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"They've got only one guy left from when I was there," said Edwards, the New Jersey Nets' injured shooting guard who played in Miami from 1989 to 1993. "Keith Askins is all that's left."
All that's left from Hurricane Riley, that is.
Since Pat Riley blew into Miami, exercising the total control Dave Checketts would never give him, he has done more than merely shuffle the deck twice in three and a half months. He has thrown out two decks and now is working on his third different set.
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"Keith has to be pretty nervous," Gilliam said. "I'm sure every day he walks into that locker room, he checks to see if his name is still above his locker."
But the only nameplate that really matters in Miami is the one located closest to the trainer's room, at the very end of Heat locker room. In all the moves that Riley that made last week, the owner of that particular locker did not change. And for Riley to deliver on his promise to build the championship team he never had in New York, it can't be removed. It belongs to Alonzo Mourning.
"It all begins with Alonzo," Riley said. "And it ends with him."
Which is why Riley suddenly is very fearful of his old team. They might not be able to win on the court these days, but the Knicks now have the resources and the plan to bury Riley in the Miami sand. And it's not like they don't have a motive.
If they steal Mourning, they'll get back at Riley for flirting with the Heat while still under contract, then walking out on the Knicks before his five-year deal expired. This summer, they can wipe out his program before it ever starts. Checketts & Co. wouldn't love that too much.
"Yes, it would be devastating to lose Alonzo," Riley said. "But I trust the fact that Alonzo is happy in Miami and he has expressed that to me. He's part of the spirit of (Miami owner) Mickey Arison. We're trying to build a team from the ground up."
Fact is, Riley had to rebuild this club a second time since November so that Mourning has a reason to put down roots in South Beach. If Riley had not acquired Tim Hardaway, Walt Williams, Chris Gatling and Ty Corbin, Mourning would have been better off going back to his old Charlotte team on July 1. Any team with Kenny Anderson, Glen Rice and Larry Johnson had to look better than a Miami team that had won only 13 of its previous 36 games and was wallowing in ninth place when Riley called for a new deck.
So, while Riley talks about making the playoffs as the No. 1 reason he made the deals, he got to the heart of the matter when Mourning's name came up.
"Alonzo is pleased with the acquisition of the players," Riley said. "He sees that we're trying to build something, and we're not standing pat."
Playing with Hardaway, Mourning will see that teams no longer can collapse on him en masse. Hardaway might be a step slow from the days when he could beat anyone off the dribble with the most lethal crossover move in the game, but he still is better than Bimbo Coles on his best day.
Whether Hardaway wants to play defense and can play the point under Riley's severe restrictions, those are legitimate questions. But there is no question that Mourning should like his new team better than the old one, maybe even enough to reject a potential seven-year, $105 million offer from the Knicks.
"Pat understands how he had to reshape his club, and that's what he did with those deals," Nets executive VP Willis Reed said. "Now I think Mourning will stay in Miami."
If Mourning stays and Riley re-signs Hardaway and Williams, both free agents July 1, the Heat still might have enough money to bring in a free-agent power forward. That player is rumored to be Indiana bruiser Dale Davis, who would be a perfect compliment to Mourning. Davis doesn't turn 27 until next month and will bang with anyone.
The key to the Sacramento deal was that Arison opened his wallet. The Carnival Cruise Lines boss agreed to pay the off the entire $6.2 million owed to Kevin Gamble, who went with Owens to the Kings. Meanwhile, Riley gets to either re-sign Williams or add his money ($2.4 mil) to the millions he would have for another perimeter scorer.
But Williams definitely wants to stay.
"With Alonzo and Tim, we've got a great nucleus," Williams said. "Then, you throw in Pat Riley. You can't beat that."
But only if Alonzo Mourning doesn't move his nameplate to the Knicks' locker room.
Magic undressed by Bulls
Scottie Pippen misses 13 of 18 shots, and Michael Jordan has a virus. But the Bulls still pound the Magic by 20 points as Toni Kukoc hits six 3-pointers in a stretch of 2:20 of the game clock in the second and fourth quarters and scores 24 points in only 23 minutes. That's a scary thought for anyone who still believes the Bulls can't win 70.
"This was a big game for us in terms of playoff jockeying," said Jordan after the first Bulls-Magic encounter since Dec. 13 -- a span of 73 days. "They came at us with their full team, and we got the job done. Now the onus is on them to do the same thing when we go down there."
That will be April 7 -- the final time the two teams play this regular season. Maybe in that game Shaquille O'Neal will be able to keep his pants on. When his drawstring broke in United Center in fourth quarter, he kept playing and had to hold pants up with one hands as he ran down the floor. Eventually, he had to leave to get a new pair of shorts.
"Someone was pulling on my shorts," he said. "The drawstring didn't break by itself. You tell me."
No one had to tell Horace Grant what would have happened had Shaq stayed in the game.
"A few more steps, and he would have lost them," Grant said. "Then, he would have been on bloopers."
Shaq & Co. still made the blooper tape with their inept second-half play when they scored only 38 points.
The Nets are going to regret their actions on trading-deadline day if P.J. Brown walks out after the season.
Tip-ins
The Nets backed out of deal with Orlando, which offered a No. 1 pick, free-agent-to-be Jeff Turner (with a $1-mil salary hole) or a choice of three players -- Brooks Thompson, David Vaughn or Donald Royal. That's a nice package for a guy who can't shoot. But the Nets wanted a front-line player in return. Crazy. ... Money for nothing: the Knicks are paying "most, if not all" of Charles Smith's contract, totaling $16 mil, according to NBA sources. The amount is highly unusual, but not the act. ... David Falk's money wish-list for his free-agents: Michael Jordan, $25-33 million per season; Alonzo Mourning, $15 mil per; Dikembe Mutombo, $14 mil per; Juwan Howard, $13 mil per; Kenny Anderson, $8 mil per. The last two might really be reaches. As one Eastern Conference exec said: "New Jersey's recent success is going to reflect negatively on Anderson. He won't get nearly that much." ... Detroit was willing to take unhappy Kenny Smith off the Rockets' hands and offered a Mark Macon-Eric Leckner package, including picking up the rest of Macon's salary. But Houston wanted Mark West in return, killing the deal. ... This is a revised list of so-called "early terminators," players who can opt out from long-term deals and become free agents July 1: Miami's Walt Williams, Boston's Greg Minor, Cleveland's Michael Cage, Denver's Bryant Stith, Detroit's Allan Houston, Indiana's Dale Davis, Clippers' Brian Williams, Nets' Armon Gilliam, Magic's Shaquille O'Neal and Horace Grant, Utah's Adam Keefe, Washington's Juwan Howard. Not a bad collection. Vin Baker, who some teams think is part of group, won't be free for another three seasons.
The heat is getting worse on Bucks VP-coach Mike Dunleavy, who isn't expected to survive past the season. In L.A., Bill Fitch might join a distinguished list of coaches who got axed by owner Donald Sterling before their two-year anniversary. The others are Bob Weiss, Larry Brown, Mike Schuler, Don Casey and Gene Shue. ... Portland's refusal to deal Rod Strickland is a bad sign for coach P.J. Carlesimo. If Carlesimo was staying beyond this season, Strickland would have been traded -- to Denver for Jalen Rose and Reggie Williams. Something to remember: Sonics coach George Karl, rumored to be Carlesimo's successor, is a Strickland fan. ... Washington, knowing it will have to break the bank for Juwan Howard, took a pass on Walt Williams. The Bullets also turned down chance for Billy Owens.
Mitch Lawrence, NBA columnist for the New York Daily News, writes a weekly league notebook for ESPNET SportsZone.
