Off-court problems make for an unsettling summer - includes other basketball news - NBA Report - Column

It's almost 2 a.m. You are Allen Iverson, a national figure who expects parents to buy your overpriced sneakers for their kids. Your car is going more than 25 mph over the speed limit. There is marijuana in the car. There is a loaded gun in the car.

Hello?

Iverson might as well have been wearing a sign saying, "I'm an Incident Waiting to Happen." He has pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor drug charge, but even so, what was he thinking? Or was he even thinking? Isn't he supposed to be beyond this by now?

This isn't some virginal creature. He has been in trouble before. He should know better than to even allow himself to be put into such a position. But is anyone really surprised? Allen Inverson is insistent on doing it his way, and this is only the latest episode.

Iverson is not going to move in a different circle, no sir. His entourage is his entourage, and that's that. You want Allen, you get the whole package, from the devastating explosiveness and crossover dribble to the erratic shooting, turnovers and occasional chaos.

He has been different all along -- and it usually has worked. Iverson defied John Thompson and not only made Thompson reconfigure his offense, but also became the first notable Georgetown player or leave school early. Then, as a point guard, he was the first overall pick in the draft. The Sixers improved marginally, and Iverson was Rookie of the Year. He can do so many things, but can he play? Larry Brown likes to teach. Will Iverson learn and listen or simply do what he always has done -- what he wants to. Will he listen to anyone other than his sycophants?

The sad fact is Iverson is merely sharing headlines for boorish behavior this summer. He has several partners in shame: Marcus Camby, Cliff Robinson, Shawn Kemp and Greg Minor to name a few. They all are reminders that basketball players, despite their wealth, privilege and coddling, are no different from the rest of us. They just feel they are and that the rules don't apply to them.

Camby has had a real stellar summer. More charges have surfaced that he was the constant recipient of cash while at UMass. Camby also was stopped by police, and marijuana was confiscated. Of course, it wasn't his. Same with Cliff Robinson, a Trail Blazers free agent. Kemp is simply acting like a jerk.

Minor merely abandoned his three children and their mother. He put $40,000 down to buy a house for them in Louisville, then never followed through. The mother and children were evicted and moved in with the woman's mother. Minor, who has been ordered to increase his child-support payments, now wants to have a paternity test.

And where are the teams in all this? At least the 76ers professed concern. The Trail Blazers don't even bother anymore. They are so used to dealing with miscreants they might as well have their own 911 extension. Seattle is playing stall ball with Kemp, hoping he comes to his senses. The Celtics have done nothing to Minor, although coach Rick Pitino said Minor's life was in "shambles" and that "I feel like having Greg move in with me."

The league is getting plenty of headlines. If only they had anything to do with basketball.

Around the league

Vancouver is becoming the league's transfer station. Last summer, Jerry West unloaded Anthony Peeler and George Lynch to clear more cap room for Shaquille O'Neal. Now, the Pistons have done the same thing, sending disgruntled Otis Thorpe to the Grizzlies for a future No. 1 pick. Vancouver is taking on a veteran with a big contract. The Pistons are expected to acquire Chris Dudley and use Thorpe's money to pay him. Sounds like a good swap if you're a Pistons fan. They haven't had a center since Bill Laimbeer, and Dudley does all the grunt things coaches like.

The magic don't have salary-cap room. What they do have is a reputation for rewarding loyalty, and two players, Derek Strong and Gerald Wilkings, are going to test that reputation. Last month, Strong signed a one-year deal for $326,000, and Wilkings signed a nearly identical deal. Both could have gotten more elsewhere. That they stayed in Orlando indicates they expect the Magic to do for them what they did for Brian Shaw and Horace Grant: pay them down the road.

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