It was definitely rafer!! He would get heat every night for a loss, but then there would be those random nights he would be hot from the 3pt line, but that was rarely often
Seems hard to believe that Luther Head was on the team last year, and even STARTED 4 games? Seems like he's been long gone, like he left when JVG left.
Scapegoat implies that these guys were/are not to blame, but got heat for things that were not their doing. The only guy I see unfairly being blamed on that list is AB and Luther Head. T-mac, Rafer, Pippen, JVG, Ariza, are all people that deserved the blame they got, which means they were not scapegoats. Brooks, Luther, and Ron Artest would fit the build of a scapegoat, 2 guys that have done nothing to deserve the hate they get.
Oh, and Stevie would also fit the build for a scapegoat. The on;y real options imo would be Steve, Luther, Ron, and AB
1) Scottie Pippen. He decided he didn't want to be here, and forced a trade. Hakeem even said he shouldn't have behaved that way. 2) Vernon Maxwell, who got kicked off the team right when the playoffs started. I think the voters have been unfair to Tracy; I don't think he deserves so much abuse, not at all. JVG doesn't seem to think so, either.
i agree with a couple others that kenny smith was the scapegoat in 90-93, until we beat the clippers in the first round in 1993. Then he became a hero. Rafer proudly took on that role here until he was traded and then lost that title in Orl when he helped get them to the Finals last year. Side note, buck johnson did receive a lot of criticism until horry replaced him.
Has to be Rafer. He was getting the blame for global warming at one point. I see "Scapegoat" and "Most Hated" as different things. Tracy only got heat for the crap he was pulling. Same for Pippen. No one blamed them for movie tickets costing too much.
nah. Tmac=highest paid Rocket ever. Doesn't play whole seasons, doesn't deliver. that's the bottom line. got JVG canned. but Rick don't play that.
great analysis! Kenny got criticized because of his defense and then when Cassell showed up, he got criticized even more cause Cassell was so dynamic. But when it comes to the playoffs and shooting 3s and playing turnover free ball, Kenny Smith was the man.
I think it depends on what time period youre addressing, but id have to go with mcgrady because he was more important than either rafer or pippen to the rockets success and the whole 1st round trend really established him as a scapegoat.
He was a role player (albeit starter) on a team with two superstars, yet he received the vast majority of the blame for the losses in that era. All too often, he was forced into a scoring role because his two franchise players couldn't stay on the court and JVG refused to bring in a viable scorer to balance a roster of veteran defenders. Seemed unfair to me.
I think it's Ralph Sampson. Another contender would be Joe Berry Carol. Scapegoat is a guy who is blamed for our failures unfairly to some degree. Pippin was just hated, not blamed. T-mac might be a scapegoat in the sense he did everything he could for many years before his body broke down - but remember he was popular under JVG. It's all a matter whether you think he deserves the criticism he gets for his failures or if it's overdone. Other than that, we really don't have any major scapegoats. No Mitch Williams for example. That would be a great example of a scape goat in sports.
