Daly: Time For 20-Second Shot Clock

Chuck Daly said it after the Philadelphia 76ers’ ragged 88-76 loss to the Washington Bullets recently in Landover, Md., where the only people running were the fans heading for the exits.

Daly, the Hall of Fame coach and current TNT-TBS basketball analyst, was discouraged with the proliferation of plodding, walk-it-up, disjointed-execution games he has been watching this season.

Wind down the NBA’s shot clock, Daly said. It’s the only way to force coaches to make their teams run, to put the scoring and entertainment back in the games.

Twenty-four seconds? When the league instituted the shot clock Oct. 30, 1954, 24 wasn’t exactly a scientifically created number.

Syracuse owner Danny Biasone and general manager Leo Ferris decided an average number of shots for two teams in a game was 120. They divided that into 2,880 seconds, the length of the game, and came up with 24.

“(Commissioner) David Stern will tell you we’ve grown globally, but we’re looking at basketball that is often not fun to watch or play,” Sixers coach Johnny Davis said. “There are some who would say moving the shot clock to 30 seconds would allow for better execution, but I would vote for a 20-second clock, giving us more up-and-down play, more creativity, more spontaneity. But I’m probably the only coach who will say that.”

Shaq-daddy loves L.A.

Throughout his four years in Orlando, Shaquille O’Neal found that being the center of attention could get tiring. The scrutiny grew really intense when word got out that his girlfriend was pregnant and O’Neal had no plans to marry her.

“I guess in a big city, they don’t really worry about stuff like that,” O’Neal said. “That’s how the world goes today. I know I’m not married, I know it’s against the norm to have a baby out of wedlock. But it’s all about being responsible, taking care of my child, loving my child.

“They also try to say, well, he was born out of wedlock, he’s trying to do the same thing his biological father did,” said O’Neal, who was raised by his mother and stepfather after his father abandoned the family.

“It was different. I’ll never take off. When my daughter gets older, you can ask her who her father is, she’s going to have a smile ear-to-ear and say, ‘My daddy is Shaq.’ If she could talk now, she’d say that now.”

His daughter, Taahirah, was born July 19, the day after he signed his contract with the Lakers.

Stockton lights it up

The Utah Jazz and John Stockton would rather win in workmanlike fashion than set NBA records for biggest comebacks.

The Jazz, two days removed from a 36-point comeback win against the Denver Nuggets, skipped the excitement Friday night at Salt Lake City and defeated the Clippers, 111-94.

Stockton, who was just 2-of-12 Wednesday, made up for it Friday by making 12 of 13 and leading all scorers with 28 points.

The Jazz are off to the best start in franchise history with an 11-2 record.

Sixers thump Magic

Derrick Coleman scored 19 points and Doug Overton gave Philadelphia a boost off the bench Friday night as the 76ers beat the Orlando Magic 100-91.

Allen Iverson had 14 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds for Philadelphia, but he was benched in favor of Overton in the third quarter when he committed five of his seven turnovers.

Overton played the entire fourth quarter and scored seven of his nine points in the period.