ESPN.com - Doo finally does get the respect

ESPN.com: NBA

Friday, October 13, 2000
Doo finally does get the respect

By Marc Stein
Special to ESPN.com

He was about as close to unguardable as one gets, defenders say to this day, no matter what teams tried.

His unmistakable shooting stroke was impossibly inimitable, too, even though kids on playgrounds everywhere tried.

Yet somehow, it's only now that the unguardable, inimitable Bob McAdoo might finally become unforgettable. Basketball's shortsighted historians -- and there are several, sadly -- can't overlook a Hall of Famer, can they?

And that's exactly what he'll be, where he'll be, as of Saturday, when McAdoo joins Isiah Thomas in the 2000 Class of Hoops Hall inductees in Springfield, Mass. At last does "The Doo" claim the status he has always craved and deserved, as a never-before-seen big man who could face up from outside and power into the lane when the defense got too close ... and make more than half his unorthodox shots from wherever they were flung.

"It just validates your career, really," said McAdoo, six seasons into his new life as a Miami Heat assistant coach to Pat Riley. "You could have won all the awards and the championships, but the Hall of Fame is the lasting thing. It's forever. It's there for everyone to see -- and I have young kids that know nothing about my career."

Plenty of big kids could also do with a review of McAdoo's accomplishments. Until his Hall reservation was booked, after McAdoo fell short in his first-ballot attempt, it wasn't a stretch to suggest that the 6-9 scoring machine was the most underrated player of all-time. Or at least the most unappreciated.

McAdoo is one of just 21 MVPs in the 45-season history of the award, the league's 1974-75 Most Valuable Player for my beloved Buffalo Braves. He is also the only one of those 21 MVPs who wasn't selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list, or whatever they call that monstrosity. Look it up at your next opportunity: Bob Pettit, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Wes Unseld, Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dave Cowens, Bill Walton, Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Karl Malone and Shaquille O'Neal are all there.

No Doo, though.

	“	I don't get as upset anymore ... but I bet if you asked the people that voted, they'd say, 'Oh, we forgot about that guy.' ”

This doesn't exactly make up for that snub, because nothing can. McAdoo belongs in the Top 50 and won't get a second chance, like he did with the Hall. But at least he's back on a pedestal, some 15 years since his last NBA game. Perhaps, as a result, word will eventually re-circulate that McAdoo was the first center in the sport's history to consistently do what seemingly every modern center prefers.

Shoot from the outside.

"You still want to be in the Top 50," McAdoo said. "I don't get as upset anymore ... but I bet if you asked the people that voted, they'd say, 'Oh, we forgot about that guy.' "

A TOUGH WEEK

One of the most joyous weeks of Bob McAdoo's life has also been one of the saddest.

As with every member of the Miami Heat organization, McAdoo is constantly thinking about center Alonzo Mourning and the ramifications of Mourning's mysterious kidney ailment.

McAdoo, a Heat assistant coach to Pat Riley, acknowledged that Mourning will be on his mind Saturday during induction ceremonies into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. McAdoo is one of six inductees, along with Pacers coach and legendary Pistons guard Isiah Thomas, Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, long-time high school coach Morgan Wootten, Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton and Danny Biasone, inventor of the shot clock.

"I'll enjoy my weekend, but I'm feeling sad for Alonzo," McAdoo said. "It's a real downer for him and all of the coaches, and all we can do is hope it's not as bad as they're reporting it is."

It happened throughout McAdoo's career. He was a Rookie of the Year in Buffalo, under ESPN's own Dr. Jack Ramsay, and added three consecutive scoring titles and that MVP trophy in the next three seasons. How deadly was McAdoo's jumper? In 1973-74, not his MVP year, he shot 54.7 percent from the floor. It wasn't long after that Ramsay predicted McAdoo could blossom into the greatest big man ever seen. To which Ramsay's never-shy star replied: "I think I'm the greatest already."

In 14 seasons overall, McAdoo shot 50.3 percent on field goals and racked up 18,787 points. Problem was, McAdoo also collected jerseys, via trades that took him from Buffalo to New York to Boston to Detroit and to New Jersey ... with each successive deal swelling the controversy that always followed him.

He couldn't play defense, they said. He couldn't win, either. Not until a life-changing move to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Eve 1981, with McAdoo unexpectedly accepting and flourishing in a reserve role, did the "troublemaker" label fade. He wound up scoring two championship rings as a participant in four straight NBA Finals with LA -- alongside a vivacious youngster named Magic Johnson who, like so many hoop dreamers of his generation, talked about pretending to be McAdoo in his games growing up. Ultimately, the titles helped McAdoo shed the only-a-scorer whispers that now plague Dominique Wilkins.

"There's nothing you can do about what people say," said McAdoo, 49. "I was young and didn't understand and took it all personally. I'd probably take it personally today. Thank goodness I made it through and was finally able to get with a good team. Things changed overnight."

There was still time for them to change again, which is how McAdoo wound up forgotten again. After a brief post-LA stint with Philadelphia, he bolted for Italy at age 35 and wound up playing six more seasons. Multiple championships in Milan barely registered on NBA radar, and there hasn't been much noise surrounding McAdoo's coaching career, either. He works quietly at Riley's side, mostly tutoring the Heat's big men, while saying he "hasn't really thought about" whether pursuing a head-coaching job is his next challenge.

What McAdoo does know for sure is that, in his heart, he'll be representing two NBA franchises at Saturday's proceedings. He played for seven teams in those 14 seasons, but dreams of sporting a jersey in Springfield with "Buffalo showing on the front and LA on the back."

Surviving Braves fans certainly wish for the same. The team left Buffalo to become the Clippers in 1978, the same year my family left the Buffalo area to become Southern Californians, but the Braves never stopped being my favorite team. Not an easy thing to admit when someone brings up how Ramsay, McAdoo, Moses Malone and Adrian Dantley were let loose in quick succession instead of molded into a powerhouse.

Sadly, there isn't much Braves memorabilia or video floating around anymore -- roughly none -- in a league that still does a pitiful job of promoting its past. Here's hoping McAdoo's induction (fingers crossed) merits a Braves mention or two on SportsCenter.

"The league was here before Magic, Bird and Michael," McAdoo said. "Sometimes, people should remember that."

Marc Stein, who covers the NBA for The Dallas Morning News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.