League’s Competitive Balance Tilts Away From the East

Well, nobody said it was going to be pretty.

Not that you couldn’t see this coming . . . like a year ago . . . when Michael Jordan retired, the Bulls disarmed and the entire Eastern Conference, now also known as Centers Rn’t Us, collapsed.

Of course the Pacers have to foul Shaquille O’Neal. What else are they going to do, see how many dunks he can make in a row before he gets tired?

There’s no truth to the rumor David Stern was so horrified by the Game 2 free-throw shooting un-clinic that he convened a meeting of the competition committee to change the rules before today’s Game 3.

However, Stern is unhappy about it and has promised to have the committee revisit intentional fouling over the summer, meaning the deal is done.

This was a good idea long before everyone started hacking Our Poor Shaq. No one goes to games to see players grabbed, not to mention knocked down, even if the rest of the country may get a kick out of seeing O’Neal at the line, sweating bullets and laying brick.

All they have to do is treat intentional fouls like flagrant fouls, two shots plus possession. Then everyone will just have to wait for the ball to go in to Shaq and make it look good. One way or the other, the big lug will still wind up shooting a lot of free throws.

Nevertheless, there’s even more important work for the competition committee, such as finding some competition.

A year ago, Stern pooh-poohed the idea of re-seeding the final four, so that the best teams had a chance to meet in the finals, regardless of conference. Too hard, he said, these things are cyclic. Too bad for him. The Laker- Portland Game 7 was the highest- rated conference finals game ever.

The magic number for the league is six, which is how many games the finals have to go to have a chance at a respectable TV number. Last spring, San Antonio dropped the Knicks in five. The ratings, respectable until then, fell off a cliff and haven’t hit bottom yet.

Nor has the cycle run its course. The Pacers could still drag this one out six games, but they’ll need a rally.

When O’Neal was in Orlando, everyone in the East stocked up on big men. Now Patrick Ewing, 37 and taped like a mummy, is the second- best center in the conference, an honor he earned by besting such as Terry Mills, Ervin Johnson and Elden Campbell, just to name starters on three playoff teams.

Rik Smits, 33 and no gazelle when he was 23, is an hors d’oeuvre for O’Neal. Sam Perkins, who turns 39 Wednesday, was a small forward when he broke in, back before the flood.

So the Pacers began to double-team with exactly the results Larry Bird predicted, when he refused to do it against the Knicks in the Eastern finals.

Ron Harper who averaged 7.0 points during the season and 11 against the Trail Blazers when Scottie Pippen left him to double-team O’Neal, is up to 16.5 in this series. It’s one thing for the rangy, athletic Pippen to cheat and get back. It’s another when the slower, shorter Mark Jackson, who has trouble defending his own man, tries it.

The bad news for the East--and Stern--is there’s no one coming up on the horizon, either.

The most promising young team, Toronto, is in mid-civil war, with plum free agent Tracy McGrady on his way out and Coach Butch Carter doomed, yet still in office, fighting a rear-guard action against Raptor veterans in an attempt to keep his job.

Miami and New York are old and have salary-cap problems. Philadelphia has a movable object, Larry Brown, and a resistible force, Allan Iverson, who are stuck with each other, much as each would prefer a divorce. Charlotte looks as though it will lose Eddie Jones but keep Derrick Coleman, Anthony Mason and Campbell. Detroit will do well to convince Grant Hill to give it one more season of going nowhere before he restarts his career.

Looks like a pretty entrenched cycle, but if Stern isn’t worrying, why should you?

Not that last week was a total washout for Indiana. The Pacer Guy, whose name is Matt Asen, came in his trademark tuxedo with tails and sequined Pacer logo on the back and got his picture taken with two Laker Girls.

“Why not?” The Pacer Guy said. “They’re nice looking.”

In the East these days, they’re grateful for small favors.

TAKING THE LAGGARDS OUT BACK AND SHOOTING THEM

Once it may have been possible for a good player on a runner-up to lose with honor, but not any more when the Great Player Police arrive to finish off the wounded.

