Suns' Stephon Marbury, on Jazz's veteran duo: "(John Stockton) could play for another five more years, and Karl Malone could play as long as he wants."
Asked about playing a sport in school, Jazz's John Amaechi said, "I actually only played because my school played it, and I had to. If I didn't have to play it, I wouldn't have. It was not my passion. It was just my responsibility." (That's rugby he was talking about, not basketball.)
One Toronto newspaper suggested that a dream coaching staff for next season — assuming the demise of incumbent Lenny Wilkens — would be Jeff Van Gundy as head guy, with Charles Oakley and Mark Jackson as assistants.
Oakley has little use for his former Bulls coach, Tim Floyd. "He'll land a good middle-school job," Oakley said. "You have to start somewhere."
More Oakley: "I've been offered a book deal and there is a chance I might go into coaching after I'm done playing. I'm keeping my options open. The door is cracked and I'm going to leave it cracked because I'm sleeping upstairs and if I hear somebody breaking in downstairs, I still got time to come down and deal with it."
Knicks' Michael Doleac was an Army brat who lived all over the country but says his favorite place was Alaska. "Our house was on the edge of the Army base, so behind the house was nothing but untouched wilderness — nothingness," Doleac said. "My dad bought us snowmobiles, so every day we'd just ride all day . . . There was no danger, other than getting eaten by a bear."
Ex-Raptor Keon Clark took some shots at Vince Carter, saying, "He wants the recognition, but he isn't willing to work for it. . . . I remember someone asking him who was the best player in the NBA. He said, 'It could be me.' That's all you need to know."
When a Knicks fan pleaded with Damon Stoudamire to come play for New York, even offering to let him stay in his house, the Blazers guard replied, "I'd live in your doghouse to get out of this."
Orlando's Grant Hill is still plagued by injury problems but hasn't lost his sense of humor. "Officially my nickname should be 'Radiation Man' because I've taken so many scans," Hill said. "If I take one more scan, I'll be glowing."
Indiana's Reggie Miller gave all his teammates gift bathrobes for Christmas, saying, "I was tired of looking at them all naked, especially when the women reporters walked in."
Minnesota coach Flip Saunders doesn't put much stock in utterances by Stephon Marbury. "You've got to realize this is the same guy that said he wanted to go play in Madison Square Garden because of the aroma," Saunders said. "He meant aura, but he said aroma. So you've got to put everything into perspective."
Michael Jordan was upset when Wizards teammate Jerry Stackhouse popped off about not being allowed to play his game. "Is this team at a point where we're going to start pointing fingers or looking at each other in the face and saying, 'It's not me?' " Jordan asked. "If that's the case, then this team is lost."
Minnesota's Kevin Garnett says oft-injured point guard Terrell Brandon's career is over. "In his mind, he has let us know he's pretty much done," Garnett said. "We all respect that, and we've all come to that, and that's reality." A day later, Brandon said that wasn't true. (And we all believe him.)
Bulls' Tyson Chandler's weird take on getting handled by Garnett: "I loved every second of it. I don't care if he had 43 and twenty-something. It's a great experience for me to get out there and be able to guard him."
Clipper fans booed center Michael Olowokandi, who responded by saying he wouldn't be around next season, "So if they want to boo, they can go right ahead and boo." That angered GM Elgin Baylor, who responded, "He should be thankful the fans are still coming out . . . The way we've been playing, I wanted to stand up and boo us."
Former Israeli League star Nate Huffman came into his first meeting against Shaquille O'Neal with low expectations. "All I wanted to do was not get dunked on," the Raptors center said. "Well, that lasted about 3 seconds."
Hawks' Jason Terry will be a free agent this summer, and rumor has it Atlanta would rather trade him now than lose him to a big offer. Heat and Blazers may be interested.
There was a mild furor in Chicago when rookie Jay Williams decided to make his home in the locker-room cubicle formerly occupied by Jordan and left vacant since his departure. "Jay might have a little problem," Bulls teammate Jalen Rose said. "He was in the paper with, 'This doesn't need to be a shrine,' or whatever he said. I tried to keep as far away from that as possible. Just pay your respect to the legend."
Compiled by Rich Evans from Internet and wire-service reports