Mariah sang a song about me back in the day .. cuz he's sweet, like, honey. Just don't know what comes over me. When he's around. Cuz he's so damn fine, in a classical way and modern. Step 1 2. It's the big one.
None of those guys got benched or traded as cancers. The great talents clearly show their worth in the first year or two in the NBA. The Zach Randolph story -- malcontent not worth the trouble bouncing from team to team for several seasons before finding his groove and playing like an All-Star -- is pretty rare. You could waste your time with 20 Bonzi Wells before hitting one Randolph.
And you have 60,000 NCAA players who do everything right, mentally and physically, buy just aren't good enough. As usual, you make no point and your restaurant suffers as a result. Bonzi was a very good player in his prime, definitely an asset. Maxwell. Rodman. Rasheed (acquiring him was the moment pistons got past the bump). They were worth it. So many cases where 1 team giving up for non basketball reasons brought titles to another. You can't teach what these guys inherently have .. size , craftyness, anticipation, etc.
even if royce had played good little soldier and gone thru training camp, attended practices, and said "yessum how high should i jump?" on a regular basis, i really doubt he'd be in rotation right now, based on the fact that he's just not a very good player. can't shoot, can't defend, can't play with the big boys down low. and whether he will be able to in the future is a big question mark. the other players mentioned in the thread so far got skillz..
Bonzi, Maxwell, Rodman, and Rasheed were all good players that, for a while, all contributed to the success of good teams -- but all those teams decided those players weren't worth the trouble even after the success they had. And even then, those guys are model citizens compared to some of the me-first chuckers who can't seem to do anything in the league despite obvious talent: Allen Iverson (aside from the stint with Larry Brown), Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Carmelo Anthony. You can take an all-world talent like Carmelo Anthony and build a team around him and hope he eventually figures out how to play a team game. I'll go with the boring guys we knew were great from year 1.
Who cares what a thug is or isn't, you know what he meant, problem/selfish players. I've always like Jamal Crawford and thought he got a lot of hate for no reason, he was usually on a bad team.
Yeah, you have to look at how the players plays. Z-Bo despite having the thug image always played hard and cared on the basketball court. Same with Stephen Jackson. Some with Monta Ellis. That is what matters. You can't coach up caring but you can coach up players to use their talents in a better way.
yep. this captures the situation perfectly. some 'chuckers' make it, some don't, but in the vast majority of cases those who do become perceived as 'winning players' have always had heart/toughness element.
Wouldn't call any of those guys thugs. Just cause you're black with tattoos doesn't make you a thug. That's incredibly ignorant.
