HP, I don't know why you keep playing the "hype" card. There's no hype for us ROCKETS FANS about this French guy. The fact that nobody knows how to spell his name pretty much show you that we don't really care about this guy. And I don't know why you keep trying to bash him. If he's a nobody like what you say, then who cares about him? I don't. I'm pretty sure 99% of the people here don't. You sound very much like those people who bashed Yao (pigeonhole?). You do sound like them. Admit it. I've always wondered, why would all those non-Rockets people care about Yao. If Yao was a bust, how would it affect their lives? Nothing. But if Yao turned out to be great, they would all eat their crows. Isn't that pretty silly? You said Yao was never "garbage." Well I say he looked pretty much like garbage his first game to me. I'm not trying to imply that the guy is as good as Yao. In case you misinterpret me. We care about Mobley here. Not this Rig-whatever guy. Don't you understand?
Easy, Let's see. You just basically called me a non Rockets Fan with no clue of what we care about. Don't assume you know what others are thinking. It gets annoying fast. Here's the deal. Rigaudeau and Ginobili play for our rivals, right? Jaric does, too. They are all 25+ yr old players hyped by national and local media to be stars that will run their offense and put them over the top. That is why the journalist asked question about Rigaudeau, but Feigen didn't ask questions about Nachbar--cause Nachbar is no overhyped. If you haven't followed this, well, I have. I take great interest is seeing whether this talk about them is a new media phenomenon hyping anything from Europe no matter how old, or if these are just bench players--if not players worse than Stephon Jackson at SA or Walt Williams at Dallas. If you don't see that it is more important to watch whether Rigaudeau and Ginobili become steals that can give our division rivals a bigger advantage than repurcussions from Mobley's smack, then at least don't tell me that no Rockets fans do, in your increasingly annoying pigeonholing manner. Go ahead, equate me to Yao bashers who utterly ignored the WC comments by Baron Davis, O'Neal and Ben Wallace, but don't tell me what I care about and don't, and what is more important or not. I followed the Rigaudeau hype for the last week, and the Ginobili hype all summer. I watch them closely. Do you understand, or is this really all just a clever "hype card" ploy to defend Mobley.
btw: the reason noone is spelling Rigaudeau correctly is because the title of the thread is wrong. oh, and also, looks like Walt Williams kept him on the bench tonight with 4-6 and 3-3 from 3pt land.
HP, When did I ever say that? Talk about "assuming you know what others are thinking." My point was your complaint about the hype was better directed to espn or the Dallas media than to us Rockets fan, because few of us here hype about Rigaudeau. I understand the interest about our rivals. But why do you feel annoyed about the hype. For one, You should thank the media for bring them to your attention. And if you are so sure the hypes are wrong, you should be happy rather than annoyed. So you are either irrational in your feeling about the hype or you are not telling the truth about your feeling. . . Oops, pigeonholing again. . . can't help it. . . it's in my system. . .
Yao Ming is smart. A wise man knows when to keep his mouth shut. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Yao and his Chinese basketball team blew an 18-point lead against France. "Garbage" Rigadeau hit six 3-pointers down the stretch to stage a comeback. "All Star" Yao Ming had his first triple-double in international tournaments, registering 14pts, 10 rebounds and 10 turnovers.
Ok. Here is the real stat: Olympic Men's Basketball results - in Sydney, Australia 09/20/2000 France 82, China 70 Antoine Rigaudeau (Fra) had 29 points and 3 steals. he went 8-8 in less than 10 minutes as part of a 40-10 run. Yao Ming (Chi) had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Wang Zhizhi (Chi) had 9 points and 10 rebounds. -------------------------------- Scouting Report: Antoine Rigaudeau At 6'7, Rigaudeau is one of the biggest european stars, Rigaudeau has been compared a lot to Kukoc, since he's an unusually tall PG with a great court vision (they used to be referred as the french and croatian Magic, respectively. Please don't laugh...). He did some NBA camps last year, but wasn't offered "serious" contracts (ie with guaranteed PT), so he choose to stay in Europe. Defensively weak, Rigaudeau has a complete offensive game, with one of the best shooting touch in Europe.
Why argue with heypartner. The reason he starts these obnoxious arguments is that by doing that, he gets some attention somewhere at least.
Everyone does their talking in the NBA, not just Cuttino and Francis. You should be used to it by now. I don't understand why a player is not allowed to voice his/her opinion without being objected all the time. For instance, you voice your opinion of how good/bad a player is on this site, yet what basketball skills have you got? You voice yours, why can't he voice his? Give and take, people!
I don't consider Cuttino's comments xenophobic at all. He was simply pointing out (in a round about way) that European garbage wasn't much different than American garbage.
By the way, it's really a stretch to label Mobley's comments as "xenophobic" in this case. Cuttino was being asked about what he thought of the latest "overhyped" European import. The situation practically begs for a comparison of Euro vs. American. Under that circumstance I don't see anything wrong with Mobley basicly pointing out that Euro trash isn't any different from American trash. What is xenophobic about pointing out how the two cultures are ALIKE in the garbage they produce? I think a truly xenophobic comment would tend to concentrate on the DIFFERENCES between the two worlds ... not what they have in common.
Hi I dont know why is it deserved to be discussed. Who in the world is qualified to call someone else "garbage"? The one who say it is "garbage" himself/herself. If you want to get respect, try to respect the others first, just as a human being. Dragon
I didn't read through all the posts, but now I know there is one more reason that Cuttino didn't pass the ball to Yao Ming when he rolled to the basket. After all, Yao is not an American. Shrimpie
So that's a good reason to trash a player who's played 1 game here? Cats comment lacked class (as did Rockets03), and no additional analysis from heyp about Euro players is required.
Oh, oh...We just got through with all that ching chong YAo Ming stuff, now the Europeans are gonna be pissed off!!! Sergi, Pierre, Dimitri, and Dietrich are gonna light up this board!!!
Midggidy, We are not objecting Mobley for voicing his opinion. We are objecting him for insulting another player. The reason why it is acceptable for fans but not acceptable for players (and coaches for that matter) is because they are public figures, we are not. They get paid millions of dollars, we don't. It's like we can make all the insulting comments about the President of the US all we want. But if a Senator make that kind of comments in front of the media, I can assure you he or she will get a lot of heat too.
WIGMAN, I suppose one might interpret it like that. But more likely he is making a sarcastic statement comparing a supposedly European star to American garbage. Imagine if Jason Kidd goes to Europe and plays poorly in his first game. When asked how he thinks about this American star, someone in the opposing team says, "Garbage. The European scrubs can do the same things." Don't you think it implies an insult to American basketball?
