Race to the Raptors' winning ways gets Bosh back into mix

As usual in Toronto, the Raptors have relied heavily on go-to-guy Chris Bosh.

If there is one thing The Race distastes, it is the feral notion that somebody has been unfairly excluded from this lofty list of players about which we pontificate on a weekly basis.

And so guilt has been a constant companion for The Race this season because, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor, Toronto's Chris Bosh has been an itch that has been unable to be scratched.

Bosh, the most-discussed free agent in the upcoming class because he is the one most likely to leave his current team, clearly has been one of the best players in the NBA this season.

He is averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds. He has been as consistent a producer as LeBron or Kobe or Carmelo or Dwight. He clearly is an upper-echelon player worthy of recognition -- not to mention a sizable contract next season.

However, he has been mired on a poor team -- the reason The Race has intentionally excluded Bosh from taking a rightful place among his brethren.

And when it comes right down it, the basic tenets of the MVP award require that the player be from a winning team. After all, how valuable can you be if your club is 15 games below .500.

Granted, this is a team game. And it has not been all Bosh's fault that the Raptors have underachieved this season.

Their essential downfall is defense. They are putrid. They allow 105.3 points a night, which is fifth-worst in the league.

And they are not the Golden State Warriors or Phoenix Suns, who relinquish more points simply because they think they can outscore you (which is the case with one of those teams but not the other; no hints, but you figure out the difference.)

No, the Raptors are poor defensively because they are, well, soft. Go ahead, name one lock-down defender on that roster. Their best defensive player is Reggie Evans, and he has been injured all season.

In fact, beyond Bosh, their core players are from Italy, Spain and Turkey -- and the last I heard they weren't holding too many defensive clinics in those places.

To his credit, when the Raptors were obliterated by the Atlanta Hawks, 146-115 on Dec. 2, Bosh called out himself and his teammates for their lack of, we'll call it "effort."

It would be a good story to say that was the tipping point. But in reality, the losing continued thereafter. Not until Dec. 18, when they began a five-game win streak, then lost at Boston, then had another three-game run, did they start to play the way many thought they were capable from the very beginning.

They since have lost two in a row, but their game tonight in New York could have them resting comfortably at .500, which for The Race is good enough to bring back into the fold one of the best players in the league.

1. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
41	38.6	29.5	7.2	7.8	1.5	1.0	.509	.368	.780

Last Week's Rank - 1
The Race saw James in person on Monday and came away even more amazed at just how absurdly good he is. One play stood out: Monta Ellis stole the ball from Anthony Parker and went the other way for what he thought was an uncontested layup. As he tried to dump the ball in the cup, James snuck in from behind and smacked the ball off the backboard. The Race's eyes bugged out. One weakness though: his singing voice.

2. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
38	39	28.9	6.9	3.0	1.4	0.9	.483	.329	.869

Last Week's Rank - 6
This is where The Race gets a bit dicey. Is Durant the second-best player in the league? Probably not -- though he's not that far behind. But Kobe Bryant has been nursing a myriad of injuries, including a sore back that has limited his production this past week, and Durant has averaged 35 points, seven rebounds and three assists in his last three games and has his young team four games over .500. At least for this week, Durant deserves kudos.

3. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
39	38.2	28.7	5.3	4.5	1.9	0.3	.468	.310	.834

Last Week's Rank - 2
Nobody will ever question this guy's toughness and devotion to the game. But his back is locking up, keeping him from being the player we all know him to be. He averaged only 13 points over his last three games, which included a 4-for-21 shooting night against Milwaukee.

4. Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
39	33.6	19.2	3.0	11.2	0.4	0.2	.545	.436	.946

Last Week's Rank - 3
After their hot start, the Suns are in the mode of playing .500 basketball, in part because they're really just an above-average team with a really, really good point guard. Nash continues to put up better stats than he did when he won the two MVPs in back-to-back years. He makes The Race appreciate the game of basketball.

5. Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
39	38.8	23.4	4.6	5.1	1.0	0.1	.483	.348	.794

Last Week's Rank - 5
Through injuries and turmoil, Roy just keeps plugging along, averaging 30 points, four assists and three rebounds last week. In a victory over the Lakers, Roy went to the line 14 times, making 13. His 23.4 points a game is a career high; even more telling, his shooting percentage (48.3) is a career high despite defenses giving him more attention than ever.

6. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
37	37.9	25.1	8.2	2.5	1.0	1.3	.470	.403	.894

Last Week's Rank - 4
By virtue of the Mavericks' victory over the Spurs last week, we’ll place Nowitzki ahead of Tim Duncan. However, because the Mavs are on a two-game losing streak, we’ll knock him down a few notches from last week. Still, in the most recent loss, to the Lakers, Nowitzki had 30 points and 16 rebounds in 43 minutes.

7. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
34	32.1	20.1	10.4	3.1	0.6	1.9	.556	.000	.753

Last Week's Rank - 8
An NBA coach was asked recently about the qualification for the All-Star Game, because there are so many different arguments that could be made based on a number of different factors. The coach then brought up the name of Duncan and said, "That guy, he doesn’t do anything spectacular. But what he does do is go out and win games every night. That's how players should play."

8. Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
39	34.4	16.9	13.2	1.6	1.1	2.5	.601	.000	.596

Last Week's Rank - 7
Both Howard and the Magic continue to be a conundrum. All kinds of talent yet they continue to play inconsistently and, more often than not of late, lose. Howard has too many games like his 1-for-7, eight-point clunker in Denver the other night, Orlando’s fifth loss in its last seven games. It is the fourth time in the last 10 games that Howard has been held to single digits.

9. Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
37	36.9	26.9	5.0	6.2	1.8	1.2	.449	.276	.776

Last Week's Rank - 9
Wade had only 13 points after injuring his wrist in a loss in Utah on Tuesday night, then came back the next evening to go for 35, nine assists and seven rebounds. He also tied a franchise record by making all 15 of his free throws. The guy is a great player surrounded by too many average players.

10. Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
39	35.4	24.0	11.3	2.0	0.6	1.1	.519	.462	.787

Last Week's Rank - NR
We work Bosh back into The Race after a lengthy hiatus. The Raptors better beat the Knicks in New York on Friday or he may be once again on the outside looking in. But if Toronto can continue the winning it has realized of late, the most productive power forward in the East should be a regular component of this column.

.

Dunleavy keeps it together despite Clips' broken season

A rough start hasn't slowed coach Mike Dunleavy (right) from pushing forward in L.A.

When you're Mike Dunleavy, coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, each morning before you put your feet onto the floor to climb out of bed, you look carefully down and make sure the floor hasn't been somehow removed in the middle of the night.

If you coach the Clippers, you know that no misfortune or misstep is ever out of the realm of possibility, no matter how wild the notion or how long the statistical odds. If you blow that whistle and draw up the Xs and Os for the Staples Center jayvee team long enough, you understand that around every corner is a runaway tractor-trailer coming to flatten you into the asphalt.

Never mind the old comic strip image of Lucy yanking away the football every time that Charlie Brown tries to kick it. In the Clippers' version of perpetual frustration, good ol' Dunleavy doesn't merely whiff on the kick. He gets dumped off the end of the Santa Monica Pier and washed halfway to Tijuana for good measure.

So when the word comes that No. 1 draft pick Blake Griffin will have his belated NBA debut pushed back from sometime in late January until sometime early next season due to surgery that is now required on his fractured left kneecap, all Dunleavy can do is shrug. All the rest of us can do is try to remember not to ever be caught standing next to a Clipper in a lightning storm.

"It's a little disappointing," Dunleavy concedes. "We've just got to move on and move forward."

That is what Dunleavy has relentlessly and doggedly done in his seven seasons of running the Clippers, through the thin and the thin.

After a breakout 47-35 season in 2005-06 when a team anchored by Elton Brand, Sam Cassell and Corey Maggette came within a pair of victories of reaching the Western Conference finals -- and for a brief time outshined the cachet of the Lakers -- things typically fell apart.

Just when the Clippers thought they had scored a coup by landing free agent Baron Davis to pair with Brand as a formidable 1-2 punch, Brand chose to fly the coop to Philadelphia. When last season's 19-63 disaster turned into the right ping-pong ball combination to deliver the College Player of the Year Griffin to L.A., he cracked his kneecap in the final preseason game.

