Walton had several great things to say about Stevie - at one point stating that Kobe is the best man defender in the league and still couldn't stay with Franchise
Man!, God knows how much that Walton guy annoys me!!! All he says during the game is "What a terrible shot, I haven't seen a shot so bad in my entire life." or he just bashes on Eddie G. or any other rockets player exept Yao. *note: i'm not quoting him
Some of the shots Walton criticized were extremely ugly. In fact, if the Rockets would fix those kinds of things, they would be extremely hard to beat. They're already a very good team; but they would be a great team with just a little bit of work on shot selection, passing, etc. I know Walton has a tendency to overstate things (both positive and negative), but he was pretty accurate with some of his criticisms. Having said that, I thought it was a great game overall--especially Steve on offense and Cat on defense.
i think both were very impressed with steve. a few times walton did his normal "that's the worst possesion the rockets have ever had or whatever" but that's just part of being bill. he also said how steve was not doing this against just any defense but against 2 very good defensive guards in derek fisher and kobe bryant. tolbert said something like this is "steve's game tonight, the rocket's just need to give him the ball and get out the way"
Walton is very wishy-washy... He embellishes on everything. Even when he compliments... He'll say things like "The greatest center ever!!!" right after a dunk from Shaq. He'll say things like "The greatest 2 guard since Jordan!!!" right after Kobe shoots two shots in a row (?). So, when he criticizes, he uses the same logic... "The worst shot in Houston Rocket history!" "The sloppiest play ever!" Walton is the King of Sensationalism.
tolbert was the one pissing me off. Whenever the lakers got an obvious BS call he made excuses, but when a borderline call went our way he cried. It was frustrating to hear this game called, but I had no choice. Oh how I miss Calvin and Bill. Oh yeah and Walton does exaggerate waaaayy too much.
Good point noted on Tolbert. There were two fouls that were called on the Rockets, which the announcers noticed and acknowledged were not fouls. But Tolbert said that's part of the game, etc. But, when Shaq got the flagarant call on Steve Francis, Tolbert was outraged. Maybe I'm a homer. But, Refs miss calls all the time. If anyone is going to be outraged, then be outraged both ways, not just so biasily on the Lakers side. Go Walton. He's becoming a major Rocket proponent. When he criticized Eddie, Walton was Right. Eddie is sucking ass right now. He is playing horribly. That's what Walton was refering to.
I love Walton as much as the next guy, but Bill was really overreacting to EG's play. I mean, before he had his back strained and lay motionless for 5 minutes he had 2 sensational blocks on Shaq. In the last 3-4 games beginning in Orlando EG has been stepping it up bigtime, showing we he is really capable of, so for Bill to rip him that hard was quite frankly uncalled for.
I think Tolbert was trying to balance out Waltons' commentary. Since Bill is so Pro-Ming, Tolbert would point out some of Yaos' deficiencies in the game, like having 0 rebounds at halftime. I understand it, but would rather have both of them closer to the middle. And Walton is anything but accurate. The remark he made about Eddie putting 2 of the worst shots ever shows this. In the 1st half, Posey shot an airball on a 3 pointer that Walton said was Griffin. He also commented what a horrible shot it was. This was one of the shots he accredited to EG in his "2 of the worst shots" statement. He also mistakenly identified a different Rocket on a another play in the game, I think it was Steve and Cuttino, or Steve and Moochie, something like that. It was one of guards he mistakenly identified. Everyone here likes Walton now because he a Yao extoller, I do to. But he does say some stupid things.
I just put the game on channel 51. I tried to watch the game on ESPN but it was just ridicolous the statements that Walton were making. What a Dumbass. I couldn't stomach it anymore; so I just watched our regular guys.
my commentry on their commentry: i thought the whinging about the flagrant was a little over the top, especially since we had that many bad calls going against us. the worst 3 in the game (IMHO): -shocking out-of-bounds-off Yao-not-shaq call in the final secs of regulation. -mobley-hit-kobe-on-the-3-attempt when it was a clean miss -no offensive foul call on shaq (i was amazed they actually called ONE this game) when he knocked cato out of the way for the easy dunk i thought a flagrant foul was/is called if there is unneccessary, and excessive, force used while fouling, or if the defender goes for the player instead of the ball. shaq took steve out with a two straight armed block attempt across the face that slid down and hit the ball (at least that's what it looked like to me on most of the replays). i think that warrants a flagrant type 1 call. intentional? no, but potentially dangerous, hence the call. i found the "worst shot attempt in frachise history" call quite funny. the shots were absolute shockers, especially in the context of the tightness fo the game. they did give props to steve ("give him the ball & clear out.."), but ignored cats contribution completely, except to say he was a good FT shoot (15th best in the L before the game). i thought tolbert was completely wrong in his defense of shaq of the "joke insult" and walton correct ("comments made about race, religion, ethnicity have no place in the L"). while it was beat up as part of the pre-game hype, it was still a bad comment, regardless of what is said in the locker-room. that's bagging "friends" rather than the (asian) community as a whole. i have to confess to making the same type of bad immitations with my friends in private conversations, also without intending to be racist, but the saga did actually educate me about the effect on the parts of the asian population. see my sig for examples of what can be, and was, said by professional athletes, rather than what shaq said.
There are actually three analysts for the game. But the strangest thing is that Walton seems do not want to talk to Tolbert. I do not see a moment in the game that he even looked at Tolbert while leaning all the way back from the table. From his body language, I could really tell that he is not interested in talking to Tolbert. I guess that is why they have the third analyst at game since they know Walton does not Tolbert at all. Anybody notice the strange arrangement?
I liked the part where Shaq made a dunk, or scored at least, and Walton was commenting on when Rudy would bring Yao back in the game. Walton mentioned that Shaq was on a roll, blah, blah, and that Yao should be put back in. I think Tolbert then said that Shaq has only made one basket, you call that a roll? They had there fun on that one.
Tolbert and Walton actually had me rolling. Tolbert especially, when Cat's shot went in and out Tolbert said " Where does that rank in the worst shots in Rockets history?". Classic.
Another one of tolbert's comments that irritated me was when Shaq dunked on Cato and the camera showed Dream and Moses and the idiot says "boy I bet they're glad they don't have go through that." Not sure of the exact quote, but he said something of that nature. Yeah I'm sure they would fear O'Neal.
