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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2000)
v<-3 rwomen Writers/Cultures? Women’s Fiction Anne Laskaya, 11:00 a.m., MUYVH ENG 315/CRN 42843 IMERl 2000 SUMMER SESSION • JUNE 19-AUGUST 11 Register by telephone now. Pick up a free summer catalog in Oregon Hall or at the UO bookstore. It has all the information you need to know about UO summer session, http://uosummer.uoregon.edu/ diversity of Oregon /Check out our web site The Admiral David E. Jeremiah and Mrs. Connie Jeremiah Lecture Series 1/Vfien 'Broken QCass J7Coats Growing Up under the Khmer Rouge Chanrithy Him, Author Thursday, May 18 3:00 j>.m. (3 erfinger Lounge reception to follow IThis lecture series is sponsored by the Jeremiah Family and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and is free and open to the public. For more information, call 346-1521. University of Oregon 1-—..1 What are you waiting for? COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Open minds. Open doors.™ (...in 15 months or less!) Oregon State University's College of Business offers a full-time, accelerated, AACBS-accredited MBA Program that you can complete in just 15 months (11 months with a business degree or minor). If your busy schedule makes it impossible to take classes full time, we also have a flexible, part-time program with evening classes available. Applications are now being accepted for Fall term For more information, visit our website at www.bus.orst.edu/MBA or call (541)737-6031. OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY YOUR place for newr, clarrifiedr, me/rage board/, reader; poll/, ODE archive/ and more... Gamesmanship has begun K AA/l ■ Lakers vs. Blazers: It’s finally official, and the trash talking—or sweet talking — is underway. By John Nadel The Associated Press EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Kobe Bryant said there’s no doubt about it — the Portland Trail Blazers have better players than the Los Angeles Lakers. Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who coached Scottie Pippen in Chica go for nine seasons, believes the Blazers underachieved this sea son, and said Pippen has to step forward or they won’t advance to the NBA Finals. And with that, the gamesman ship officially began Wednesday for the dream matchup of the NBA playoffs, the Western Conference finals, which start Saturday at Sta ples Center. “I personally think if Scottie doesn’t lead this club and take them by the horns, they’re not go ing to get by us,” Jackson said at the Lakers’ practice facility on a day off for his team. “I’m going to try and take that strength away. “I don’t know who else can lead them, I don’t see another leader on that basketball club. ” Pippen didn’t fill that role with the Bulls, who won six champi onships during the 1990s — Michael Jordan did. Neither Jack son nor Pippen has won a champi onship without Jordan. Perhaps one will next month. “This is what it’s boiled down to, as ironic as it is,” Jackson said. “I think this is great intrigue.” The Lakers and Blazers were the NBA’s best teams record-wise during the regular season, win ning 67 and 59 games, respective ly When asked if Portland was the best team he had faced, Bryant replied, “I’d say so, yeah.” “Everybody’s been talking about this series forever, now it’s here, let’s play,” Bryant said. “I’m ready to rock and roll, man, I’m ready to play. We’ll be ready.” Pippen said much the same thing in Portland, and expressed confidence in the Blazers. “This is kind of what everybody anticipated it would come down to, so I think both teams are look ing forward to the challenge,” he said. “We’re very confident that we are pretty much the team to beat. I think Portland under-achieved this year Phil Jackson Los Angel es Lakers coach n “But the focal point is not be tween me and Phil Jackson. It’s the Lakers against the Blazers, and it’s the players out on the court. But it should be a fun series. I’m going to enjoy competing against him. ” Bryant, who scored 17 points as the Lakers manhandled Phoenix 87-65 Tuesday night to earn their berth in the conference finals, said he had a “tremendous amount of respect” for the Blazers. “As far as athletically, every body knows they’re better than we are,” he said. “They have better players, too. Physically, we can’t match up with diem; they’re big ger than we are. We beat teams with execution.” Bryant also said he believes the Lakers are the steadier of the two teams, who split four games this season, with each going 1-1 at home. In their last meeting, on Feb. 29 in Portland, the Lakers rallied to win 90-87. Both teams entered that game with 11-game winning streaks and 45-11 records. “I think Portland under achieved this year,” Jackson said. “They had a low spell in March, after we beat them up there.” Starting with the loss to the Lak ers, the Blazers went 14-12 to fin ish the season. However, they were without Brian Grant because of an injured right foot for 11 games, including the one against the Lakers, and later lost starting center Arvydas Sabonis, who also injured his right foot. Both are healthy now. Grant, a burly forward, played a. major