You want comic misery? Dunleavy's team not only lost a game, but had to temporarily evacuate the arena the other night in Memphis when a broken water pipe flooded the place.

By now, maybe a lot of other guys would have simply sunk to the bottom. In fact, when Byron Scott of the New Orleans' Hornets became the first head coach fired in the NBA this season back on Nov. 13, several Las Vegas sports books posted Dunleavy as the most likely candidate to next get the ax. At that time, the Clippers had stumbled out of the starting gate at 0-4 on their way to 4-9 (Nov. 18) and 12-17 (Dec. 25).

Yet here is Dunleavy in a new year and a new decade with a club that knocked off the defending champion Lakers last week. He shares his feistiness and belief that the playoffs are still possible. At 17-20, the Clippers have won four of their last six and are only 3 1/2 games out of the final playoff position.

Could it have been only two months ago when team owner Donald Sterling might have been circling over Dunleavy and getting ready to pull the plug? Now that the mercurial Davis has rediscovered his spark and enthusiasm, center Chris Kaman is playing like the best center in the Western Conference, sophomore guard Eric Gordon is healthy and blossoming and power forward Marcus Camby is doing his usual heavy lifting on the boards and on defense along the frontline.

The loss of Griffin for the rest of the season maybe means the trade rumors around Camby can die down and the Clippers can get back to the business of simply playing. If you mix in what Griffin will be able to do -- according to virtually every expert -- with the talent that is already on hand and perhaps reach out for a free agent next summer, by the time next season arrives the Clippers could really be onto something.

Of course, if you're Dunleavy, you look down before taking that next big step. Then you keep moving forward.

All-Star opinions and Nash debate fill up the mailbag

Steve Nash, left, is trying to raise the play of Leandro Barbosa and the rest of the Suns.

There's still a lot of All-Star chatter, which is great because while the game itself is just an exhibition, the process of reaching the game serves as a barometer of how fans (picking the starters) and coaches (picking the reserves) rate players. There is also some counter to the popularity of Steve Nash and the premise that his 2009-10 work compares favorably to the two MVP seasons.

On to the letters....

I read your article about Steve Nash, but I think you are falling into the stat trap. Stats don't make a player good. When Nash won MVP [in 2005-06], Kobe was putting up much better numbers -- 35 points in the modern NBA is ridiculous. Nash won MVP because he controlled every game, was the leader of the best team in the league, and made his team better (Boris Diaw) He is still doing some of those things, like making Channing Frye an incredible 3-point shooter. But the Suns aren't what they used to be, and Nash doesn't control the game like he used to. The Suns' up-tempo game is just a shell of its old self. His numbers are up now because he is being asked to do more. He is not the same player that won back-to-back MVPs.
--Ezra, Toronto

It's the comments that make the claim, not the stats. His coach, Alvin Gentry, without being asked to compare 2009-10 to the career seasons, says, "To me, he's playing as well if not a little better than he did when he was the MVP in the league for two years." An opposing coach, Paul Westphal of the Kings, made the similar connection with, "I don't know if I've ever seen him have a better year, and he's won MVP twice." Even Nash himself agreed with the premise.

Obviously, his own coach wouldn't rip Nash if the notion seemed foolish. Gentry is experienced with the media and knows how to give a non-answer answer if he wanted to dodge the topic, something along the lines of, "It's impossible to compare the different years because our roster has changed and the league has changed, but Steve is playing well for us now and that's what is important." But Gentry was the one who brought the MVP comparison into the discussion when I was asking about Nash's impressive play in general.

Also, while I agree with your statement that the Suns are not what they used to be, at or very close to No. 1 in the league in scoring, shooting and 3-point shooting hardly qualifies as a shell of its former self. And just because someone is being asked to do more does not guarantee they will shoot better, yet he's on pace for a career high in field-goal percentage.

So let me see. LeBron can travel and get favorable calls in matches, but what you are complaining about is why T-Mac may be an All-Star again. The All-Star game is about fans watching their favorite players, not players currently playing good. T-Mac is a true All-Star and the way that people vote for him even when he's out is a testimony to how great he is. There are bigger things to worry about, instead of getting all over T-Mac's case. You should rather be arguing over the idea that Nash should be voted in and not Deron [Williams] when it comes down to choosing the reserves. Deron is carrying his team right now. Nash is just too used to having a star-studded supporting cast. When it comes down to the reserves, you can justly argue that only the players having a great season should be voted.
--Rehman, Lahore, Pakistan

First of all: Who's complaining? I said voting should stay with the fans, as long as everyone agrees it's a silly popularity contest that should not have real impact. (Baseball using the All-Star winner to determine home-field advantage for the World Series? Yikes.) I can tell you a lot of fans have a problem with the process and it has become a common topic among coaches and players around the league, but if people want to see Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson, great.

But as far as Williams carrying his team and Nash lucking into a good roster, no go. Both deserve to be selected, and I think both will be. Nash for sure and Williams finally. Utah is a good team, though, and Carlos Boozer is a potential 20-10 man.

Welcome to the drawback to the popularity contest. If a fan favorite crashes the starting lineup in an underwhelming season, it costs a deserving candidate.

First, I don't agree with T-Mac being included in All-Star voting. But, second, and most important, why is Erick Dampier NOT included in the voting? Looking at Damp's stats and the way he has played should put him in the voting. What happens to the "write-in" votes? I write-in Damp each day when I vote, but don't know what, if anything, they do with write-ins. It appears to me that the nominations are all based on maybe last year's play. Is this correct?
--Janet, Flower Mound, Texas

You are partially correct. Last season is not the entire factor -- Blake Griffin is on the ballot as a rookie, Marc Gasol is on the ballot after 11.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in 2008-09, Gilbert Arenas is on the ballot after being limited to two games because of injury -- but history is a guide as the selection committee guesstimates the best 120 candidates. The panel this time, by the way, was Mike Breen of ABC/ESPN, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News (from the host city), Doug Smith of the Toronto Star (president of the Pro Basketball Writers Assn.), Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Marc Stein of ESPN.com and Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated.

The problem is that the names have to be chosen far enough in advance to allow ballots to be printed, distributed, in arenas long enough to maximize the number of fans casting votes, returned and tallied. The committee can't wait 20 games to determine who is having a good-enough season. So, injured players are included and deserving players are left off. Dampier has no chance of making the West roster, but 9.2 rebounds and 1.68 blocks in 26.6 minutes shows that he is among the deserving. The biggest example is that Chris Kaman has a chance to be named a reserve after being passed over.

A lot has been written on the Rookie of the Year race between Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings. But how do you consider the draft as a whole? Do you think this is one of the best in the decade or just a usual one? Dropping 55 points or averaging 20 points, five assists and five rebounds seems quite exceptional to me, but no article has been published on NBA.com about the overall level.
--Elie, Paris

I think it has been a very strange class. Nothing from the No. 1 pick (Blake Griffin) because of injury, very little from No. 2 (Hasheem Thabeet) because he's a project, a reserve role for No. 3 (James Harden) and nothing from No. 5 (Ricky Rubio) because he stayed overseas. The top of the lottery has been one of the worst drafts ever.

Meanwhile, there have been wonderful surprises. Evans was supposed to be this good, only not right away. Same with Jennings. Omri Casspi (No. 23) is the fourth- or fifth-best rookie. Ty Lawson (No. 18) had a big early impact. The leading rebounders among first-year players went 26th (Taj Gibson) and 37th (DeJuan Blair). Wesley Matthews has been a part-time starter for the Jazz after going undrafted. Strange, strange, strange.

These are the formative months, not the time to make a call on the how the season went for the newcomers. That will come in the spring. At the midpoint, though, I don't think it is one of the best or one of the usual. I think it's very different, and not for all the right reasons.

One man's list of the NBA's greatest athletes ever

Maurice Evans was gliding up and down the sideline, all 6-foot-5, 220 pounds of him, moving as effortlessly as if he were on casters -- very slick, turbo-charged casters -- as a Minnesota strength and conditioning coach put him through a rehab workout prior to a game one night. This was back in 2001-02, in Evans' difficult NBA rookie season, when the T-Wolves staffer marveled at both his strength and his conditioning.

