You DO NOT call your teammates or the orginization m****f****'s EVER! I knew it was for a commercial when I made my comments and shooting a commercial doesn't excuse his comments. Showing some passion is fine but I don't think And1 told him to make sure he dropped F bombs and N bombs b/c they new they couldn't use any of it! For the commercial, he bascially put it out for the world to see and hear that he is the ONLY good think about the TWolves. The others players suck, the coach doesn't do anything, and management is stupid. Since when did stuff like that make a good commercail? He has to do everthing for the TWolves b/c he makes so much money, they can't get/keep players to help. Rez, would you be happy if Francis shot a commercial were he said he was the Rockets will never win unless he's on the team and that Griff, Mobley, and the rest of the team were mf'ers who need to step up? What about Griff calling Hakeem a dick. What that be cool? If it was a scripted commercial he could easily say no I don't want to use all this profanity and call out my team. Or it is what he feels. Either way it makes him look bad.
Lets assume that we had made the playoffs for 6 years in a row and never made it past the 1st round. Lets also assume that Francis was the man on the team. He does his absolute best to keep his team in the games. Lets also assume Griff and Mobley suck it up (These 2 players are better than anything the Twolves have other than Garnett). Well, quite frankly, I'd be pissed off too after 6 years. I wouldnt want Francis bad mouthing them, but if its for a commercial, maybe that would be a good indirect way of getting their asses in gear.
I would prefer Francis have a little discussion w/ them behind closed doors and not for reebok and infront of espn if it ever came to something like that. I understand he is fustrated but I don't see him at McHale's doorstep suggesting a paycut to help bring better players in either. He doesn't seem to understand that his contract is why he is in the situation he is in and he is trying to blame eveyone else but himself. The only good thing he said is that he will try to take over games at the end which is what he should have been doing if he "has to do everything for this team" in the first place.
July 17, 2002 Wolf bane by Chris Palmer ESPN The Magazine When I walked out to the curb and saw the silver champagne Ferrari, I knew I had to test the leather bucket seats. It was a big thing for me to sit in Kevin Garnett's car and rap quickly with him about this and that. Not something I would soon forget. Obviously it wasn't a big deal to KG, who told SportsCenter he can't remember it at all. (There were five or six other people standing around the car at the time. Including his pal DJ Set Free, who took my place in the passenger seat after rummaging around in the car's trunk. Which, incidentally, was under the hood.) Am I more than a little puzzled? You bet. But I'm less confused by KG's reaction to the rest of the story I wrote for ESPNMAG.com on his recent And 1 commercial shoot. In my story I included a transcript of the on-camera Q&A session between the commercial's director, Chris Robinson, and KG. The idea of the commercial was to capture the real KG in all his unbridled passion. The story wasn't meant to cause controversy. Kevin did that when he made the decision to back away from his words. I understand that Kevin may be a little edgy right now, following five straight first-round playoff exits and heading into contract talks. There's more than a $200 million difference in what he hopes to get, and what the Timberwolves are reportedly offering. That's pressure. I know Kevin is frustrated by his team's lack of success. And with Chauncey Billups signing with Detroit, the T-Wolves are heading in the wrong direction. The commercial shoot took place July 1. We didn't run the story until July 15. I called KG several times to give him an opportunity to elaborate on, shoot down or back up his words. He never called me back. What KG doesn't know is that I received over 300 e-mails showing support for him and praising his passion and raw honesty. Now that he's backed away from those words, what are his fans to think? Before writing the story I secured permission from And 1 (many times) to use everything I witnessed. (After all, they were the ones who offered me an exclusive.) Seth Berger, the And 1 CEO, acknowledged as much in a statement he released on Wednesday. For his part, Robinson, the director, emphasized that what me and the other 75 people on the set saw was "the real KG. All him. Not scripted at all." The shoot was loosely based on the interrogation scene in Scarface, Kevin's favorite movie. I took special precaution to ask everyone involved (about a dozen times) if Kevin was playing a character or being himself. After the shoot, I asked Kevin the same thing. Each time I was told that's him. All him. No one tricked KG. He's too smart for that. Kevin prides himself on being real. So it shocked me that he backed away from his own words so quickly. Tony Montana would never do that. hmmm... sounds like KG and And1 had multiple opportunities, before the article ran, to take back what was said in the interview... but every party involved insisted that was the real KG... so why exactly should we think the "interview is not true???"
and the one most likely not telling the truth is KG... he has more to gain by doing so... covering his ass vs. the author trying to explain the story... why doesn' t KG explain the story, rather than back away from it? hey, i'm still a KG fan... i'm glad he said what he did... i'm sick of prepackaged PR sugar coated answers to interview questions by famous athletes... its refreshing to hear the truth.
I agree. I was proud of him when I first read that interview. I like players who dont hide anything because players that dont act like themselves are Pu**ies. One thing I respect about Iverson is that he will answer any question with 100% truth. No bullshi*.
the fact that he seems to be backing away from his words is making me lose my newfound respect for his openness... if his PR people got a hold of him and told him to walk away from those statements and deny everything, and he listens, than he is just as phony as all other athletes who only tell the media what he's told they want to hear. i like AI's openness and honesty, even though I totally DON'T agree with most things he says... but the fact he says them makes his words mean something.
