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Monday, April 17
Season ending? Must be time for awards

By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com

This has not been the NBA's finest regular season. No playoff races to speak of, really; a rather desultory Eastern Conference; one really big game (Lakers-Blazers on Leap Day); controversies over non-issues like miking coaches and testing players for steroids.

But in the grand scheme of things, a transition period is not a bad thing. We've continued to see the development of a new crop of stars (Iverson, Vince, Kobe) whose roads to maturity are getting less and less bumpy.


	Shaquille O'Neal has simply risen above the pack this season.

Most importantly, the buds of a dynasty are blooming in Los Angeles. Every league needs a target, someone against whom you judge yourself. The Yankees. The Cowboys. Regis. What the NBA needs more than anything in this post-Bulls era is for Shaq, Kobe and Phil to run roughshod through the playoffs, beat the stuffings out of the Eastern Conference's survivor and establish the Forum Blue and Gold as the team to beat. Such a turn of events would sharpen everyone's focus, make everyone understand what they have to do to win and give the fans a villain. In the meantime, it's hardware time:

Most Valuable Player
The Best of the Best: Shaquille O'Neal, Lakers.

How dominant has the Daddy been this year? No one can even make a logical argument for who the runner-up should be. He has become everything everyone expected. He is the dominant force in the game today, no longer a one-dimensional dunker who can't pass out of the double-team. Defensively, he patrols the paint with bad intentions. "I don't know what he's been drinking or eating, but it's working," Dikembe Mutombo says. Anyone who doesn't vote for this guy, for whatever reason, should have his credentials revoked.

The Best of the Rest: Alonzo Mourning, Miami; Jason Kidd, Phoenix.

Coach of the Year
The Best of the Best: Doc Rivers, Magic.

An equal no-brainer. I have heard the arguments from Phil Jackson's supporters, and they boil down to this: The Lakers have never been this good and this dominant, and they have a shot at 70 wins, and Jackson's the reason why. I agree with all of that. And Rivers is still Coach of the Year, easily. Jax is a great coach. He also has two of the five best players in the league to coach. I must point out again that the Nets offered him more money and more control, and he went to the place where it would be easiest to pile up Ws. No harm in that, but let's not make it out like the Lakers were a 20-win outfit last season.

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Meanwhile, Rivers came to Orlando and had Penny Hardaway and Nick Anderson and Horace Grant traded before he had a new cell phone number. The Magic made no pretense of their plans to tank this season and have maximum cap room and high draft picks for the 2000-01 season. And then comes along Rivers, who admitted last month that his biggest worry was his team would stink all year. It is amazing how revisionist people can get in a short period of time, conveniently forgetting that most people not only thought the Magic would be the worst team in the league, but might not win 10 games.

Rivers didn't allow his players the easy out. They're the best conditioned team in the league because he ran them to death in training camp. Consider that Rivers is winning even when the young players who were supposed to be Orlando's best this season -- Corey Maggette, Michael Doleac, Matt Harpring -- have struggled or have been injured. He is winning with one legitimate all-star candidate, guard Darrell Armstrong. He is winning with John Amaechi at center. He is winning with Chucky Atkins playing big minutes at point guard. He is winning with Ben Wallace and Pat Garrity and Monty Williams. And he is winning even after the Magic traded two of the top seven players in their rotation.

He has beaten the Spurs, Jazz and Pacers in Orlando, and the Hornets, Knicks and Timberwolves on the road. His team is 14-14 against the supposedly dominant Western Conference. His team is going to the playoffs. Oh, and did I mention that he had never coached anywhere at any level before this season? It is, simply, one of the great coaching jobs in the past decade.

The Best of the Rest: Jackson; Jerry Sloan, Utah; Scott Skiles, Phoenix.

Most Improved Player
The Best of the Best: Austin Croshere, Pacers.

He was a non-person his first two years in the league, making one token appearance in the playoffs last season. But a summer of working out and working on his game has boosted him into Indiana's rotation. He's gone from an anemic 53 appearances in 132 games over two seasons to 73 out of 74 entering play on Friday. Scoring up to 10.3 from 3.4 a year ago; boards up to 6.4 from 1.7.

You know on a Larry Bird team that nobody is given extra minutes. Croshere earned them. And he's going to earn a big payday this summer, whether from the Pacers or somebody else.

The Best of the Rest: Tracy McGrady, Raptors; Michael Dickerson, Grizzlies; Jahidi White, Wizards.

Defensive Player of the Year
The Best of the Best: Dikembe Mutombo, Hawks.

Every year I try to find some reason not to vote for the Mount, and every year he's first or second in blocks (this season, third, just behind Alonzo Mourning and Shaq), first or second in boards (this season, first, just ahead of O'Neal), and ranks with Mourning in intimidations. Shaq closed the gap quite a bit this season, and Zo still brings the pain every night, but while Mourning and Shaq have other ballhawks to funnel things their way (who's better on the ball today than Kobe?), Deke still has to change games by himself.

The Best of the Rest: Gary Payton, Sonics; O'Neal; Mourning; Kidd; Eddie Jones, Charlotte.

Best Sixth Man
The Best of the Best: Rodney Rogers, Phoenix.

He asked not to judge him by his last couple of disinterested seasons in Clipperland, and he's lived up to it, shedding the excess pounds and rediscovering his game. While Rogers has started more of late since Tom Gugliotta's knee injury, he spent most of the season coming off the pine shooting. Fabulous 3-point numbers (44 percent through Thursday) for a guy who shoots close to 50 percent overall. He's a tough matchup for just about everyone else in reserve and he's not been afraid to take some big shots for Phoenix.

The Best of the Rest: Toni Kukoc, Sixers; Chucky Atkins, Orlando; Greg Anthony, Blazers; Jerome Williams, Pistons; Malik Sealy, Timberwolves; Jon Barry, Kings.

Rookie of the Year
The Best of the Best: Steve Francis, Houston.

Absolutely the toughest call this season, if for no other reason than the PR staffs of the Rockets and Bulls have been bombarding everyone with stats, packages and phone calls touting their respective rooks. But it's Francis by a hair.

Elton Brand's numbers are rock solid (19.5 points, 9.9 boards) and he's got a lot less to work with in Chicago than Francis does in Houston. But Francis has been just as solid (17.8 points, 5.1 boards, 6.5 assists) and, occasionally, spectacular. What tilts it his way is that he's doing this while learning to play the point, the hardest adjustment a college player faces. And against defensive hawks like Kidd and Payton, this kid has more than held his own. The assist-turnover ratio is woeful for a point, though.

The Best of the Rest: Brand; Lamar Odom, Clippers.

All-NBA
First Team
Guards: Jason Kidd, Gary Payton.

Forwards: Kevin Garnett, Grant Hill.

Center: Shaquille O'Neal.

Second Team
Guards: Kobe Bryant, Eddie Jones.

Forwards: Tim Duncan, Karl Malone.

Center: Alonzo Mourning.

Third Team
Guards: John Stockton, Allen Iverson.

Forwards: Chris Webber, Clifford Robinson.

Center: Dikembe Mutombo.

Guys I really wanted to put on the all-NBA teams
Guards: Stephon Marbury, Jerry Stackhouse.

Forwards: Jalen Rose, Vince Carter.

Center: David Robinson.


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