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NFL

Tuesday, December 28
Thug Thomas gets what he deserved

By Jeffrey Denberg
Special to ESPN.com

Here's a salute to NBA top cop Rod Thorn. He suspended Knicks' thug Kurt Thomas for two games and took $10,000 from his next paycheck.
Thomas' style of play is Knicks-like, but not NBA friendly.

The punishment was appropriate to the act -- an unprovoked attack before a nationwide television audience on Indiana's Jalen Rose Christmas night.

Said one Eastern Conference coach, "The league has got to stop guys like that. The reason we have a guy like Thomas punching people is the referees aren't getting the job done. We've got too many young refs and even the ones who have been in the league three, four years appear not have any memory bank. They conveniently forget and so they're inconsistent.

"But when you have a guy who does this kind of thing you've got to watch him like a hawk. Stop him before one act leads to another."

On Dec. 20, only a few days earlier, Thomas so injured the Hornets' Eddie Jones that the club's brilliant guard will be lost for up to six weeks. Thomas said he didn't mean it, but he can't hide from the result. Jones was on his way for a layup in a game at New York when Thomas grabbed his left arm, tearing the medial collateral ligament in his left elbow.

No question the atmosphere in New York contributes to these outrages.

The Knicks have long applauded excessive acts of force by their own. Coach Jeff Van Gundy admitted during the NBA Finals last June that when the club had a deep well of big, strong forwards and centers, Pat Riley ordered a lot of hard early fouls for every game. The philosophy was arrogant and cynical. As Van Gundy explained it, the referees could hardly call every aggressive act and, eventually, they would tire of blowing their whistles.

Then there is Thomas himself, an average player who has always overvalued his own skills and place in the NBA. A few years ago Thomas returned for a game in Dallas where he started his career. He said he was happy to have moved on because the Mavericks did not show proper respect for their players. He complained that the team had temerity on the road to choose Marriott and Hyatt Hotels. His new team stays at the Ritz and Four Seasons, Thomas said proudly. Overpriced hotels for overpriced players.

Doc in the house
It's apology time. So here it is: John Gabriel and the Orlando Magic, I was wrong.

When the Magic went to camp I figured the team had gone into the toilet when it cleared cap room, and that rookie coach Doc Rivers had been handed a role at which he could not possibly succeed. Well, if Gabriel's motive was to do more than artfully change the club from sour and aging to upbeat and young, he certainly got more than he bargained for.

No question Rivers has been brilliant. He is coaching this young team as he was coached in Atlanta by Mike Fratello. Defense and quick breaks make up for a absence of deep offensive talent. But Rivers is constantly upbeat with his players. He keeps them coming back for more.

We'll know about Gabriel's intentions closer to the trading deadline by the manner in which he deals with forward Chris Gatling, a valuable contributor whose contract runs through next season at about $4 million. If the Magic is in playoff contention in February and Gabriel deals away Gatling for more cap room (they are already $12 million under) then the younger Orlando players will know management has abandoned the season.

If they stay the course, it's hard not to cheer for them.

"It's gotten to the point where we really don't have a starting unit," Rivers said. "We've got 12 interchangeable role players. Anyone can be out there at the end."

After Charlotte lost at home to the Magic, Hornets coach Paul Silas delivered this tribute to Rivers:

"It's amazing. He's gotten them to play hard every single minute they're out there. You can say, 'Oh, that's not hard with the type of team he has.' But I don't care what kind of team it is. Getting guys to play hard all the time is a very hard thing to do."

Around the league

Nobody wants to discuss it, not Tim Hardaway and certainly not Heat management. But as the all-star point guard's absence stretches beyond anyone's expectations, his future and the Heat's become of an issue.

Hardaway, 33, who will be a free agent after this season, already has missed 15 games with a jammed right knee, and neither he nor the Heat has any idea when he will play again.

The absence of Hardaway has put untoward pressure on Alonzo Mourning to carry the load. Through Tuesday the club is 9-6 without Hardaway after starting out 8-3. The offense has dropped from 106 ppg with Hardaway to 91 without him. To be fair, the Heat is also missing small forward Jamal Mashburn, but with each passing game, fill-in Anthony Carter's weaknesses are exposed.

"We're not going anywhere without you," Heat coach Pat Riley told Hardaway recently.

Between now and closing day, Riley must decide whether Hardaway has enough left to warrant a new contract. Better hope so. The list of free agent point guards this summer is not going to create great excitement. The candidates are Mark Jackson, Avery Johnson, Greg Anthony, Antonio Daniels, Howard Eisley, Jacque Vaughn, Chauncey Billups and Bimbo Coles. Not a Hardaway in the carload.

Now, Mitch Richmond admits he should have gone on the injured list to start the season. A strained right hamstring and tendinitis in his left knee hampered Richmond early. When his injuries healed he wasn't in shape to play his game. At one point, verbally jousting with a Washington columnist, he said he was playing so the press would not rip him for signing a $40 million deal and then jumping on the injured list. Different time, different player. Richmond has shot 55-for-104 his last six games, averaging 22 points and raising his season's average near 17 ppg.

"My legs feel a lot better, the hamstring, the knee," Richmond said. "That's the main difference."

Says coach Gar Heard, "If I had to do it over again I would have talked him into sitting out the first five games. He's a competitor and he wanted to help the team."

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


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