I was waiting to find SOMEONE with the sense to say this! It's the offseason. They don't have to come into work if they don't want to, despite what their internet "fans" think. Nobody here knows what they're doing with their time, so until you learn the truth, don't go saying who's devoted and who's not. Steve might be working on his game, he might not. Cuttino might be working out, he might not. It's their business what they do with their free time, and no one else's. If your life is focused on wondering what other people are doing with their lives all the time, that's your problem.
how do we know that steve or whoever just flat out denied a jvg request to come to practice a month early? since so many people seem to know exactly what steve and cat are doing this offseason i'd be interested in reading that information. the problem isn't what jvg said. he's simply showing a little of what his players might expect when they come. no nonsense. i just can't understand why every comment or interview has to turn into a steve and cat bash fest.
<i>So . . . has Van Gundy *ASKED* them to come in???? do we know. . . better yet . . .DO WE CARE? </i> We should care if we want the team to improve/ <i>Nope .. .we prefer to bash our players</i> It's time to stop underachieving and actually win. <i>Van gundy is God. . . . with no Rings Rudy is a HACK with two that seems to be the opinion . . . The Man already Bashing out players in the media. . and Whiny</i> Rings don't mean anything, Bill Parcell has rings and he did the same thing Van Gundy did. He just did it last week, so using your logic, Parcells is a whiner to bashes his players.You don't have to have a championship to be successful. Everybody raves about how good a coach Flip Saunders and Don Nelson are yet they don't have rings. Neither does Rick Carlisle. Jerry Sloan doesn't either. Neither does George Karl. Byron Scott has done a fine job without a ring as coach, same with Rick Adelman. <i>If Francis said something similiar you same guys would jump down his throat Sickening Rocket River</i> Francis doesn't coach the team. <i>Be fair and consistant please </i> You say that, yet you have bashed Van Gundy from day one and the guy hasn't even COACHED a game for the Rockets yet! And if you want to be fair and consistent then you can't praise any coach but Pat Riley and Phil Jackson since they're the only coaches with rings. It's not that Rudy was a "hack", it's that he got to lax with the players. Obviously it must be true because the same organization that also has two rings relieved him of his duties. You have to be fair and consistent yourselff!
What if you were underperforming at something you were paid big bucks to do, you don't think your boss would make you stay after hours to get it right? It's not like he's asking them to practice 24 hours a day, just to come down and work out a big. These guys aren't paid by the hour, they're paid year around to do a job that requires staying in shape and learning new complex things. If they have a problem with it quit. But they're under contract through the summer so they're going to have to do some thing they don't like, especially after a disappointing season.
That's revisionist history. People actually cut Rudy slack for not HAVING Yao in camp. People didn't start turning on Rudy until about the midway point of the season when it was obvious nothing was changing. Rudy never showed any real signs of implementing a new system. Also Rudy had an advantage over JVG, other then Yao JVG doesn't know any of the players personally. Rudy had coached some of these guys for a few years. At least try something new. Give Van Gundy a half a season like everyone did Rudy, if there's no signs of change then it's time to be concerned.
Obviously I saw the interview, since I started the thread, and I, as well as Giff Nielsen and the rest of the Channel 11 crew, shared the same shock as you did. Van Gundy wasn't trying to make a clever joke, nor did he make that comment light-heartedly. Nor is anybody overreacting. Van Gundy sounded disappointed and disgusted, and it was apparent that he's thinking "how the hell did Rudy T let these guys get away with this and not teach them any discipline?" As much as I don't want to believe it, it's becoming pretty clear that these athletes don't give half the **** about winning that we wish they did. Ah well. I'm still gonna be a big enough sucker to watch and cheer my heart out for them.
This is Steve Francis' fault! The guy is too busy looking after his clothing and record labels that he couldn't care less about basketball! He should be out there with JVG reguardless of the other players to set an example! We pay him a max contract to have a personal life? He should be working on his game right now!
I believe the contractual agreement we have with his team and country before we signed him is that he would play in ALL his countries games and practices. His country comes first (that's the way China works). What agreement did Wink sign for?
