Overrated and underrated - professional basketball players - Abstract

Sporting News, The, Feb 1, 1999 by Jeff Ryan

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"He's not the prototype center because he can run the floor," says Hall of Fame coach and ESPN analyst Jack Ramsay. "He has the potential to be a good one."

Latrell Sprewell, Knicks. All right, so you can't get his choking of Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo out of your mind. That's the point. That ugly incident is anyone thinks of when they hear Sprewell's name, and yes, that's all his fault. But the misbehavior and apparent lack of remorse detract from an outstanding all-around game. Sprewell is a 20-point scorer and particularly underrated defender who never grabbed a headline until he grabbed his coach's neck.

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Rik Smits, Pacers. He has been plagued by injuries and eclipsed on his team by the spotlight-luring Reggie Miller, but the soft-handed Smits is a key ingredient on a Pacers team that was five points from reaching the NBA Finals last year and is an early favorite to get there in '99.

"He's not a flashy center, and he's playing at a time when there are many good big men--Olajuwon, Robinson, Shaq," Rivers says. "Smits is never mentioned in that top tier, but he belongs there because he's probably the best shooting big man out of all of them."

Rod Strickland, Wizards. "He may be the best penetrator in the league," Ramsay says. "If you're looking for a play-making point guard who penetrates and creates, you can't do much better. Strickland's underrated, though, because of his attitude."

Strickland hasn't just burned bridges in his 11-year career, he has nuked them. Last year, he was making more noise with his play than with his mouth, but then he went and got into a fight with teammate Tracy Murray. Despite leading the NBA in assists, Strickland failed to make the All-Star team. Recognition may eventually come, but it will have to come fast. He turns 33 in July.

Rasheed Wallace, Trail Blazers. Unless your name is Bill Walton, you're never going to command much media attention playing in a small market like Portland. Just ask Clyde Drexler.

East Coast writers have all but forgotten Wallace since he left Washington for Portland in '96, but they should pay attention. He possesses a get-in-your-face, rattle-the-rim, talk-some-trash style, and he's not intimidated by anybody. He has shown continuous improvement in his three-year career.

Says Hall of Famer and Celtics TV analyst Tom Heinsohn, "Wallace has exceptional skills, but the most impressive thing about him is that he plays very hard every night."

Jayson Williams, Nets. You're looking at a prime example of why New Jersey will never lure top. free agents to the Continental Airlines Arena. If Williams didn't deliver entertaining quotes, he wouldn't get any press.

For a while, even coach John Calipari didn't recognize Williams' value, letting a personal distaste for Williams' candor color his opinion of the player's worth.

Williams is a tenacious rebounder (13.5 over the past two seasons), a positive locker-room influence and one of the league's hardest workers. If he played just eight miles to the east--Madison Square Garden--he'd be one of Gotham's most beloved sports heroes.

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Overrated and underrated - professional basketball players - Abstract

Sporting News, The, Feb 1, 1999 by Jeff Ryan

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