Pops looks like a total jackass in this case. Bowen better than Artest? I don't think so. Things like this make me hate the Spurs even when I try to like them. That and the fact they are the most boring basketball team in the world. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1791061 Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana forward Ron Artest challenged Bruce Bowen to a game of one-on-one for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award Tuesday, one day after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich criticized Artest and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. "Tell his coach, 'Let's play one-on-one for the award,"' Artest said after practice. "I'll give it to him if he can beat me." Popovich appeared Monday on a San Antonio radio station and said Bowen was more deserving of the award, which Artest won by a wide margin. Bowen finished fourth in the voting. "Bruce guards the best player on the other team almost every single night," Popovich said. "Artest doesn't do that. Artest just looks the part. He looks like a big, tough guy. He whacks and gets knocked out of the game once in a while." Popovich also criticized Carlisle for openly campaigning for his player. Carlisle called voting members of the media to lobby for his player and had two assistants break down film of Artest to come up with supporting statistics. Carlisle said the project showed that Artest held opponents to an average of 9.4 shots and 8.1 points a game when he was matched up one-on-one. The NBA used those numbers when announcing Artest the winner. "What a bunch of baloney," Popovich said. "Totally unsubstantiated stats put out by Indiana. The media bought it and then the NBA printed those stats. I am amazed by that. "We'll never do that," Popovich said of the campaign. "It's not our style. It makes no sense. And we'll certainly not throw out stats that are totally unsubstantiated. There's no way to substantiate them. It's like grabbing four guys off the street and putting them in a film room and saying to come up with some stats on this guy. It's just a joke and it really angered me when I saw that the NBA actually printed those stats when they announced the media's choice of Defensive Player of the Year as if they were real stats. There is no such stat." The comments were posted on a San Antonio television station's Web site and didn't take long to find their way to Indiana, where the Pacers are awaiting the outcome of the Miami-New Orleans series after their four-game sweep of the Boston Celtics in the first round. Artest said he wished Popovich would have spoken to him directly rather than commenting through the media. "It's not hard to get in touch with me," Artest said. "All you have to do is call the Pacers office and ask for my phone number. You can speak to me instead of going to the papers. He's taken a lot of positives away from it. Talk to the Pacers and call me. Let me know I didn't deserve it so I don't have to hear it from (the media)." Carlisle said he thought Popovich never would have made the remarks had he known they would make their way on to the Internet. "I understand where Pop's coming from," Carlisle said. "He has a strong belief in his player and obviously I have a strong belief in mine." As for his campaigning, Carlisle pointed to the NBA All-Defensive team announced on Monday. Coaches vote for the teams, not the media, and Artest's 26 First-Team votes were more than any other player. Bowen was also named to the First Team, receiving 18 votes. "The one thing I will agree with Pop on is that the coaches' vote is the most important," Carlisle said. "In the coaches' vote, Ron was clearly the highest vote-getter. It really should make any arguments moot on who the best defensive player was."
Yeah, I don't see how Pop looks like a jackass. He's got a right to his opinion, Rick Carlisle seems to think so too.
Because it sound like sour grapes. Artest had a great year and got a just reward for it, and Pops disparages it by saying that he only got it because Carlisle lobbied for his guy. Anybody with any basketball IQ would rather have Artest than Bowen.
The Bob Hill fiasco aside, there are few people in this league I respect more than Pops. There's a big difference between campaigning for your guy BEFORE the vote and campaigning for your man AFTER he lost.
It's not his style to campaign about his guy, only to b**** for him afterwards. Anyways, I think the media created another issue to blow up.
Speaking of classy.... I just watched the Denver Minn game, and at the end as the Wolves were walking off the court to the locker room Denver fans began to throw their drinks bottles down at the players. Not very classy IMO.
Uprising, see my response in the Nugs thread. Someone needs to check Artest for Roids. He seriously has some anger issues.
Business as usual. You always see someone going off about being snubbed for awards, be it the player or their coach. I remember Rudy annually moaning about Mario Elie never getting consideration for DPOY. Bowen made the all-defensive team, so it's not like he was done wrong. Evan
I did kind of raise my eyebrows when I read how Carlisle called around to lobby for Ron Artest. Kind of like when Sharon Stone wrote thank-you notes to all the Golden Globe voters (foreign press?) after she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Casino. Hey, she won. But I'd take Artest hands-down. Granted, we're just talking about defense here, but he expends energy on both sides of the floor. He gives you 18 points a game and then still never takes a play off on defense. Bowen can say the same thing but he isn't quite Artest's caliber.
Plus Artest plays hard-nosed defense for a longer period at 37.2 compared to Bowen's 32 mins. Artest has jermaine o'neal in the back to anchor him but bowen has had the likes of duncan and robinson and now nesterovic to help him out in the defensive department. Someone make a rundown of people that bowen has to guard vs people that artest has to guard? Pop said that bowen has to play against tougher players than artest.
Also both are strong defenders but artest has the stats to go with it to. 2.1 steals and 5.3 rbds for artest compared to 1 steal and 3.1 rebounds for bowen. That might have put artest over the top.
I like this part. What are they going to do, try to out-defend each other? You can't measure a defender with a one-on-one game, especially when one of those players has few offensive skills.
They should each take turns in guarding kobe or t-mac one on one. Whoever holds them to a lower shooting percentage wins
