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Tuesday, December 28
Wiz fans should direct booing in another direction

By Jeffrey Denberg
Special to ESPN.com

As long as I've been covering the NBA -- and I've been doing it for a lot longer than you need to know -- I will never be able to understand the hatred the paying customer harbors for players who, in their eyes, are paid more than they are worth.
Juwan Howard
Howard makes a lot of money, and his stats are down.

What are you saying about your own existence when you go to an arena, drink a beer and curse a player, your face red as the ink on the Vancouver Grizzlies' financial ledger, jaw thrust, veins protruding?

It's happening in Washington right now. A mild-mannered, talented, young guy like Juwan Howard taking a beating from the guys in the stands who despise him for making $100 million because he is only averaging about 14 points a game. What? Did Howard rob a bank?

If he beat up a woman you'd forgive him. Choke his coach? He would be a hero, right?

Okay, the working stiff resents a player who takes home maybe five years work in one pay check and never appears to work especially hard or accomplish anything that evokes a fantasy.

Excuse me, but what about the guy who gave him the deal? What about the Abe Pollins of the world who constantly put an inferior product on the court, who misjudge talent, let the good ones go and then overpay the others?

Shouldn't Abe Pollin and Wes Unseld and Susan O'Malley take the heat for what goes wrong in D.C.? Want to get mad at Rod Strickland for blowing off practices, for being arrested too many times, be my guest. But come on. Who did Juwan Howard hurt?

Reminds me of Jon Koncak, seventh pick of the '85 draft, slow, heavy-legged, a pretty good shooter, a decent defender until he tore knee cartilage early in his career. Koncak signed a six-year, $13.2 million contract in 1989 after a pretty good spring his fourth year in the league. People cursed him in grocery stores, taunted him in parking lots, ripped him on radio talk shows. This was before he ever played a game for his new wages. It was downhill from there.

Ultimately, Koncak went into a shell, his wife and daughter suffered as his career declined. But like Chris Dudley or Jim McIlvaine and now Matt Geiger, playing hurt in Philadelphia and taking abuse anyway, all Koncak did was cash the check.

Howard says, "It's got to be the money. What else could it be?"

Were Howard a gas station attendant who hit a jackpot instead of a college guy who plays ball, he would be a hero.

Around the league

When Isaiah Rider and the Hawks were still at odds, club president Stan Kasten laid matters on the table, telling Rider, "You want to be the man; you want to make this team successful; you want to play 40 minutes a night... well, we want the same things. So, what's the problem?"

When Larry Brown and Allen Iverson met Monday they came to the same conclusion. Iverson's "I love Philadelphia" speech had the ring of sincerity. So did Brown, "All the things he wants, I want."

There was never going to be a trade. The relationship of coach and player was never going to be torn irrevocably. Iverson's bright. He knows he needs a Larry Brown if he's going to become a truly great player. And Brown knows he can't win without him. So they fight in public. So what?

Understand that I am an unabashed fan of Brown, of any coach who sticks to principles and demands that the game be played the right way.

Losing 10 straight to Indiana, the Bucks figured they were never going to amount to much unless they knocked off the Pacers. "It's time for us to show them the veteran team we've become, that we've grown up a little bit and we can be there battling neck and neck," center Scott Williams said.

Milwaukee conquered that mountain with a breakaway victory Saturday night. On Monday they opened a critical Western trip through Phoenix, Sacramento and San Antonio. If they won two, figure the Bucks have a chance to contend in the East. Without a legitimate inside power player, though, I don't think so.

Larry Bird reiterated he won't change his mind about coaching the Pacers after this season. But he admits there's one problem: What to do with all the suits. "One of my buddies (from Terre Haute) was here tonight and we were talking about that," said Bird, "and I told him to come back after the season and he can have them all."

"It was pretty tough getting up for a game with Chicago, but they are an NBA team," Pacers guard Travis Best said.

Hersey Hawkins said he had 17 messages on his cell phone when he missed his first game after 527 straight. "There were a lot of condolences, like I'd passed away."

Christian Laettner is wearing on the Pistons already, countermanding Alvin Gentry's play calls, demanding the ball.

In a game at Phoenix, Laettner openly defied Gentry in the fourth quarter. At least twice when Lindsey Hunter called plays from Gentry, Laettner called different plays. At one point, Laettner and Terry Mills ran one play, the other three Pistons another.

All of which brings us to the Bulls' Kornel David, who was maybe on Hungarian time when he found an inventive way to lose a game last week -- like the Bulls need to find inventive ways to lose, right?

Maybe you missed it when David took an inbound pass from Ron Artest with 7.1 seconds remaining. His team down three to Philadelphia, spun around and fired an off-balance 25-foot air ball.

Bulls coach Tim Floyd put it this way: "It was a very poor decision at the end of the game, in terms of our shot selection and awareness of time on the clock. That was obvious. Even a dead man could see that."

"I know it's my mistake," David said. "Maybe next time I drive the ball or try to pass to somebody."

Okay, you want to boo, boo Kornel David.

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.


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