility that Hill can actually work through the tendinitis in his ankle and start completing back-to-back sets.
An ironic and sad postscript to last week's plea to resurrect the Comeback Player of the Year award came up in an office discussion. The NBA changed the Comeback award to a Most Improved Player trophy in 1986 to halt a growing trend among pollsters to vote for former drug users. What happened? Alvin Robertson, the first winner of the MIP in 1986, regrettably found more off-court trouble than any of the Comeback winners. He was sentenced in January to three years in prison on probation violations stemming from a 1996 burglary conviction.
The way Rasheed Wallace played against Sacramento, you suspect that he needed a little spark from controversy. After scoring 14 points or less in four of five games -- and with just one technical after 12 games -- Wallace followed his marijuana arrest by hanging a 30-pointer on the Kings. Damon Stoudamire, however, did not need any more trouble. He was tough to trade before the incident, with $25 million and two seasons left on his contract (after this season) and facing a leaguewide trend de-emphasizing smaller guards. Now, if there's a team out there interested in Stoudamire, it's bound to try to steal him for even less. We'll see if that makes him more or less movable.
This just ain't Charles Barkley's month. Not only was his Yao Ming bet ill-advised, he also made the losing end much worse than it had to be. Kenny Smith brought that donkey onto the set, which was pretty shrewd, but Chuckster could have kissed it anywhere and still paid his debt. Kissing the ass of the ass was not necessary.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
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