All-Star selections used to come so easily to Shaquille O’Neal that he wasn’t even sure what the process was for picking reserves.
The head coaches in each conference vote for them, and O’Neal wants the ones in the Western Conference to consider him.
“Hopefully I get voted in, but I’m not going to do any campaigns,” O’Neal said. “I’m not going to put on a cowboy hat and I’m not going to do none of that.”
The Phoenix center’s play on the court might be good enough.
Feeling healthy again, O’Neal is enjoying one of his best stretches in years. He scored 21 points Wednesday in New York for his ninth 20-point outing in the last 15 games, after he reached 20 only eight times all last season. He was averaging 21.9 points in his last 14 games.
them I wanted to be active. They’ve been coming to me and I’ve been producing like I’ve been producing my whole career.”
Perhaps not confident with his conditioning, O’Neal revealed that he told former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni not to go to him as much last season after Miami traded the center to Phoenix, and just let him try to fit in.
Now O’Neal is back to wanting to stand out.
“I think if you watch him play, physically he’s as good as I’ve seen him the last five or six years,” D’Antoni said. “You go to where you have success and I think they’re doing a good job of getting him the ball, and I don’t think Shaq’s ever had a problem scoring wherever he is if he plays well.”
O’Neal was selected to 14 straight All-Star games, tying Jerry West and Karl Malone for the most ever, before he wasn’t chosen during his injury-plagued 2007-08 season. His strong play over the last month gives him a chance to be back on his home floor for the Feb. 15 game.
“If I get voted in, thank you,” he said. “If not, I understand.”
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ROAD TRIP: Friday’s game against Phoenix marked Charlotte’s league-high 26th home game, setting up a brutal closing stretch of 24 of 39 on the road, including two West Coast trips and 10 sets of back-to-back games.
he compares it to his days as a player in the ABA.
Brown recently told a story of how his Oakland Oaks moved to Washington for the 1969-70 season.
“They kept our schedule – the West Coast schedule,” Brown said. “So we played a Saturday home game in Washington and flew across the country and played a Sunday afternoon game in Los Angeles about four times.
“Now that was when you really lied to your legs.”
Brown said they also played a handful of “home” games in San Jose, Calif., during that season.
“So instead of playing Saturday and Sunday in Oakland and San Jose, we were playing Saturday in Washington and Sunday in San Jose,” Brown said. “It was amazing.”
Teams sometimes played four games in four nights in that fledgling league. Players had to fly commercial, carry their own bags and even wash their own jerseys.
“And some guys didn’t do a very good job,” Brown recalled. “I remember guys would shower with their uniforms on and scrub them down.
Brown said one of the worst culprits was teammate and future NBA coach Doug Moe.
“Doug had a red, white and blue uniform,” Brown said, “that turned one color.”
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e of the Year honors right now.
Rose, the No. 1 pick in the draft after one year at Memphis, ranked second among rookies in scoring at 16.8 points through Thursday’s games. The Grizzlies’ O.J. Mayo, the No. 3 pick, was first with 19.1.
Rose was first in assists with 6.3. He was playing more than 37 minutes per game and averaging a 2.51 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Miami’s Michael Beasley, the second pick, was fourth among rookies in scoring at 13.6 points per game.
“There’s not even a conversation, as far as I’m concerned,” Del Negro said. “I think Mayo’s having a great year, and I think Beasley is an incredibly talented player and can score the basketball and is playing well.
“But no one’s played at the level Derrick’s played at from start to this point – not even close, in my opinion.”
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GETTING SETTLED: As the Oklahoma City Thunder got off to one of the worst starts in NBA history, coach Scott Brooks could see plenty of things on video that he needed to fix. And no one on the team was a bigger target than himself.
I could have done as a coach different.”
Brooks was an assistant coach for five-plus seasons before being called on to replace the fired P.J. Carlesimo after Oklahoma City’s 1-13 start. He also went 1-13 in his first 14 games, but has the Thunder playing better of late.
Oklahoma City had a recent stretch of five wins in a nine-game span and won back-to-back games for the first time this season against the Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons last week.
Brooks played in the NBA for 11 seasons, winning a championship with the Houston Rockets. He then served as assistant coach for the five-plus seasons before being named the interim head coach.
Brooks said he still keeps in touch – mostly by text message – with Carlesimo, who’s living in Seattle again.
“Initially, it was just all kinds of odd emotions of taking over for P.J. He’s a good man, and you don’t anticipate taking over for your buddy in the middle of the season,” Brooks said. “But that’s the NBA. It did happen.”
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BIG DRAW: The chance to watch LeBron James face off against Kobe Bryant drew a big television audience during Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.
The game was watched by more than 3.6 viewers, the most on TNT since the Lakers opened the 2003-04 season against Dallas.
s had 23 points and nine rebounds. The Lakers beat the Cavaliers 105-88 at home.
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AP Sports Writers Mike Cranston in Charlotte, N.C., and Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City and AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report.
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