On Basketball | The money's dirty, and a 17-year-old kid will pay
Now they are after our kids. The vultures who devour ethics, who treat morals like a cumbersome chore, have now descended from the ranks of college sports straight to high-school sports. In Akron, Ohio, a 17-year-old basketball prodigy named LeBron James will be arriving at a big screen near you. As close as he can get, actually, on your television sets, via pay-per-view - a first, and a new low.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/13/2002 07:06 AM EST)

Stephen A. Smith | Michigan actions are the height of hypocrisy
According to the University of Michigan, the Fab Five never existed. Those five freshmen did not participate in the national championship games in 1992 and 1993. Because Chris Webber and three others who later played for Michigan allegedly accepted money from a booster named Ed Martin, any knowledge of Webber's existence, along with that of his cohorts from college, has been disavowed.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/10/2002 07:37 AM EST)

On Basketball | MacCulloch is diplomatic in Brown's doghouse
Todd MacCulloch has heard that he needs to play better. He has heard that he is in terrible shape. His feet are aching, and there is plenty of room for excuses, but his character, as well as his affection and respect for 76ers coach Larry Brown, won't allow for such alibis.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/08/2002 06:05 AM EST)

On Basketball | Defiant Chaney has earned right to remain
"I'd much rather find myself in a situation [where] I'm looked at for who I am and what I am. I'm going to be that way until the day I die."
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/07/2002 06:42 AM EST)

Stephen A. Smith | Celtics need a point guard before it's too late
They are not making shots. They can't seem to run a simple pick-and-roll. Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker appear to be shells of themselves. Vin Baker has been just about what everyone expected him to be.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/03/2002 11:01 AM EST)

On Basketball | Knicks are prepared to lose and are showing it
They gave their coach a one-year contract extension, essentially absolving Don Chaney from blame for anything that happens this season. For lackluster performances, perpetual losing, and a level of apathy unseen in Gotham in nearly two decades, the New York Knicks' brass confirmed what everyone in basketball knew in the first place: The problem lies with the front office, not with the 56-year-old coach.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 11/02/2002 07:14 AM EST)

On Basketball | League is looking like a Western world
Rick Fox and Doug Christie got into a fight in a preseason game on Friday, and it was headline news all weekend. Neither of those two is perceived as a player who will have much say-so about who the next NBA champions will be. So why the fuss?
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/29/2002 06:03 AM EST)

Stephen A. Smith | Team executives lack guts to make players pay
The NBA did something in the last few days that the New York Knicks have failed to do in quite some time: display some degree of intelligence and guts.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/20/2002 01:27 PM EST)

On Basketball | Brown's battered new Sixers looking too much like old ones
It's just the preseason - let's get that out of the way first. The games don't count. The scores really don't matter. And neither do the injuries, unless they linger well into the regular season.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/16/2002 06:12 AM EST)

On Basketball | Bucks' Allen has put the ball firmly in his court
Evidently, George Karl was not at fault last season. Neither were Sam Cassell, Ray Allen nor most of the rest of the bunch in Milwaukee. None of them had much to do with the downward spiral that culminated in the Bucks' losing 14 of their last 19 regular-season games and missing the playoffs just one season after advancing to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the 76ers.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/14/2002 05:30 AM EST)

On Basketball | 76ers need a locker-room cop - namely Oakley
There's no need to go into how much the 76ers have changed. It's obvious that their roster has been revamped, evident that they believe it has been changed for the better, and predictable that they will spend the season attempting to convince anyone with eyes and ears to believe what they say.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/06/2002 02:28 PM EST)

On Basketball | Development of bench players key for the Sixers
While coach Larry Brown was jubilantly enjoying the sunshine of Malibu this summer, waiting to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Memorial Hall of Fame last week, 76ers general manager Billy King was busy doing what GMs should do during the off-season: getting players who can play.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/03/2002 05:20 AM EST)

On Basketball | Worry about other 76ers, not Iverson
Either many people in this town are clueless, or they are addicted to talk about Allen Iverson, or there was simply nothing else for them to do on a gorgeous late-September afternoon.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 10/02/2002 05:39 AM EST)

Stephen A. Smith | League saddled with a summer that wasn't so hot
Image is everything! The NBA has been telling us this, at least subliminally, for years. From marketing schemes that involved Michael Jordan and Grant Hill to Friday's Hall of Fame ceremonies, the league with the czar known as David Stern has done such a fantastic job of selling the game, one would think that everything connected with it is beautiful.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 09/29/2002 12:44 PM EST)

On Basketball | A classy coach gets his reward
The resume has been seen, but rarely studied in Philadelphia, because far too many have chosen to focus on the obvious. There are those who observed Larry Brown's magnificent coaching job with the 76ers two seasons ago and still asked, "Where's our championship?" There are others who look at his illustrious 19 years of coaching in the NBA and say, "Where's his championship?" Called good by some, great by others, the preeminent basketball orchestrator in Philadelphia has been called many names since...
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 09/28/2002 07:05 AM EST)

On Basketball | Brown's accomplishments: Bigger than ever imagined
As ceremonies for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame beckon, inching ever-so-close to tipping off yet another year destined for hoop annals, it is appropriate for all of us to take a moment to reflect on the illustrious career of 76ers coach Larry Brown.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 09/25/2002 05:25 AM EST)

On Basketball | No legal fouls, but lots of harm: Many culprits in Iverson case
So the charges against Allen Iverson that had us all in an uproar were dropped after all. It had already been determined on July 29 that no jail time would be served by Iverson for the four felony accounts and eight other counts leveled against him.
( By Stephen A. Smith, Inquirer Columnist, 09/13/2002 06:12 AM EST)