"Mo is an incredible athlete," the coach said as Evans whooshed off on another baseline-to-baseline run. "Man, this guy would make a terrific tight end."

Yeah, fine, except that Evans had been trying to crack the Wolves' rotation as a swingman. A bruising pass catcher in the NFL? Right size and skills maybe, but wrong sport. Evans was one year removed from the University of Texas, and still three years away from getting a serious toehold in the NBA, a career break that required two years in Italy (Benetton Treviso) and Greece (Olympiacos) during which he essentially studied abroad how to become a pro basketball player.

Up until then, he was a marvelous athlete but a borderline NBA player.

"I've learned a ton," Evans said the other day, five NBA teams, five playoff appearances and more than 400 games removed from that frustrating, 10-appearance rookie experience. "There's a big difference between athletic ability and basketball IQ. A lot of great players are the ones who respond later in their careers after their athletic ability is reduced. We tease [Atlanta guard] Joe Johnson about being one of those players who relies upon his mental more than his physical ability in the way he plays. He's a skillful player more than just running and jumping over people."

Great NBA players. Great NBA athletes. They're not mutually exclusive groups. But the intersection of the two is probably smaller than you think. After all, by couch-potato standards, every pro basketball player is a great athlete. Among the major sports leagues, the NBA's claim to the most highly tuned, finely conditioned performers is generally conceded. But within that rarefied world, some players are Ferraris, others are Corvettes.

Then you see another video clip of Charles Barkley's golf swing and think: Cash 4 Clunkers.

Can a guy be a great NBA player without being a great athlete? Again, it's relative. Some of the best basketball players in history haven't been overtly, purely, classically athletic (notice the qualifiers) -- up to and including the aforementioned Barkley, Pete Maravich, Bill Walton, Bob Lanier, even Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Obviously, the opposite is possible; the waiver wires have been clogged with runners and jumpers who never quite grasped the subtleties of help defense or weak-side screens.

The purpose of this exercise -- and let's be honest, it was inspired by the magnificent presence and play of LeBron James, the Hummer Testarossa hybrid of NBA athletes -- is to look at some of the greatest athletes in NBA history who, er, just maybe, ranked among its great players, too.

Just so you know, these were my ground rules: This is my list of 10 (with a second 10 for near-misses). I'm ranking them and listing them countdown style only because editors like that sort of stuff. You will quibble with the order. You might quibble with the names. Fine. Send your alternatives here, make your cases and we can revisit this later.

10. Gerald Wallace

Huh? Here's the deal: Wallace is our stand-in -- or rather, our soar-in, given his vertical ability -- for all the tremendous athletes who either just missed, or maybe never came close to, great-player status. Like Evans. Like Tony Harris, a 6-foot-3 guard from the University of New Orleans who had stints with Philadelphia and Boston but was a dynamo in the CBA and scored 105 points one night in the Philippines. Or like Kris Bruton, a second-round pick by Chicago in 1994 whose skills -- and ability to dunk on a 12-foot, 1-inch rim in one contest -- qualified him for a career with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Wallace, a veteran of nine NBA seasons with Sacramento and Charlotte, was "shockingly athletic" when he got here, said Rick Adelman, his first pro coach. Earned himself a nickname too: "Crash."

"I never saw a guy who could run and jump like that," Adelman said. "He played one year at Alabama and played in the AAU, where his whole life he just stood around on defense and knew nothing about how to play. But you let him run and jump, he was almost dangerous to himself. The stuff he would try was just crazy. I never saw anybody cover ground like him, and I saw him do dunks that were incredible. He's developed into a nice player where he uses his athletic ability to his advantage. But when he came in as a rookie, he was so raw ... but he made practices fun to watch."

9. Calvin Murphy

You don't have to be a physical specimen to be a great athlete, even in this Land of the Giants. Murphy was the best little man in NBA history, at least until Allen Iverson came along, playing his way at 5-foot-9 to the Hall of Fame with the Rockets. But he also has the distinction of being the NBA's only national champion in baton twirling (Murphy became obsessed with the, uh, sport as a teenager). He had an alleged 235 basketball scholarship offers before choosing Niagara University and averaged 38.2 points in his first varsity season. A second-round pick in 1970, Murphy still holds the Rockets' record for assists and his intensity helped boost his No. 23 into the franchise's rafters.

8. Dwight Howard

As a sheer physical specimen, it's hard to beat Orlando's 24-year-old young center. He's a generous specimen, too, sharing his chiseled physique with early arriving fans and opponents via the clingy muscle shirt he wears during warm-ups. "I think Bum Phillips once had a line on [running back] Earl Campbell in Houston," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy told me last week. "He said, 'He might not be in a class by himself. But it doesn't take very long to call the roll.' I think that's where Dwight would be. There haven't been many better athletes in this league. I mean, his size, his ability to run and jump, his quickness. Yeah.

"A young Shaq would be right there with him. Wilt certainly. There aren't a lot of them. LeBron's a great athlete, but you're looking at a guy 6-foot-11. Jordan's in there. But it would be hard to take any of those guys and say they were better athletes than Dwight."

7. David Robinson

All it took was one day in the gym with Robinson for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich to glimpse the Spurs' sparkling future. "The first thing you see with David is his athleticism," Popovich told reporters this summer prior to Robinson's Class of 2009 Hall of Fame induction. "Just imagine him as a young man, walking in and doing a handstand from one end to the other. At 7-foot-1 or whatever he is. He did a handstand! From one end line to the other! Then he runs the floor and beats everybody in the sprints. Then they're throwing balls up to him and he's dunking over everybody -- after a full-speed run, he plants his feet and has the balance and the coordination to go up and dunk it over people. It took one practice and everybody knew that this was a different deal."

6. Dominique Wilkins

Wilkins didn't run, he bounded. Or maybe loped. His legs seemed to be coiled, perhaps packed with Super Balls given his rare ability to jump, then immediately jump again higher. The Human Highlight Film gets overlooked as an all-around player because of his posterizing dunks, and most people forget that he came back from tearing an Achilles tendon in 1992 to make two more All-Star teams.

Wilkins makes it sound as if being a great athlete was almost a prerequisite for playing in the NBA back in his day. "We had a lot of them. A lot!" he told me prior to a recent Hawks game. "Dr. J [Julius Erving]. Shawn Kemp. [James] Worthy. [Larry] Nance. Excluding myself, of course. ... [Clyde] Drexler. Jerome Kersey, Derrick McKey. Billy Ray Bates. David Thompson. I mean, I could go on and on for days. Aw man, there's too many. Too many."

5. Bill Russell

A search of the archives uncovered this Associated Press story from February 1956 about the eventual Boston Celtics' legend when he was playing at the University of San Francisco. "My heart is set on the Olympics," Russell said. "I think I have a good chance of making the basketball squad, and I'd like to make the track and field team as well. ... I think I might be able to make it in the 400-meter hurdles. I've run the 440 in 49.6. That's not fast, but with some practice I could cut two seconds off that time -- easily. I've run the hurdles once or twice. I've got a good stride and good stamina."

Years later, when he was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year in 1968 for his work as the Celtics' player/coach, Russell told writer George Plimpton he only fiddled with track at USF because the team's button-down sweater was sharper than what basketball offered.

"He's a fantastic athlete," teammate John Havlicek said then. "He could have been the decathlon champion. He could broad-jump 24 feet. He did the hurdles in 13.4. I've seen him in plays on a basketball court when he not only blocks a shot but controls the ball and feeds it to his forwards, and then he's up at the other end of the court trailing the fast break and if there's a rebound there he is, ready for it. He just might be the fastest man on the Celtics."

Later in that 1956 wire story, Russell -- unaware that he had 11 NBA championship rings in his future -- pondered a career crossroads that could have taken him into either pro basketball or a high school classroom as an economics teacher. "I might coach if I had a teaching job in some small town where the staff was small," the young fella said. "But I'd be pretty big out there on the floor with high school players, wouldn't I?"

