from USA Today: Barkley, Pippen make up Turner's Charles Barkley had reason to be smiling as he played golfin Houston on Tuesday, hours after he appeared as TNT's studio guest during Portland's surprise romp against the Los Angeles Lakers to tie their Western Finals at 1-1. "My feud with Scottie Pippen is over," Barkley said. "He came up to me after the game (Monday) and apologized. That's all I wanted. From now on, he's no longer 'No. 33.' He's 'Mr. Scottie Pippen.' " The ex-Houston teammates had split when Pippen claimed Barkley was lazy. Barkley, who will join Turner full time next season, said, "I still like the Lakers to win the series, but it's going to be a long one. The Lakers have no one to match up with Rasheed Wallace. In the East, I like Indiana over New York ." ------------------
Although I still hate Quitten, I give him credit for finally apologizing. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...Quitten Bashing! ------------------
He only did what Steve Francis did to get to a better situation for himself. Although he was more harsh, and was bashing our team. DaDakota PS John Elway did it too. ------------------
Isn't there some small diference? John Elway said publicly before the draft he would NOT play with a team on the east coast. Steve Francis told Vancouver NOT to draft him and refused to even work out for them. Both had no say where they went, but tried to tell everyone in advance. Compared to being a free agent that could go anywhere, made the choice to be on the Rockets. I didn't care that he left, if he would have went to Les, CD, Rudy and quietly said he wanted out and to trade him, then if they refused went to the media - OK. But he ruined his trade valve to where we had to take what we could get, just to get him gone. The remarks about Charles is between him and Charles. Barkley will handle it just fine. ------------------
So who snuck the gun into the Staples center and who held it to Scottie's oblong, distorted, cartoon looking head? ------------------ We have a 50/50 chance of winning our next game, but there is only a 30% chance of that.
The difference is far from small; the difference is HUGE! ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
It's interesting that he apologized coming off a big win...that he had to be on a high to do something as simple as that. You can bet your *ss that there would have been no apology if the blazers had gotten their butts kicked...or even just eeked out a win by a few points.
Did Barkley have a gun pointing to cry-pip head? I think he did because cry-pip apolo gist to Barkley. ------------------
I'm with DaDakota, the situations are basically the same (if somebody kicks me in the nuts, what difference does it make if they tell me they're going to do it up front, or if they catch me off guard....I still just got kicked in the nuts). I might be able to find a difference if I were to put on my Rocket-colored eyeglasses, however. You'd feel the same way about Francis if you lived in Vancouver...just ask Give Your Head a Shake. Also notice that the Vancouver crowd reacted far more harshly toward Francis this year than the Houston crowd did towards Pippen (that could be just because Houston is a sorry sports town, but that's another thread). ------------------ "It's always funny until someone gets hurt...and then it's just hilarious." -Faith No More
One big difference is that Pippen is veteran in this league and he should have know better than go about it the way he did. He was a lame ******* for acting the way he did. Don't deny it and try to rationalize his point of view. Pippen still owes Rudy and staff some sort of apology. It doesn't have to be public. He owes that to Rudy. Would he have done that to Phil? You all should still be angry at him for ****ing up our season. Had he gone about this in a more reasonable fashion then just maybe we would have had more time to prepare for the youth movement. Maybe we would have gotten a better trade for him. Maybe we would have been in the playoffs this year. What he did was wrong. ------------------ RocketFuel is taking the summer off!
Pippen has been playing much better for the Blazers in this year's playoffs than he played for the Rockets in last year's. Remember how early last season Pippen began blaming the Rockets' system and management for the disappointing performances he proceeded to turn in for the rest of the year. And remember how little initiative he took to improve the system by playing his game. He predicted failure and then did everything possible to fulfill his prediction. That raises Pippen's crime, morally, from a misdemeanor to a felony. Francis refused to play so he would be traded. Pippen, it now appears, actually walked onto the court and played below his ability so he would be traded. It is still possible to believe that Francis has too much pride and respect for the game to deliberately play badly. It is no longer possible to believe that about Pippen.
