You would be hard pressed to find anyone more worthless then BJ Armstrong. He's the agent version of the Onion.
I wouldn't say he's unathletic. From what I saw he looked like a good back up guard, Barrea type guy that annoys people. He drew a couple of offensive fouls from Jason Terry, he was really frustrated by Baker.
many many rumours going around from people who are friends/ relatives of Rose's entourage that he had decided to call it quits and retire. I think he had a mental breakdown went to Chicago to see his mommy and bro and changed his mind.
At this point, if Rose walked away, the NBA wouldn't miss him. I doubt he does because he'd risk losing the ridiculous Adidas money.
I saw Ron Baker playing the other night on TV and I didn't know who he was. He definitely has a nose for the ball, but he looked like a hustle guy without great athletic ability to me. I looked him up on nbadraft.net and they said "Undersized for a SG and lacks speed and athleticism for either NBA guard position." Baker certainly looks a little out of place to me in today's NBA where players seem to be getting taller and more athletic. I think a comparison to Barrera is a good one.
Total BS. He missed a game, like the rest of humans who just can't muster up enough ****s to go into work some days for whatever psychological or family or medical reasons, he will be fined. The only difference is his job is a game, your job probably actually matters when you miss a day. I don't believe that there is even a single person here, rich or poor, who hasn't had that day when you just said "I CAN'T I JUST CAN'T TODAY". Some days it's bad enough to not even want to pick up the phone or send a text. I've certainly been there when I was an employee, and I bet many of you have too. It happens to people who lead superficially great lives and those who lead financially dire lives. He makes way more than most, and he will be fined way more than most so don't give us that stupid "he makes $20m so I DGAF" BS. If he was having a personal crisis thinking to walk away from basketball - which I don't necessarily believe - it's fine. He's human. He's allowed to have that thought, as long as he's willing to pay the price and face the consequences. He doesn't owe anyone more than his contract - if he walks away, he gives up the money, if he doesn't he keeps it. He doesn't need the money, maybe he is just playing because he thinks it would be unappreciative and unfathomable based on his upbringing to turn down money like that for whatever reason. Half of the people who work with or for you care about nothing but making the most money they can make from you or your employer in exchange for what's required in the contract. There are contractual penalties for not showing up and the team can take legal action, he isn't on the hook for any more than that unless he's refusing to honor what he signed. If anything this should really have you thinking about how things like clinical depression, stress, trauma, and all other kinds of psychological nuisances are not just about money, in fact they overshadow money. It's not about being appreciative and getting on your knees for the person to whom you provide value and compensates you with money. This dude might not be ok, so unless you like people kicking you in the nuts on your most f*cked up day, stop ******** on him for goodness' sake. Imagine if you felt like your world was crashing down on you and you ditched work accepting the contractual fine, and then you had people following you around snapping pictures of you and tweeting holier than thou crap about what kind of person you are on that day. A little compassion guys. If for example you had clinical depression and someone offered you hundreds of millions to play basketball, you would take it, and you would f*ck up just like him. You're living in a dream world if you think getting that money would change what was destroying you mentally. In fact, it would probably worsen it.
I watched Baker a lot at Wichita State and the recent Knicks game was my first time seeing him in the NBA. He plays nothing like Barrera. He doesn't use flopping as his primary way of defending and he doesn't shoot as well. He's grittier.
A reporter known to get leaks from players said that his unhappiness about being away from his child was a contributing factor.