4. Clyde Drexler

Legend has it that the man nicknamed "Glide" bumped into Olympian Carl Lewis at the University of Houston one day, back when Drexler was a "Phi Slamma Jamma" college star. "Clyde claimed that he barely lost to Carl Lewis in a track race," longtime NBA player and coach Jerry Sichting said. "He said that he had his Converse [basketball] shoes on ... Carl Lewis was working out, and Clyde gave him a run for his money. And he probably was dribbling as he ran too, right?" That and an infamous college dunk when he jumped over Memphis State's Andre Turner earns Drexler this spot ... where, unfortunately, he is in the shadow again of a longtime rival.

3. Michael Jordan

Greatest player in NBA history? Probably. Greatest athlete? One of them, undeniably. Jordan's physicality was surpassed as a competitor only by his mentality, and there's little need to go into his NBA exploits here to support it. Frankly, even his unsuccessful dalliance with baseball is a testament to his superior athleticism. How many NBA players would even have dared to chase curveballs -- and succeed at the plate, in the field and especially on the basepaths more than some remember -- the way Jordan did? Even Danny Ainge and Dave DeBusschere -- who actually played in both the major leagues and in the NBA -- wouldn't rank ahead of Jordan as a two-sport star, given how much his hoops grades boost his overall marks.

2. LeBron James

Premature? Nah. James has been around long enough and done enough -- again, we're talking athletically, not total career arc -- to rate this spot. He is a tank of a player, one of the few in the NBA who seems bigger than his vital statistics (6-foot-8, 250) as listed in the program (he's at least 20 brawny pounds heavier). He has the court vision and speed of a point guard, the swift, sleek skills of a wing player and the strength to post up and handle power forwards and centers. And he isn't just basketball-specific; in high school, he reputedly could throw a football 60 yards. Ask any 10 NBA folks to name the game's greatest active athlete and James will get mentioned nine times.

1. Wilt Chamberlain

Where to start? At Overbrook High in Philadelphia, the Dipper ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds and threw a shotput 56 feet. He triple-jumped more than 50 feet and, at Kansas, he won the high jump at the Big Eight track and field championships three straight years. He's the man who scored 100 points in an NBA game, who averaged more than 50 points in 1961-62 and never, ever fouled out of a game. How strong was he? He once dunked so hard that, according to legend, he broke defender Johnny (Red) Kerr's toe when the ball rocketed down.

He dominated NBA foes and the league's record book in his mythic career and was courted by several teams well into his 40s -- the Nets allegedly made inquiries when Chamberlain was 50 -- to consider a comeback. Then there's the tale coach Larry Brown told about bumping into Chamberlain in the early 1980s on the UCLA campus, where some top-notch pickup games were in session, with Wilt on the floor.

"Magic Johnson used to run the games," Brown told ESPN.com upon Chamberlain's death in 1999. "And he called a couple of chintzy fouls and a goaltending on Wilt. So Wilt said 'There will be no more layups in this gym' and he blocked every shot after that. That's the truth, I saw it. He didn't let one [of Johnson's] shots get to the rim."

Later in life, Chamberlain excelled in volleyball and even dabbled at polo. Most of his teammates and opponents said that, if not for a fairly pleasant demeanor, he would have been physically dangerous to the other nine guys on the court, he was so strong and dominating.

Monte Johnson, a Kansas teammate, often recalled running laps with Wilt after practice. "We actually got to the point where we would let him run laps by himself because it was like chasing a deer," Johnson said. "He had unbelievable speed, grace and endurance. None of us could stay up with him. You knew you were watching a special human being."

Honorable mentions: O'Neal, Thompson, Kemp, Havlicek, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, John Havlicek, Hakeem Olajuwon, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Dennis Rodman.

Wins help cure job-security issues for Del Negro, Dunleavy

After a slow start, Vinny Del Negro (center) and the Bulls are getting on the winning track.

In wake of the recent flurry of coaching movement in big-time NCAA football, it's refreshing to know that nothing has happened lately in the NBA. And this comes as good news to Vinny Del Negro and Mike Dunleavy, two coaches once declared done until they went out and won.

When times were tough, they stayed employed because they were incredibly lucky or their bosses exercised incredible restraint. Perhaps both are true. Even more, they stayed working because the Bulls and Clippers did not collapse when the buzzards began flapping.

There's no guarantee either will be on the job once the summer arrives. Or after the All-Star break. But right now, they seem as secure as they've ever been this season, which threatened to unravel quickly and early, for various reasons, some beyond the coaches' control.

Del Negro looked like a dead coach walking when the Bulls went to Atlanta last month and lost by 35 points, barely showing any effort or life, even with their coach's neck on the line. Their record eventually bottomed out at 10-17 on Dec. 22. This was the same team, minus Ben Gordon, that traded punches and took the Celtics to the limit in an exciting playoff series last spring. When the Bulls delivered a handful of no-show efforts early this season, Del Negro was suddenly perceived by hardened Bulls fans as too inexperienced and unfit to lead. Making matters even more frightening, general manager John Paxson had a history of firing coaches around the holidays.

But lo and behold, Christmas came and went without Del Negro getting a lump of coal from the folks upstairs. And then Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas got healthy. Every little bit of news fell in Del Negro's favor and the Bulls began a slow if steady climb up a weak Eastern Conference, closing in on a .500 record. Beating the Celtics last night, even without Kevin Garnett in the lineup, only fed their growing confidence.

And then there was Dunleavy, ready to be stripped of both his coach and executive powers until the Clippers got their act together. They beat the Lakers in an emotional bid to turn their season around if not their image in L.A. Their leader, Baron Davis, who took last season off, suddenly flashed a competitive spirit. Chris Kaman, solid all season, and Marcus Camby, who'd make anyone's all-underrated team, gave the Clippers some inside stability without Griffin.

"We all started to band together," said Davis, upon learning that Dunleavy had one foot on a banana peel and the other on a skateboard.

Of course, there's little doubt that The Clipper Curse hasn't helped Dunleavy's cause and may not save him when spring rolls around. The difference between Blake Griffin's season-ending knee injury and those belonging to Danny Manning, Ron Harper and Shaun Livingston is Griffin actually has a good team around him.

With a healthy Griffin, would the Clippers be in playoff contention? Yes. Would Dunleavy's job even be an issue? Probably not, and that's also why owner Donald Sterling has decided not to do anything rash. At least not yet, anyway.

Del Negro's certainly not off the hook. The Bulls have a killer upcoming schedule, a seven-game road trip stretched over 15 days starting next week, and you get the feeling management expects Chicago to make the playoffs, given the low level of competition in the East. As for Dunleavy, his players all seem to enjoy playing for him, but the bottom line still counts, and he has been in the job an awfully long time given that Sterling's the owner.

Let's check back on Feb. 2, when the Clippers visit Chicago, and see who's manning the benches. You know, just in case.

Discount Bin

Teams that could hold a fire sale with the blessing of their fans:

5. Pistons. The season is done, so the long-term evaluations might as well begin. There's a backlog of 6-foot-2 guards who shoot better than they pass. Ben Gordon is a keeper, if only to justify signing him last summer, but Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey might draw some interest. Good luck trying to deal Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, both beyond their primes and who sport hefty contracts.

4. Wizards. Mike Miller, who hasn't worked out, has an expiring contract, same for Brendan Haywood, who's a big body if nothing else.

3. Pacers. Everyone except Danny Granger is available. Problem: Granger is likely the only player anyone wants.

2. Sixers. If someone is willing to take Elton Brand and that salary, the Sixers will throw in the "Rocky" statue. Same goes for Andre Iguodala.

1. Warriors. Monta Ellis is obviously the biggest dangling carrot, although they'd get something in return for Anthony Randolph, the more attractive option because he comes cheaper.

Stat Line of the Week

Samuel Dalembert, Sixers: 31 minutes, 6-for-8 field goals, 22 rebounds, 12 points against the Knicks.

This was for Haiti.

The native of the troubled island delivered a season high in rebounds after spending his free time checking up on loved ones in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. He then pledged to contribute in efforts to send aid and relief to help those affected by the devastation.

Dalembert has always been a mystery to the Sixers. He's blessed with great size, long arms and decent athleticism for a center but also maddening inconsistency. They gave him big money a few years back with hopes that he'd be an All-Star or at least a borderline case. Instead, Dalembert would come through big in some games, disappear in others. This season hasn't been any different.

