Select company.(attitudes of basketball team executives about teams and players)

In a TSN poll, NBA executives share their insights on the best of the best

It's a pretty good job, being an NBA executive. Consider the perks: Interesting work, pretty good seats--and who needs to pay for a fantasy-league team when you are part of the reality league? As 76ers coach and vice president Larry Brown once said, "I love my job. I can't imagine doing something else and being as lucky." Good jobs attract a variety of people, and that holds true in NBA front offices. Take a guy like Brown, who, as a player, bounced around with five ABA teams in five seasons, and is now running the team with the NBA's best record. Or take Elgin Baylor, a legend as a player with the Lakers, now a martyr as the guy who has nm the Clippers for 14 years. Or look at Pacers president Donnie Walsh, a North Carolina law graduate who was on his way to becoming a three-digit-per-hour lawyer 24 years ago before he opted to stick with basketball.

It's a varied group of folks running these shows, and their perspectives on the game reflect that. Ask NBA executives a few simple questions, and who knows what you'll get?

Actually, we at TSN have a pretty good idea what you'll get. We know because we did just that. We compiled a list of 15 things we wanted to know and posed the questions to the league's executive class--everything from the most overrated player to the player you would want taking the deciding shot in Game 7 of the Finals. After deciphering the handwriting (some of the 20 executives who responded, based on their penmanship, should have considered medical careers), we found some answers that surprised us, and some that did not.

Bear in mind, though these guys are entrusted with the decisions of franchises, they are by no means precise. After all, the combined winning percentage of all NBA teams is just .500.

The Mavericks' Michael Finley, for instance, got a vote as the most underrated player. He also got a vote as the most overrated player. Chris Webber of the Kings--who is listed at 6-10--got votes as the best passer over 6-10 and the best rebounder under 6-10. We tried to be democratic about the votes, but that does not necessarily make them accurate. As the poet Walt Whitman once wrote, "A democracy may rule as outrageously as a despotism."

"I am not surprised that people have differing opinions," says Magic senior vice president Pat Williams. "They certainly were some interesting questions."