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By M.J. Darnell

Redefining 'Bad Boy'

Here's the scenario: The trade deadline is fast approaching and Joe Dumars is working the phones. He's got a deal in place to bring Rasheed Wallace to town, but there's a snag. Joe has to move Chucky Atkins first, which is difficult because of the two years left on his contract. Atlanta is not remotely interested. They want no part of Chucky. Joe D. needs to find a sucker.

And somewhere in Boston, a receptionist spoke the words, "Mr. Ainge, there's a Joe Dumars on line two for you."

And a deal was born.

We'll get to Boston in a minute, but first, let's look at Atlanta and Detroit first. For Atlanta, it's obvious. A first rounder and cap space. In fact, they should just go ahead and have Bob Sura and Zelly Rebraca wear jerseys that, instead of their names across the back, say "CAP SPACE."

Is there a downside for Detroit anywhere in this deal? They give up two players who were likely going to play a minimal role in their playoff drive. It might've been nice to have Bob Sura's scoring available off the bench, but it's a small price to pay for landing Rasheed Wallace. The draft picks they give up, they don't really need. They're both going to be mid-to-late first rounders, the Pistons next year will have Darko Milicic in what will essentially be his first real year in the league, and 6'7" guard Carlos Delfino, another first round pick who's excelling this season on one of Europe's best teams.

And what they add is a guy who immediately becomes one of the top three power forwards in the East, and a scoring touch that they absolutely needed if they want to go anywhere in the postseason. A week ago, I saw the Pistons as a team that would struggle to advance past the second round of the playoffs. This deal makes them a definite Eastern Conference contender.

And then of course, there's Boston. They had Chris Mills and his big expiring contract, which is pretty valuable either as a trading chip or as cap space this offseason. And they managed to turn that into Chucky Atkins, a point guard who's older, more expensive, and not as good as the point guard they shipped out, Mike James. They also get Lindsey Hunter, who's kind of like Chucky Atkins, but not as good. Shrewd, Danny Ainge.

Of course, Detroit did throw in a mid-to-late first rounder and cash. I guess the extra first-rounder will look pretty good next to the lottery pick that they're plummeting towards at the moment. As for the cash, if I had to guess at the amount that it would've taken to make this a good deal for Boston, I'd say somewhere in the range of 842 bajillion dollars.

Feelin' Cheeks

Ya gotta feel for Maurice Cheeks. Everyone in Portland got their wish, and Rasheed is gone. Problem solved, right? Not really.

According to the Oregonian, the Blazers fined Qyntel Woods on Wednesday for an incident over the All-Star break where he was a passenger in a car whose driver was cited for possession of marijuana and driving under the influence of intoxicants. After that, Zach Randolph missed a shootaround for some reason (he gave alternate stories including being caught in traffic, oversleeping, and not knowing a shootaround was even happening), and was benched for the game that night. Towards the end of the first half, Randolph spun a basketball at Maurice Cheeks as he sat on the bench.

In some ways, these are the worst transgressions yet. This is supposed to be the new era. The Blazers are supposed to be respectable again, if not quite as talented. Their act is supposed to be cleaned up. Maurice Cheeks does not deserve this. I don't care if he's the worst basketball coach in the world, he deserves more respect than he's getting from his team. Every time I open a newspaper and see that some knucklehead Blazer has done something else, I feel like sending Mo a sympathy card. He just does not deserve this. There are 4th grade teams out there that take a more disciplined approach to the game. The whole team just has the feel of a group of troubled kids who you'd see on the Jenny Jones show.

I don't know what the solution is in Portland. I don't know if there's anything Maurice Cheeks could do about it, I don't know if there's anything any coach could do about it. They can't trade Zach Randolph. He's too young, and he's too good, but the Blazers organization needs to figure something out. They owe that much to Maurice Cheeks. My advice? This is another situation in which Charles Oakley could help. Sign Oak for the rest of the year, and the next time Zach Randolph misses a shootaround and starts pouting about being benched, Maurice Cheeks can give him a choice: accept the benching like a man, or spend five minutes alone in the locker room with Charles Oakley and a lead pipe.