But five games before the Knicks game, Dalembert went for 20 and 20 against the Wizards, once again showing what he's capable of doing when the moons are aligned correctly.

Stat Line of the Weak

Derek Fisher, Lakers: 32 minutes, 1-for-4 field goals, one assist, three points against the Spurs.

In terms of production, he's among the least-effective starting point guards in basketball. Yes, it's been a struggle for Fisher, who at 35 is clearly starting to wear down. A few games earlier, he had three points and four turnovers against Baron Davis. Fisher is posting career lows almost across the board and there are the predictable rumblings in L.A. about Fisher's performance. Curiously, the Lakers declined to pick up the option on backup Jordan Farmar's contract, which means there might be an entirely different point guard scenario for the Lakers next season.

Of course, as everyone knows, Fisher has a knack for coming up big in the post-season, especially in tight fourth quarters. So it's probably wise to wait until then before weighing his impact this season.

Dis-an-Dat

• Somewhere in Kentucky, John Wall is saying "please, Lord, not the Clippers."

• How much money would Gilbert Arenas have saved if he just stored his "protection" in a safe in the basement?

• When teams phone the Wizards, they don't ask about Arenas, or Caron Butler, or even Antawn Jamison. They ask for JaVale McGee, the young center with lots of giddyup. And they can't have him.

• Kobe Bryant took 37 shots against the Blazers. With a broken finger. In that game, at least, he trusted his handicapped hand more than he trusted his teammates.

• The Nets finally have a healthy squad with Devin Harris and still can't win games. What happened? Somewhere, Lawrence Frank is feeling vindicated. He knows it wasn't his fault. Nor is it GM Rod Thorn's. Circumstance put the Nets in this position, mainly due to economics and being a lame duck in a place that never supported them even in good times.

• The Celtics are doing the right thing by being careful with the hobbling Kevin Garnett. Doc Rivers said Garnett would be on the floor if this were April, but it's not, so preservation is the key, given KG's 2009 summer of healing. But you wonder how much this will cost the Celtics down the road, in terms of home court advantage. A Game 7 in Cleveland? Or Orlando? Perhaps Atlanta? Given the choice, the Celtics will take that risk.

Wizards' Gilbert Arenas pleads guilty to felony gun count

Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty Friday in D.C. Superior Court to a felony count of carrying a pistol without a license, leaving his NBA career in jeopardy.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to ask for more than six months in jail for Arenas. He will remain free at least until he is sentenced on March 26 by Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin.

Morin is not bound by the plea agreement -- a fact he emphasized in court -- and could sentence Arenas to anywhere from probation to a maximum five years in jail. The former all-star was released after agreeing to surrender his passport and not possess any handguns.

Arenas, 28, has been the face of the Wizards since he arrived in Washington in 2003. He has four years remaining on his six-year, $111 million contract, but the NBA has suspended him indefinitely and the team has not publicly supported its star since the gun incident. On Friday, the team issued a terse statement saying officials were disappointed in Arenas. "Gilbert used extremely poor judgment and is ultimately responsible for his own actions," the statement said. He likely is done playing at least for this season. Adidas announced late Friday it was ending its relationship with Arenas, whom it had sponsored since 2003.

During his court appearance, Arenas showed little of the engaging personality that has made his No. 0 jersey ubiquitous at Verizon Center. He walked into the courthouse wearing a gray flannel pinstriped suit and answered questions from Morin with simple "yes, sir" and "no, sir" responses. Those questions included whether he had agreed to plead guilty and waive his right to a trial.

The charges stem from the now-infamous incident in the Wizards' locker room at Verizon Center on Dec. 21. At the hearing Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh filled in some of the details of the confrontation between Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton, without mentioning Crittenton by name.

On Dec. 19, the team flew on a chartered flight to the Washington area from Phoenix. Arenas and Crittenton got into an argument over a card game. Crittenton suggested a fistfight. But Arenas said he was too old to fight and instead said he would burn Crittenton's vehicle or shoot him in the face. Crittenton then told Arenas he would "shoot the [expletive]" out of Arenas and shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired left knee. Arenas later told Wizards employees that he was joking about the threats.

On Dec. 21, at about 9:30 a.m., Arenas arrived at Verizon Center for practice. He came into the locker room wearing a black backpack with a silver Smith & Wesson .500 magnum revolver inside. He then placed four guns on the chair directly in front of Crittenton's locker. Arenas wrote "PICK 1" on a piece of paper and placed it on Crittenton's chair near the guns. Arenas said he also was joking about that.

When Crittenton saw the guns, he said, "What is this?"

Arenas told Crittenton, "You said you were going to shoot me, so pick one." Crittenton said he did not need Arenas's guns because he had his own. Crittenton picked up one of the guns from the chair and threw it across the locker room. Crittenton then displayed his own silver-colored, semiautomatic handgun, the prosecutor said.

After the incident, Arenas collected the guns, placed them inside his locker and then put them in a suitcase. He gave the suitcase to another Wizards teammate and told him to take it take it to Arenas's car in the garage. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that the teammate knew what was inside the suitcase.

When the unnamed teammate went to the garage, he did not know which vehicle belonged to Arenas. So the player left the suitcase in the garage. Minutes later, Wizards management learned about the incident and met with Arenas. He admitted he brought the guns from his home in Virginia into Washington. He also told management that Crittenton had a gun.

Wizards management then told security guards to grab the suitcase and remove it from Verizon Center. Arenas led a member of the security staff to the garage and pointed out the suitcase. The security officer then took the guns back to Virginia.

On Dec. 24, attorneys for the Wizards and Arenas told the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District about the incident. Authorities then seized the four guns from Arenas's house in Virginia, including the .500 magnum; a .50-caliber gold-plated semiautomatic Desert Eagle with a magazine; a .45-caliber, black semiautomatic Kimber Eclipse with a magazine; and a 9mm Browning with a magazine.

Now, Arenas must wait until March to learn his fate. Prosecutors and Arenas's lawyer will both issue sentencing recommendations to Morin. Morin will consider those requests along with a mandatory report from the court services division, which will interview Arenas and others. Arenas also must turn himself in to D.C. police by Jan. 29 to be fingerprinted and officially booked.

His attorney, Kenneth L. Wainstein, issued a statement saying Arenas "accepted full responsibility for his actions." NBA Players Association chief Billy Hunter said in a statement that the union is "committed to aggressively representing him."

Arenas could have been charged with four counts of illegal gun possession -- one for each of the pistols in the locker room. But as part of the plea agreement, he faces one charge, making it more likely that he'll avoid much jail time, the sources said. As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed not to bring any more charges.

Lakers' Pau Gasol to play Friday against Clippers

Lakers power forward Pau Gasol makes a move in the post against Golden State's Anthony Randolph last month. (Andrew Gombert / EPA / December 29, 2009)

Pau Gasol already had practiced with the Lakers on Thursday, going hard with his teammates in a contact session in an attempt to test his strained left hamstring that kept him out of the last six games.

Then his teammates left, but Gasol stayed and took shots from the baseline, from the pinch-post and from the free-throw line.

When he was done, Gasol said he plans to play tonight against the Clippers in the Lakers' home game at Staples Center.

Gasol's workout at the Lakers' practice facility Thursday and his workouts before games in San Antonio on Tuesday and in Dallas on Wednesday left him pain-free.

"Obviously after a little tear, you feel scar tissue that is built there," Gasol said. "But other than that, there's no pain and I trust that I can be out there playing at my best right now without any danger."

Gasol missed the first 11 regular-season games with a strained right hamstring. Overall, this season the Lakers are 19-3 when Gasol plays and 11-6 when he is sidelined.

Gasol said he doesn't have any concerns about having suffered two hamstring injuries.

"I feel confident that I can be out there with no risk and no danger -- no more than any of my other teammates," Gasol said. "It's just a matter of going out and playing and going hard. I'm ready to play."

In the 22 games Gasol has played, he's averaged 16.8 points on 55.4% shooting and 11.5 rebounds in 36.1 minutes per game.

Bryant improving

Before he could be asked a question about the back spasms that derailed him in San Antonio and slowed him down in Dallas, KobeBryant gave his own medical update.

