Bill Walton's Mailbag

Sporting News, The, Nov 29, 1999

(NBC Sports basketball analyst Bill Walton fields questions from MSNBC's wealth of NBA fans. To read his entire mailbag or to send in your questions, go to msnbc.com.)

Bill,

Do you think young and exciting players such as Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett will ever lead their teams to championships when Tim Duncan, a far more mature and consistent player, did it in his second year?

--Steve

For starters, remember it took Michael Jordan seven years to win his first title. So there's no time limit, no age limit and no guarantee you'll win one. Tim Duncan had the luxury of playing with David Robinson, Avery Johnson and Sean Elliott when he won the NBA championship last season. Also, because of the way the NBA draft works, most of the top young players usually go to the worst teams in the league.

But the Spurs were a good team coming off a bad season when they drafted Duncan first overall in 1997. Robinson missed most of the previous season with an injury, and San Antonio won 20 games. Remember, too, Duncan stayed in college four years, so he was older and more mature when he came into the league. Iverson left after two years at Georgetown, and Bryant and Garnett came out of high school.

Bill,

Besides opening up room to move for guards, how do you feel the new hand-checking rule will affect the game? Also, do you think referees, in calling this foul, will have to reciprocate and call carrying the ball and traveling more strictly?

--Aidan Campbell

The rules are so heavily in favor of the offensive players, the officials will have to start making those reciprocal calls just to give the defense a chance. The biggest question mark is, what are they going to do with the power guys like Shaq, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, who make a living backing their way to the basket? You have to be able to play some kind of reasonable defense on those guys. Basketball is ultimately a game of skill, timing and position, and as a defender, if you have position and they're going to allow the offensive guy to just run over you, then you have an inherent sense of unfairness about the game.