THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506120138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The last few weeks of pro basketball have been such an aesthetic and commercial success, not even the prospect of a Houston sweep over the Orlando Shaqs is likely to dampen the celebration at NBA headquarters.
A postseason that began as Michael Jordan's one-man show, only to digress for a time into a Dennis Rodman freak show, has become, in the opinion of many, the best playoffs ever. In any sport.
That is saying a lot for a tournament that has not had Jordan in attendance for the last two rounds.
If nothing else, the playoffs have downgraded Jordan's status as a savior, not a bad thing for a sport that was getting sand kicked in its face only a year ago.
At the time, evidence suggested that Jordan's defection to baseball had started the NBA on the road to Dullsville. Exhibit A in the case against pro basketball was the 1994 playoffs, which sometimes resembled tag-team wrassling.
The playoffs were such a gloomy, low-scoring disaster that even Stanley Cup games looked exciting by comparison, leading some to declare that hockey was overtaking hoops.
Today, we can see what a rash exaggeration that actually was. Once again, basketball has seized the high ground, and not just from the NHL, but from baseball, too.
The NBA did it, in part, by making its players keep their hands to themselves.
A year ago, the league seemed to all but sanction mugging. The question at the start of these playoffs was whether officials would enforce the tougher hand-checking guidelines used during the regular season. They have, to the point of calling ticky-tacky fouls now and then.
The effect on the quality of play has been stunning.
The other enhancing change has been the shortened distance for 3-point goals. Most of the exciting finishes in these playoffs can be attributed to the shorter ``home run'' shot.
Like Reggie Miller's eight points in 18 seconds in Game 1 of the Indiana-New York series. Like four game-saving shots in the final 13 seconds in the Indiana-Orlando series. Like the bombs Houston and Orlando dropped on one another at the end of Game 1.
The hand-checking rule and the shooter-friendly 3-point arc are only important in that they help showcase the finest athletes in the world.
What baseball wouldn't give to be as deep as pro hoops is in great, colorful players.
Jordan has been long gone from these playoffs. Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing, too.
More recently, Miller has been dismissed, along with David Robinson, the league MVP, and Rodman, the designated geek.
At each stage of the postseason, any number of different players, some who don't even have a TV commercial, have lifted their games and the sport.
The stars have come through time and again, but they've had to share the stage with Rik Smits, Mario Elie, Nick Van Exel, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell and Brian Shaw.
Even when Rodman was splashed on the cover of Sports Illustrated in all his gruesomeness, it did not distract - not for long, anyway - from the vivid entertainment provided by players who have never shampooed in food coloring.
Rodman was never meant to be more than a diversion; Jordan was supposed to save these playoffs.
But how many fans would want to be rescued from Hakeem Olajuwon vs. Shaquille O'Neal; Clyde Drexler against Penny Hardaway? Or even from Robert Horry and Horace Grant?
The unthinkable happened. The playoffs actually increased in excitement when Jordan was shown the door. by CNB