The Works: Oscar on LeBron, Depressing Anthony Randolph Trade Rumors

In The Works today: when "out-athleting" makes sense, but doesn't; Kevin Love, secret weapon or boring garbageman?; and the heartbreaking rumor of a potential Anthony Randolph trade.

But first, Oscar Robertson speaks truth on LeBron James.

The Great Cynic: The ranks of basketball royalty haven't been universally opposed to the Miami Three -- it's just seemed like it. Legendary former Georgetown coach John Thompson spoke highly of LeBron James' decision to join the Heat, and even Isiah Thomas -- a not-so-undercover Knicks operative -- appreciated that LeBron exercised his right to choose.

Most other Hall-of-Famers who have spoken, though, have panned the move. Michael Jordan razzed LeBron for not being willing to do it on his own; Magic Johnson and Larry Bird also slipped on their tough-guy pants to assert they would never have teamed up with a top rival in the quest for glory. But all three of those legends are currently affiliated with teams in some capacity -- Magic as a partial owner, Jordan as a majority owner and Bird as a general manager.

In other words, they aren't removed from the current game, and the current game had a swift and negative response to LeBron, so of course these three -- establishment as they come right now -- would join in. Oscar Robertson, however, is well-removed from the game, and has no current professional ties. He also just happened to help lead the fight for player unionization in the first place, and was a great labor leader in the NBA's early decades.

The Big O spoke to the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn about The Decision, and ended up relating his own experience toiling for a non-championship team before being traded to a real contender. Robertson spent 10 seasons with the Cincinnati Royals, never making it to the NBA Finals despite making the All-NBA first team nine of those seasons, winning an MVP in 1963-64, and starting every single All-Star Game. In other words, Oscar was LeBron before LeBron: an amazing talent without the supporting cast to topple giants.

Robertson was then traded to Milwaukee, where he joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They won the championship that first season. So when O tells Washburn that "LeBron has an opportunity just like Oscar Robertson had an opportunity," he's saying that stars need help to win. It's amazing that Magic, Michael and Larry couldn't see past their inner Chuck Norrises to understand that when LeBron made his call.

This is all also very reminiscent of our pre-Works trade demand survey. God bless Oscar for shining light on reality. (Also be sure to check out, if you missed it, Tim Povtak's one-on-one with Robertson from July, where O talks about LeBron's chances of a triple-double season.) (TZ)

Fast, Young, and Out of Control: Thanks to Fran Fraschilla, we have an easy descriptor for what Team USA plans to do all summer: "out-athlete" the opposition. That doesn't mean they'll challenge other teams to a battle of athletic ability. It's a fancy way of saying they'll live and die by Derrick Rose and Rudy Gay.

Rose and Gay embody the style that Team USA can do like no one else: an up-tempo, high-flying, free-flowing thrill ride that gets out in transition and goes for big plays on defense. Over the course of this FIBA World Championship, we've gone from an ever-shifting definition of what makes for a quality FIBA guy, to understanding that America plans to take down the field on its own terms.

If this sounds unseemly to you, take a look at your own history. In 2008, we recaptured glory and honor for this country with a very similar brand of ball. If you let the players play, and they have that advantage to exploit, the sparks will fly and our flag will fly above all over.

Except there's a problem. Athleticism and inventiveness from the Redeem Team is one thing; in the hands of this incarnation (can we get a nickname for this one already, or does come only once the tournament has played out?), it's a far more limited approach. LeBron, Kobe, and the rest were able to play fast and furious without sacrificing their intelligence. This year, it's not so clear that's the case -- or that there's any other option.

Developmental guru Brian McCormick posted last week on Fraschilla's "out-athleting," comparing it to the euphemistic "up-tempo player." As he points out, a player identified exclusively with transition basketball often lacks the skill and patience necessary to make the half-court work for him. In his weekly newsletter, he discussed the importance of "game awareness," contrasting it with both raw ability and acquired skills like ball-handling -- which are drilled into players with little or no appreciation for how to use them.

He singles out Rose, who has all the athletic ability, and plenty of tools, but lacks a certain subtlety when it comes to applying them. Compare this to James or Wade; they can run with the Redeem Team, but are expected to do some truly mind-blowing things together in the half-court next season. That's why Kevin Durant is far and away the best player in Turkey this month (sorry, Luis Scola), as well as the only youngster from our shores who is a lock to make the Olympic team in 2012.

