There is one major, can't miss rule of thumb among veteran writers covering the NBA All-Star Weekend: Find Charles Barkley.
No matter what a reporter does during that weekend, he'll get enough material if he beats the crowd to Philadelphia's irrepressible Sir Charles. This weekend, Barkley was off and running - at the mouth - before he could sit down. Here is a sampling of opinions on the World, According to Bark:
- On dueling egos among Olympians: "Everyone has an ego, even those who can't play. Everybody has an ego; the only difference is that some people have a reason to have egos."
- On the U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona: "We gonna be a bunch of mad scientists. We gonna be rollin'."
- On the U.S. being the best basketball nation in the world: "Them other countries are better at other things. They better at snow and skiing and the luge and snowmobiling. This (basketball) is different. This is the ghetto game. This is the home, USA game."
- On having fun in the Olympics: "You think we goin' in to have fun? Well, no question, it's going to be a vacation and we're goin' to have fun. But that don't mean we can't roll."
- On the possibility of an Olympic upset: "We could lose up to three players and still win it. We could probably lose five and win it."
- To a European reporter on how good their teams are: "You barely beat the college players."
- On Michael Jordan's refusal to have his picture on NBA T-shirts: "Last time I saw Michael, he was down the street printing up more T-shirts so he could get more money."
- On retirement: "I'm not going to do anything when I retire. I'm gonna be as useless as a piece of . . . as a piece of . . . reporter."
- And, lastly, a final consideration on retirement: "I'm gonna be fat when I retire. But I'm gonna be a rich fat guy."
The Admiral, David Robinson, had some well-publicized conflicts with former Coach Larry Brown - which Robinson acknowledges.
However, Robinson is already willing to predict Brown will succeed with the L.A. Clippers.
"He's a tremendous coach," said Robinson. "They'll win. Oh yeah. They're going to win."
Robinson became a born-again Christian last summer and, he says, it changed his life. "It's changed my outlook on everything," he said.
"I now know what standards he has for me and I just go try to do it."
Despite his vast ability, Robinson says more negative things have been said about him this year than ever. "But now," he said, "they don't bother me."
Robinson says he needs more information before he asks the NBA not to use his face on their T-shirts.
Two weeks ago it was reported that Nike and Jordan told the league it couldn't use his image on shirts, because those rights belong to Nike. Robinson, too, is under contract by the giant shoe and sportswear manufacturer.
"Obviously, there's a reason why he (Jordan) would do it. It would be shallow of me to think it was only money," said Robinson. "There must be another reason. I'll just have to wait and see and find out how it affects me."
Talented as they are, NBA All-Stars still pay tribute Jordan, the world's biggest sports star.
Though other players attended Friday's media day at the gigantic Dolphin Hotel at Disney World, Jordan didn't. Nobody complained.
Asked if he will try to be the game's MVP, Robinson said, "I don't think you can try for MVP. Except for maybe Michael. He can try because he's so much better than the rest of us. The others just go out and do the best we can."
In his retirement, Magic Johnson says he hasn't relaxed all that much. He's still playing pickup games and working out daily.
And when he says workout, he says he means workout.
"You just can't run," he said. "I've been playing five-on-five, four-on-four, one-on-one for the last month-and-a-half. You need that just to keep some semblance of sharpness.
"I've been playing with guys . . . bumping, hittng and taking it to the hole just like in the NBA."
In remarks this week, Commissioner David Stern said the NBA continues to expand across the globe.
Though playing actual international NBA games may be far off, he expects the league to have international affiliations soon.
The league plans to open offices in Hong Kong, Barcelona and Melbourne. "We'll continue to bring the best basketball in the world from the world's best athletes," said Stern.
Stern added later that he "hope to make our world championship the equivalent of the World Cup."
The league plans to have more exhibition games in foreign countries, and next year it will have two teams open the season in Japan, as did Utah and Phoenix last year.
With the talk of Johnson coming out of retirement and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and even Wilt Chamberlain considering comebacks, who knows who will be playing in the NBA next year?
Anything's possible.
"Listen," Stern said. "In this league, if there's someone who can give you 12 good minutes, our G.M.'s are all for that."