New Faces, Attitudes All Part Of Changing All-Star Scene

Don’t be fooled by the presence of Dana Barros, Tyrone Hill and Vin Baker. There are great players here for today’s 45th NBA All-Star Game.

Hall of Fame players, really. Phoenix’s Charles Barkley, Utah’s Karl Malone and John Stockton, Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon, Detroit’s Joe Dumars, New York’s Patrick Ewing, San Antonio’s David Robinson and the Bulls’ Scottie Pippen.

Check the Hall of Fame roster in 10 years and they’ll be there.

And 10 years after that, you can check for Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway, Seattle’s Shawn Kemp, Detroit’s Grant Hill and Charlotte’s Alonzo Mourning.

Don’t look for Dennis Rodman in the Hall, or even in the house. The San Antonio forward isn’t here today, even though he is one of the most dominant players in NBA history.

He’s not in the official rebounding statistics because of his 17-game hiatus earlier this season, but his average of 16.3 rebounds per game exceeds that of All-Star Dikembe Mutombo of Denver, the league leader, by more than three per game.

Barring another absence, Rodman should qualify and win his fourth straight rebounding title. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Moses Malone have won four straight rebounding titles. But Rodman isn’t here.

“The All-Star Game is for politicians to get together and eat steak and lobster,” explained Rodman. “You put makeup on these people and all of a sudden, what have you got? You’ve got Mary Kay selling cosmetics on the hardwood in Phoenix. They don’t want Dennis Rodman anywhere near something that good.”

Fan voting put Phoenix’s Dan Majerle and Golden State’s Latrell Sprewell, neither having great seasons, on the All-Star team, leaving off more deserving Western Conference guards like Portland’s Clyde Drexler and Rod Strickland, Dallas’ Jim Jackson and the Lakers’ Nick Van Exel.

No player here is older than Patrick Ewing. Only Olajuwon has been to the midseason classic more times. In fact, only Olajuwon and Barkley have been in the league longer.

“It’s funny, I can remember when Dr. J, Larry, Magic, Michael, all of us - all of them were here,” Ewing said as his ninth appearance in the AllStar Game approached. “Now we’re the old guys,” he added, referring to himself, Dumars, Olajuwon, Barkley, Karl Malone and the like.

Now Dumars, 31, and the 32-yearold Ewing are surrounded by the likes of O’Neal, Kemp, Gary Payton, Sprewell, Hardaway - multimillionaires as well, but also guys who grew up watching Ewing at Georgetown.

Ewing still is excited about the AllStar experience, but after 10 years, he is far more eager about winning the championship he has coveted for so long. Only three of the participants in today’s game - Dumars, Olajuwon and Pippen - own rings.

Another elder All-Star in search of a ring is Utah’s Malone. In some ways, the Mailman sounds like a codger who sits on his porch swing and rails against this blasted younger generation. He said many of today’s players have no respect for their elders or the game.

There’s just one problem in dismissing Malone as a grumpy old man. He’s not. This 31-year-old power forward, a reserve in today’s game, still is pounding players seven and eight years his junior into the hardwood. A man who shared the court - and a gold medal - with Magic, Bird and Jordan doesn’t like what he sees.

The defining moment came when Pippen, a veteran, refused to play the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game last season because he was not selected to take the final shot. That one unconscionable act seemed to crystallize the idea that the league is inhabited by players who care more about their fortunes than the team.

In the months since, rookie Glenn Robinson missed training camp with the Bucks because he sought a $100 million contract. New Jersey’s Derrick Coleman has questioned the Nets’ offense, skipped shootarounds and presented coach Butch Beard with a blank check because he had no intention of adhering to the club’s dress code.

Minnesota’s Isaiah Rider held a news conference to answer charges by coach Bill Blair that he needed to grow up. Golden State’s Sprewell has sulked and skipped practices since Chris Webber and Billy Owens were traded.

There are problems. But to pass this off as a Generation X thing is unfair.

Wilt Chamberlain once gave his coach an ultimatum: On game day, he would attend the game or the shootaround, but not both. Wilt skipped shootarounds. Those who believe Webber acted like a spoiled brat in his relationship with Warriors coach Don Nelson should remember that early in his career, Johnson blasted coach Paul Westhead’s system with the Lakers and suggested he wanted to be traded if it didn’t change.

Westhead was fired. Johnson stayed. In his day, Barkley was as brash as any of today’s bad boys.

“I think there are some attitude problems, but there always have been,” Washington general manager John Nash said. “They just haven’t gotten the media attention. I think it may be like the politicians of the ‘50s and ‘60s whose foibles were not written about.”

Flickering Suns

Last Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns’ Danny Manning wrecked his “good” knee, and then Wednesday, Wayman Tisdale, already out with separated rib cartilage, aggravated the injury when he sneezed while at his wife’s bedside as she gave birth to her fourth child. Recalled Tisdale: “We were both groaning and the doctors were like, `Who’s in labor here?”’

Manning, incidentally, got a nice jolt of perspective when his wife told his 3-year-old daughter something bad happened to Daddy when he suffered his knee injury.

“Did Daddy’s plane crash?” the girl wondered.

“Things could be a whole lot worse,” said Manning.

Why they’re the New Jersey Nots

Not much chance Kenny Anderson will stay with the Nets (the Knicks are very interested in him) when he becomes a free agent after next season. The locker room moaning has been that Anderson, despite good assists totals, is selfish.

Now it has broken into the open, courtesy of Nets backup Rex Walters.

“His greatest gift is his worst enemy,” said Walters. “He loves to bounce the ball. If he doesn’t want to hear the truth, too bad.

“Look at his stats. I’m not shooting the ball well (41 percent), but he’s shooting some grandiose 41 percent and he monopolizes the ball. He plays like he’s counting every assist.”