http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081126&sportCat=nba posted by Bill Simmons of ESPN So if the second three this guy mentioned are "longshots", what are the Rockets? "Superlongshots" to win the title? Houston at 10-5 is leading the Southwest Division, and somehow they get overlooked
Who cares about Simmons? Sure, he's funny but also usually dead wrong on predictions. During his 100,000 word annual NBA Preview I don't think he mentioned us once. I guess adding Artest doesn't "do it" for him. Who cares? I would much rather be mentioned by the likes of Hollinger and others that objectively look at the big picture rather than Simmons who only cares about teams that he considers exciting.
Honestly, I don't see what's the big deal about this "respect" thing. We'll get our respect when we earn it. Simple as that. You can't really blame the media when we fizzle out of the playoffs in the first round every year. Besides I prefer we be under the radar so we can surprise teams. When you get respect you also get every team's "A" every night you play.
The bottom line is that we are injured and haven't been able to get out of the 1st round.The Ron Artest excitement is over.
Exactly. We've earned as much respect as the Mutombo & Steve Smith Hawks of the 90s. Like it or not. Evan
I knew I liked Legler as an analyst. Simmons is a Boston fan, I take everything he says about the NBA with a grain of salt.
Exactly. Respect is earned. You can't expect it by not making it past the first round in a decade. Besides, I quit caring about "respect" from the national media after our first championship.
I don't know why people get mad at stuff like this. It isn't like the media controls what happens on the court.
we havn't got respect the past 3 years, and we proved the experts wrong every time oh wait...... no we didn't
Amen! Why are people so concerned about how we are perceived? Who the hell cares? We gotta earn that repect... Its actually a good thing we aren't getting 'respect'...its harder to improve and stay humble and hungry if you get all the respect and praises in the world.
It's one thing to complain about lack of respect when we actually won the championship (SI cover). But to complain because they haven't crowned us in November, when we've done absolutely nothing, is childish. We've been proving the haters right for years.
I expect them to mention teams like Utah (dealing with injuries and still winning), Lakers, Boston, and Cleveland (all have only lost like 3 games so far). But New Orleans? Thats almost insulting. They are like 8-6 or something to that effect, were <.500 for a few games, and they get mentioned over us? Cmon I'm with the above poster that its better to not get respect from the media because it takes the pressure off of us.
Why do we care about that ? All we need to do is go to the WCF and they'll shut up. Plain and simple.
