Reading all these trade/draft scenarios, it continually amazes me how, seemingly, NBA players never change their bad habits. Is this true or is it just a reverberation from past criticism.
No-- the Marbury thread. What a great talent... but he's been moved a lot... yet still a great talent. Can he not be coached to be less selfish. We went through this for years with Cuttino and Steve. It's just kind of amazing. I guess the big money takes away lots of incentive because some of these guys just will never change.
I think NBA player can change just as good as other humans. So they are mostly adults so they will not change alot. maybe if some lifealtering thing happened to them they might change. Or if they change religion. But otherwise they will probably stay the same. IMHO
Detroit's full of misfits who found a second chance under Brown. Chauncey, Sheed, and to some extent McDyess were either disapointments or underacheivers in their previous teams. Once you have a rep, it sticks with you like bad BO. It's debatable whether Jimmy Jackson deserves his uncoachable rep.
You have to really separate the players' lives on court and off the court. Steve Francis will probably be turnover prone for the rest of his career, but he seems to be a great person to be around. Ron Artest, on the other hand, seems to be the exact opposite. He has great court vision, excellent scoring ability, and is a lock down defender, but he seems to be a taco short of a combo plate... Another good question would be, "Is it easier to change on court deficiencies or off court deficiencies?"
Akeem had a pretty bad attitude when he first came to the NBA. I seem to remember him getting into (and instigating) his fair share of scuffles his first few years.
Answer's yes, but it's somewhat rare and it usually happens when a player gets close to age 30, realizes he wants a ring before he goes out, and becomes a willing team player. Huge amounts of guys come into the league thinking the world of themselves and resist coaching because they've "always done it like this" and can still score at will, and don't understand that winning often requires sacrificing parts of their game. It's even worse when they win early on; see Cassell, Sam Too Many Shots. Evan
Can any human change? Can an everyday guy stop smoking? Can an everyday guy quit drinking? Can a guy that cheats on his wife, admit he has a problem and stop it? Can a criminal come clean? Can a guy known for domestic violence stop his anger? Can any selfish guy become unselfish? It's not about "NBA players", it's about humans in general...
Over the years that you've had your job or career, haven't you gotten better? Haven't you worked on your weaknesses, etc. Some of these knuckleheads just seem to go on and on...
