Duos of the Past Lend Eyes to the Future

On April 28th, 20,000 witnesses at the Philips Arena saw the once-lowly Atlanta Hawks stand up to the mighty Boston Celtics (literally in Zaza Pachulia’s case). The Hawks 97-92 victory was driven by their young dynamic duo of Joe Johnson and Josh Smith as together the pair dropped an absurd 63 points, including every point in the fourth quarter. That impressive triumph on such a grand stage may well signal the emergence of a truly prominent pair.In the regular season, Atlanta’s dynamic duo combined to average 38.8 points per game, putting them into the conversation with Chris Paul and David West as some of the league’s best young partners. While Smith and Johnson’s arrival should have Hawks fans optimistic about their squad’s future prospects, there is speculation that Smith, a restricted free-agent, may be lured away this summer for the promise of being the sole face of a lesser franchise, killing the pairing before they have the opportunity to realize their potential together.

Sadly, Atlanta fans would not be the first (or last) to have such misfortune.

Great young NBA tandems separate for a wide range of reasons. In some cases, members of the pair were simply too young to appreciate how advantageous their situation was. As George Bernard Shaw said, youth is often wasted on the young. In 1993-94, the Golden State Warriors featured the magnetic pairing of Rookie of the Year Chris Webber and second-year swingman Latrell Sprewell. Practicing Nellie Ball to perfection, the pair were electrifying, running and gunning their way to easy baskets, classic Nike commercials and lofty expectations for the future. But the juvenile Webber soon showed himself to be naive enough to not appreciate what he had. The adolescent forward quarreled with Don Nelson and their rift led to Webber being traded to Washington and the Team of Tomorrow split up prematurely. Neither Sprewell or Webber ever captured a championship, a crown they had seemed bound to secure had they stayed together.

There are other young pairings that show long range potential that were dismantled immediately to secure prompter success. Teams have disassembled their young guns in order to procure an immediate impact. In 2004-2005 when the young triumvirate of Dwyane Wade, Caron Butler and Lamar Odom advanced in the postseason they won hearts and minds of basketball fans everywhere with their swift ball movement and unselfishness. But that summer Shaquille O’Neal was placed on the trading block and Pat Riley decided to cash in his young chips for a two-year window at a ring. Thus Odom and Tough Juice were shipped to Los Angeles, and The Southbeach Trio was splintered too hastily to fulfill on the promise they showed in their one season together. That promise of what might have been still haunts American Airlines Arena, particularly with how quickly the bottom fell out for the Heat after their title.

Of all the reasons super-duos split, pride consistently proves fatal. More often than not, promising combos are broken due to the incessant need of young stars to be the alpha male. Egos have disbanded more potentially great tandems than bad trades ever could. The pairing of Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady should have secured the Toronto Raptors multiple Finals appearances and a statue for Dr. Funk outside the Air Canada Centre, but it was not to be. The two should have done extraordinary things together based on their talents, rapport and freak athleticism. Fans were never allowed to see what the outcome might have looked like if these cousins had stuck it out: McGrady’s self-importance didn’t allow him to reside in Carter’s considerable shadow. He left for Orlando, where he would not be pinned as Pippen to Vince’s Jordan. While both players’ star shone brightly after they separated, neither ever realized success near what they could have if united.

If ever there was a case where self-worth prevented potential greatness, it is that of Showbiz and The Kid, Stephon Marbury and Kevin Garnett. These two seemed destined to become the New Millennium Stockton and Malone; had they stayed together, there is no limit to what they might be able to accomplish in Minnesota. Their games complemented one another perfectly and their diverse skill bases should have let them write history together as Timberwolves. Unfortunately, Starbury’s need for the limelight lead to considerable jealousy between him and the Big Ticket. An ugly fallout ensued between the former blood brothers after Garnett signed a record-setting contract in 1998 and Steph was shipped to New Jersey. On the Nets, Marbury got his wish: he was a superstar and the face of a franchise, wins be damned. Garnett, meanwhile, was stuck in basketball purgatory for the next decade (save the lone Spree-Sam year), wondering what might have been. Garnett was not alone in doing so either: perhaps no breakup lead to as many “what-ifs” as the loss of what should have been this generation’s most compelling duo.

NBA fork-lore is riddled with other illustrations of potentially great braces discontinuing too soon because of personal contentions. There was the “Three J’s” fiasco in Dallas, where Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn looked poised for greatness before constant wrangling for individual stardom and bickering over selfishness on the court (not to mention a rumoured dalliance between all three and singer Toni Braxton) lead to a quick demise.

There was the debacle of the Charlotte Hornets from 1992 to 1995, where teammates Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning should have brought greatness and distinction to the franchise but instead quarreled over issues of selfishness and vanity. Even long after both had left the franchise, with their rivalry spilling over into a fight during a New York-Miami game in 1998.

Finally, there was the unrealized possibility of the young Seattle Sonics stars Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, a duo that should have propelled their excellent chemistry and complimentary talents into prolonged success, but instead was destroyed by Kemp’s struggles with drugs. Though the pair made it to the Finals in 1996, neither would return during their prime and both forfeited the immortality that comes with a championship.

The one thread each of these cautionary tales has in common is that its principals never achieved lasting, meaningful success after separating as they might have had they stayed together. Many would read this rundown and cry foul that Shaq and Penny don’t head the list, yet my contention is that the success O’Neal achieved later in his career as part of another pairing, combined with the lack of success or good health Hardaway experienced makes it an invalid exhibit; part of the combination achieved far greater success elsewhere than he might have dreamed to if still part of the initial pair. For that matter, the idea that O’Neal and Kobe Bryant should be chief among the catalog of those that broke up too soon is equally flawed. O’Neal and Bryant achieved ultimate prosperity together and realized all that could be supposed of them. Unlike those other lost souls mentioned above, they did not squander their opportunity to achieve greatness beyond themselves.

The current NBA landscape has many great young duos in its topography. Paul and West, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, and yes, Smith and Johnson all merit mentioning when the conversation turns to those pairs that possess the capacity for future greatness. While each of these pairings has the strong potential to become legendary, the laundry list above of groups that missed the opportunity, points out that each duo also sadly has an even stronger potential to be cut short before its grand future is actualized.

Such is life in the ranks of the young NBA, where the future isn’t promised and even today is unknown.

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