I said it then, and I'll stick with my gut: When the Kings were 13-14 a year ago to the day, the worst thing that happened was Paul Westphal's decision to use Tyreke Evans in a 1-4 scheme in consecutive games against the Cavs and the Lakers. Putting a rookie up against LeBron James and Kobe Bryant? You kidding me? Blown away then, still blown away now. The Lakers' game particularly grates: the Kings were leading by seven midway into overtime, running, dunking, defending, passing, the crowd going crazy, while Tyreke was on the bench with five fouls. During a timeout, Westphal inserted Evans back into the lineup and started calling isolation plays, and of course, the Kings lost the momentum and the game. (You don't want to know what the Lakers' staff privately said about that strategy). I simply can't imagine Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, among others, putting a rookie in that situation, and especially can't imagine them encouraging/tolerating the one-on-one play. For those who might have forgotten: Sloan being hard on Deron Williams, Jackson barking at Jordan and later Kobe, Brown yelling at Allen Iverson, Pop pulling a young Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, scolding them, then sending them back into the game 20 seconds later.
For those who disagree, sorry. Actually, no apologies. My perspective is influenced by decades of covering Magic, Bird, D.J., Jordan, Pippen, Stockton, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Mark Price, Kevin Johnson, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Michael Cooper, Bill Walton, Norm Nixon, etc., etc. As the sticky-fingered Malone learned during his experiences with the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona - the ball rarely touched the floor on fastbreaks during practices and games - if the ball doesn't move, you aren't going to win. Basketball isn't baseball. It's all about co-dependency. The rules change, but the basics remain the same. Hello, Kings!
And by the way: my personal fave Charles Barkley was the best player in Barcelona, partly because if he didn't pass the ball, his Hall of Fame peers would have strangled him (figuratively speaking, of course).
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