WHEN A.C. GREEN of the Phoenix Suns took the court against the Utah Jazz Monday night only 24 hours after getting two teeth knocked out, it was difficult not to salute him. He was willing, if not able. Let Derrick Coleman and Larry Johnson take a night off for a hangnail or a paper cut. Not Green.
But it quickly became clear that he had no business being out there. Green played 68 seconds, and then he left the court and headed to the locker room feeling ill, never to return.His night's work: No points, no boards, no assists, one shot. But he did play in the game, and apparently that was all that mattered.
His streak was still alive.
Green played in his 785th consecutive game, the highest among active players and 121 short of the all-time NBA record held by Randy Smith.
Afterward, Suns coach Cotton Fitzsimmons made no pretense about Green's appearance in the game. "I'm going to try to keep the streak going," he said. "That's only fair."
Credit Fitzsimmons for caring about his players and their personal achievements. You almost can't fault him for wanting to strike back at the injustice of J.R. Reid delivering an elbow to Green's mouth (for which Reid was fined and suspended).
"It's my opinion that A.C. shouldn't be sitting out just because somebody took a cheap shot at him," Fitzsimmons said.
Few would argue that it was a cheap shot, but, under the circumstances, what should we call Green's token appearance against the Jazz?
When it was suggested that Green's streak had been tainted, Fitzsimmons flared. "I don't care what anybody thinks," he said. "I'm the coach, and I decide who plays."
Fitzsimmons indicated that he might continue to play Green in one-minute stretches each game to keep the streak alive - even though Green will undergo two root canals in the next 10 days. We can only assume that if Green had undergone an appendectomy, he would be rolled onto the court on a gurney.
It is one thing for a player to play every game for the good of the team and love of the game, injured or not, but it is another merely to go through the motions just to chase a record. Green is trying to catch Smith and maintain a lead over his nearest (but distant) streak rivals - Micheal Cage (546 consecutive games), B.J. Armstrong (500) and John Stockton (499).
There is a difference between a player playing through injuries when he is able and can still help his team, and making a token appearance to achieve a personal record.
There is a difference between what Green is doing and what Stockton did after he sprained an ankle in the fourth quarter against Denver last December. It was a severe sprain, and doctors and trainers said he'd miss one or two games. But two nights later Stockton was in the starting lineup, and it was no token appearance. He had 11 points and 15 assists.
Stockton wasn't playing because of a streak, although he has one. He'd already played 35 minutes when he sprained the ankle, and still he was asking trainers to wrap the ankle so he could return to the game (they didn't).
After the game ended, he was asking Jazz doctors and trainers what he had to do to be ready to play in the next game. Two days later he was ready to play and play effectively.
This was hardly the case with Green. He was in no shape to contribute to his team's performance. Even his own teammate, Kevin Johnson, who has missed numerous games with chronic hamstring injuries, was amused by Green's presence on the court Monday night.
"Anybody can go out there and play for a minute," he said. "Man, I could've had a streak."
Under the circumstances, what does a record mean? Can it be had merely by enduring a minute on a basketball court? Does it really make one deserving of the Ironman title?
Ironically, this is not the first time Fitzsimmons has found himself in the role of record maker. He noted this week that he coached Smith - the record holder at 906 consecutive games - during the 1977-78 season with the Buffalo Braves.
"I kept his string going," says Fitzsimmons. "He had a pulled hamstring and we worked around it. If I can do that for Randy, I can do it for A.C."
That's 785 games . . . and counting.