He Looks for Value and Finds It on Other Coast

Well, that was different, wasn’t it?

It was a perfectly good season in the other NBA cities, even if it was a massive bummer here. Nevertheless, life goes on and the postseason awards will still be awarded.

Here’s how it would go if they did it the right way and I had the only vote.

MVP -- Shaquille O’Neal, Miami. No clear-cut winner, but he beats out Steve Nash, a terrific player who was a perfect fit with the talented Phoenix Suns. Shaq is a unique player who turned the moderately talented Heat into an elite team.

O’Neal’s body of work counts too. He has his faults, but it may be a long time until we see anyone as dominating.

Rookie of the Year -- Ben Gordon, Chicago. In real life, Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor will win, but rookies just don’t do what Gordon did, averaging 15 points off the bench and scoring in double figures in an amazing 21 fourth quarters.

Rookie I’d Want Most -- Dwight Howard, Orlando. At 19, he was No. 8 in the league in rebounding, No. 10 in shooting and No. 19 in blocked shots. As ESPN’s Bill Walton noted, you’d rather build a team around Howard at 6-10, 250, than LeBron James.

All-Time Greats By Their Second Season -- James, Cleveland, and Dwyane Wade, Miami. At 20, James was the fifth player to average 25 points, 7.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists after Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Wade averaged 24 points, was No. 4 in free-throw attempts at 9.9 a game and the No. 1 option on a team that had Shaq.

Defensive Player of the Year -- Ben Wallace, Detroit. Honorable mention: Marcus Camby, Denver, and Okafor, a comer.

Most Improved Player -- Bobby Simmons, Clippers. Let’s see if he remains a Clipper.

Sixth man -- Gordon.

All-NBA First Team: O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Wade and James. Second Team: Dirk Nowitzki, Tracy McGrady, Amare Stoudemire, Nash and Allen Iverson. Third Team: Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd.

Coach of the Year -- Mike D’Antoni, Phoenix. Honorable mention: Nate McMillan, Seattle, and George Karl, Denver.

Good Guy of the Year -- Rudy Tomjanovich, Lakers. For giving back $27 million of that $30 million.

I Knew I Shouldn’t Have Taken It Award -- Frank Hamblen, Lakers. He reorganized them on the fly so Bryant didn’t always have the ball but arrived just in time for their schedule crunch, whereupon the bottom dropped out and everyone turned on him. Special distinction for being forthright and funny, making him the only Laker executive to say anything realistic all season, even if it was harder to laugh by the end.

Jerry West Executive of the Year Award -- Pat Riley, Miami. It’s nice to keep O’Neal in the family, however extended. The Lakers donated Shaq, but Riley kept Wade out of the deal, then got the shooters they needed, notably Damon Jones.

Honorable mention: Jerry and Bryan Colangelo, Phoenix, and Rod Thorn, New Jersey. The Colangelos brought in the players D’Antoni turned loose. Thorn runs a lame-duck operation in a swamp but keeps thinking up moves.

Donald T. Sterling Crummy Executive of the Year Award -- Lakers.

In a team effort, Bryant decided to get away from O’Neal so Jerry Buss traded Shaq. Missing the changes in the game and the possibility his new team might be ordinary, Buss launched Showtime II and raised ticket prices.

Sending Mitch Kupchak out to address season-ticket holders in a “town meeting” shows they’re still in shock. The vigil outside Phil Jackson’s door shows they’re still desperate.

Honorable mention: Dan Gilbert, Cleveland; John Weisbrod, Orlando; George Shinn, New Orleans, and the faceless group that owns Atlanta.

In seven weeks as owner, Gilbert showed up and began firing people in a Mark Cuban-like display of self-importance, shaking up his new team in the middle of its stretch run.

Gilbert has one season to turn it back around before James is eligible to sign an extension. If James turns it down next summer, half the teams in the league will start saving cap room for 2008.

Weisbrod, the brash former hockey exec in his first season in basketball, said he was “out of the prima donna development business” when he traded McGrady before learning his new players, Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, had a quirk or two of their own. With Grant Hill back and the No. 1 pick in the draft, Weisbrod led the Magic to a No. 10 finish.

The new Atlanta owners needed a year to consummate their purchase, while last season’s directionless team went 28-54.

They took over just in time to go 13-69, suggesting no direction was better than their direction.

Shinn is a regular who has not only reduced his franchise to rubble but delivered it to yet another city that doesn’t want it.

Everybody Into the Pool Award, to the players who tanked until their teams had to move them -- (Tie) Carter, New Jersey, Baron Davis, Golden State and Glenn Robinson, San Antonio. Honorable mention: Latrell Sprewell, Minnesota, who couldn’t actually get his team to unload him, until now.

No Clue Award -- Robinson. Went home after losing his starting job in Philadelphia, sat out almost the entire season claiming an injury to keep getting his $12.1-million salary and announced upon his return, “I just go out and do what Glenn Robinson do.”

Best Spin Award -- Francis, Orlando. After teammate Stacey Augmon threw lotion on reporters, Francis told one: “Your skin looked a little flaky, anyway.”

Just Do It Award -- To Nike, for bringing out an entire Carmelo Anthony line, just in time to see ‘Melo arrested and appearing in a DVD with drug dealers.

Are You Still Here Award -- Atlanta. The Hawks have been out of it for so long, no one said a word about them or even noticed as they compiled the sixth worst season in NBA history.

Faces And Figures

Continuing his overhaul of the Cavaliers, Gilbert fired General Manager Jim Paxson, something else he told people back home in Detroit he would do months ago. Paxson said Gilbert actually wanted to fire Coach Paul Silas on March 8 -- a week after taking over -- but was talked out of it -- until March 20. Two weeks after that, Gilbert asked Paxson to resign, but Paxson convinced him it would be better to wait until after the season.... Whoever succeeds Paxson has to solve the Zydrunas Ilgauskas problem. He’s a free agent, doesn’t want to take a cut from his present $14.6-million salary, isn’t remotely worth it but would still leave a void if he left, and James wants him back.

Laker fans fleeing to the hills may have missed the real bad news from that 126-99 trashing they took at Golden State: The Warriors may have passed them by too. Said Jason Richardson about beating up on them: “They’re still the Lakers. Hey, you beat the Lakers, you beat the Lakers.” The Warriors, who started 16-40, finished 18-8 with Davis. Attendance, which had been at 15,882, went up to

17,349 for the last nine home games.

The shortest honeymoon award goes to first-year 76er Coach Jim O’Brien, a native Philadelphian who quickly turned off everyone in town. Center Samuel Dalembert said he preferred last season’s interim coach, Chris Ford, and his assistant, Alex English. “They knew how to use me as a player,” Dalembert said. “Without Coach English, I would never be able to improve my jumper from outside. That was all confidence. You have guys like Coach Ford who believe in you and give you the opportunity to play and expect you to produce. I feel I was used to the fullest by Coach Ford.”

Minnesota, another team the Lakers would have to pass to make the playoffs, started its long off-season with owner Glen Taylor calling the 2003 acquisition of Sprewell and Sam Cassell “a failed experiment.” Cassell responded, “That’s ... and I’ll tell him when I see him too.” A few days later, Cassell said he wanted to return: “I’ll talk it over with the powers above and express my feelings. There were some things that went on that I didn’t like and they’ll express their feelings about some things they didn’t like and come to a mutual agreement.”