Could someone please explain this obsession with Boki?

Precisely -- eventually you have to give up the nbadraft.net profile and focus on what you actually got, a few years later.

"potential" is only meaningful until you pick up a ball and get on a court. After two years of that, the p-word that matters is "performance".

 

Succinctly put.

 

Because, in stretches, you see the makings of a good player there.

Last year, Boki was the absolute best Rocket on the fast break. He was fast, spaced himself well, and was graceful going to the hoop. I was far happier seeing Nachbar on the break than Francis, Mobley, or assorted others.

Because he can occasionally drive by his man like he's not there.

Because his defense 2 years ago was atrocious, and last year, it was quite serviceable, and even good against certain types of players.

Peja? No. He plays more like Deltlef Shrempf. Probably won't ever be that good - but a worthwile guy to have on the team. Next year, I expect him to contribute meaningful time.

 

I'm with the original post on this one. I see plenty of reasons to WANT a Rocket player to do well, but I really haven't seen much that makes me BELIEVE that Boki will be a real player.

As for the super effert, diving for loose balls and rugged defense I am reading about, I have not seen that. Not saying that he does not apply himself, just not seeing any more effort out of Boki than from Padgett or Spoon, for example.

 

He’s never going to be Peja or even Schrempf, because he’s just not the shooter they are, but I could see him developing into a Manu Ginobilli type player that is a very active on offense and defense.

Manu didn’t come into the league until he was 26 years old. If he went directly into the NBA like Boki did, he may not have looked any better than Boki has these past 2 seasons.

 

SamFisher, you are trying too hard. I think by now everyone got the point you are unsuccessfully trying to make, and most people disagree. Mainly because you are wrong.

 

Just imagine how good Manu would be if he were 6'8" tall.

 

Jackie, I appreciate your commentary but perhaps you should stick to stalking MacBeth.

You're right though, I am looking dumb. Ethnicitiy plays no part it all in the composition of a basketball players fan following. How could I have even suggested that? That's why bbs traffic around here has remained constant since June 2002, right? Yeah, a players ethnic background plays no role -- it's a color blind league with color blind fans.

http://www.nba.com/rockets/chinese/index_gb.html

God forbid, I wouldn't want to look dumb.

 

Thanks for the acknowledgment.

 

SamFisher, I noticed that your spelling gets worse the more defensive and excited you become. Take a break.

 

And I see you've taken a break from telling us how funny he is to adopt TJ's "psychological warfare" techniques of distraction and ad hominem attacks.

If you have something to say about the issue, that a player's ethnicity (and by implication, race) frequently plays a role in the way fans perceive him, then say it. If not, then I think we're done here, and I'll just start treating you the way I treat him.

 

Wow. I would have believed the opposite.

Do you have a link to this study???

 

Nah. It was about...hmm...5 years ago, I think? Was published in a major sports medium, SI, TSN, or soemthing similar. Evaluated all players' draft positions compared with their eventual production, and determined that while Christian Laettner is the perception, the norm is superior compared with draft position.


Essentially fiound that white players who underperform serve to reinforce a bias that they were overrated due to color and black players who underperform are merely seen as individual underperfomers.

 

You sure are being an ass. Maybe you should take a break yourself.

 

Here you go:

First of all, what "bizarre obsession" are you even talking about? It is ridiculous to say something like that. Back it up. You can't? Okay, there goes the basis of your whole argument.

Furthermore, why would I need to repeat everything people here tried to explain to you already. It obviously flew right over your head and did not stop you from repeating your same ridiculous argument again and again and again.

But here, since it seems like you missed it:

etc. etc.

As MacBeth said, there were plenty of threads about Terence Morris as well (several started by Fredterp and another Maryland fan).

There are many threads about basically all of our players, even about Badiane, who will most probably never even play for the Rockets.

So your whole verbose argument here is based on two mistaken assumptions:

1) Sam Fisher: "There is a "bizarre obsession" with Boki"

There isn't, he is one player that is popular with some fans, just like Moochie, Air Bullard, Chucky Brown and others used to be or still are.

2) Sam Fisher: "This is because he is white."

Several posters have already said that at least for them, this is not the case. You ignore that. Not only that, you completely ignore the facts that already refuted your assumption no. 1 - namely the fact that Moochie was a fan favorite for a long time, the fact that probably as many threads were started about Terence Morris as there were about Boki, etc. etc.


You are trying to squeeze the facts to support your argument. And as a lawyer, I have seen people do better at that.

 

Yeah .

 

I don't think it's race as much as it is just the circumstances that a player is entering the NBA. Foreign players are treated the same as high-schoolers.

A typical black college player comes into the NBA more prepared than a typical European player. There is a smaller transition and you just get a better sense of how good a player is going to be when you’ve seen them play all throughout their college career. So of course there are going to be fans out there more patient with the Euro players.

Ex.) There’s a black French player in Golden State named Pietrus that fans there are salivating over and he did even less than Boki in his rookie season. They are more patient with him because they know it just takes longer for European players.

 

Obviously, ethnicity is an issue. Most of us are in Texas, right? If it wasn't an issue, there would not be any Next Peja comments about Boki. The only things they have in common is the color of their skin, exotic accents, and poor defense.

I'm always VERY surprised when a sportscaster compares a white guys game to a black guys game. It's a rarity. Every time a decent white guy is coming into the league, it's always a "He could be the next Larry Bird or Peja comment". Never hear anybody saying he's going to be the next Michael Jordan about a white guy.

 

5 year ago?? I never remember a report like that coming out. I would say that report is dead wrong regardless.

If you look at the drafts prior to 1999, you will find that most white players taken in the 1st round turned out to be greatly OVERrated.

White players drafted in the 1st round (specifically lottery) since 1990:

Alec Kessler
Luc Longley
Danny Ferry
Adam Keefe
Tom Gugliotta
Christian Laettner
Shawn Bradley
Bobby Hurley
Eric Montross
Bryant Reeves
Cherokee Parks
Todd Fuller
Vitaly Potapenko
Keith Van Horn
Austin Croshere
Michael Doleac
Dirk Nowitzki
Jason Williams
Raef LaFrentz
Wally Szczerbiak
Alek Redojevic

Thats 21 players. I think we could agree that at least 3/4 of those players, in restrospect, were overrated at the time they were drafted.

 

"You are trying to squeeze the facts to support your argument. And as a lawyer, I have seen people do better at that."
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