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Friday, March 17
Tale of two brothers as Elliott returns to Spurs

By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com

Sean Elliott
Sean Elliott returned to the Spurs this week, and the crowd loved it.
Noel Elliott, who seems at first glance to be a humble sort, put his contribution to his brother Sean in simple perspective last Tuesday.

"I'm just the brother that donated a kidney," Noel Elliott said.

Perhaps it's just that simple. But Noel Elliott's sacrifice allowed Sean Elliott to step back on the basketball court this week, to a thundering, goose-bump-inducing ovation at the Alamodome. It was one of the best moments in the NBA in a long, long time.

It simply does not matter what Sean Elliott does the rest of this season, whether he contributes next to nothing to the Spurs' defense of their championship. No one wanted him to come back seven months after his kidney transplant. Not his teammates. Not his coach. He had his ring and he would have had the rest of his money. He did this on his own, pestering and pleading, being the first in the weight room and the practice floor, because he wanted to play again.

"I've met a lot of people across the country who're going through the same thing I am," Sean Elliott said Tuesday. "It gives a lot of those people a lot of encouragement. They can't be so afraid when they see me go out and play NBA basketball. They know they'll be able to resume their lives. And not just those people. But other people that are facing ordinary problems. You can always bounce back."

The game was a little fast for him, and he was too fast trying to catch up. But that's just a timing issue. His instincts were good. His presence opened up space for Avery Johnson on the pick and roll. But again, none of that matters.

Elliott was self-deprecating as he approached his return ("the guys have a pool to see when I'll collapse," he said at shootaround). But the moment was overwhelming. And the Spurs, for the first time this season, had the same lineup that won the championship in Madison Square Garden on the floor.

They were made whole. So was Elliott. He played on a team with a living distraction in its midst -- Dennis Rodman, in 1994. Every day, questions about Dennis. It got old. So too, Elliott suspected, were questions his teammates had to answer about him. Now, he's back, to give whatever he can to the teammates that believed in him.

"I'm just going to go out and play hard," he said. "I think, after going through what I went through, and to come back, if I don't give 100 percent every night, I'm going to be extremely disappointed in myself."

He flew his family and his doctors into San Antonio Tuesday to share the moment. So many reporters wanted to talk to Noel Elliott before the game that he had to have his own press conference. And someone asked him during that conference what he made out of all this.

"The biggest thought," Noel Elliott said, "is, 'all this over a kidney?'"

As a matter of fact, yes.

	Aldridge's Rankings
	THE TOP 10 1. L.A. Lakers 2. Indiana 3. Portland 4. Utah 5. Miami 6. Phoenix 7. Toronto 8. San Antonio 9. New York 10. Minnesota THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Washington 26. Vancouver 27. Golden State 28. Chicago 29. L.A. Clippers

Don't cry for Hersey
He is a veteran shooting guard. He has been on a Finals team. He has yet to win a ring. He is playing in obscurity in Chicago, nearing the end of his career.

How come no one is crying for Hersey Hawkins?

How come John Starks gets gullible writers all misty-eyed with his desire to play for a contender, but no one makes a case for Hawkins -- who was on a much better team in Seattle than Starks was at Golden State when he was traded to Chicago. How come Starks goes through the union and the unending process -- which now won't end until next Tuesday, at the earliest -- to be freed from his Bulls contract, but no lawyer makes a call on the Hawk's behalf?

Because Hersey Hawkins doesn't let them.

"They pay me to play basketball," Hawkins said last week. "I'm not quitting."

Hawkins plays every night for a simply horrifying Bulls team. And, unless he retires (unlikely, since there's $4.6 million on line for 2000-01) or is traded, he'll do it again next season. That means he'll end an honorable, 13-year career without a ring.

"There have been lots of great players in this league who haven't won a championship," Hawkins said. "You have to suck it up and play ... I understand how (Starks) feels. and I hope things work out for him. But that has not been a center of topic for us. We have not discussed him and what the heck is going on. That's the unique thing about this team. It honestly hasn't been a distraction."

Hawkins, like Bulls coach Tim Floyd, thought Starks could have been a great help for a young team in desperate need of leadership. "I think he could really contribute to this team," Hawkins said. "He's not going to win a lot of games, but he's going to get shots. He's going to get minutes. And that's going to help him wherever he goes next year."

There was a lot of trade speculation around Hawkins before the deadline. A lot of teams in search of a hired gun off the bench could have used him. But nobody wants a contract that doesn't end after this season. The likelihood is that Hawkins won't get hardware. What will he do then?

"Go out gracefully, I guess," he said. "I don't know what's going to transpire over the summer, but I've had fun being back in Chicago, being home. The losing is tough to deal with. But it's basketball. I have a great living. And if I don't win a championship, life goes on."

