'The Glove' has holes

By Eric Williams Sports Central Columnist

"Yo, E, did you hear the news? The Lakers just got Karl Malone, too. Gary Payton and Karl Malone! Do you know what this means? It means they might as well not even play this season and just mail the championship to L.A. Nobody's gonna be able to beat them now. It's just not fair!"

That was a brief transcript of a conversation I had with a friend last July when the news broke that Gary Payton, and then Karl Malone, had agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. A lifelong Knicks fan, my friend was nearly sick to his stomach when he learned about both deals ... especially when the financial terms were disclosed.

Malone took a pay cut of almost $17 million to play for the veteran's minimum of $1.5 million, while Payton accepted the Lakers' offer of $4.9 million just for the opportunity to play for a championship. For a fan of the Knicks, who will be capped-out until about the time LeBron James is ready to retire, it must have felt like a Roy Jones hook to the body.

But, for this lifelong Lakers' fan, I was doing back flips around the office, with visions of parades and bad dancing filling my head. For even though the Lakers have two of the top-five players in the NBA in Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, last season proved that the two of them alone aren't always enough. If the Lakers wanted to regain their spot atop the league, something needed to be done.

Voila! Enter Malone and Payton. It was almost like the recipe for a dessert. Take two NBA all-stars, add two future Hall of Famers, mix, let simmer for five months, and then serve in June. Instant championship. Easy as pie.

Well, it hasn't been so simple for the Phil Jackson's all-stars this season, although at the beginning of the season, it looked as though the Lakers were going to win about 75 games and then sweep right through the playoffs. First, Malone suffered a knee injury, the first significant injury of his career, which landed him on the injured list and then Bryant suffered a shoulder injury, which set him back a few weeks.

All the while, there was the matter of Bryant's criminal proceedings in previously unheard-of Eagle, Colorado hanging overhead like the sword of Damocles, ready to cut the heart out of their season. All of the momentum that had been building steadily since the first few weeks of the season soon went out the window.

But, as a dedicated fan, I told myself that everything would be fine once the playoffs came around and everyone got healthy. I told anyone who would listen that the Lakers were playing short-handed all season, with Malone out and Rick Fox out injured. Once we had all our players back, we would resume our pre-destined march to the Larry O'Brien trophy.

Unfortunately, upon further review, I think I might have to ease off the throttle a bit in my rush to get a front-row spot along the parade route. There is something that concerns me about this 2004 edition of the "Dream Team" that may hinder their chances at wresting the trophy away from the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I wasn't thrilled with the signing of Karl Malone, initially. I still remember all of the well-placed elbows, lay-ups leading with the knee, and all of the other borderline dirty plays that defined his career with the Utah Jazz. I was never a fan of his game, never appreciated how hard he worked to perfect his craft.

It wasn't until I saw him play with more energy and heart than a lot of guys 15 years his junior that I began to appreciate how much of a warrior he is. Truthfully, I wasn't even sure if he was necessary for the Lakers to win a championship this year. Although the power forward position has been a weak one for the Lakers seemingly since Kurt Rambis, I believed that they could get by with anybody at that position, as long as they got a point guard who could defend opposing guards.

That's why I was more excited about the Payton signing. With Kobe and "The Glove" in the backcourt, teams wouldn't even be able to get the ball over halfcourt in the allotted eight seconds. Together, they would form the best defensive backcourt in the league.

Or so I thought. That backcourt, along with a re-dedicated Shaq, would give the Lakers a powerful combination that no one in the league could counter. Malone was simply icing on a very yummy-looking cake.

But, something happened to Gary on his way to the Hall of Fame this year, thus my concerns for this team. He got old. And slow. The defensive skills that had been the hallmark of his career since his days at Oregon State have gradually eroded. Somewhere in his travels last year from Seattle to Milwaukee to L.A., his defensive mojo was lost.

Maybe we should have seen this coming last year in the playoffs, when Jason Kidd practically ran his boyhood friend out of the Eastern Conference playoffs. However, as a longtime fan of Payton, I was blinded by what he had done in the past, convincing myself that Kidd did that to all the point guards he faced in the playoffs last year. Unfortunately, that playoff series apparently was a harbinger of things to come this year.

As this season progressed, it became quite evident that Gary wasn't the same old Gary who scowled at his opponents, talked more trash than you can keep track of, and basically dared his opposite number to score against him. Point guards routinely drove right by him into the paint this year, causing problems for the interior of the defense and giving hope to all who played the Lakers that maybe, just maybe, they aren't as rough and tough as first advertised.

Now, as the playoffs have gotten underway, Gary's inability to stop opposing guards from traipsing through the lane has become one of the Lakers' biggest Achilles heels. First, it was Houston's Steve Francis, repeatedly turning the corner, going by Payton at will.

Had the Rockets not treated the basketball like a greased pig on many possessions, I might be writing about one of the most colossal failures in NBA history. And when you consider the amount of hype surrounding this team entering the season and the collection of talent in the starting five, I don't believe that statement is too far-fetched.

They survived the Rockets, though, and now face the defending champion Spurs, in what has been billed as the glamour matchup of the playoffs. The general consensus is that the winner of this second-round series will win the conference and be favored to win the championship.

However, Game 1 showed that the Lakers have their hands full. Tony Parker, the Spurs' dynamic young point guard, dribbled rings around Payton, driving to the hoop with ease, either to finish himself or passing off to teammates for baskets, raising my concerns to a fever pitch.

This is the type of challenge that the "old" Gary, not the old Gary, would have relished. A young, punk guard daring to go at him like that, as if he didn't know anything about all of the all-defensive teams that Gary has made throughout his career. This is exactly what the Lakers got him for: to shut down dribble penetration and to choke off their long-standing problem of defending the pick and roll.

But this is why I'm so concerned. I don't see the intensity on Payton's face on the defensive end that I used to see. I only see that look in his eyes when he's arguing with the referees over another foul he's committed by reaching, instead of moving his feet. If he continues his shoddy defense, the Lakers will be watching the Finals on television again and we might get treated to another disheartening shot of Derek Fisher and Bryant crying their eyes out.

Now, I'm not blaming Gary for the problems that the Lakers have had this season. But, Payton was brought here to do a job and so far, he's done a subpar job. He can complain all he wants about not getting enough shots in the offense and not being able to run the team the way he wants, but the fact of the matter is he knew what he was getting into when he signed on the dotted line.

He knew about the triangle offense. He knew that he was going to be the third, or even fourth, option on this team behind the two-headed monster of Bryant and O'Neal. It's time for him to stop whining about how he used to attack opposing guards when he was in Seattle and just concentrate on playing defense like he used to play in Seattle. Unfortunately, he may not be able to play defense like that anymore and that's what troubles me.

For this Laker fan, it's sad to see because I remember Payton at his scowling, trash-talking best. It's also sad to see because I've already booked my plane ticket to Los Angeles and now, I may have no use for them.

Fortunately, there's a lot of series left to play, so Payton still has a chance to redeem himself and make me eat my words. I'm hoping that all of the criticism and doubts that he's had to endure the last few days will inspire him to play with a renewed passion defensively.

I'm rooting for him because those plane tickets were non-refundable and expensive. Plus, I always enjoy a good parade and I never miss an opportunity to hear another of Shaq's wonderful rhymes. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that what we've seen of Gary is about all we're going to get and that has me concerned.

It just goes to show you that money can't buy me love and it can't buy my team a championship. Oh well, I guess some things are fair, after all.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.