Some Final Random thoughts from All-Star weekend

- I hate it when sporting events go out of their way to make the game attractive to non-sports fans. I hate halftime concerts. I hate extravagant national anthems. Super Bowl week is a form of torture for me. But none of that bothers me for the NBA All-Star game. Why? It's a show. An exhibition. The All-Star game is to competitive basketball what The Lion King on Ice is to competitive figure skating. So, David Stern, if you wanna trot out Beyonce, Outkast, even the Beach Boys (very effective when trying to reach the young urban demographic, by the way), do it here. But if I see Joel Siegel wearing a pair of "Hulk Hands" at halftime of another NBA Finals game, I'm moving to China and dedicating my life to following the career of God Shammgod.

- The celebrity game on ESPN on Friday night was extremely dumb. Please don't do this again. It embarrasses me as a basketball fan. I hadn't even heard of half of the "celebrities." It was probably best that the game didn't go to overtime, as several starters had to get to a Hollywood Squares taping.

- The Rookie/Sophomore game was fun to watch, but became maddeningly annoying at the end when all pretense of playing defense was given up. You have to at least pretend, fellas. That said... LeBron and Carmelo put on a pretty decent show. And props to Carlos Boozer, too. When Booze was asked about all the taunting and flexing and showing off he was doing in this year's game, as opposed to last year's game, he replied, "Oh, I've just matured."

- The Beach Boys... Why? Why? WHY?

- The Shooting Stars competition and the Skills Challenge are extremely lame. If not for the commentary of Charles and The Jet, it would've bordered on unwatchable. John Salley embarrassing himself goes down as a highlight of the weekend, though.

- Peja seemed a little cocky heading into the three-point contest. He said the right things, but he acted like he was above it all. I'm glad Voshon took him down.

- Big props to Jason Richardson. He could've won the dunk contest by making an easy dunk in the finals, but he elected to go for a more difficult dunk to give the people something to cheer about. Jason Richardson gets it. This is about excitement, about doing something for the fans. Winning a third dunk championship would have done nothing to better J-Rich's career. Anyone who criticizes him for not taking the easy win clearly does not what the weekend was all about.

- Highlight of the weekend: Charles Barkley making fun of Craig Sager's sportcoat, shockingly similar to those worn by Staples Center ushers. Every time they went to Sager for an interview, Charles got in a blast about the sportcoat. Sager, meanwhile, is standing there with the person he's about to interview, hearing Charles rip on him, and he can't say a thing about it. The looks on his face were hilarious.

- Chris Andersen was jobbed by the people scoring the dunks.

- Safe to say that Fred Jones' performance was the worst to ever win a dunk competition? Yeah, I think so.

- Outkast... well, at least they managed not to offend any ethnic groups.

- Shoes with spinning rims on them? Are we not taking this a little bit too far?

- The All-Star game itself was outstanding. Rarely do guys dig in on defense as they did for about the last 8 minutes of this one. Jamaal Magliore, Shaq, Jason Kidd, Ron Artest, K-Mart, AI... great performances. They all did something that added to either the entertainment value or the competitiveness of the game. This was a fun game to watch throughout.

Are the Sixers better off without AI?

I'm afraid that the answer to that question might be yes, but it's not necessarily because of Allen Iverson. It's because somewhere along the line, the Sixers organization lost sight of how to build a team around him.

Granted, AI is probably the hardest player in the league to build around. It's not an easy task, but in 2001, it seemed like the Sixers knew how to do it. Now in 2004, it's like they've completely forgotten.

If I was the GM of an Iverson team, I'm looking for good defensive players, guys who will do the dirty work and not demand a lot of touches. I'd love to have a reliable scorer at the 4 or the 5, but if not, I want a strong rebounding and defensive presence. I'm looking for guys like Tyrone Hill, Dikembe Mutombo, Eric Snow, Jumaine Jones, and Aaron McKie, all circa 2001.

