|
Bobby
Posts: 22094
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 5/18/2003
Member: #408
USA
|
Some people will never get it, but then again you could always live with draft picks R us at the end of the season while disappointing your fans during the real season. First Chauncy Billups, then Rip “loose” Hamiliton, now straight out of Compton with Prince of the Palace. Now get this:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2623331
There's no doubt Pistons made right call with Prince
By JOHN LOPEZ
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Tayshaun Prince arrived at the arena driving your basic white midsize SUV. Nothing fancy.
He stepped across the loading dock into the arena, wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a ball cap turned backward, saying hello to arena workers along the way. No hoopla.
If anyone personifies the image the Detroit Pistons have worked hard to craft — from the unselfish quotes we've read throughout the NBA Finals to the male cheerleaders wearing pit crew-styled uniforms and virtually faceless, nameless players coming at the Lakers — it is Prince. He grew up in Compton, Calif., where life is hard, and then went to NCAA powerhouse Kentucky, where he decided to play for four seasons and earn a college degree despite NBA temptations tugging at him, if you can imagine that in these times of instant gratification. Last season as a Pistons rookie, he mostly sat and watched. He bided time. No one was calling Prince a superstar when he averaged just 3.3 points while playing in barely half of the Pistons' 2002-03 regular-season games. Instead, they were calling for Carmelo Anthony, a real star. With the second pick in last year's NBA lottery, it was the kind of decision that nearly everyone considered to be a no-brainer for team president Joe Dumars and then-new head coach Larry Brown. After certain No. 1 pick LeBron James, Anthony would be ripe for the picking, probably locking up prospects for a deep Pistons run through the 2004 playoffs. That run has arrived, of course. But amazingly, even now as the Pistons are within two victories of winning the NBA championship, the Carmelo question hovers over the organization. Just imagine if Anthony, who dropped to Denver when the Pistons instead drafted prospect Darko Milicic of Serbia-Montenegro, was on this team. Imagine having a weapon like that, a star like that, to go with Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace. Even when rings and the Larry O'Brien Trophy are perhaps days away, some still just don't get it.
Star power doesn't always arrive in tricked-up Escalades with flashy rims on the wheels. Star power doesn't always have a booming sound system, tailored suits and dozens of nicknames, like LA's Shaquille O'Neal, or a team of bodyguards, like Kobe Bryant.
The glitz and glitter of Prince rising to NBA stardom has been the result. No player on either roster has done more to affect the outcome than Prince. None has done it so anonymously in comparison to the NBA Finals' biggest names, either. Jeans and a T-shirt. It fits him. So does stardom. This series of the Pistons outperforming O'Neal, Bryant and all the Tinseltown glitter has done nothing if not confirm that the Wallaces — Rasheed and Ben — are among the elite while boosting the star value of Hamilton and Billups.
But what of Prince? Lakes coach Phil Jackson was asked about defining star qualities. He defined everything Prince has done, without mentioning his name. "The things that make a great player, doing all of the tasks, boxing out, moving the basketball, playing inside a team offense, playing defense the correct way," Jackson said. "Moving the ball if you're double-teamed. All of those things still have to be performed if you're going to be a superstar."
To recap what we have seen, then: Kobe has made one great shot in Game 2 but been frustrated and stopped twice. By Prince. O'Neal has put up good numbers but fallen into foul trouble and gone through long stretches without touching the ball. Gary Payton has pouted, Karl Malone has limped.
Hamilton has taken on a hero's role offensively. The Wallaces have done what they do best. Billups has played the best basketball of his life.
Prince has only done a little bit of everything. At times, he reminds you of former 76ers star Bobby Jones with the way he defends, hustles and always puts himself in the right spot. Other times, he looks like Clyde Drexler finishing a break, Reggie Miller with that unorthodox release on the 3-pointer or former Spurs great George Gervin slicing through the lane and flicking up a baby hook with those long arms.
Without Prince, who knows if the Pistons would even be here, now, on the threshold of staking a place among the league's greatest teams. He was the lone constant in a tough opening-round series against the Bucks and always has drawn the toughest defensive assignments — Richard Jefferson, Ron Artest, sometimes Miller.
And when the NBA East title was hanging in the balance against Indiana, he was the one player chasing down Miller on a breakaway, soaring into view in the last moment and blocking a layup that in essence clinched the series.
Could anyone else have made that play? Could anyone else be inside Bryant's head like Prince is now?
It all goes back to the vote of confidence Dumars gave him before last season's draft, calling Prince and telling him, "You're our guy." "I know some people still talk about Carmelo," Prince said. "There's nothing you can do about that. You just go out and play. (Dumars) showed confidence in me, and I've taken that and tried to prove him right."
He has.
WOW!
"Like they always say, New York is the Mecca of basketball,"I read that in Michael Jordan books my whole life and I played here in the Big East tournament, so it's always fun to play in the Mecca of basketball."---Rip Hamilton
|
6/12/2004 12:51 PM