This isn't to single out Rose, even though I'm not his biggest fan, or suggest that this year's team is just plain stupid. But if other countries employ a more cerebral, precise style than most pros are used to seeing, then trying to simply run past and jump over them is a calculated gamble. Certainly, it can steamroll teams who are just light years behind Team USA when it comes to explosiveness and length.

What happens, though, when they run into one with a scheme that keeps them from getting off, or a squad just physically gifted enough that America doesn't have a whopping edge? That's the devil's pact USA Basketball made this time around. Let's hope it pays off. (BS)

Unrequited Love: Kevin Love is playing along, which is simultaneously heartening and maddening. Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski has limited Love's playing time at the World Championship -- he has fewer minutes played than everyone but Tyson Chandler and Danny Granger, and those two only have one fewer minute. This is despite the fact that, outside of Kevin Durant, Love has been the most productive scorer and rebounder on the squad.

FanHouse's Chris Tomasson, on assignment with Team USA in Istanbul, asked Love if Coach K might be reserving him as a secret weapon for the later stages of the tournament, a suggestion Love embraced. That's heartening. But it's also probably a lie. Coach K probably isn't waiting to unleash Love on an unsuspecting Turkey or Spain. He's just playing Love less because he likes his veteran Lamar Odom more.

But why, really? Odom is not better than Love, and has not played better than Love. Is it because Odom's weird fluidity as a player masks just how herky-jerky his production has been? Is it because Love's lunch-pail effort comes off as desperate, or impermanent? I thought it might be because of the beard, but Love shaved off the beard, and he's still not getting much burn.

Consider this theory: Coach K, always flush with workaholic big men but often without superstar athletes at Duke, is like a kid in a candy store. He'd play Gerald Green 15 minutes a night if he had him right now. Love, of course, is more than a simple Plumlee brother, and that's where the disconnect between Coach K and the fans begins. Love looks like Coach K's role players, and maybe even plays like them a little. But he's better than any big man Krzyzewski has ever had, more skilled than the coach understands (or is willing to understand).

But Coach K shouldn't fret -- he's not alone. Love's own NBA coach, Kurt Rambis, won't play the big man so much as 30 minutes a game, and actually shrunk Kevin's minutes over the course of last season. We think the Al Jefferson trade will clear that problem right up, but we also thought Odom playing poorly against Brazil would result in Love's liberty, and we see how that turned out. (TZ)

Performance Anxiety: Here's why I hate rumors: yesterday, Newsday ran a report concerning the uncertain, inconsequential, and yet somehow really important future of Rudy Fernandez, the buried bench player who demanded a trade. According to this item, the Knicks were somehow involved in trade talks, or were at some point, that would have set Rudy free. Actually, it was a three-way, sending Rudy to the Knicks, and a first-rounder to the Blazers, and to the Pacers ... Anthony Randolph.

No, Newsday said, the real report was that the Pacers and Knicks had been talking about Indiana's giving New York a first-rounder for ... Anthony Randolph. Sorry, paparazzi, no Rudy in this one, so skip along to some place less cloudy.

Far be it from me to dispute reports, which may or may not differ from rumors, and admittedly, I am in the process of building a geodesic mansion with Randolph's face painted on top. But as far as I understood it, with LeBron not coming to town, the always-intriguing Randolph, now only 21 and about to start his third season, was one of the major non-Amar'e Stoudemire bright spots to take away from a summer that, by the measure it had set for itself, was a disappointment.

Randolph may not have King of the Apple written all over him, and is neither the kind of tough guy MSG loves, nor the showman it likes to think it wants. But there's still plenty of time for him to be transformed into a Kevin Garnett-ish fiend, or more accurately, the male version of the Phoenix Mercury's DeWanna Bonner.

Who knows, maybe Walsh and D'Antoni aren't as high on Randolph as the Knicks public relations crew wants its fans to be. But hearing that they're already trying to flip him, when that deal, not Stoudemire, was the only thing to show that this front office had anything resembling vision and imagination ... again, maybe I'm biased, but this would give the post-2010 Knicks one demerit against them before the season even starts. If this trade rumor does have any grounding to it, and these "talks" weren't anything more than the "okay, talk" we hear happens so often (and yet is somehow still worth reporting), there's a much better story here than the trade itself. (BS)

The Works is a daily column written by Bethlehem Shoals (@freedarko) and Tom Ziller (@teamziller). Their Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History will be available this October.