"Back is a little tight," Bryant quickly said. "Other than that, I'm fine."

After playing 32 minutes Tuesday night and none in the fourth quarter against the Spurs when he first came down with back spasms and after scoring all 10 of his points in the second half in 35 minutes against the Mavericks on Wednesday night, Bryant was asked if he could play a full game against the Clippers tonight.

Bryant paused for a few seconds and smiled.

"Yeah," he responded.

On the flight home from Dallas to Los Angeles after Wednesday's game, Bryant said he wore a "nice little device" on his back.

"That kind of kept it loose," Bryant said. "It didn't stiffen up on me."

Bryant didn't practice Thursday, and he said he has no concern about his back for tonight's game.

"I'll be effective," he said. "I don't care if I look like 60-year-old Larry Bird, I'll be effective."

Lakers step up

In their victory over Dallas, Bryant was the fifth-leading scorer on the team. Three Lakers produced double-doubles.

It was obvious to Lakers Coach Phil Jackson that Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest and Jordan Farmar played a bigger role for the Lakers with Bryant ailing; something Jackson has implored his team to do more often.

"Well, I think that's a big part of it," Jackson said.

"I always call it lollipop that you just put in your mouth and suck on it when you've got Kobe to throw it to, either that or thumb-sucking," Jackson said, smiling. "That's an easy out. We talked about that in our film session the morning after that San Antonio game."

Brandon Roy undergoes MRI on hamstring, questionable vs Magic

Trail Blazers All-Star Brandon Roy underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test on his balky right hamstring Thursday morning and has been diagnosed with a strain.

Roy, who aggravated his hamstring during the Blazers' 120-108 win over the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night, skipped Thursday's practice and is listed as questionable for tomorrow's game against the Orlando Magic at the Rose Garden.

"It's a little sore, a little tight," coach Nate McMillan said of Roy's hamstring. "We'll look at that tomorrow."

McMillan and the Blazers will have to balance playing Roy on Friday — and risk causing more damage and perhaps forcing an extended absence — or being cautious. After facing the Magic, the Blazers will have two days off before they embark on a four-game East Coast trip that starts with a Monday game at Washington.

"Brandon has to be the guy who lets us know where he's at," McMillan said. "We'll talk to (athletic trainer) Jay (Jensen) and make a decision on (whether) we hold him tomorrow and give him a couple days (off), because then we have two days before his next game."

McMillan refused to speculate about who might start in Roy's place if he can't go, but the most likely candidates are Rudy Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless. Fernandez played his first game since Dec. 1 Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring two points in a little over 15 minutes, so extended playing time could be an issue.

Bayless started at shooting guard for Roy against the San Antonio Spurs in December, when Roy was unable to play because of a sore shoulder. Bayless responded with his best game as a professional, finishing with 31 points and seven assists during a 98-94 win.

"He's a tough guy," McMillan said of Roy. "He's probably played with this for a few days, a week or so, and he's been able to play through it. But last night, he kept feeling like this doesn't feel right."

Roy felt a significant pull in the third quarter against the Bucks and, with the Blazers cruising to a convincing victory, asked McMillan to pull him from the game. He did not play in the fourth quarter.

"It's seen better days," Roy said Wednesday night about his hamstring. "In the third quarter I made a play and it kind of grabbed on me a little bit."

Crittenton's house searched

From The Washington Post's Crime Scene blog:

D.C. and Arlington police searched the home of Washington Wizard Javaris Crittenton Thursday morning looking for a gun he reportedly used in a locker room confrontation with teammate Gilbert Arenas, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Police did not find the gun at his Arlington home in the 7:15 a.m. search, one of the sources said.

Visit The Crime Scene for the complete blog post, which also reports that plea negotiations between Arenas's attorneys and prosecutors were continuing this morning and that some sort of resolution of Arenas's legal situation is likely to occur soon.

Karl, Nuggets appear to be closer on a contract extension

After negotiations Thursday, it appears the Nuggets are closer to reaching an agreement with coach George Karl about a contract extension, though a deal is not yet official.

Bret Adams, an attorney representing the Nuggets' coach, met with officials from Kroenke Sports Enterprises and afterward said: "It's a complicated discussion and process because of the potential lockout (after 2010-11). It's a different economic environment. All of that has added a complexity to contract negotiations that simply hasn't been there before.

"But both parties are professionally and diligently working to keeping George Karl in Denver."

Karl repeatedly has said he wants to stay in Denver. Karl is under contract for the rest of this season, and he's seeking a potential three-year extension.

With 958 career wins and annual win-total improvement with Denver, Karl feels he should be paid as one of the top coaches in the NBA. His current $3 million salary does not put him in that group.

"We really want to try to move towards a resolution," Adams said, "because we don't these contract discussions to be a distraction."

Jazz notes: Miles out, AK starts

With C.J. Miles still not feeling 100 percent while recovering from a viral infection, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan opted to start Andrei Kirilenko and give him the first shot at slowing LeBron James in Thursday's game.

Whether the change to the starting lineup is permanent remains to be seen, though Sloan did say of Kirilenko, "He's played pretty well the last couple weeks, it seems like, and more minutes have probably been to his liking."

Miles went through shootaround but said he was still dealing with a sore throat. He has started 10 games in the past month since returning from thumb surgery, but has struggled at times and was shooting 39.8 percent this season.

"I came off the bench when I first came back, been off the bench before," Miles said. "The difference between starting and not starting, it's not a big thing to me. As long as I play hard and do what I'm supposed to do on the floor, I'm going to play."

Kirilenko said there were advantages to both starting and coming off the bench. Sloan, meanwhile, talked about the difficulty in guarding James: "He handles the ball and he's about the same size as Karl Malone and you're asking smaller guys to play him."

Inside information

Deron Williams spent two summers as James' teammate with USA Basketball and could do so again at this summer's world championships and possibly the 2012 Olympics. He was asked Thursday what James was like behind the scenes.

"Between him and Dwight Howard , those guys kept everything light, everything fun," Williams said. "You always know with those guys you're going to have fun, there's going to be jokes.

"We knew it was serious and we had a goal in mind, but we wanted to have fun at the same time. His leadership was great. Even though he was one of the younger guys on the team, his leadership was always there."

20-day plan

The Jazz are expected today to sign Sundiata Gaines to a second 10-day contract. Once that expires, they will face a decision about signing Gaines for the remainder of the season -- an option they will consider -- or releasing him.

"I really don't get my hopes up," Gaines said. "I try to take things day by day. The good thing about the 10-day is it keeps you hungry. You want more. I really don't focus on that, I just focus on basketball and I let everything else take its course."

Gaines has played in four games since he was called up from Idaho of the NBA Development League. He backed up Williams at point guard Monday, but Ronnie Price (left shoulder tendinitis) was available Thursday.

Briefly

Kirilenko was asked if he'd pay money to watch James and said he would opt for soccer instead. "It's too much basketball in my life," Kirilenko said. "I've watched for 15 years, too many games, too many matchups, so I'd rather watch something else."

Gibson gritting way through plantar fasciitis

BOSTON -- After missing practice the previous two days with plantar fasciitis of the left foot, rookie Taj Gibson participated in the morning shootaround and started Thursday night against the Boston Celtics.

The only surefire cure is prolonged rest, which isn't an option for Gibson right now, so he'll just try to manage it as best he can.

''I've been playing with it since summer league, but it was upped a notch when I hurt it in the Minnesota game,'' he said.

But even before that game Saturday, Gibson had to deal with the injury on a daily basis.

''It was so stiff, so sore,'' he said. ''It would take me about 30 minutes [in the morning] before I could walk on it every day. So then when I got to practice, it would still be painful, but I would just play through it.''

When he was examined by a team physician earlier in the week, Gibson was given a few stretching exercises to deal with the stiffness and soreness.

''It's helped a lot,'' he said. ''The doctors have been phenomenal, just taking care of me.''

Helping hand

The Bulls announced Thursday they will assist UNICEF with its ongoing relief efforts stemming from the earthquake in Haiti earlier this week.

For tonight's game against the Washington Wizards at the United Center, the Bulls will donate all net proceeds from the 50/50 raffle to UNICEF. In addition, the Bulls will match every dollar that's raised tonight at the UC.

