That Dwight Howard actually called out Kobe on his ****ty defense would give me hope that he could actually positively impact the culture (yes i really said that, and i'm still fighting myself over it). Maybe Harden has issues with Sampson on that front, but what's he going to do with Dwight? pull the "it doesn't matter if I play no defense lol" kobe approach?
I don't believe it, going into last year Sampson had the reputation of being well liked by players because he was straight forward and communicated well. If the Rockets can keep him, they will, Morey loves his mind.
Jeremy Lin is going to be diplomatic no matter what he said. I remember one interview someone asked him about Sampson, and he didn't say anything good in a personal way. He simply said that Sampson had a great basketball mind. I remember at the time wondering if Lin had something against Sampson. None of this really means anything of course. It's all just people guessing. There is no reason to believe any of the Rockets have something against Sampson. But it makes me curious.
Or there probably isn't really any beef at all, and it's just rumors that are often untrue or at least exaggerated.
Its a long season. I think you have to assume that as some point players and coaches will get cross wise. Doesn't mean there is a problem. Same as parents and kids, husbands and wives, or boss and employees.
I find that hard to believe cause Sampson was the one who said your best player always has to have the ball in his hands the most (not sure if he said take the most shots as well). He said this in reference to 'democratic ball'. He was in favour of giving Harden free reign. Did he really call him out on his defense?
Here is the link to the original article: http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2013/05/13/nba-moneyball-sixers-sam-hinkie/ Sounds like the writer's goal was to talk (mostly negatively) about "Moneyball." The writer spoke to some exec who seems to be a "basketball guy" who feels threatened by Moneyball guys taking his job and just want to gossip about Morey and the Rockets. His point about Sampson is "Wouldn't it be terrible if Moneyball Hinkie brought his guy from Houston to coach?" My guess is there were some incidences where Sampson called out players and they were unhappy about it but this gets passed around in the gossip mill and turned into "Players hate Sampson!" Really doubt that Sampson would not know how to handle players after being in the NBA with SAS and MIL for years.
kelvin sampson isn't good at all.he had no idea how to use jeremy lin. kevin mcfail did a better job.
I thought it was Sunday Star Times article for a moment....You know what, who cares if players don't like their coach, it's not their decisions to make.
But still McFail failed hard at utilising Jeremy, look, Jeremy Lin has superstar potential, but Mcfail and Sampson made him a mediocre player during the regular season!!! Thats unacceptable!!! Those 2 coaches deserve to be fired and send back to north korea for a reality check. Yes I'm dead serious. #NotReally
I haven't seen one person on here truly question the legitimacy of this article. Im not saying that its true or isn't true... However, keep this in mind. There are very few head coaching jobs available in the NBA. Someone coming out and heaving bashing one of the top head coaching candidates on the market PROBABLY has some sort of motive for doing so. This is coming from a Philly based BLOG folks with the topic of conversation being about Sam Hinkie's hiring of a new head coach. Could it be possible that someone here is a little butthurt about the Sixers' going full moneyball with their front office staff and coaching search and downplaying potential candidates by stirring up drama? Just something to keep in mind when taking these reports literally or letting these things creep into your mind so you start dissecting Jeremy Lin's post game interview from 2 months ago where he "PAUSED" for a split second.... OMG... He does hate him... ahhhh. This whole last year everyone had nothing but great things to say about Sampson and alot of people really praised the way the team responded to him as the head when McHale was on leave, and now everyone wants to discount the reputation he built in Houston the past two years because of a blog some guy from Philly wrote??? Just saying, dont be so quick to take these reports too seriously.
Does this guy sound like someone with inside knowledge of the relationship between Sampson and the Rockets players? Or is it more likely this guy is just the Philly equivilent to Jerome Solomon at the Houston Chronicle or Josh Innes of 610 radio? Michael Bradley is a contributor to several national publications, including Slam Magazine and Hoop Magazine. He is a host on 97.5 The Fanatic, contributes to Sirius/XM Mad Dog Radio and CSNPhilly.com, and is an adjunct professor at Villanova, Saint Joseph's and Neumann Im sure if there was bad blood between Sampson and the players someone like Clutch (Dave) would know a hell of alot more about it than this guy since he is actually in the Rockets locker room after almost every home game, and we would have heard something about it by now.
