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NBA’s Future Remains Bright, Despite What You Might Have Read

By Marc J. Spears, AOL BlackVoices ColumnistThe Nov. 19 fight between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans was played on everything from ESPN to The Weather Channel. Kobe Bryant's drama on and off the court owned the headlines for months at a time. Latrell Sprewell said that millions of dollars weren't enough to feed his family. And if the NBA and the Players Union don't work out a new collective bargaining agreement this summer, another lockout could be on the horizon.

Through all this drama, NBA Commissioner David Stern is still smiling. Why? The NBA's most positive and promotional time of the season is about to take place during the 2005 All-Star Weekend in Denver. And considering how young many of the NBA's top stars are, Stern believes that his league will recover from the hits and be stronger in the future. "It couldn’t be in better basketball shape," Stern said. "Despite the hit that our players' reputation has taken, I say to you that Allen Iverson has become a senior statesman. Look at his Olympic experience.

Then go down the list.

Yao (Ming), Tracy (McGrady), Tim (Duncan), Kevin (Garnett), Kobe, Grant (Hill), Ray Allen, LeBron (James), Shaq (O’Neal). "These are good people. Then when you go down the rookies and the sophomores, you got a complete sense of what is going on here in terms of the transformation of our league."

To get an even better look at just how young the NBA's stars are, look at the All-Star rosters. The over-30 crowd is sparse, consisting of O’Neal (32), Hill (32), Steve Nash (31) and Ben Wallace (30).

The 20-somethings comprise the bulk of the rosters with Allen Iverson (29), Antawn Jamison (28), Jermaine O'Neal (26), Ray Allen (29), Tim Duncan (28), Manu Ginobili (27), Kevin Garnett (28), Vince Carter (28), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (29) and Paul Pierce (27). But much of the NBA's best and brightest are still young'uns: Bryant (26), McGrady (25), James (20), Dwyane Wade (23), Yao (24), Amare Stoudemire (22), Shawn Marion (26), Rashard Lewis (25), Dirk Nowitzki (26) and Gilbert Arenas (23).

"Shaquille O’Neal at the age of 32 is the grand old man of the All-Star game. Shaq and Grant," Stern said. When did Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) play in his last All-Star game? Karl Malone?" Well, Abdul-Jabbar played in his last All-Star game at 41 years old in 1989. Malone’s swan song was at 38 years old in 2002.

On the flip side, James will be the youngest player ever to take part in an NBA All-Star game other than Bryant. Bryant, born Aug. 23, 1978, played in the 1998 NBA All-Star game at age 19. "King James," born Dec. 30, 1984,will be 20 years old when he takes part in the game. Prior to those two, the record holder was Magic Johnson, who was four months older than James when he participated in his first All-Star Game in 1980. That's a pretty good reason to be optimistic.

James also will be playing in the Rookie Challenge and possibly enter the dunk contest. The Sprite Rising Stars dunk contest is also expected to include Stoudemire and two rookies in Atlanta's Josh Smith and New Orleans' J.R. Smith. During NBA All-Star Saturday, the dunk contest has always received the best ratings of all the contests. James represents the new era of NBA players and is the leader of a group nicknamed the "Young Gunnas." And the nickname means hoops, not guns. This up-and-coming crew includes James, Stoudemire, Wade and future All-Star Carmelo Anthony (20). The four came up with the nickname for their crew while teammates for the 2004 USA Olympic basketball team.

The Young Gunnas have some other youngsters trying to come up behind them as well. Don't forget Chris Bosh. Or such rookies as Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Josh Smith, Ben Gordon or Luol Deng. The college and international ranks is also loaded with young talent that will soon be on its way to the NBA as well.

"I’ve had owners complaining to me that their players were not selected for the Rookie Challenge," Stern said. "When one sees what's been going on this year… To see Dwight Howard, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith, and of course the sophomores with Dwayne Wade and LeBron and Luke Ridnour and Carmelo and Chris Bosh… To the effect that we're the basketball league we are, that part of the league is in great shape -- both the existing All-Stars and the future All-Stars." The state of the NBA could definitely be better right now. But in order to overcome everything, all that is needed is some good basketball. And considering the stable of young talent the NBA has now and will have, Stern has reason to be optimistic that everything will be just fine in time and will be reminded about it when watching the play during All-Star weekend.

Marc J. Spears is the NBA beat writer for the Denver Post and is a regular contributor to AOL BlackVoices. His column appears every other Tuesday.