The Wiz Kid's struggles

By Louis Llovio Sports Central Columnist

Michael Jordan and Doug Collins have a vested interest in turning Kwame Brown into a superstar. But you wouldn't believe that from listening to Brown speak. Jordan and Collins gambled and used the first pick of the 2001 draft to take the 6-11 Brown the only high school player to ever be taken first overall. Not Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett or Tracy McGrady, but Kwame Brown.

And how does Brown return the favor? By publicly blaming Collins for his lackluster play and insinuating that Collins is Michael Jordan's puppet.

The wild week started for the Wizards last Sunday when, after a heartbreaking loss to the New York Knicks, an enraged Michael Jordan, who scored 39, came out and blasted his younger teammates for their lack of desire and effort when the game was on the line.

"It's going to take a lot better play from other players on this team and not just a one-man situation," Jordan said. "It's very disappointing when a 40-year-old man has more desire than 25-, 26-, 23-year-old people, diving for loose balls, busting his chin, doing everything he can to get this team in the playoffs and it's not reciprocated from other players."

He added, "I'm doing everything I can to verbalize as well as physically show what it takes to win. It's up to them to receive that."

The Wizards came out Tuesday night and played their most complete game of the season, beating a team they are chasing in the three-man race for the last two playoff spots in the East: the Orlando Magic. A rejuvenated Wizards team came out to a sold-out hometown crowd and showed what they are capable of doing if they put their hearts into it every night. Collins said his team had "one of its most cohesive games of the season." Jerry Stackhouse -- who blasted, then later retracted Doug Collins' play calling -- led the onslaught.

It was a proud night for the much-maligned franchise.

Then there was Kwame Brown.

On a night when they're playoff lives were at stake, Brown's line looked like this: 8 minutes, 0 points, 0 assists, and 0 rebounds. A pathetic night for what's beginning to look like the worst move of Jordan's basketball career.

The worst part of that dreadful line is not the startling lack of productivity, but Browns reaction to it the next day. In an interview with Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reminiscent of Ryan Leaf, sans the crying, Brown blamed his coach and Jordan.

"I just think that I'm getting limited opportunities to do a lot of things that I'm able to do," Brown said. "I guess the coach has lost confidence in me. Nobody can do anything in eight or nine minutes a night. If I don't come in and do something immediately, I'm coming out."

And directly attacking Jordan's statements earlier in the week, he continued, "I feel like I'm to blame for everything."

Collins, who has said, "nobody wants to see the kid succeed more than me," responded to the criticism by giving him 21 minutes Friday night in Detroit. Brown showed his gratitude by scoring three points, with zero assists and seven rebounds in a loss. Not a bad night for a second-year kid, but a horrendous night for one running his mouth.

Brown, a smart kid by most accounts, needs to learn how to keep his mouth tightly shut and his eyes and ears open. Jordan and Stackhouse can call out their teammates and coaches, because they've earned the right with their play. They back their words up on the court, where it counts. What they say and the forum they use might not always be ideal, but teammates know that Jordan and Stackhouse have only one concern: winning.

Brown has yet to earn that respect. And he's not doing anything towards forwarding his agenda by behaving the way he has on the court and in the locker room. Blasting the coaching staff, fellow players, not accepting responsibility for his uninspiring play, and the laissez-faire attitude he has when he does get minutes does nothing but alienate the same men he has to go to war with day in and day out.

"I feel like nothing I did was going to get my job back," Brown said. "There would be games where Christian (Laettner) -- and I'm not knocking him because I love him to death and he's always supported me -- would make some of the same mistakes I made, but he was allowed to stay in. I make those mistakes and I'm out."

Jordan -- not in direct response to that statement -- summed it up best, "The disappointing thing is if you make a mistake in October, you shouldn't be making that same mistake in March. You have to have some growth. You have to have some persistence and understanding for the game to make a change."

And that's what Brown is missing and fails to understand. He is playing a man's game, but acting like a boy. He believes that, as in high school, his size and natural talent can get him through the day. But it can't. In the NBA, he has to work harder than the next guy and use his brain.

Whether he'll be like a Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, or Tracy McGrady and flourish in his third and fourth season remains to be seen. Those three were rare in the pantheon of young athletes: they were impatient, but were smart enough to listen and grow.

To take coaching and do whatever it took to improve. Brown doesn't seem to have the desire, the want. What he does have is the mentoring of Jordan. An opportunity he has all but squandered.

"M.J. told me he was tough on players like Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant," said Brown. "I don't understand the logic if it's not working."

The last time I checked, it worked for Pippen and Grant.

On Monday, in a separate interview, but in response to Jordan's blistering indictment after the loss to the Knicks, Brown said, "It depends on the individual. You can take it however. You can clam up and don't help your team, or you can take it as a personal challenge and try to step up."

Bryant, McGrady, and Garnett would have taken the latter road. It remains to be seen which way Brown will go.

But if this week is any indication, Jordan and Collins first mistake was drafting Kwame Brown.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.