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Coles gone for the season?

Feb 26, 2002 4:52 AM EST

The Morning Journal is reporting that it looks as if point guard Bimbo Coles will miss the remainder of the season after he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic.

''I went over there (to the hospital) this morning,'' Cavs coach John Lucas said. ''It's more than likely he won't be back (this year).''

Cavaliers center Chris Mihm also had an MRI on his knee yesterday, but the diagnosis doesn't seem to be as bad.

''He's hurting, so I need to give him some rest,'' Lucas said. ''He bumped knees in the (Rookie Challenge Game) and has never recovered.''

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Cleveland Cavaliers

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New Pacers Not Enough

Feb 23, 2002 3:38 PM EST

Teams that make midseason trades usually have to show patience while the new players adapt to their surroundings.

But that wasn't the case for the Indiana Pacers on Friday, as the unfamiliar faces provided instant gratification and the familiar ones looked mostly lost in a 103-93 loss to Cleveland at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Brad Miller, Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie, who had gone through two practices since Tuesday's trade from Chicago, combined to hit 20-of-27 shots. The holdover Pacers hit just 17-of-52 attempts, and most of them did little else to contribute.

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Bryant to James: Do what you want

Feb 22, 2002 2:32 PM EST

On one small level, one of the most celebrated NBA players ever to leave high school directly for the pros couldn't imagine being LeBron James.

Kobe Bryant said last night he could not envision himself as a high schooler on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

``As a junior?'' Bryant said before his L.A. Lakers faced the Cavs at Gund Arena. ``No, I never would have gone to class.''

Bryant was joking.

But he was very serious when he talked about making the jump in 1996 from Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia to the NBA. Bryant was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Lakers on draft day for Vlade Divac.

Bryant now is considered one of the NBA's best. But in his rookie year, he averaged 15.5 minutes and 7.6 points, quite an adjustment for the National High School Player of the Year.

``You have your good times,'' Bryant said. ``You have your down times. You have your misery times.''

And the misery times were just that.

``There was a lot of space between those times,'' Bryant said. ``But when they occurred it was like they would last forever.''

Bryant knows of James, the St. Vincent-St. Mary junior who was featured on the SI cover a week ago. The two met one time briefly at an All-Star game, but Bryant said it wasn't enough to form a relationship.

Bryant said he did not go see James on Wednesday night because he didn't know he was playing. Instead, Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal attended with ex-Cav and ex-Laker Ron Harper.

Bryant's advice to James would be basic.

``Do what you want,'' Bryant said. ``If you want to go to college, you'll be able to learn a lot, I guess. I don't know. People tell me it's a great experience going to college. (If you don't go) you miss out on keg parties and things like that.

``If you come to the NBA, you have to be ready to make a sacrifice. And it's a huge sacrifice.''

Because?

``It might not be a business from your standpoint, but it's a business from other people's perspective,'' Bryant said. ``People are going to be paying you millions of dollars to put a good product out there. From that standpoint, the game becomes a little more serious.''

Cavs coach John Lucas said he worked with Bryant ``every day for two years'' when Bryant was in high school. Lucas didn't think it was overwhelming for James to be on the cover of SI, but he did think it vital for James to get an honest assessment of his skills.

``You need to get advice from guys who have been in the league instead of talking to an AAU coach or some shoe company,'' Lucas said. ``You can have somebody assess you. I do it when they play with our guys over the summer. I tell them all the time, `When you play against a pro in the summer, he's just having fun and you're playing at the highest level you can play. When you play against a pro when the season starts, it's a different pro.' ''

Bryant said he occasionally thinks back to what it might have been like in college -- even for one year. But now that he has millions of dollars, a palatial estate outside Los Angeles and two championship rings, he can't imagine making a different decision.

``If (James) wants to make the jump and go to the NBA, he's as good as everybody says he is or he's not,'' Bryant said. ``If he is, he still has to improve his game. If he's not, he has to improve his game anyway. It doesn't really matter. When you come to the NBA you have to improve no matter who you are.''

Until then, Bryant said James should think of getting better -- especially when he winds up on the cover of national magazines.

``It's nice to see that as long as he can take it in stride, see it as an opportunity to improve and not being at the top of everything he'll accomplish,'' Bryant said. ``See it as a starting point.''

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Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA Draft

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Cavaliers Feb 2002 Archive