Just curious...would it be OK to call you a hypocrite if you ever post a complaint about any Rocket's player not showing improvement? And would it be a fair question to ask that...if two players have identical talent levels but one works on his game in the summer and the other does not...could there ever be any seasonal productivity difference between those two players? While I don't specificially spend long anxious summers worrying about what a multi-millionaire entertainer...ooops make that athlete...does with their summer, there is just some little part of me that at the gut instinct level seems to deduce that the Magics, Birds, and MJ's of the world spent a bit of their summers getting more "game". In the case of Bird, it's a documented fact. Again, it makes no difference to me at a personal level other than if someone (a player) is going to talk the talk...then they better walk the walk. And that IMO includes summers. BTW - earlier in this thread there was a discussion as to whether or not JVG and/or Rockets' managment could legally have access to the players during the summer. In the NBA Forum, there is a thread about Jason Terry signing Utah's offer sheet: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&postid=1030055#post1030055 Read the 2nd page post by xiki. There is a cut and past from a newspaper article which describes the Hawks players working out together last summer and Coach Stotts having access to them. If the article is true, then it appears that the CBA does not prohibit this activity.
Thats because he is Chinese and at this point in his experience, prefers his Chinese way of living to counterbalance his American way of living,during the off season. Besides that he is bound by his contract.
hehe I love it! RudyT's behind closed doors top secret style obviously failed to motivate some of our chump "stars" to become serious about winning so I'm glad Van Gundy is just laying it out there. It was about time someone called these guys out. I hope he keeps doing it until they step up or get shipped the heck out of here. Yao better come to town in shape too, we don't have half a season to play around with getting him in condition to play ball. Grrr!
Well u could also remember that Yao is only 21 and that he had been out of his home country for almost a year(first time out of home so long?...).New people,new language,new culture... Maybe he just wanted to spend vacation with his family(like most like to do!) ALA
I assure you, Yao isn't on anything like a vacation. They have been working his ass off over there, if anything coming back to the US would be a vacation.
Yep! Timing gets it! Here's an example.... If Rudy knew that a player was lazy. He would never point that out. He just keep "working with that player (pushover)" until it killed the team and his coaching career. I mean, it's one thing to share with the world (media) that a player is a problem on the team (motivate by embarrassment). But it's another thing to not even share that information with the player that exhibits those lazy tendencies. Rudy was too nice even to bring it up the player in question. "Shhhhhhhh, be quiet. It's a secret...lets not rock the boat. We don't want to upset the player(s)." If you add this to the already stagnate and repetitive plays that Rudy has run his whole career, and you'll have a situation that does NOT produce a winning. If you are a hands-off type of coach (Rudy), then you better get hands-off players (Hakeem and Drexler after already being in the league for 10 years). Hakeem and Drexler were "out-of-the-box" ready. Rudy didn't have to mentor or manage them. They were able to manage themselves. What about Francis, Mobley, Moochie, Griffin, MoT....??? Those players need mentorship, teaching and guidance. Discipline! Those players are NOT "ready-made." Enter Jeff Van Gundy.
That's right. Bird, MJ, Magic, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, Hakeem, Drexler... They all put in the time (more than was required) to be the best. Practice and dedication, and then some! Working overtime. Putting in more hours than is required. Working out, away from the team. Shooting 1000 free-throws, in the gym, at night, when no one is around. Dedication. All that takes sacrifice. Not sure if Francis, Mobley and Griffin are willing to do that. It's up to them to decide on whether "just doing what's required" will be good enough. I mean, God forbid if the fans or coach interrupt Francis's Playstation 2 or HUMMER time.
I think everyone miscontrued Iverson's "practice" speech and you can blame his lack of language/expression skills as the culprit. IMO, he was referring to the Philly media's increasingly petty criticisms of him during every offseason (rap albums and the like). He was mad because they had gotten all the way down to questioning some of his suspect practice habits. That's what he was sounding so incredulous about. Not that practice was unimportant, but that it was the best the media could come up with at the time (of course, he would give them much more to work with later on ). If Ivo would've simply chosen a better way to express himself, he could've been saved from a lot of bad PR. That is an unfair and somewhat mean spirited statement. I would never think Steve would put these things before basketball unless he definitively said so. Despite his flaws, this game is his livelihood. Isn't it enough that most already assume he's not working out? Do we have to insinuate that he's more motivated by such worthless persuits?