Jordan impact is felt -- no matter where he is
Let me try to be clear on this.

This "controversy" in Washington about whether Michael Jordan should be in attendance at MCI Center for Wizards games is the stupidest, most moronic non-story since Monica Lewinsky's autobiography.

Otherwise intelligent people in the nation's capital, like my friend Tony (the Rainmaker) Kornheiser, are foaming at the mouth when they look up into owner Abe Pollin's box and ... and ... don't see MJ! What are we to do? Doesn't he care? We need to worship at the hem of his (very expensive) garment. Pleeeze, Mr. Jordan! Let us gaze upon you and worship in your Michaelness!

Oh, grow up.

This notion that, somehow, Jordan is shirking his responsibilities if he's not front and center, like Nero, at every Wizards home game is a canard. He's not a greeter at a casino; he's a general manager (or president of basketball operations, whatever the title is). He wears a suit and tie. He has as much impact on the game as the other suits and ties.

Is Jim Paxson at every Cavaliers' game? Don't know? That's right, you don't. You don't know if any GM is at his team's game because 99 percent of them are as obscure as Louie Anderson's StairMaster. At this time of year, most GMs and personnel guys aren't anywhere near their teams, anyway -- they're out at the college conference and NCAA tournaments, scouting.

Here's where Jordan can impact the Wizards. At practice. And by all accounts, he's been a regular there. When Jordan puts on sweats and calls out the heartless and gutless on the roster, he has an impact. When he challenges Rod Strickland at the top of the key and gets more than the minimal amount of sweat out of the Wiz's mercurial point guard, he has an impact. When he stops to teach rookie Richard Hamilton how to use his hands and arms to maximum defensive advantage, he has an impact. When he gathers the team in a circle and talks to them, he has an impact.

And when he gets on the phone and trades half of them to the Clippers, he'll have an impact.

Some will note that Jordan should sit next to Pollin while the team suffers to take some of the heat off, to show that he's in it for the long haul, to provide hope. There is, perhaps, some value to that -- although I would humbly point out that nobody made Pollin buy a basketball team and become a public person, and that as owner of the team, he has to take the heat as long as he's taking the profits.

What this is really about, as it often is with Jordan, is celebrity. People want to see Jordan because they know who he is and they like him. In our current culture, they'd be perfectly happy sitting in front of a television set and watching his bald head 24 hours a day. The typical Wiz crowd is notably bereft of sizzle. MJ is sizzle.

I knocked Jordan a couple of months ago because I thought he should have been in town to fire Gar Heard, face to face. (And if the Warriors hadn't reneged on their agreement to let Rod Higgins out of his contract, Jordan would have been.) But that's a Big Thing. Being around to watch the Wizards and Nets isn't.

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Around The League

If the Pistons are indeed serious about Bill Laimbeer coming to coach them, it's not as strange a notion as you may think. "Bill and Isiah coached us," a former member of the Bad Boys says. "They told us where to go. Bill is smart and he's going to get in your face. Who's going to deny him?"

Tim Hardaway remains upset that NBC's Bob Costas suggested, however innocently, that the Olympic selection committee might consider replacing him with Vince Carter because of his assorted injuries. "I heard about it, and I was kinda mad," Hardaway said. "When the right time comes, if I see him again, and I'm quite sure I'll see him again, I'll tell him about it. That was wrong of him to say stuff like that." And Hardaway doesn't care about criticism of his playing all summer instead of resting up his body. "I'm a gym rat," he says. "I like to go out there and play and I'm going to have fun going out there and playing. M_____ f___ what people think. And you can quote me on that."

Add Heard: Mavericks added him this week to their growing list of assistant coaches. And that makes me think that Isiah Thomas is going to be involved with their team. When he was in Toronto, Thomas always talked about having a coaching staff similar to those in football, with eight or nine assistants working with the players individually.

Who does Phil Jackson think is as important to the Lakers' title chances as anyone? Robert Horry. It is Horry, and not Bryant, that Jackson envisions as the ball-hawker that Scottie Pippen was when the Bulls used him to harass point guards from Magic Johnson to Mark Jackson.

"The first practice I had, I challenged them all in various ways, from Kobe and his maturing to Shaq and his weight, free throws, whatever," Jax said. "I got to Robert and I said 'Robert, you're going to be the difference between us being a really great team, a championship team, and just a good team. Because if you play up to your capabilities, we can be a really good team, because you have so many things to offer.' Rob kind of shied away from that responsibility. That's kind of his personality, to back away from it. And yet he started to embrace it more and more as the season went on, and be a part of it."


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