Sure, it's easy to look back at the team that made it to the finals and say, "Yes, that's how to do it." But from then until now, it's like they've had a shift in philosophy and got away from the things that made them successful. They're a team without an identity right now, and if they find it that difficult to make the moves to build around Iverson, they should admit failure, get what they can for him, and move on.

As far as the recent trade talk goes, it's hard to tell how serious it was, and it's hard to tell what Chris Ford is thinking. Iverson missed a practice, and keeping him out of the starting line-up for one game is fair. You miss a practice, you sit, for whatever the reason. Fair enough. But for Ford to sit Iverson down and question if he "brings it" every night, and to lecture AI about what's necessary for the team to win, is just absurd.

More than an actual coaching technique, it feels more like Ford is just not an Iverson fan, and made a little attempt to establish his dominance and show that there's a new sheriff in town, so to speak. That sort of posturing is lost on Iverson. He gives all he can every night, and if the Sixers can't figure out what to do with that, or they'd prefer to roll with their new tough guy coach, then maybe they're better off without AI.

The Mighty 10

1. San Antonio. Held the top spot last week, and didn't do anything to lose it. Six in a row, and they got bonus points for AI rocking the Spurs throwback gear in a recent interview.

2. Minnesota. Wally's back. Kandi's back soon. The depth on this team could be absolutely scary. More on their bench at a later date.

3. New Jersey. I see no reason why Lawrence Frank can't be a coach of the year candidate. If the Nets don't make that move, would they be contenders today? Rod Thorn is a genius.

4. Sacramento. Best winning percentage in the league, and I'm dropping them to fourth. Blame it on Peja and his 3-point contest choke job.

5. Indiana. Let's see how they do without Artest for a prolonged stretch. Wanna be the man, Al Harrington? Here's your chance.

6. LA Lakers. As long as Gary Payton can manage not to eat anyone's ear, the Lake Show is showing signs of life. When's the Mailman returning? Is the Mailman returning?

7. Detroit. The 'Sheed acquisition vaults them into the 7-spot.

8. Dallas. No moves at the deadline? Not even a back-up big man?

9. Memphis. Hard to root against these guys. Then again, hard to root for anyone in teal.

10. Atlanta. Obviously, they belong nowhere near the Mighty 10, but Hawks fans deserve some love. It can't be easy to be going through that. If you happen to know a Hawks fan, hug them today, and remind them to enjoy the Zelly Rebraca era while it lasts.

The Meek 5:

25. Chicago. Content to let Jamal Crawford walk this summer for nothing, I guess. Have actually won two in a row. Good for them.

26. Washington. Help is on the way. Mitchell Butler has been activated.

27. Phoenix. It used to be that they were a bad team by Western Conference standards. Now they're just bad.

28. Boston. Losers of four in a row. Losers of nine of their last ten. And still, Boston fans are whining about the Red Sox.

29. Orlando. DeShawn Stevenson will have things turned around in no time. Only 9.5 games out of a playoff spot.

The Mailbag

I have to say Mark Cuban is right on this one.. Players in all sports have deals in their contracts that prohibit them from doing certain things.. When an organization is going to invest 3 mill or more on one player he is doing this under the assumption that the player will focus all his/her energies in obtaining a goal.. Mark Cuban can't invest millions of $$ on a player and then let him go off, pratice and play in the Olympic games and get hurt.. the Olympic games should be our best college players.. that would make more sense as the Olympic games is supposed to be amateur players anyway... right? - Jason, Sioux City, Iowa

I'll make you a deal. You convince every other team in the Olympics to not use professional players, and I'll agree that we shouldn't send our professionals, either. The concept of amateur athletes is really cute and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it just isn't the reality. Maybe it should be, and maybe that way, there would be no point to any of this, but for now, that isn't how things work.

