When the great influx of foreign players hit the NBA a while back, people inside the game marveled at the level of athletic skill and fundamental devotion they brought to a sport that seemed to be stagnating.
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| Does Penny Hardaway really still have something the Heat can use? (AP) |
Greatest hits.
The Miami Heat's decision to sign Penny Hardaway to play with his old bete noire, Shaquille O'Neal, came well out of the blue, but when placed atop the Boston Celtics' interest in noted 42-year-old jump shooter Reggie Miller, and rumored comeback attempts by Scottie Pippen, Allan Houston, Charles Oakley and Shawn Kemp, you get a different picture, namely this:
Europe is empty. Strip-mined. Out of that talent it was supposed to have in abundance.
Of course, we kid Europe because we love it so. And Yi Jianlian, please come visit Milwaukee, or as it has become known in Chinese media circles, the Secret City. We love tall young potential stars. Sure beats old used-to-be-stars.
This sudden race for the Basketball Encyclopedia seems daft, of course, but with the obvious exception of Danny Ainge, who is now in full try-anything mode, the sudden fascination with players who are not just retired but really retired indicates that more teams are looking not for shiny new toys but beaten-up old ones who can impart wisdom as well as give 10-12 minutes per game.
And who would come relatively cheap, we can assume. Other than Kemp, the only player in NBA history who could honestly say he was doing it for his family, the other recycle-ees have made their pile and in any event aren't coming into this with any discernible leverage.
But the European game, and the expansion into China, was supposed to eliminate the need for the old classics, wasn't it? It was, as the marketing bozos like to say, "an untapped market."
So, at risk of sounding facetious, what the hell happened? Can there truly be no 24-year-old anywhere who can create and make his own shot any better than 42-year-old Reggie Miller? Is Charles Oakley that rare a commodity? Are there really new maternity wards for Kemp to examine?
Or are we just confusing old guys who want back in for the league's desire to have them? Perhaps, though Hardaway suggests there might be more than just mid-August smoke. Hardaway, after all, suffered a catastrophic injury that helped ruin a once-incandescent career, and it didn't help that when he and O'Neal played in Orlando, Shaq made disparaging/veiled remarks about Hardaway before leaving for L.A.
Now he is a journeyman, finding work in the oddest place -– Shaqtown. And now Miller is being courted by the Celtics, who have one-quarter of a hell of a good old roster in Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. And Pippen made some inquiries, and Oakley, and Kemp, and Houston. So the question becomes a chicken-and-egg blue plate special, one that takes up one entire side of the menu:
Did the old guys get interested because they want back in, or did the teams get interested because the old guys have what they can't find anywhere else? Is this just lazy, incomplete scouting, or is it based on the difficulties inherent in extracting young European stars from their European teams? Is this part of the tedious song-and-dance with Yi and the Bucks, or is there some great desire to recreate the magic that was Tony Massenburg?
None of these are answerable, but if this is truly a trend and not just a one-time aberration, the NBA logo is going to be a man in a hammock. I mean, Reggie Miller was a truly great player, but do we really think the league has reached the point where 42-year-old jump shooters are an appealing commodity?
And the answer is, yes, but only if you've run out of other answers. Which is pretty much Danny Ainge to a T.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
