DJ misses Hall as voters miss his points

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PRO BASKETBALL NOTES

DJ misses Hall as voters miss his points


By Peter May, Globe Staff, 4/13/2003

obert Parish, deservedly, will enter the Basketball Hall of Fame next fall.
Dennis Johnson, undeservedly, will not. The identities of the Hall of Fame
voters are kept almost as secret as the membership of Augusta National --
though the basketball people are not quite as well-heeled -- and, once again,
the voters have not gone beyond the numbers to recognize Johnson for what he
did and what he meant. (Or Maurice Cheeks, for that matter.)



It was never about the numbers with DJ, especially in his Boston days. Like
Parish, he reined in his offensive game when he came to the Celtics, although
you always knew he was capable of exploding, especially in so-called big
games. Defense was a constant, and he was as good as it got.

He didn't put up the points the way he did in Seattle or Phoenix, but he still
earned an invitation to an All-Star Game (1985) and was a key player on two
Boston world championship teams.

No, those achievements alone do not automatically a Hall of Famer make.
Otherwise, we'd have to consider B.J. Armstrong. But in this case, those
achievements are only a part of the Johnson portfolio, which one day may be
deemed sufficient to merit representation in Springfield.

It's probably going to take the perfect alignment of voters who understand
Johnson's game and his value to a team to vote him in. Or perhaps he'll never
make it. But he should.

''He deserves to be in there,'' Kevin McHale noted. ''I have a feeling he
will. I think his time will come.''

Said former Celtics general manager Jan Volk, ''As happy as I am for Robert,
I'm just as disappointed for Dennis. Because Dennis did exactly what Robert
did: He sacrificed for the good of the team. Dennis could have had better
stats, but that's not what we needed from him. I think it's a shame. He
deserves it just as much.''

Johnson averaged 14.1 points a game over his career, which is probably what
weighed most in the eyes of voters. But he also averaged 17.3 points a game in
the playoffs and was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in 1979, when Seattle
defeated Washington. Since that award originated in 1969, only three players
who won it and who are eligible to be in the Hall have not been so honored: Jo
Jo White in 1976, Johnson in 1979, and Cedric Maxwell in 1981. Johnson was a
member of the All-Defensive first team on five occasions and the second team
four more.

Larry Bird once called Johnson the best teammate he ever had. We always
suspected he might have been bucking up DJ. But we also suspected there was
some element of truth in the remark.


A college lesson

It's the time of year when anxious parents and high school seniors are hearing
from colleges. This is the story of the Celtics' general manager, Chris
Wallace, and it should be viewed as a caveat to all those who feel their life
is shattered if they don't get into Princeton or Yale. We are just going to
let Wallace tell the story:

''I was into basketball when I was in high school in West Virginia and I had
heard about New Hampton from reading basketball magazines. No one I knew went
to prep school. Some guys had to go to military school, but no one went to
prep school. But I didn't know what I wanted to do, only that I wanted to get
away. I went with my dad and mom, and we saw a few schools, Maine Central
Institute, Phillips Exeter, and New Hampton. They didn't treat me very nicely
at Exeter. But when I showed up at New Hampton, I told them my grades, my
board scores, and they said they'd take me. I had no idea what I'm in for. I
knew no one. I had no car. I was 18 and marooned in a dorm with 15-year-olds.
When it came time to apply to colleges, I had this Horace Greeley urge to go
west. I applied to two schools: Nevada-Reno and the University of New Mexico.
I don't know why I settled on those two. I'd never been to either one. I got
rejected by Nevada-Reno. I think I'm the only person in the Western Hemisphere
that that's happened to. But I got into UNM. I visited UNM when I was in
Kansas City, covering the NAIA Tournament for my local paper as part of a
senior project at prep school. I had been going to the NAIAs for a while. I'd
seen Slick Watts, Jack Sikma, Travis Grant, Elmore Smith, guys like that. So
while I'm there, my dad and I take a day and fly to Albuquerque to see UNM. It
was all brown with desert and tumbleweeds, and I couldn't see myself there. My
dad wasn't impressed, either. So I didn't know what I was going to do. When we
landed back in Kansas City, I blurted out, `Some guys at the NAIA have been
talking about how nice Kansas is. Why don't we check it out?' So we rented a
car and drove the 28 miles to Lawrence. It was green. It was gorgeous. I got
to admissions, I told them who I was and what my situation was, and they
admitted me on the spot. For an extra $300, I got my own room. Once again, I
was in a situation where I knew no one. But I did have a car. My grades were
not very strong, and after three semesters, my dad said I had to get a 3.0 or
he'd stop paying. And if he stopped paying, that meant I either had to come
home, go into the service, or go off on my own. I didn't come close to a 3.0,
so I called dad and said I was going with option No. 3. I dropped out and took
a job with the Buildings and Grounds at the University of Kansas. I was a
probationary-level employee for the state of Kansas. I passed probation, but I
soon quit. One year later, I started the Blue Ribbon magazine. And every time
I go back to Kansas, I feel like it's a homecoming.''

