deconstructing

Sporting News, The, March 22, 1999 by Ken Amos

Sumped in a chair staring at a can of Budweiser within arm's reach amid the self-imposed isolation of his office, Nelson softly offered, "We just don't want to see him embarrassed out there."

Soul searching

It has been a long, strange journey for Bradley.

"This is my sixth head coach in as many years," he says. "There's been a lot of different systems and a lot of different ideas out there; not to mention the assistant coaches and the other guys. I've always tried to be coachable. I'll try to utilize my strengths within that system.... There also might be things on the table that might not be so good, but I try to take the good and learn from them.

"The first couple of years of my career, I was not ready by any means to carry an organization; I'm still not. I'm the first to admit that. I just wanted to come into the league and learn at the league level. It's been other people who have said, `He's gonna be this or he's gonna do this.' I always thought, this is what I have, teach me what I need to become."

But that kind of thinking might sound like a broken record.

"Shawn has to just stay confident in his own abilities," says Dallas forward A.C. Green, who admits Bradley has been playing "tenacious basketball" this season. "So many guys have either given up on him or labeled him a certain type of player."

But after the Spurs debacle, Green sat in front of his locker and said Bradley can ill afford to still view himself as a project. "He can't see himself as a project player," Green says. "Shawn's been in this game long enough now; he needs to start coming into his own. I see it as a challenge to him, to become more of a man and accept that role and not listening to so much about the past."

Green, whose role is that of part-time floor general, cheerleader and stabilizing influence in the locker room, quickly adds, "Everyone needs a friend. Everyone needs someone to step up to get in their face, like it or not, to tell them the truth. That's the only way a lot of people respond as human beings and as players."

Bradley knows he may respond a bit differently than some players.

"I'm a person you've got to approach in a mental way first," he says. "If you can do that with me, then the other stuff will come."

He is not making excuses when he states that he hasn't exactly been surrounded by a Jazz-like supporting cast at any of his NBA stops.

"The team that I've been on that's had the most wins was only 30, and that's not a very good team when you're looking at an 82-game season."

Teammates sometimes don't look for Bradley in the offense, because he lacks a suitable go-to move or counter move, and they often don't always deliver the ball high enough to give him a successful opportunity to handle it.

"I certainly don't want to freeze Shawn out," says Mavs point guard Steve Nash. "If he improves offensively as well as he has been improving defensively, he could be a great player at both ends of the floor. I want to keep giving him a chance. If he's open or in a position where he can help us offensively, definitely, I'm going to go to him."