ALEX ENGLISH

THE GREATEST SCORER IN FRANCHISE HISTORY ATTACKED THE HOOP WITH MOVES THAT HAD A DISTINCTIVE FLOW, MUCH LIKE THE VOLUMES OF POETRY HE PUBLISHED

- JACK MCCALLUM

THERE'S AN AIR of delicacy about the Nuggets' Alex English that befits, one supposes, the only point machine-poet in the history of the game. He runs with a struggling, pigeontoed gait, a faint look of desperation on his thin face, wrists swinging limply in front of him. A mere 190 pounds hang from a 6' 8" frame on which arms and legs are reedy, hips and waist negligible.

Alexander English-how do you do the things you do?

"I guess what my game has," says English, the NBA's leading scorer, "is kind of an off-balance flow."

Everything about English, in fact, seems a little off-balance. He plays a big man's game like a small man, scoring near the basket with finesse and smarts rather than with brute power. He's extremely graceful-some of his teammates call him Baryshnikov-yet his running one-hander, sometimes taken off the wrong foot, is an awkward-looking weapon. Off the court, he's a quiet crusader and a romantic trying to change a milieu sometimes characterized by self-centeredness and coldness. Most off-balance of all is that he has the statistics and income (over $1 million this season in salary and deferred payments) of a superstar, but little of the public recognition.