The message in all this: chill, folks.


The too-long goodbye

Parish revealed this past week that he probably should have retired after he
finished up his career with the Celtics in 1994. He was 40 at the time, which
already made him one of the game's elders. ''I did it for my family,'' he
said, omitting the fact that he also did it for the money. ''My younger sister
and brother pointed out I could break the records for games and seasons if I
kept going. So I did. But I should have left after Boston.'' Parish spent two
seasons with the Charlotte Hornets and then closed out his career in 1997 by
winning a fourth ring with the Chicago Bulls. He did enjoy his one year with
Michael, Scottie, Dennis, and Phil. ''It reminded me of my days with the
Celtics,'' he said. ''You had players who wanted to play every night, very
professional. It was a great way to finish up, even though I should have left
three years earlier.'' . . . The Minnesota Timberwolves are in a three-way
fight for the No. 4 spot in the West, and if they attain it, it will be the
first time in franchise history that they've secured a home-court advantage in
the playoffs. ''It'd be just our luck to finally do it and then get the Lakers
in the first round,'' McHale said. ''Nobody wants to play those guys right
now. You can tell that Shaq is getting mad now. He's telling everyone, `I'm
coming to play now.' He brings it when it's time. The MVP of the Finals is
what really counts, and he's been that for the last three years. He's so
dominant. You can tell he really hasn't been all that interested in the
regular season. But now it's a whole new ballgame.'' The Blazers are the other
team involved in the fight for No. 4. The Wolves have the easiest schedule
remaining, with games against Chicago and Memphis. Portland hosts the Lakers
today and then finishes up with Phoenix at home and the Clippers on the road.
The Lakers face the Blazers today and then host Denver Tuesday and finish up
on Wednesday at the Warriors . . . The departure of Bulls general manager
Jerry Krause caught more than a few people by surprise. Krause was obsessed
with secrecy, and thus it was hard to see it coming. He probably didn't even
know. Krause had been a Chicago fixture since the mid-1980s, building six
world champions around Michael Jordan. Said McHale, ''If you get the right
pieces in a couple of really good players, then you need to get the role
players to not screw things up. He took a risk with [Dennis] Rodman, but that
worked out. But it was adding the Kerrs, Harpers, and Wenningtons that were
the key. Those guys were content to be the role players and not screw things
up.'' . . . McHale is really impressed by what he's seen this season in San
Antonio. ''The Spurs right now are probably playing the most consistent
basketball,'' said McHale, ''and you have to give [coach Gregg] Popovich
credit. They're very disciplined. They do the same thing over and over again.
We all think we can trick each other, but the floor is still 94 feet long and
the hoops are 10 feet high. The Spurs don't try to trick anyone. They drill
'em and drill 'em, and even the dumbest guy will eventually figure it out
after a while.'' . . . As for Krause's replacement, a lot of talk turned
immediately to Jordan, whose playing career is (supposedly) coming to an end
Wednesday. Jordan has said he plans to remain in Washington, which is what
you'd expect him to say. You never know with him. Some people think he could
end up in Charlotte. Jordan's track record as an executive is as erratic as
that of most of his peers. He's the one who drafted Kwame Brown with the first
pick in 2001. Two years later, Brown still hasn't played well enough or hard
enough to earn Michael's imprimatur . . . More from the Chief: He said the one
regret he had over his long career was that he never was able to block Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook. ''One thing I wanted to accomplish was to change that
hook shot, to get that shot,'' Parish said. ''That was my ambition, just one
time. But I never did.'' Parish had a one-year tenure as a coach in the USBL
and was named Coach of the Year. He hasn't coached since, and he intends to
keep it that way. ''I want to get back in the game,'' he said. ''But I don't
want to coach. It's too much like being a parent.'' . . . Finally,
congratulations to Maxwell, who will have his No. 31 raised to the rafters to
join all the others. Since Max left the Celtics under less-than-ideal
circumstances in 1985, the number has been worn by Fred Roberts, Ron
Grandison, Xavier McDaniel, Derek Strong, Joe Johnson, and the immortal Mikki
Moore.


Material from personal interviews, wire

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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