Looking up

Bulls point guard Derrick Rose usually is at his best when he's driving to the basket, but he put on an impressive aerial attack Monday against the Detroit Pistons, sinking jumper after jumper in an 11-for-13 shooting performance.

Besides going in more often, Rose's outside shot has looked different of late because he's getting more arc on it.

''I've been working on shooting it up,'' he said. ''I know if I get the ball up, usually it's gonna go in.''

Free-agent target Bosh visits Garden

If the Knicks can beat Chris Bosh tonight at the Garden, maybe he will want to join them.

If they say please, or pretty please. Team president Donnie Walsh is serious about attaching the Knicks to a star, even if, in a UStream video last summer, Bosh found a recruiting plea from a Knicks fan to whom he was awarding a contest prize of autographed sneakers to be uproariously funny.

Until now, so has been the idea of Bosh playing an entire NBA season. This season Bosh has played every game, which along with his 24 points per game, 11 rebounds, 52 percent shooting and the slow recuperation of Boston's Kevin Garnett have made the Toronto power forward probably the top power forward in the NBA.

Of the four guys (including LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson) generating the most drooling out of the potentially NBA landscape-altering free agent class of 2010, Bosh is losing ranking as the most likely to disappoint.

"He played pretty well last year too, but yeah I would say he has taken another step up," said coach Mike D'Antoni, no implication intended that New York would represent a corresponding step up in basketball profile from Toronto.

Many believe Bosh, having endured seven years of hockey weather, will not want to take any steps in galoshes and is on his way to sunny Dallas, Phoenix or most likely Miami. That would mean Wade wouldn't have to go anywhere to have a team that can win him another NBA championship.

Nevertheless, Bosh has not lifted the Raptors past 19-20 this season, nor past the first round in two tries. Though owner Jim Dolan's money would buy many beautiful woolen scarves and a good warm coat, Bosh, in coming to the Knicks, would be joining basically the same kind of perimeter shooting, bottom-tiered playoff team that he would be leaving.

There also is the question of how much better Bosh is than the emergent David Lee, an increasingly devilish offensive threat whom the Knicks already know and are learning to love more by the day.

After scoring the Knicks' final four points in their energizing 93-92 squeaker over Philadelphia Wednesday night, Lee is hustling back from his grandfather's funeral in St. Louis mostly to try to get a win against a team tenuously holding one of the seemingly-attainable Eastern Conference playoff spots. Lee also has three more games against Toronto after this one with which to potentially outplay Bosh and build his own free-agent value this summer.

After the UStream video, Bosh subsequently tweeted that he laughs at any unauthorized invitation to sign up anywhere and wasn't meaning to ridicule our team or city. Whatever, the Knicks are no longer playing knee-slapping basketball.

As long as Bosh remains in Toronto -- and it might be just until the trading deadline -- Bosh cannot giggle at this growing threat to the Raptors' playoff spot. It is real and has a chance to get more real during the Knicks' home-and-home series against struggling Detroit that follows tonight's game.

After the Lakers and Dallas visit next week, the Raptors follow Minnesota into the Garden and the Knicks go to Toronto on Jan. 28. Seeing Bosh this often, will give the Knicks opportunities to help him keep a straight face whenever he thinks of them.

NBA, Kings back major land swap

The National Basketball Association announced Thursday it is backing a dramatic land-swap proposal that would move the State Fair to the Arco Arena site in Natomas and build a new arena and entertainment complex next to the downtown train depot.

The intricate proposal – involving three prime pieces of Sacramento real estate – was unveiled Thursday night by a team of local developers, with international financiers and NBA executives at their side.

The concept, offered by Gerry Kamilos, a suburban Sacramento land developer, is the most spectacular of seven arena concepts submitted in response to a request from Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Saying 22-year-old Arco Arena is outdated and warning that the Kings may jump town, Johnson issued a call in November for developer proposals for a new sports and entertainment facility.

Details of the seven submissions were offered at a City Hall forum Thursday night. But the real action happened later a few blocks away at the Citizen Hotel, where Kamilos and NBA officials unveiled details of an ambitious land-swap concept involving Cal Expo, Arco Arena and an eight-acre piece of city-owned land at the downtown railyard.

NBA officials said they and the Maloof family, owners of the Kings, support the concept because it has what other proposals don't – private investors willing to put up money.

"We wouldn't be here today if (the Maloofs) didn't like it," NBA representative John Moag said.

The Maloofs issued a brief statement thanking the NBA and the mayor.

"We're committed to help any way we can," it said.

The land-swap plan has been in the works for nine months, Moag said.

It is nothing if not complex.

One of those involved, downtown developer David Taylor, called it a "jigsaw puzzle."

It will require agreements among many parties, including the state, the city, the Kings and several private developers.

"My biggest concern is it has a lot of moving parts," City Manager Ray Kerridge said. But, he said, "It can happen."

It also appears, on first review, to require more of the Sacramento Kings than any previous arena proposal, and less of taxpayers.

The NBA's Moag said the Kings have agreed in concept to put $300 million into the project by signing a 30-year lease with $10 million annual rent payments.

The arena would be owned during that time by a private development group including developers Kamilos and Taylor and private cash partners.

That group would front the initial costs of an arena – an undetermined amount – with cash from the two key backers, financiers Macquarie Capital of Australia and Pacific Coast Capital Partners of California.

Nicholas Hann of Macquarie Capital said his company is willing to take the risk with cash up front as well as selling bonds and obtaining loans to construct an arena because of the significance of the project and the money-making possibilities of the Sacramento market.

A critical factor in making the financing work, however, will be the development group's ability to make a deal with state officials to move the State Fair from Cal Expo.

The NBA's Moag said the development group, including the Kings, would seek to buy Cal Expo from the state, then donate the land at and around Arco Arena to the state to relocate the state fairgrounds.

Part of the Arco site is owned by the city, and part by the Kings. Moag said a $70 millon loan the Kings owe the city would be retired in the deal but did not offer details.

The group, in its proposal called "The Sacramento Convergence," goes as far as suggesting state officials could turn Arco Arena into an expo hall.

Once the Cal Expo site is in private ownership, developers would build a suburban community of homes, offices and retail, as well as sell off some of the land to other developers – and create a cash flow to help pay off arena construction debt.

Moag acknowledged that the deal is being pulled together in a difficult economy.

State officials were notably absent at the NBA announcement.

Cal Expo head Norb Bartosik told The Bee earlier Thursday he hasn't seen any details of the plan. He said State Fair officials want to build a better fairgrounds and would entertain legitimate proposals, including potentially moving to a new site.

"We've said all along our goal is to get a state-of-the-art fairgrounds," Bartoski said. "If that includes a move and everything works, we'd have to take a long, hard look at that."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokesman said the governor has been interested in selling Cal Expo if it is a money-making deal for the state.

Cal Expo and the NBA had been in negotiations for several years about a possible arena and redevelopment plan for the Expo site, but that stalled because of a lack of financing.

Kamilos said he and his partners came up with the land swap idea while watching the NBA and Cal Expo struggle.

"We began to see you had to create a much broader asset base than the one (site) they were looking at," Kamilos said.

Representatives of the mayor's task force said the proposal is just one of several they received that look impressive. The task force, a 12-person citizens' volunteer group, is expected to review the seven proposals and submit an arena concept to the mayor in March.

The proposals include:

• Downtown railyard owner Thomas Enterprises also proposes building a sports and entertainment center on the city-owned land at the lower end of the downtown railyard.

Thomas officials said they and the city have a massive head start, winning agreement for hundreds of millions of dollars so far in state and federal funds for infrastructure at the site.

The historic train depot would serve as the grand entrance to the arena and a new transit center. A nearby performance hall is part of the proposal.

Thomas officials said financing details would have to be worked out later when the Kings, the city and others sit down at the table.

• The Natomas ESC Partners group proposes an arena on the city-owned 100 acres adjacent to the existing Arco Arena.

• Tripp Development would place an arena at Third and L streets downtown, at the current site of a city parking garage.

• Ali Mackani proposes an arena at the east end of the current Westfield Downtown Plaza shopping mall on K Street.