role defensively against Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA’s lead ing scorer and MVP, when the Blazers rallied for a 95-91 victory over the Lakers at Staples Center on Jan. 22. O’Neal scored only three points in the second half and 17 overall in that game. O’Neal and Bryant provide the Lakers with a 1-2 punch the Blaz ers can’t match. However, as Jack son said: “They’re pretty deep one through 11 or 12 or whatever. That’s the one intriguing thing about this series — does quantity beat quality, in terms of experi ence, talent? “Our key is Shaquille, going in side, making them adjust. Our key is to corral their offense. They have a lot of things that they can do, a lot of bodies for Shaq. ” The Lakers have a 23-1 record at Staples Center since losing to Portland nearly four months ago, with the lone loss a meaningless 98-80 setback to San Antonio on April 8. The Lakers played with out O’Neal in that game, and they had already clinched homecourt advantage throughout the play offs. “There’s one thing that hasn’t changed,” Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “If we’re going to win this series, we’ve got to win at least one game in LA.” Dunleavy was the Lakers’ coach the last time they played in the NBA Finals, in 1991. Their oppo nent? The Jackson-coached Bulls, who won their first championship that year. Philadelphia eyeing historic run By Rob Maaddi The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — They began their comeback by playing for pride. Now, the Philadelphia 76ers are halfway to making histo ry The Sixers, a missed shot away from getting swept by Indiana, are two wins away from becoming the first NBA team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. “We still have a chance to win the series when everybody count ed us out,” Sixers guard Aaron McKie said. “But we never count ed ourselves out. That’s been our attitude all year long. Whenever somebody counted us out or the odds were against us, we found a way to pull it out.” The Pacers nearly swept Philadelphia out of the Eastern Conference semifinals for the sec ond straight season, but Travis Best’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out in a 92-90 loss in Game 4. With Reggie Miller serving a one-game suspension for a fight with Matt Geiger, the Sixers won Game 5 handily, 107-86, on Mon day. “The momentum has shifted,” Indiana guard Mark Jackson said. “After we won one game, Jalen (Rose) said they won’t be coming back to Philly,” Allen Iverson said before practice Wednesday. “Now they are.” But Iverson said the Sixers are not content being just the seventh team to force a Game 6 after losing three straight. In all, 59 teams have fallen behind 3-0. Four teams lost in six games. Two teams lost in seven games. The other 53, or 90 percent, were either swept or lost in five. “We want to make history,” Iverson said. “We have a chance to do something special. We’re not satisfied with winning two games. We won’t be satisfied until we win the series. That’s the most impor tant thing. “It would be easy to be satisfied with two wins, then go home for the summer and watch somebody else win the championship. We got the chance to do it ourselves. Why not us?” Miller returns for Game 6 Fri day at the First Union Center. Geiger must sit out another game. Iverson said the Sixers will be ready if Miller whips out his Su perman T-shirt to motivate Indi ana. “If they feel like Superman can come save the world, we have Kryptonite here in Philadelphia,” Iverson said. “They are a different team without Reggie. Everybody knows that. They’re better with Reggie. We can’t think about that. Our goal is to win the next game.” Miller donned his Superman garb before Game 3 of the open ing-round series against Milwau kee and scored 34 points. He wore it again before the final game of that series and scored 41. He has n’t wore it since. The Sixers may have some un expected help of their own Friday night. Eric Snow, out since Game 2 with a chip fracture in his right ankle, will test it at practice Thursday. Snow, who had been ruled out for the series, hopes to be able to play a back-up role. “It’s 50-50,” he said of his chances. “I haven’t done anything. It feels better, but I haven’t tested it out. It’s not going to heal until July.” Snow has faced a 3-0 deficit be fore. He played for Seattle in 1996 when the Sonics took Chicago to six games in the NBA Finals after losing the first three. “We didn’t want it to end at home,” he said. “We wanted to show some pride. We didn’t want to get to the finals and get swept.” Now that the Sixers are in a sim ilar position, Snow said, “It’s about advancing to the next round.” The Sixers say Indiana’s trash talking motivated them for Game 5, but they refuse to get caught up in it. After the Pacers’ victory in Game 3, someone wrote “Lights out, baby” and “RIP” on the visi tors’ blackboard at the First Union Center. “It takes four wins to win the se ries,” said Theo Ratliff, who scored a career playoff-high 26 points in Monday’s victory. Sixers owner Pat Croce was most annoyed by Indiana’s swag ger. “If you said Rest in Peace, you might as well slap them in the face,” he said.
