By Don Ellis

The NBA According To Ellis

Before he lost his voice, Meatloaf once sang that "two out of three ain't bad". For this year's NBA playoffs, I guess 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Three of the four conference semifinals have now become best-of-three series. Unfortunately, the Celtics still have no clue how to beat the Nets, which ends my dreams of quitting my day job and becoming a professional sports handicapper.

But the other three series have been nothing short of spectacular. The Lakers won one for the Zenmaster to even their series with San Antonio. Allen Iverson- who usually shoots more than Tony Soprano- had 11 ASSISTS as the Sixers tied the Pistons. And Chris Webber's knee injury has given Dallas a chance to win their series with the Kings, a feat that seemed completely impossible before the series started.

And while the next few days should definitely be the most exciting of the season so far, there is actually a lot more to talk about around the league, and I'd like to start with the ugly divorce that took place in Washington between the Wizards' owners and Michael Jordan.

While MJ was able to convince his wife to stick it out a few years back, he couldn't stop the top brass in DC from handing him his walking papers. And even though some people might wonder why a woeful franchise like Les Boulez would terminate the greatest drawing card in NBA history, I have a pretty simple answer- he's not a good general manager.

Now don't get me wrong- Wes Unseld also isn't a good general manager. Owner Abe Pollin and his boys were a horrible organization long before they changed their name to the Wizards. The Wizards will, more than likely, continue to make bad trades and questionable draft picks long after MJ has another NBA front-office job (and he'll get one, based simply on his name). But the simple fact is that Jordan did nothing during his tenure to help this organization in the long run- and by coming back to play for two seasons, he actually set back the rebuilding effort by a few seasons.

The Wizards were 19-63 in 2000-2001, Jordan's first full season as general manager, and they landed the first pick in that summer's draft. If Jordan would have stayed retired, the team would have struggled to win 25 games the next season, and they would have landed another very high lottery pick in the 2002 draft. But instead of getting a shot at Yao Ming, Jay Williams or Drew Gooden, the Wiz would wind up with the 11th overall pick, where they would take Jared Jeffries. Jeffries blew out his knee early in the season, but even before that, he was no threat to even break into the starting line-up.

And it's the same story this summer- instead of having a shot at one of the big three (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Darko Milicic) in the draft, Michael once again led Washington to 37 wins and another low lottery pick. Sorry, but you don't generally find superstars who lead their teams to championships available with the 11th pick. Say what you will about the way former Bulls GM Jerry Krause put together some terrible teams after Jordan retired in 1998- I'll guarantee you that John Paxson, the man who replaced Krause, is extremely happy to see young talents like Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler and Jay Williams on his roster as a result of the Bulls' "bottoming out" and drafting at the top of the lottery for four years.

But the really sad thing about Jordan's work in DC is that his best move is considered to be his unloading of malcontents with bad contracts- Rod Strickland, Juwan Howard and Mitch Richmond- to clear out salary cap room. Sorry, folks, but that's a bigger myth than Bigfoot.

Richmond is out of the league now, and Strickland's contract would have been off the books by now even without a buyout. But those are minor details compared to the way Jordan completely mishandled Howard's situation.

If Jordan would have just held on to Howard, his $20 million contract would have come off the books this summer- and the Wizards would have about $17 million in cap space this summer. When MJ first joined the Wiz, one of his strong suits was supposed to be his ability to attract free agents- who wouldn't want to play for the greatest ever was the thinking. But since Jordan traded Howard, the Nuggets will now be the ones to benefit from having his contract off the books this summer.

As it stands now, the Wizards will have about $7 million in cap room this summer- more than the mid-level exception, but not nearly enough to entice a Jermaine O'Neal or Jason Kidd to move to DC. Of course, it would have helped if MJ wouldn't have re-signed Christian Laettner- who he acquired in the Howard trade- for 5 years. L8 will make over $5.5 million next season, and Larry Hughes will make $5 million- not exactly what one would consider good cap management.

Jordan could have traded the #1 overall pick he used on Brown for Elton Brand, but he (allegedly) got greedy and insisted that Krause throw in Jamal Crawford as well. At least Crawford showed over the last 20 games of the season why Jordan was interested- but one still has to wonder why Jordan turned down a chance to add a talent like Brand when he was there for the taking. Considering the fact that Krause wound up trading Brand straight-up for the #2 pick, common sense tells me that Jordan could have had Brand for the #1 pick.

Around the rest of the league...

The Cavs are talking to Jeff Van Gundy about their head coaching job, and Van Gundy is listening. But don't expect him to take the job until after the draft lottery, which will be held on May 22nd. The Cavs have some good young talent in Ricky Davis, Dejuan Wagner and Darius Miles, and they have a good big man in Zydrunas Ilgauskas (who will only be 28 next season), but winning the lottery and adding you-know-who to the mix would be too much for the former Knick coach to turn down.

Boston's Antoine Walker has been cleared by the NBA for his altercation with a Celtic fan after game 3 of the Celtics/Nets series. The Celtics have announced that they will be revoking the "fan's" season ticket for next season, and when you consider how much season tickets right behind the home team's bench cost, the person in question (I won't mention his name) must be a real piece of work.

Speaking of the draft lottery, for the first time it will be shown in prime-time on ABC on a Thursday night. Gee, you think this has anything to do with some high school kid who drives a Hummer?

And best wishes go out to Phil Jackson, who is recovering from an angioplasty. Of course, it looks as if he has done such a good job of preparing his team that they don't really need him on the sidelines.

And I have something to say to all of the Phil-haters and their "he's not a good coach, he's always had MJ and Scottie or Kobe and Shaq, that's why he wins". Can you people count to zero, because that's exactly how many rings MJ, Scottie, Kobe and Shaq combined to win before Jackson became their coach.

Spurs guard Steve Kerr, who played for Jackson in Chicago and remains a close friend, summed it up best- "Phil seems to have his teams at their best when they're in trouble. One of the ways he does that is by convincing them they're not in trouble."

That sums it up perfectly for me.

Thanks again for reading, and send your comments and questions to nbarunaround@hotmail.com. If you want your input to appear in the NBA Runaround, please include your first name and what city you're writing from.


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