• M&M Group, led by Matt Haines, proposes an arena along the Sacramento River, south of the Embassy Suites hotel, in what city planners call the Docks area.

• Doug Tatara has submitted a proposal for an arena at Cal Expo.

Chris Lehane, co-chairman of the mayor's task force, said his group will dig into the proposals in the coming weeks.

"We intend to ask the hard questions and … approach this review process with the mind-set that the teams behind the proposals will have a significant burden of proof to make clear that Sacramento is, indeed, being put first," Lehane said.

Celtics work with injuries

Before Kevin Garnett went down for good last spring, and took the Celtics [team stats]’ shot at a title repeat with him, the team barely had been nicked.

Indeed, the 2008-09 Celtics appeared to be on the same road to good health as the previous season.

And then there are these attrition-riddled Celtics. Marquis Daniels, expected to return soon after the All-Star break, has missed 18 games to a thumb surgery. Glen Davis missed 27 for the same reason. Garnett, now nursing a hyperextension on his surgically repaired knee, has missed eight games to that injury and one to a thigh bruise. Paul Pierce [stats], though playing, is not back to full speed following two procedures to drain fluid out of his right knee, which forced a five-game absence.

Rasheed Wallace missed his third straight game to a sore foot during Thursday’s threadbare loss to a bad Chicago team. Perhaps all concerned should give thanks that Rajon Rondo [stats] missed only one game to a sore hamstring, and has played through most of his trouble.

And these are strictly top-of-the-rotation players.

Much of this will pass, though. Wallace is expected back next week, and Garnett has been given a Jan. 22 return date at home against Portland.

And then there’s the All-Star break. That, they all hope, will be the time when everything is forgiven.

Perhaps it’s too much to think this team will be healthy for the stretch run, but dreaming doesn’t cost much.

“I can’t see why we would not be,” Doc Rivers said of the possibility that total health can make a return for the playoffs. “We’re working our way through it. If we can come back after the All-Star break healthy, and go through the rest of the season that way, that would be phenomenal.

“With all of the injuries we’ve had, and even with guys like Paul and Tony (Allen) just starting to get right, we have to win every game we can win.”

That’s only one reason Thursday’s sloppy loss to the Bulls carried such a sting.

“We have to play with an amazing focus in every game,” said Rivers, who in a way doesn’t want to hear that Garnett, Wallace and Daniels are walking through that door anytime soon.

Like the players actually on the floor, he can’t afford the luxury of a look into the trainer’s room.

“We’ve got to play with the guys in hand,” said Pierce. “We played shorthanded last year, and we won a lot of games, so that’s not an excuse.”

Using the Bulls as an example, he said: “We’ve got to go out there and know that Chicago is a great rebounding team. They have been the last few years . . . We’ve got to do a better job of taking their strengths away.”

They will play at least one more game in their current state, Monday against a Dallas team that is a much better than the Bulls.

“Yeah, we do,” Rivers said of whether this team has as much depth as first thought. “We just have a lot of injuries right now. When you have a lot of injuries, with three of your top six players out, it’s going to be tough.

“Like I said a few days ago, we want to win all of these games,” he said. “And we’re working our way through it. We’re doing OK, but we have to do better. Hopefully, we get Rasheed back Monday or Wednesday and Kevin back at the end of the week. But we can’t wait for them.”

Derrick Rose points to a revival

It was a little more than eight months ago, but it seems like yesterday. The Bulls barged into Boston for a first-round playoff series and took the highly favored Celtics [team stats] to seven games.

Even the fact the Celts were without Kevin Garnett didn’t diminish the Chicago accomplishment. The Bulls lost a series but won praise and the feeling they were very much an up-and-coming entity in the Eastern Conference.

With Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose expected to be even better, it was presumed the Bulls would take another giant step in their development this year.

But as they stepped into the Garden last night, they were a team that has endured the defection of Ben Gordon, losing streaks and frequent speculation surrounding the employment of coach Vinny Del Negro.

“It is kind of strange, when you think about it like that,” said Rose before the Bulls turned the lights out on the sleepy Celts, 96-83. “But right now we’re just trying to get back to ourselves. Everybody is healthy now, and we’re just trying to find our identity.”

Rose acknowledges that when he left here last spring, he was looking for a whole lot more than what’s happened thus far.

“When we made it hard for them in the playoffs and played the way we did, we definitely thought we were going to come back this year and do well,” he said. “We started off well, and then we had that fall where we lost (9-of-10 games). That really hurt our record, and now we’re just trying to get over it.”

Did the loss of Gordon mean this much?

“At first it did because we were used to having him and having what he did for us,” Rose said. “We had to figure out who was going to score the ball, and it put me in a strange situation where I had to be more aggressive and shoot the ball more. Now I’m getting used to it and it’s coming easier.”

Ray Allen thinks Gordon’s departure was big.

“I think it’s a trickle-down effect,” he said. “When you have him coming off the bench, you know, every coach in the league talks about bench production. He was a guy that gave them a lot of muscle coming off the bench, they had five legitimate players in the starting lineup. You look at San Antonio; they still brink (Manu) Ginobili off the bench for that reason.”

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for the Bulls right now is that they had the same 16-20 record they took into last night’s game last season. But in the previous case, they acquired John Salmons and Brad Miller and went on a late-season run to the playoffs.

Rose thinks there is time.

“We’re definitely not happy with where we’re at right now, but we still have a lot more games to play,” he said. “We’re not worried about our record right now.”

Added Allen: “I think they’re going to rear their head toward the end of the season. I think they’re going to start going. When they start seeing the end of the tunnel and knowing what they have to do, I think they’ll put it together.”

Ticket return may be good for Jan. 22

It’s an extremely rough target, but coach Doc Rivers believes Kevin Garnett may return for a Jan. 22 home game against Portland.

The Celtics [team stats] visit the Pistons two nights earlier in Auburn Hills, Mich.

“We would have a practice day the day before (Jan. 22),” Rivers said prior to last night’s 96-83 loss to the Bulls. “I’m just glad that he’s running right now. We’ll have a couple of practices over the next week where he can get on the floor and work with us.

“We’ll play him when he’s ready, and that’s it. But there’s an outside chance that Portland could be the return game for him.”

Garnett, who’s recovering from a hyperextended right knee, was cleared earlier this week to resume workouts. He traveled with the team to Wednesday’s win at New Jersey.

Sheed target

The target for the return of Rasheed Wallace (sore left foot) remains on track, with Monday’s game against Dallas at the Garden a strong possibility.

In the meantime, Brian Scalabrine started his third straight game last night. He had seven points and three rebounds in 20 minutes.

Game not on

Swingman Marquis Daniels (left thumb ligament surgery) remains on track to return after the All-Star break. The cast on his left hand is scheduled to be removed in 1-2 weeks.

Among other things, playing video games is a no-no.

“I can’t do that,” Daniels said reluctantly. “My brother is mad at me because he can’t beat me in that right now.”

Daniels’ conditioning progress report is much better. However, after missing his 18th game to the injury last night, he admitted the road back to basketball shape will be long.

“I’ve been doing a lot of running, but it takes time,” he said. “Thank God I don’t have too much body fat. But I’ve been doing other things, like lifting and running.

“They tell me I’m getting the cast off in a week or two, though. I can still go out and run and keep my wind up.”

Relief sought

Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was charged with felony gun possession yesterday, but Rivers tried his best to ignore the news.

“I just want the thing to go away,” he said.

Instead, Rivers has another idea.

“Raise money for Haiti,” he said. “That’s far more serious than the Gilbert Arenas situation. Haiti is a good place to send the fine money. All of our fine money should go there.”

Fans can make donations to the earthquake relief effort at the Celtics [team stats] team Web site. Their contributions will be matched by the C’s Shamrock Foundation.

Family reunion

Rivers will have a rare chance to see his son Austin’s high school team from Winter Park, Fla., play in the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield tomorrow.

Members of the team attended last night’s game.

“(Austin’s) coach called and told me they had a chance to play in a tournament in Springfield,” Rivers said. “As a high school kid, the chance to go to Springfield and see the Hall of Fame is a no-brainer.

“It’s the first time since I’ve been here that I can drive down the road and see him play.”

Austin is being recruited by Florida and Duke.