It's a game that's still worth loving

Sure, the NBA is different than it was. Certainly, the overall quality of play isn't as good as it used to be. And without

question, there have been too many

players lately who have come into the league with enormous raw talent but a lack of refinement.

So, in the days leading up to last night's 50th All-Star Game, all we've heard and read is how the league is heading for the apocalypse and how today's young stars have fumbled the mantle passed to them.

Well, maybe it's not the players. Perhaps it's us; well, not me and perhaps not even you, but those members of an older generation who still are waiting for this new world to conform to them instead of adjusting to this new world.

I looked on the court at the MCI Center yesterday and saw an All-Star Game played, for the most part, by twentysomething kids.

I looked around the media room and saw the game being documented, for the most part, by middle-aged men still

longing for days gone by.

The NBA is evolving.

Except for a few ageless wonders - Utah's Karl Malone and John Stockton, and San Antonio's David Robinson -

the glory days of Magic and Larry, His

Airness and Sir Charles have passed on

to the pages of NBA history, as they

eventually had to.

So maybe it's time, finally, to let go of the past and start embracing the future.

As All-Star Games go, the Eastern Conference's 111-110 victory over the West was good. But those final 31/2 minutes, when every player on the court forgot it was just an exhibition and decided that all they wanted to do was win, was as good as it gets.

"I'm just proud I'm part of this league," said 76ers coach Larry Brown, who directed the East. "I thought the game was really a great game for the league under the circumstances.

"This whole week, I've heard so much negative stuff about the direction of the league and all of these young players. I thought both teams tried to win, tried to play the right way. It was a terrific thing to be a part of.

"I watched some old clips of some All-Star Games with [Bob Pettit] and [Bob Cousy] and

Elgin [Baylor] and Bill Russell, people like that, and I thought those guys were trying to win. That's what I sensed from the beginning of this game, because I felt our players wanted to prove something.

"We've got a lot of great young players that are not only good players, but great guys. "

They are players who are growing up in the greatest era of media scrutiny ever - where every step or stumble they make

instantly is blasted over the airwaves.