Spacecity: I think he would have done the same thing to Phil, given the proper motivations. That's just what a character guy he is. Freak: A better nut-kicking analogy is either: (a) get kicked in the nuts; or (b) have someone ask you, "do you want me to kick you in the nuts?" say yes, and then have them oblige you. Rockets-colored glasses aside, Pippen asked for the investment we put into him. Elway and Francis asked their respective teams to not make the investment. I am convinced that the only reason he agreed to sign with us is because he wanted the biggest contract possible after being underpaid by the Bulls, and we were the ones offering it. I don't have a problem so much with his asking for a trade. I'm mad that he lied to the team about his motivations and objectives so that they would invest their future in him in the first place. ------------------ http://www.gaffordstudios.cjb.net/
The Freak, I think you just proved the other guys' point. Say someone plans on kicking me in the nuts. There are two scenarios. In scenario one, he tells me in advance, "Hey buddy, watch out cause I am going to kick you in the nuts!" Well, of course, in that case, first thing I do is get a jock-strap and then i block my nuts when he tries to kick them--unless i like getting kicked in the nuts, which i certainly dont. In scenario two, not only does he not tell me hes going to kick me in the nuts, he befriends me. We hang out and try to make things work for a year (or a season) and even if things arent going exactly as planned there still may be hope. Then WHAM, out of the blue he kicks me in the nuts. No way in the world I can expect that or protect myself. YOu see the difference now. With Elway or Francis, the respective organizations (the Grizzlies for example) could have bought the jock strap and protected themselves (if they didnt they are dumb). With the second scenario, there is no chance for protection, instead youve just been kicked in the nuts by someone you though was your friend. THAT SUCKS! Also, remember the J.D. Drew incident with batteries in Philly or how about the Philly fans booing Michael IRvin when he almsot paralyzes himself. That must be one heck of a sports town eh. DOnt hate us cause we have class. ------------------ Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things! [This message has been edited by JayZ750 (edited May 24, 2000).]
No offense, TheFreak, but your analogy sucks. A better anology would be this: someone either, a) says to you, "my foot is moving in the direction of your nuts. If you move, you won't get racked. If you stay where you are, you're gonna get kicked in the nuts." or b) from seemingly out of nowhere, kicks you in the nuts. Now, if you agree that those two are equally reprehensive, then we'll just have to agree to disagree, but the situation with Pippen and Francis is far different from in my eyes. Pippen got a huge payday from Houston, pouted for a year, did not earn his money, and then FORCED Houston to trade him by acting the way he did. He created a lose-lose situation for Houston after they were instrumental in getting him his big payday. Houston not only had to pay for a years worth of BS, they got totally screwed in the trade. Francis made it abundantly clear from the start that he did not want Vancouver. He was under contract with no one at the time, and he simply said, (in so many words) "I'm arguably the best player in this year's draft, I'm better than many veterans who will make several times more than me, I don't want to be in Vancouver, and I especially don't want to play out of position in deference to Bibby, so unless you want to trade me, don't pick me." Vancouver did pick him, but one could argue whether they got screwed or not in the inevitable trade(Just ask Give Your Head a Shake). I can't imagine anyone other than a Pippen hater thinking Houston got the better end of the Pippen trade though. Francis may have been a little pretentious, but to compare him to Pippen is the same as comparing Clinton to Hitler. ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
JayZ750, What's that they say about great minds.....? ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
Okay, maybe the analogy wasn't so great. I still say the intent was the same in each case, they both wanted off their teams. That is the rational, unbiased view in my opinion. There is just no way to have an objective argument about it around here. Vancouver, in the draft, was entitled to who they thought was the 2nd best player available. Imagine if the Rockets won the lottery last week, and Martin, Swift, Mihm, and Fizer all said prior to draft day that there was no way they would play for the Rockets. I would love to see the reaction of this board. My guess is the attitudes towards those players would be a little bit different from what people think of Francis...your team has a bad season, gets a good pick in return, and the player you want basically tells you to go to hell. Also, to address Will's theory, the reason Pippen's playing better this year in the playoffs IMO is that he's got better players around him, and a team that has a team defensive strategy, not because he was trying to suck last year. Portland's defense is allowing him to play rover, guarding everyone on the floor. He's not having to really guard anyone man-to-man. His production on offense, during his good years, was generated by his defense. This wasn't possible last year with our inept team defense. Also, it makes no sense to play bad intentionally when your goal is to get traded to another team....doesn't exactly increase your value around the league. ------------------ "It's always funny until someone gets hurt...and then it's just hilarious." -Faith No More
For all the Clowns you didn't believe me in my post "Strange but True" I would just like to say nah, nah, nah, I was right, you were wrong, and you can stick a bottle of fosters up your date and rotate and I will accept all your apologies for accusing me of lying. Smeg of Truth ------------------ CUT Tino Isn't it amazing how quickly everyone did a Cat Backflip!!!!! [This message has been edited by SmeggySmeg (edited May 24, 2000).]