Latest to feel their wrath is Reggie Miller, who had a nightmare Game 1 and a lame Game 2, prompting the police to strike him from their list of greats.

Miller is what he always was, an overqualified jump shooter who is now being monitored by the entire Laker defense, which sends Harper out to push up on him, taking away his outside shot and making him take the ball into the middle, where Shaq hungrily awaits.

Not that this process is fickle or mindless, but, be in no doubt, if the Lakers hadn’t come from 15 down in the fourth quarter against Portland, and the Trail Blazers hadn’t made it possible by gagging--something that happens a lot in Game 7s--the local media would have bombed O’Neal big-time.

Before he dunked that lob from Kobe Bryant and zoomed wide-eyed around the floor in the film clip they’re still playing, Shaq had only 15 points and nine rebounds-- while being ganged up on by the entire Trail Blazer defense, of course.

It gets hard to follow.

O’Neal is Superman now but was within minutes of being written off as Fido last week. Miller is a terror in May, but when that page in the calendar turns, his carriage turns into a pumpkin. Karl Malone used to be a slug because he couldn’t get the Jazz past Jordan, etc., etc..

Winning cures everything so Pippen, who has six rings and is actually a good player, is deemed a Great Player, even if Jordan had to ferry him over the finish line many of those times.

FACES AND FIGURES

Kings of Denial: One thing you can count on at this time of year is teams insisting their free agents are staying. Thus, Detroit promises Hill will return, or as Joe Dumars, who was promoted to the head of the basketball operation last week--because he’s close to Hill-- noted, “In all of my talks with Grant, during the season and since the season has been over, he’s really not given me any reason to believe that he is not going to come back. Based on my personal relationship with him, I’ve not gotten one bit of negative feedback from him at all.” Still no word from Hill, though. . . . Milwaukee General Manager Ernie Grunfeld promises Tim Thomas will return. Seattle Coach Paul Westphal says Rashard Lewis will be back. The Clippers’ Andy Roeser even makes positive sounds about Derek Anderson and Maurice Taylor. . . . Another thing you can count on is that a lot of these guys are leaving, starting with Anderson and Taylor. . . . The Raptors, who insisted all season that McGrady would re-sign, swallowed hard last week when he announced it would be “tough” for him to go back with all the turmoil there, prompting Charles Oakley to call for Carter’s firing yet again. “Tracy wasn’t going to get better with Butch because Butch can’t teach and he can’t teach young players,” Oakley said. “Look at Yogi [Michael Stewart] and J.T. [John Thomas]. It’s all become a sideshow now. Tracy feels worn down. We’re playing five-card stud and Butch is dealing with seven cards.” . . . Meanwhile, there were reports the Raptors were shopping Oakley and Antonio Davis, who are leading the veterans’ revolt against Carter. That’s not Butch, trying to rid himself of those pesky mutineers, is it?. . . . Denial, 2001: The Hawks, insisting Dikembe Mutombo, 34, and a free agent next summer, will re-sign, turned down a New Jersey offer, which reportedly would have given them the No. 1 pick and Kenyon Martin. Even if Mutombo stays, it’s the wrong move for a rebuilding team. . . . The top of the draft is taking shape: 1. New Jersey, Martin. 2, Vancouver, Stromile Swift. 3, Clippers, Marcus Fizer. . . . Orlando is wild for Martin, but the Nets have turned down a Magic offer of its Nos. 5, 10 and 13 picks. Vancouver’s new GM, Dick Versace, the Inspector Clouseau of the biz, said he wouldn’t comment on players they tried out but made it clear he was blown away by Swift’s jumping ability, not to mention his willingness to play in Vancouver. . . . Prep star Darius Miles of East St. Louis is expected to go in the top 10 and has a shot at the top five. “The kid can play,” says Jordan, Washington’s president. “He’s a tall, skinny kid like Kevin Garnett with great skills. He would be great for a young team. I would take him with the No. 1 pick in a heartbeat.” Unfortunately for Jordan, he not only doesn’t have the top overall pick, he doesn’t even have a first-round selection.