mo news...around the NBA

You remember the outrage, the debate, the code phrases about "cornrows" and "well-paid athletes," and what people would infer but would not say directly. How both Sprewell and Carlesimo became caricatures of themselves, symbols of everything that was wrong with players or coaches. Bomb-thrower or control freak. Threat to the neighborhood or militia man. Take your pick. Neither was accurate.

Two years later, this Saturday, Sprewell's Knicks will go to Golden State to play Carlesimo's Warriors. Sprewell has recovered; he's got a brand new $61-million deal and the love of 15,000,000 New Yorkers. Carlesimo continues to struggle with a new group of Warriors. Only Donyell Marshall remains from the team that witnessed the altercation.

"I pretty much know what to expect," Sprewell told me last Sunday. "I think I'll get a mixed response. I think I've still got a lot of pretty faithful fans in the Bay Area. It's just going to be interesting to me how many boos I get as opposed to cheers."

Sprewell is still angry with the Warriors' organization, still thinks he was vilified. Whether you agree with him or not, it's how he feels. Whether he's justified to feel that way about a team that gave him a $32 million deal, basically, on spec, that looked to him for leadership he didn't give every night, it's how he feels. He says he very rarely talks with friends in Oakland about the Warriors, and maybe that's true.

"That wouldn't erase everything," Sprewell said. "I can't sit and say that if the man came to me and said 'let's forgive and forget,' I'm not so stubborn that I'm going to say 'get out of my face.' I respect him as a person, and I'll treat him with respect. But it's not honest to say it'll erase all the things I had to go through and all the tough times during that period."

I asked Carlesimo, during a conference call with reporters, if the incident or the aftermath of the incident changed him in any way that was noticeable to him.

"I don't want to be so naive as to say you're not changed by any incident that occurs in your life, much less a significant one," he said. "I'd like to think I'm the same person. I'd like to think my values are the same. I think that my effort, my dedication, whatever you want to call it, are the same. My answer would be no, I don't think I have." Did he learn who his friends were?

"I didn't see any difference at all in terms of the way people treated me, or any friends, how they reacted," he said. "I think I've been real well grounded and fortunate in that for a long time. I don't think people changed toward me and how they reacted as a result of this."

Sprewell is hoping that he'll be back in Oakland in February for the All-Star game. But whether or not he makes it, he'll never think about the place the same way.

"I don't know if you've ever been in an accident," Sprewell said. "When you go past that same spot, you always remember where you had that wreck. Some people refuse to go that way because they just don't want to remember it. I think every time I play there, I'm always going to remember."

"It's over with," Carlesimo told another reporter during the conference call. "I don't harbor any resentment. I don't feel anything toward that. I think the best thing for both of us is to get on with this. He's doing that. He's earned himself a great contract in New York. He's doing a great job moving on in NY, and I'm trying to do the same."

A deal that makes sense
The Warriors and Nets will chat about a Donyell Marshall-Kendall Gill swap, but the deal probably will wait until Jason Caffey returns from the injured list. Another potential problem: Nets are already on the till for $55 million among seven players -- Jayson Williams ($15 million), Keith Van Horn ($10M), Stephon Marbury ($11M), Kerry Kittles ($8.5M), Jim McIlvaine ($6M), Lucious Harris and Jamie Feick ($2.5M each) -- in two years. That's the first year of the escrow tax account, with a dollar tax for every dollar a team is above the salary cap. The cap is estimated to be at $56 million that year.

Would the Nets take on Marshall's $6.5 million, knowing it would put them over the cap? Probably depends on how much money George Steinbrenner gets in local TV revenues in his new Yankees TV contract. (Believe me when I tell you -- the Boss is going to be very involved in the Nets' operation now that the two teams have merged their business departments.)

The Warriors aren't sure if Gill can play the 2 consistently, but they figure he's better than John Starks. The Nets, who've gotten little offensively from Scott Burrell at the 3, are intrigued by Marshall there. They want to keep Van Horn at the 4.

Meanwhile, the Nets are tearing their hair out figuring what to do about Marbury. Starchild has been dissing teammates left and right, sapping Don Casey's energy and dropping already-drooping morale further below sea level. "I think the other players are flatlining because of him," says one member of the Nets.

Tragedy in Dallas
Given my penchant for taking shots at Nellie whenever I can, you may be surprised to know that I'm taking his side in this whole Leon Smith mess. It's tragic that Smith apparently ingested more than 250 aspirin in Dallas this week, and you hope the young man can get the kind of help that he clearly needs. But no one forced this kid to declare for the draft. Based on the people I spoke with before the draft, no one in the NBA gave this kid any reason to believe he'd be taken high.

Where are all the street agents and hustlers in Chicago that had their hands in this kid's pocket? The ones that filled his head with grandiose dreams he didn't have the slightest chance of redeeming?

It seems to me that Nellie was one of the few people telling Smith the truth about his abilities. Should he have set up a more nurturing environment for him? This is professional basketball. Coaches are concerned with one thing -- which one of these guys is gonna keep me employed tonight? They aren't interested -- or, for that matter, qualified -- to be confidants or baby sitters.

Leon Smith shouldn't have been on the Mavericks' injured list, learning nothing about playing basketball, or in the CBA, or playing in Europe. He should have been sitting at at desk at some college, trying to get some kind of education.

I'll say it again and again. This is why high school kids don't belong in the NBA.

	ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS
	THE TOP 10 1. Portland 2. San Antonio 3. L.A. Lakers 4. Miami 5. Seattle 6. Indiana 7. Sacramento 8. Utah 9. Charlotte 10. Toronto THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. New Jersey 26. Washington 27. Golden State 28. L.A. Clippers 29. Chicago