And like I said, I see what Mark Cuban is saying. He's got a right to protect his investments, and he doesn't feel like the players that he pays should be helping turn a profit for whoever it is that profits from the Olympics (I'm not sure who it is, but I know someone somewhere is raking in some coin). His viewpoint isn't considering the bigger picture, though. Promoting international basketball helps the NBA. I think that's the most important thing here. To me, that's more of a factor than Mark Cuban's profit margin. Maybe you disagree, and you think the concept of NBA players being in the Olympics has outlived its usefulness, but I'd disagree. Maybe you're a Mavs fan and want Nashie and Dirk to stay healthy. That, I could see. Maybe you just really want Mark Cuban to have more money. That... well, that would be kinda weird. But it's your world, dog.

I was wondering why would the East All-Star coach keep the leading vote-getter out of the game. It's really hard to understand how he could keep Iverson in the game when he was having such an awful shooting night. Michael Redd was another player whom I felt was also put in a very pressured situation, considering it was his first All-Star game. - Diddy, North Carolina.

I don't think anyone was feeling too much pressure, just because it was an All-Star game. Rick Carlisle needed three-point shooters in at the end of the game, and I think that accounts for Michael Redd's minutes. I also think he liked Iverson's ability to drive and then kick it out, and I can't believe I'm discussing NBA All-Star game coaching strategies. As for Vince's minutes, yeah, 16 is a little light. But I don't know what to tell you. Determining All-Star minutes is a tricky thing to do, and Rick Carlisle wouldn't be the first coach to favor his own guys in an All-Star game. The West team had five guys get thirteen minutes or less, so... it could've been worse. Maybe that's why they won.

How could Rick Carlisle leave Vince Carter on the bench during the 4th quarter? VC was the leading vote-getter and he should have played at least 25 minutes. Unfortunately, it was obvious that Carlisle thought VC was undeserving of the starting nod (I know he thinks Artest should have started) because he only played a measely 16 minutes. And another thing, I'm sick of hearing that Artest should have been the starter instead of VC. Don't get me wrong, Artest is a great player who plays on both ends of the court... but VC is still a better player. If you had a choice to build a team around either Artest or VC, I am positive that most coaches will choose VC. Artest is good simply because he is not responsible for carrying the whole team... he is the 2nd best player for Indiana. In contrast, VC is the main man in Toronto and defenses constantly triple team him. I honestly believe that VC is an elite player in the NBA along with KG, Shaq, T-Mac, Kidd, Kobe, and Duncan. - J.L., Los Angeles

If I had to pick a player to build a team around, and the choices were Ron Artest and Vince Carter... I'd close my eyes, flip a coin, and then build my team around the lottery pick that I would certainly have if I relied on either of those two as a number one option.

I don't want to take anything away from either of them. They're both outstanding players. I agree that Ron Artest is the 2nd-best player for Indiana, and I agree that he's better in a complimentary role. But there's no way I'd agree that Vince Carter is a franchise player like KG, Shaq, or anyone else on that list. Absolutely no way.

I'm not saying it will never happen. He's got amazing talent. But for whatever the reason, he has never decided to step up as the man, put the team on his back, and take them to the promised land. I don't get a sense from him that he wants to be a franchise player. A lot of things come with being the man. The spotlight, the credit for the wins, and the blame for the losses. I think Vince would rather live without it, and that's fine. Some guys aren't built to be the man. The best player on a team doesn't always have to be its leader. But you can't be a franchise player without being both.

Is Danny Ainge just plain dumb? - Duckworth is God

No. Danny Ainge is not dumb. And as much as I've ripped him, it would be incredibly egotistical and also very dumb of me to sit here and criticize Danny Ainge's basketball knowledge.

But the fact is that a person can be a great player or otherwisde have a ton of basketball knowledge and still be a bad front office type. Michael Jordan himself didn't exactly turn the Wizards into a championship contender. As much of a gruesome train wreck as Scott Layden made of the Knicks, there's no way I would ever say that he doesn't know the game of basketball. Layden did great things in Utah, but for whatever the reason, turned the Knicks into a very expensive YMCA-league team.

