Wow, I'm very surprised nobody started a thread on this. I heard about the last 20 minutes of it on the way home today. MJ was awful. Basically he spent the whole time trying to convince everyone that he is God's gift to humanity. He is such a great person, does so much for other people, has worked very hard to improve as an NBA player and all he wants to do is win. Then he would talk about he wants a situation in which he could shine and do what HE does best. It was contradictory. He said he was building a house in Houston and would love to play for the Rockets. He is tired of people talking about his faults and he wants to focus on his positives. Oftentimes it's helpful for an NBA player to have a chip on his shoulder; but MJ's chip is so big that if you get within 10 feet of him the chip will poke your eye out. I was fed up with him by the time it finished. Matt & Adam aren't afraid to put players on the spot during interviews. MJ was asked why the Detroit Pistons can't seem to win the championship wtihout him. He completely missed the sarcasm and started talking about dogfights and how he is the pit bull they were missing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Adam put him dead on the spot by asking if he would accept a 3 year contract at the full MLE with the Rockets. First of all, MJ rambled continuously during most of interview and made it hard for them to ask good questions. When Adam finally got a word in edgewise, you could almost hear the big bell inside his head go "GONGGGGGGGGGGG!" He was silent for a few seconds, started rambling again and didn't answer the question of course. The Rockets should NOT re-sign Mike James. He is so full of himself I can't see him accepting 3rd or 4th place in the pecking order of a good team. He should just take the money from the Knicks or whoever is dumb enough to give it to him. I don't doubt his talent and effort level when he's on the court but more than ever I believe the Rockets must not sign him. He seemed way out of touch with reality.
Teamwork matters. Smartness on the court matters. For a support player, selfishness hurts. MJ fails all 3 counts. Chance, if you can, please post a link with the audio of this interview. If anyone still wants MJ after hearing what he said today then OK. But he was REALLY bad.
I don't care if he starts calling himself Jesus, and stealing candy from children. If he signs for the MLE for 3 years, then I'll take him back, warts and all. But I'm starting to doubt that we land him. I think he'll end up in Minny where he can be the "man", taking a lot of the scoring load off KG. I think the T-wolves are the only team desperate enough to totally hand over the keys to their offense to James. And to be honest, that would be a good fit for everybody involved. KG will be the connsumate teammate, and James can be the crunch time scorer that they need badly.
durvasa, I respect your opinions both here and on justbball (I'm Sniper over there) but I wholeheartedly disagree with you here. I know you're a big stats guy, but this isn't NBA Live and players aren't just polygons on our tv screens. Personalities, egos, relationships, and chemistry can destroy a team from the inside out no matter how talented the players are. We just went through a disaster of a season and I don't personally want to take a "chance" on a guy who seems as delusional as James. The truth is that our current team would already be in the playoffs if healthy, so we don't need to chase someone like James who would eat up our entire MLE at the very least. We could add two perfectly sane role players for that amount, and once you throw in our couple of draft picks, the team is going to be pretty damn solid if healthy. If we were as bad as we were this season WITHOUT the injuries, then yeah I think we would need to sign a guy like James and hope he didn't explode (in a bad way), but that's not the case.
Perhaps I exxagerated a bit. Yes, personalities do matter; but I think talent and effort just matter a whole lot more. Particularly for our team, which is saturated with nice, wholesome guys and sorely lacking in talent.
mj will not be on the rockets next year...no way we give him the whole mle...hes not a good fit on this team...and if im wrong and they sign him for the whole mle ill donate 100 dollars to this site...thats how sure i am they will not sign him
I say sign him to the full MLE and if he turns out to be exactly what we didn't want we have him as a valuable trading asset at the very least. But I see him as an spark coming off the bench when McGrady is resting. Let's face it McGrady and Yao can't carry the offensive load by themselves forever and we frankly do not have anyone else that can. Our 8th pick probably won't be a scoring machine for atleast a couple years, if ever. We also have to consider the fact that our window of opportunity is probably around 3 years of Tmac/Yao together in their prime. This all means we need scorers NOW. MJ is a proven playmaker who has Houston ties and WANTS to be here despite the fact that he will probably get better offers. We will be at/over the cap this offseason which means we will only have the MLE...are there better scorers in this free agent class that are willing to take a pay cut? I doubt it, why would anyone take a chance on a lottery team with no supporting cast? This is a critical offseason and if we don't get MJ we better make some bold moves.
Mike was definitely out there tonight, in full fledged "Don King" mode, but He's not the chemsitry experiment gone bad that some people think he is, and it's tough to argue that he isn't a better player than his trade counterpart. I for one hope he's a rocket next year.
It has been reported that James is a popular guy in the locker room. His antics are those of the class clown, his teammates realize this and appreciate it for what it is, and in so doing they seem to exceed the abilities of people on this BBS who take everything he says literally and then hyperanalyze it to death.
Matt, can you post a link of the interview so everyone else can hear it? I'll listen to it again. I want people to see for themselves I'm not exaggerating. The fact you made a rare post here about it says something. I think you and Adam have a very good show. Interviews are your greatest strength IMO. m_cable, I agree MJ would be a perfect fit on the T-Wolves. Are they interested in him? SamFisher, I'm aware very few athletes are well-spoken and many are clowns. Hopefully a link can be posted and you can listen for yourself. No hyper-analysis was necessary.
Without the spin please! I don't want your opinion of what he said, I want to know what was said. Sign him. Sign Mike James! He IS the fire we need. A3PO- stop spinning. You're worse than Fox News.
Every team he's played for doesn't want him back. I bet he's very obnoxious to be around for all that smack. There's a reason he gets traded in every season. (like that?)
Thanks A3PO. I'm glad you're a great thinker who actually THINKS. A lot of people here are so blinded by his talent that they would gamble the team way on Mike James. For me however, James is not worth the risk of the gamble. We're already a playoff team.. by signing him it doesnt guarentee we become a championship team if he is truly talented. However, if he is self-centered and egocentric... by signing him he could cause us the playoffs and create a lot of drama. If Rockets management want to gamble on him, then do it. But I for one would not like to gamble on a guy like MJ when he's such a big risk factor.
