"I had an issue with one of the coaches and my mother," said Wright, who was with the then-Mavericks assistant Elie and Kings coach Paul Westphal in Dallas from 2008-09 as a key reserve. "Mario Elie. I'll say his name because I had a history with him. We had just lost a game. It was over the holiday, Thanksgiving holiday, and my mother was in town and in the [team] family room [at Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento]. She came up to Mario Elie, and said, 'I'm Antoine Wright's mom. Can I have a picture with you?' My mom is a fan of the game, a big fan of Mario Elie, and he said, 'No, I'm with my family.' "We're a team now, so I came into practice [the next day] and told everybody, I said, 'When we go into film, I'm just going to put Mario on blast.' So I walk in last, and I come in through the front and Mario is in the back, and I said, 'Man, you know what? That's foul what you did to my mom. All she wanted was a picture. Everybody in this room would have took a picture with your mom if she asked, or anybody else's mom in this room. That's probably why we don't have any team chemistry.' "The next day [Kings officials] came in and were like, 'Uh, this is not really working for you. It's not working for us. No hard feelings. We wish you the best.' I said, 'Thanks for the opportunity, and I'm gone.' " Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...06/15/antoine.wright/index.html#ixzz1PTfNh3JO
I don't see anything wrong with that Elie did. The woman should be ostracized from society for giving birth to Antoine Wright. (OK, just kidding. If Elie was with family members, I understand why he wouldn't want a pic taken right then. I don't think Elie is generally negative about taking pics with fans-- in fact, I recall The_Yoyo getting a pic with him at summer league a few years back. Seems like a petty thing for Wright to blow up over.)
silly mother. why would anyone approach elie after seeing his reaction when danny ainge threw the basketball in his face?
This dude is stupider than I thought. It's not like Elie was just sitting in a corner playing "Angry Birds" on his phone or twiddling his thumbs. He was with his family and explained as much, yet the idiotic Wright decided to try to put Elie on blast. That was a major fail and as already mentioned, what happens when keeping it real goes wrong.
Elie was cool as hell when I approached him and said what's up to him in the club level at Toyota center. I think it helped that he had thrown a few back. Maybe his mom was just foul smelling?
Antoine shouldn't have anything to worry about, step 10 in the 12 Steps Program requires Mario to seek forgivness for his misdeeds. "It was a cashmere sweater!"
This is why Mario has been passed over repeatedly for a head coaching job. He can't relate to today's NBA player.
And i think what really got him fired was doing it in front of the whole team. From the description, it seems like Wright said it out loud across the room. Had he just brough it up away from the team I think Elie would have kept it between them, even if he came at him the wrong way.
