I'm a Rockets fan who now lives in NY--don't even know if the Dan Patrick show is carried in Houston (haven't lived there for a good 10 years). JVG was on his show today, though. Really just throwing down his take on the playoffs. He made one really interesting comment about Kobe and the Lakers. I wish I could pull some sort of transcript but the bottom line was this: Kobe and the Lakers were actually as good last year as this year (in terms of winning percentage) until Kobe got hurt. Things fell apart gradually at that point and the army of Kobe-haters had fuel for claiming that Kobe couldn't lead a team without Shaq. He said that the public's gestalt perception of a player and team are often unfairly skewed by the effects of season changing injuries. To ANY Rockets fan this would sound like a clear reference to T-Mac/Yao/05-06Rox. But the man never directly referred to Houston (almost cast the comment aside). I honestly felt like this was the first time I heard JVG's real feelings on the season. Kobe has averaged 70 games per season, played 68 in 04-05, only played 14 more in 05-06, won 11 more games. T-Mac has averaged 68 games per season, played 47 in 05-06, and played 31 more in 04-05. Clearly the effect of season changing injuries and a generalized nose-dive in public gestalt perception of T-Mac's value are more significant than they were for Kobe. On some level, JVG was saying, "You think the Lakers improved this year? No, their superhero just got healthy. Wait till ours does." I appreciate his "suck it up and deliver" insistence despite the ridiculous injuries the Rox have faced, but, at this point, its also nice to hear (what I believe is) JVG defending T-Mac. He also drew comparisons between conflicts he and Stevie had and those which LB and Steph have waged here in NYC. Nothing profound or Rox relevant there, other than the ultimate implication that Steph should be shipped. That's not really Rox relevant unless any of you think we could draft a decent PF, sign another, and then trade a Howard/Swift/Sura combo for Steph+extra-garbage because Isiah loves to collect overpaid Houston PFs. Not that I'd wish Steph on Houston--after all, we like Yao taking shots, right?
gestalt n : a configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that it cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts nice vernacular JVG
interesting...He is a great analyst but he hardly ever reveals his true feelings...He's a company man...
Sadly, the trend has been set, and anytime we deal another useless PF to NY, we have to take back one previously useless player we dealt to them (as we did with Moochie) and one useless PF (as we did with Baker). The good news: MoT will allow us to get both an ex-player and a useless PF using only one roster spot. The bad news: A "Mo, come home" tour will probably be less sucessful than the "Moochie, come home" tour was...
In before the lock Keep Starbury away from the Rockets. He's not worth that many players. If that were the case, bring Stevie back!
DaDaCowboy? Who is this USURPER who is stealing my identity? I cry foul...there can be only ONE DaDa "something" moniker. I challenge you to a dual of trout slaps, and mine have lasers in their heads !! TRAVESTY !!!! TRAVESTY !!!!! DD
