Can anyone recap what they said. I know it was during halftime of the early game and i think they were just previewing game 2. i caught the tail end and barkley was mentioning the impact tmac made on dirk with his defense
well, was pretty brief, so I will just recap here, and I ll try to recap for a few more things when the game actually comes on TNT, for those who don't have access to it... Magic basically said that a star like McGrady has to continue to make his teammates better. Said he is impressed... Barkley had the most to say (not surprisingly) but really seemed to take jabs at Dirk. He said that great players/superstars are always great defenders, and that basically Dirk doesn't play defense, while McGrady does. He said he was impressed by McGrady's defense on Dirk, especially since (McGrady is really a guard, who is trying to defend a forward). Barkley was basically alluding to (I guess) what he thinks about Dirk: that is he is not a great player since he can't play any defense. Basically, Sir Charles apparently thinks Dirk is too one-sided. He even mentioned Michael Jordan and T-Mac in the same breath when he talked about how "great players play great defense". So take that for what it's worth. Kenny just mentioned how McGrady had to be a good defender back when he was in Toronto (he was making a comment on JVG saying that he was impressed with McGrady's defense back when he was in NYC), and Kenny said T-Mac had to be an impact defender in Toronto because VC was the superstar, the guy who scored, so if T-Mac wanted minutes he had to make an impact on defense. Honestly, and this is my take, if Dirk was REALLY a great player that everyone says he is, then if I were him and heard all that trash/disrespect being threwn out in the paper, on TV shows, from prominant figures like Barkley and others, I would REALLLY be pissed, and I would bounce back with the best game of my career. Dirk will prove tonight that he is either a stud or a chump. I think as an observer I will learn a lot about Dirk as a player/person from this Game 2 action tonight
The funny thing is that this isn't a "new" occurence. In the regular season game which we beat Dallas in Dallas, the game turned when we switched T-Mac to Dirk, and let Howard guard somebody else. Dirk started playing passive, and we ended up rolling (with Juwon actually having his best game as a Rocket). I fully expected this to happen at some point this series... if T-Mac wants to say he suggested it, that's fine... but I'm pretty sure JVG had an inkling to do this as well.
Yeah, I don't know if he can guard him the whole game and still do his thing on offense, but if he kept his offensive game and contained Dirk, people would be talkin' Jordan.
Well, I am not a huge Sir Charles fan, as you know, but I think for a guy who was always undersized, but never overpowered, at the PF position throughout his career, I think Barkley more than held his own on defense. He couldn't block shots because he was shorter than everyone else. But I think he clearly made the most of what he had physically. The Chucksta was an absolute BEAST, he just seemed to always hit bumps in the road that prevented him from getting that ring. Let's just say that if Jordan wasn't in the league, Barkley, Malone, Stockton, and probably a few more ringless stars would have had a ring by now. They all had one thing in common: Michael Jordan. The only exception in the 1990s that escaped that fate were the Rockets, and they won two rings. Barkley, Ewing, Malone, and Payton were unable to take advantage of MJ's absense (or that year in which he made a dumb decision to come back with only 17 games left in the season), and now their fate is to miss out on the bling bling.
I was thinking the same thing. And were Larry Bird and Magic Johnson known for being great defenders? I was thinking they weren't.
I would be disappointed in Dirk if he took babble to heart. He's a great, great scorer, and player. He'll have a crazy good game tonite, and series. That does NOT mean the Mavs will win, but he will not be why they lose.
if bowen can hold his own against dirk for another 30 minutes tonight, then tmac can handle about 12, and padgett the rest. i'm happy that people are saying that tmac is a good defender because the knock on him for years was that he doesnt play defense...along with being selfish. he will prove them wrong about defense this series but he will have to score a lot for us to win.
It's all about the playoffs. People that don't pay attention to your team all season gets a good look at how you perform in a pressure packed series against playoff teams. It makes a huge difference in perception.
Kenny, Magic and Chuck are all becoming true believers. Magic said that if Yao continues to play this way, we're goign to the Finals. Charles also said the Rockets are only a 90PPG team during the regular season and are not playing the same. Heh...someone needs to remind him that we averaged 95.1 PPG during the regular season, NOT 90PPG. And we're 105PPG in the playoffs.
He did mention the fact that if he could change one thing about his career, he wouldve tried to become a better defensive player
Its nice to see the TNT guys kissing some Rocket ass for a change. All they do is ride the Spurs or Heat. Now they got a new team to ride!!
I didn't think they kissed our ass that much.. especially at the end, Magic was sort of criticizing yao by saying that this was what was expected of him last year. And they kept emphasizing that the rockets will only be contenders IF yao can continue to play this way..
In barkley's defense he did say that he wished that he would have worked on his defense. At least he knows where his downfall was.
