Nazr Mohammed has never given himself a clever nickname or made a rap CD, and he would not know how to start a superstar feud. Shaquille O'Neal he is not.
But Mohammed has, unexpectedly, become perhaps the best Eastern Conference center not residing in south Florida. Or the most consistently productive one, anyway.
Mohammed, the Knicks' starting center, is averaging career highs of 12.5 points and 9.3 rebounds. He is also shooting 53.2 percent from the field. His hustle and grit have helped the Knicks (16-13) to first place in the Atlantic Division. And his steady production has put him squarely in the conversation about who should back up O'Neal in the All-Star Game on Feb. 20 in Denver.
"I think he's in that discussion," Isiah Thomas, the Knicks' president, said. "I know the thing that the coaches value the most is his work ethic, the way he approaches the game every night and the way he does the dirty work inside the paint. He's not flashy; he's effective. He's just a worker."
O'Neal, of the Miami Heat, is a lock to start in the All-Star Game; he leads the voting for Eastern Conference players. Detroit's Ben Wallace will be a favorite when the coaches select reserves in late January, and Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas will receive heavy consideration.
Mohammed cannot match the popularity or the flair (or hair) of Wallace, but he may be the best qualified to be O'Neal's backup in Denver. Mohammed has recorded 11 double-doubles, as many as Houston's Yao Ming; among centers, they are second only to O'Neal, who has 17.
Entering Thursday's games, Mohammed was third among centers in rebounding average, behind Wallace (12.6) and O'Neal (10.8), and second in offensive rebounds (3.8), also behind Wallace (4.6). Wallace also had the edge on Mohammed in blocked shots, with 2.89 a game to 1.17. But Mohammed was ahead of Wallace in scoring average (12.5 to 9.9), field-goal percentage (53.2 to 44.3) and free-throw percentage (74.3 to 47.2).
Mohammed has scored in double digits in 18 of 29 games this season; he has not missed a game. Wallace has scored in double figures in 9 of 19 games; he served a six-game suspension for his role in the Nov. 19 brawl at the end of the Pacers-Pistons game. Mohammed, ever unassuming, chuckled softly when the possibility of being an All-Star was mentioned.
"Hey, shoot, keep passing it on, keep the buzz," he said. "I can't lie. I would be ecstatic. Just my name being mentioned is a great achievement for me. I wouldn't know how to react. I wouldn't have thought I'd have an opportunity like that."
Even Knicks officials have been pleasantly surprised by how far Mohammed has come since they acquired him in February in a three-team deal. Although Tim Thomas was viewed as the key pickup, "I wouldn't have made the deal without Mohammed," Isiah Thomas said.
Mohammed's name was not even placed on this year's ballot for the All-Star Game. The omission was understandable. Mohammed, 27, was not considered a full-time starter, and only once has he averaged more than nine points or seven rebounds in a season. As the preseason came to a close, he was still battling Vin Baker for the starting role. Both struggled in October, but Mohammed struggled less and won the job.
In the first two weeks of the regular season, Mohammed often looked passive and sometimes lethargic. It was not until mid-November when Mohammed, a devout Muslim, revealed he had been fasting for Ramadan and had lost seven or eight pounds. His game took off after that. In the nine games from Nov. 13 to 30, he averaged 15.8 points and 11.2 rebounds. Those are All-Star numbers.
"There's Shaq and there's Yao, and after that I think it's pretty much a coin toss, depending on what type of center you want," Mohammed said. "On a team like ours, my job is to defend, rebound and when my teammates get me the ball, I'm able to score when I'm given a chance. And we're winning games. If you want a center like that, that's me."
Stephon Marbury regularly looks for Mohammed when he drives the lane, and his dump-off passes have led to easy shots.
"Everybody, they're getting more and more confidence in me," Mohammed said.
If the All-Star nod comes, Mohammed said he would be grateful. But he is pleased just to be starting every night for a first-place team. It is a refreshing change after spending years on the bench for the rarely relevant Atlanta Hawks.
"It's the opportunity that I've been waiting for, for a long time," he said. "I don't want to ever take steps back, so I'm just trying to improve, get better and eventually, one day, it won't just be consideration or buzz; it'll be like, `Hey, he deserves it.' So that's my goal."
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with