Rick sends Von to the locker room (UPDATE: Adelman says issue settled)

as a TEAM you have players. Player play together. Von is a good player but his TEAM is more important then his issues. He will take this a realize that he messed up. He'll apologize to his teammates and all will be well.

 

you guys are all ridiculous..

Von is part of the team.. and for all of you to be so ready to disown him, shame on you.

He is part of WHY we are this far..

the reason we lost is the Refs.. not cause of Von..get its traight.

 

Well through this whole thread, I still haven't heard anyway say that they know exactly what Von did or said, so I don't understand why all the focus only on him.

I think it was also a BONEHEAD move by RA to send him to the locker room. That is unprecedented, especially in a playoff series and bound to be a distraction from the team. RA could have easily asked one of the trainers to take him to the locker room to play it off, or even just ignore him and do something after the game to keep it in house. Unless he intends to kick Von off the team, there is no reason to send him to the locker room...UNLESS VON WAS THREATENING TO DO HARM TO HIM. Without a threat, Rick lost his cool just as much as Von did.

I'm not taking up for Von, because he should NOT be arguing with the coach, especially in a playoff series. But he still is a 24 year old kid and RA is a veteran coach. RA should have thought out his move to send him to the locker room better.

It will be very interesting to see how this turns out and what comes out about what really was said and happened. If Von was just complaining about playing time or something like that, that is just youth and intensity and a veteran coach should NOT let that get under his skin and send him to the locker room...just bench him and put an assistant coach on him to shut him up.

If VON did something worse like threaten him or get in his face in a confrontational way, then he might be gone for the rest of the playoffs and Rockets for good. Either way, this doesn't look like he will be back with this team next year.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Another way to look at it: Wafer has been instrumental to the success of this year's team, but how many of us think Morey won't be able to find someone to replace him with that's just as good if not better? James White may or may not be that guy, but I guarantee you Morey will pull yet another rabbit out of his hat before next season starts.

Or maybe Von can grow up, apologize to the entire team, and learn a valuable lesson that helps keep him in the league. If not, I see him in a Clippers uniform next year.

 

Not one person has said it cost us the game. it was a selfish act. You have a problem with the coach, wait till the game is finished and ask the talk with the coach. That is the proper way to do it.

 

It was in the heat of the moment, I’m sure they will kiss and make up on the plane ride back home. You guys over react to everything.

 

Not a bonehead move. Sure it cost us, but F that, freakin Rick Adelman shouldn't have to hear any lip from any player. Von Wafer should be thankful that Rick has given him an opportunity in Houston.

 

YOU DON'T KNOW THE SITUATION. How could you call it bonehead???

And how could you be calling whether or not he will be on the team next year. Come on people, wait to see what comes out here.

 

I think there is been confrontation before this incident between Wafer and RA. DM prolly intervened and now RA will let him handle this situation.

Wafer should trust RA on playing him. I think Wafer doesnt realize that he can't gaurd Odom or Kobe and it's getting to his head on why he's not getting playing time. He's also letting Sasha get into his head, he needs to control his emotions and bring positive energy off the bench.

 

Maybe what Wafer did was unprecedented. No coach in this league would tolerate being called out from his bench. I think that's what Wafer did. He'd better be on his behavior from here and on. If it were RA, he would be still be playing for Anaheim snakes in the D legaue, whatever hell it is.

 

This.

 

Thank god we have Ron to talk some sense into Von!

 

Nonsense. A coach has to maintain control of the team or else the team will start to lose faith in him. If that means sending your hot-headed bench player to the showers to make a statement, then you do it. Adelman is a pretty even-keeled guy, so making a move like this (probably the first time in his career he's ever done that) tells me that Wafer was WAY out of line.

 

Yeah, Rick Adelman is such a terrible coach, we should just fire him this offseason.

In all seriousness, telling him to go to the locker room before it escalates any further is probably a good decision, but we can't make judgements either way until we know exactly what was said... and we may never know, as they seem to want to keep it internal.

 

I was thinking he was complaining about Aaron Brooks' aimless dribbling that took us from even at the half to down 11 in the 3rd. I know I was yelling at both Adelman and Brooks through my tv.

The lineup that did really well was Hayes, Landry, Wafer, Lowry, Brooks. Adelman goes back to sleepy-r****ded mode in the 3rd, and the Rockets go back down double digits. No play calls from the bench. No lineup changes. Just steady building of a lead by the Lakers.

I guaran-dam-tee you Wafer was asking him to put either himself or the whole lineup that did well back in. Adelman showed him who was the boss, and we lost by 15.

It hurts when a r****ded third year player sees the obvious more than you, right, coach?

 

Von hasn't been calm since he came to LA
he played with anger,which we can see, from game one
hope Von could be calm to the games,then he could do really well

 

Some of Yall need to get your head straight after reading your posts. If you blame RA, it's like blaming a gal for being raped, not rapist. Get this, it's Von that crossed the line, not RA.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. It's not like RA is known as a disciplinarian.

I've been saying for a while that Streetball won't get a lot of playoff minutes because he only plays on one end of the floor. I have a feeling he won't be back.

As another poster said, once it escalates to a national story, it's going to be hard to rebuild at this point in the season.

 

This entire freakin' team needs to take a long hard look at itself in the mirror tonight.

Yao for getting fronted, and seeing what he can do to solve that problem.

Wafer for disobeying the coach.

Artest for getting ejected.

Brooks for his passing.

Scola for the lack of intensity.