And while it's still probably too early to judge what Ainge is doing in Boston, it's looking like he might fall into a similar category. Not one move he's made has made any sense to me, and the Celtics are not exactly on a tear since his arrival. Time will tell, I guess. But it doesn't look good, unless you're a big fan of lottery picks.

Nice rip on my East/West mental slip. A man of my own heart...Neva let 'em slide, neva! Which brings me to this email's subject. Gotta say something about your All-Star game comments. True, the league's game is probably the best going, but it's getting worse by the year. I grew up watching countless exhibitions in the 80's from NBA All Star games to Magic and Isiah B-Ball camp games, and those games put any All-Star game from '95 on to shame! Someone needs to get today's players to realize that putting on a show means playing a solid game in which everyone's skills shine during competition (see NBA All Star '84, '86 & '88). I'm not asking for regular season defense, I get more defense than I can stand here in the D. But some serious ball playing is necessary to make these games watchable! - Youngin', The D

I hear you man, I just have no solutions to offer. Personally, I wish they'd all dig in like their lives were on the line, but it's just not going to happen. I just try to enjoy it for what it is, and once a year, I have no problem with it. Let the boys have their fun, and I'll watch and smile along with them. My advice to you is don't tune in until the 4th quarter. If the game's close, you'll see some tight D, like you did this year. If it isn't, you won't, and you can turn the game off having wasted no time with it.

(Note: After this week, I'm putting at least a one-week moratorium on Steve Francis talk. I'll respond to these two questions, but no more. Any further Steve Francis inquiries will be ignored like Chris Andersen at the dunk contest.)

Why all of a sudden because Steve Francis lied to his coach about super bowl weekend is he being involved in trade rumors? I don't think the guy needs to be put out there like that because he might be on bad terms with his coach. Get real, people need to take it for what it is, and stop being so damn sensitive. Francis is human just like us, he's young and he will continue to make mistakes. That's a part of life and he will learn from it, but if trading your best point guard to another team is gonna solve the problem, then what have we learned from that? Think about it. - crisp325, Brooklyn

Alright, I thought about it. And I'd still trade him faster than I would a Nickoloz Tskitishvili rookie card.

As I've said all along, it's not just about the Super Bowl thing. He doesn't run the offense well. If he did, and the Rockets offense moved like a well-oiled machine, then I'd certainly give him a chance to mature and outgrow things like the Super Bowl incident. But he still plays too selfishly, and that is not what Houston needs at this point.

All the data I am sending to you are all facts from the Houston Chronicle not made up by myself. Sure, I understand you can't blame a 2 year pro for a loss. But why is that Francis gets no love? You have to admit he is a spectacular NBA player, very athletic and exciting to watch. In the Chronicle, Van Gundy admitted it was his fault for the loss vs. SA just last week or so. He said that there were no timeouts and they weren't prepared for that. And you proved my point. You said that Francis admitted to just missing the plane? It doesn't mean he went to the Super Bowl. Read the Chronicle before posting stuff about the Rockets! - Tim

I've never denied that Steve Francis was an extremely talented, explosive, entertaining point guard. He's a lot of fun to watch play when he's not dribbling ten times and then bricking an 18-foot fadeaway. Don't get me wrong in all of this. I like the guy. I don't think he's worthless, and I'm not saying that he'll never be a great player, but right now, he's doing the Rockets organization no favors. Both parties would be better off moving on. As far as Van Gundy taking the blame for the San Antonio loss, I interpreted his statements a little differently. Yeah, he said he should've had a play drawn up, but I just got the feeling that he was dying to add something to the end of that sentence like, "but I didn't know Steve Francis was going to be running around like Ron Jeremy at the Playboy mansion before throwing up an airball at the buzzer."

Question, comment, problem, tirade, hate mail, love note? Send it along here.

M.J. Darnell runs www.themightymjd.com