Although I personally don't have pitty for him, I agree with your assessment. I really hope he clears his head and improves this year.
Yeah, having Yao Ming on your team makes you superman. He needs a break in many ways. Life doesn't begin and end on the basketball court. Basketball is part of this man's life, not his life. You talk like you grew up in Kingwood and never had problems to deal with. Live a little, be tested a little, then tell me more about how Eddie should never have personal problems.
Money is everything, money solves issues, money buys things, things make you happy, happiness is all external.... Am I missing something here Topfive? This seems to be your logic. I'd hate to have you give me advice on real life issues. Paying rent is a simple problem, you earn the money, you pay it. Life does get a lot more complicated and I'm pretty sure you know that. I'm not trying to make excuses, but a break in life could really go a long way for Eddie and his happiness. That could translate to better play on the court(which seems to be the only thing we care about as fans). Nothing personal Topfive, I just disagree with you.
Well, don grahamleone, I gotta disagree with you. Business is business, and million dollar contracts can't and shouldn't behandled carelessly, but that's exactly what Eddie is doing. By signing with the Rockets, he has made a business commitment to deliver work in return for large sums of remuneration. Eddie is failing to deliver in accordance to his contractual oblications. When that happens to someone getting paid $26k a year, there might be some flexibility. But this is the big game with the big boys (not Yao, Les). And if he can't live up to his multi-million dollar commitments, he should pay a hefty penalty. Honestly, after drugs and repeated disappearances, I think Eddie's behavior does not deserve understanding. It deserves sever consequences. -- droxford
You guys need cut the "He's still young" crap out, Yao is only 2 years older than EG, and you don't see him making those stupid mistake.
don, I appreciate your sentiment about helping out a kid like Eddie. But you are confusing Eddie the person and Eddie the professional. When you work, it is not your boss's job to help you overcome your personal problems. It is not your customer's job to give you a break for your personal problems. It's your family's, your friends', your church's, your social workers, your counselor's job. You boss's job is to get the best production from you. If you don't produce, he/she can just let you walk. You customers' job is to get what's worth the money they pay for the product from you. JVG is the boss. We are the customers.
I'm not going to speculate and get into this bashing mode like the rest of you holyier than thou idiots. I will wait for the facts to come out and then decide how I feel about the situation. You want to talk about hypocrites? How about all the people that are calling for EG's head but not to long ago were begging for a trade for players like Rasheed Wallace and Lamar Odom. I also wonder how many of the posters here that are b****ing didn't make stupid mistakes when they were in their early 20's. Who cares if its the NBA or how much money he makes? Sounds like most of you are jeleous to me. Is he screwing up? YES. Does he deserve to be critisized? YES but before you call for his head you should at least know all the facts.
This guy's career is going down the tubes faster than a speeding bullet. Unrealized, probably unrealistic basketball expectations, smoking dope (they call it "dope" for a reason" to maintain the NBA/ Escalade/ blingbling lifestyle expected of a 20 year old millionaire. Kids, girls, inability to make simple phone calls, drug charge, new coach, new system, accountability. All bad for young NBA kids. It's easy to bag on this guy, and he probably needs a good ass kicking by someone a lot biger than he is, but this is a complex life this undereducated kid has been initiated into. I seeno solution for him except to get his s*** together. For the Rockets, it's just more bad news. The front office looks really bad these days, excluding Van Gundy.
Dude didn't report for work and didn't call, explained it to his coach, said it wouldn't happen again, and did the same thing the very next friggin day. I'm usually not so harsh on personal problems, but at least be mature about it.
It's not the job of a boss who can place one want-ad and get 100 people to replace you for a 5-digit salary to help you solve your personal problems. However, when owners of an NBA team decide to invest millions of dollars in signing a 19-year-old kid who's had some problems in the past, it would be in the OWNER'S best interest to invest a small additional percentage of that amount to provide high-quality psychological, financial, career, and/or psychiatric counselling to that person to help them get through a crisis situation (possibly even earning increased gratitude and loyalty from that kid), rather than just telling them to take a walk when problems come up. 6'10" players with this kind of potential (and yes, that's all it is until it is fulfilled) are not a dime a dozen. As frustrating as it is, it's foolish not to put a LOT of effort into trying to help realize that potential. I don't think we're going to just cut Eddie (and his trade value is minimal right now), but I hope he gets past this soon and learns something from the experience. Because he's taken a huge step backwards in what was already a make or break season for him. Unfortunately, I can't make any judgement on whether they should invoke the option clause (for their own benefit or for his presumed trade value down the road) without knowing what the situation is. I don't envy them that decision right now.
It is within any employers interest to accomodate within reasonable degrees their employees needs in a times of personal crisis. Cost of turn over & retraining far outweighs the cost of cutting someone a little slack during personal crisises. It is also the humane thing to do, & very well could be the law. I do not know what's up w/Eddie but if it has something to do with a pregnancy or misscarriage then he is entitled to FMLA like anyone else. The problem is his immature ability to communicate his needs to the team, not a potential personal emergency & needing time away from the team.
From the chronicle "I don't want to say I feel let down until I know what he's going through. Basketball is your job, but you have a life outside of basketball. If there's something he's going through, I can't say, `You should have been here and not handled what you needed to handle.' It's unfortunate it happened. But he's going to have my support. He's going to have the support of everybody in this locker room." Its good to see his teamates aren't acting as judgemental as some of you guys.
Possum Since you are subscribing to the "high road" angle (right or wrong) of this discourse do you think it makes you STUPID calling others idiots? A Yes oder No will do.
They cannot be. If he comes back, they have to be a team. We, on the otherhand, are the customers. We pay high ticket prices, parking, refreshments, league pass, offical 'NBA' gear...we pay those millionaire salaries. We have every right to demand that a player friggin shows up.
Keep in mind that the Rockets didn't interview Francis either. And what a great trade that was!!! Griffin is down on his luck now. 25K a game is a lot of money for you and I, but for him, that is realities of life. I think fans are upset because it's looking more and more that the 7 teams that passed him up, including NJ, are laughing at us because we were laughing at them after the game Eddie had against the Lakers and Shaq during his rookie season. Remember he who laughs last laughs best. Think Yao!!!!! And for anyone to say that Richard Jefferson was better at this point is ludicrous. I will flat out say you are a cynic and close to stupid. I know I'm being harsh but I truly feel that way. Just one extra win that season and we probably don't get Yao. Look I'd rather take a Francis, Griffin, and Yao than a Francis, Jefferson, and Dunlevey. Come on, don't fricken fret about the Griffin for Jefferson trade. Yao will be the best player in the league for 15 years. Such a quick bust on Griffin was not expected, but this **** happens. Come on, the number 1 thing about taking a young player is that there are a lot of risks that come out of the misterious word "POTENTIAL". You can't have your cake and eat it too!!!
