If I had Shaq, Nobody else would be allowed to shoot the ball in the first half unless the ball first went into shaq ....I rememerb when I was a Kid ( HS) playing and the couch in practice would make us pass the ball a minimu of 7 times before we could shoot.....this taught us to always be looking...same with Shaq...if he has the ball they will pick up fouls, get worn down and have to double team....Once they are in a little foul trouble and forced to double, guys like Kobe will have open drives to the hoop with little or no resistence
Concur. Shaq should be the focu. He is a great passer, and when they pass it into him, the defense collapses on him, thus creating opportunities for him. Now that he has overcome his free throw shooting liabilities, why not throw it to him first? I remember when Wilt had a season where he reduced his scoring, and had lots of assists, and I think they won the championship that year.
You have to hand it to the Wizards. Just when you think they can't possibly get any stupider, they backstab MJ. For those who aren't in to this, MJ was the head of basektball operations for them for a season, then came back and played two years for the bargain price of $1 mill per. They had 82 consecutive home sellouts. At age 40, he played every single game this past year, often logging 40 minutes a game. He had an understanding that when he retired, he would resume his post as head of the team and take some ownership in the team through a deal he had with a minority investor who also owns the local hockey team. Before Jordan came on board, the Wizards front office distinguished itself by managing to let go Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace in return for a used up Mitch Richmond, knucklehead Rod Strickland and never heard from again Ike Austin. The three best young big men in the league on the same team and they pissed them all away. They did manage to sign journeyman tweener Jawan Howard to a joke $100mill plus contract, thereby crippling the team for years. Jordan came in, made some dumb moves like hiring a college coach who was fired after one year, but did unload the onerous Howard contract, and made some nice pickups in trades. He drafted the awesomely gifted but immature Kwame Brown. He brought in Doug Collins as coach, who had a history of developing young teams. Collins has been a miserable failure. He and Kwame have never meshed, Collins never devised a scheme to utilize Jerry Stackhouse and his rotations left experienced basketball people scratching their heads. Jordan was still a nice player but not anywhere near where he used to be, and his walk it up approach was not right for what should have been an explosive young team. Whatever. The season was not a success, but the future with Jordan calling the shots the future looked bright. Now it's over, the fans are angry, the media is dumbfounded. How could they do this? Jordan is apparently not the easiest guy to get along with, but he is a winner. He doesn't tolerate second rate or less than 100% effort, which apparently grated on a couple of the young players who thought showing up for games was asking a lot of them. In the end, the Abe Pollin/susan O'malley faction, who pushed MJ out, probably resented the fact that Jordan got all the credit and they were regarded by fans, media and MJ people as idiots who probably couldn't handle the concession stands at MCI Center, much less the basketball operations. Based on their track record, that would be an accurate appraisal.
on the court or off it. On the court: - identical losing seasons both years he plays despite bringing in new coach and supporting cast. Alienates players or browbeats those who need to be given time to mature (i.e. Kwame Brown). Players can never fully relax around each other and come together as a close unit because they know MJ will be their boss and in charge of their destinies following the season. Off the court: Tried to run things from Chicago, made very questionable player and coach decisions. Jordan WAS the greatest player ever and he did sell out their home games. Now that he's not playing anymore he's no longer worth keeping around. MJ simply is not anywhere as good an executive as he was a player. So he got rid of some bust players - wow, what a genius. I rooted for MJ and the Wizards all season, but the bottom line is he and they came up short. Very short. So I can't really blame Pollin. Business decision, plain and simple. Maybe he'll show what he can do in Charlotte, but IMHO for Jordan to succeed he has to be in an environment where people kowtow to him unquestionably as his ego demands. It's one thing to be the greatest hoops player ever with an abrasive personality and very few people skills and demand subservience, and quite a different thing to be just another retired player in a sea of retired players.
You're absolutely right. Why the heck don't the Lakers understand that? But hey, I despise the Lakers, so I hope they keep under utilizing the most dominant force in basketball for the remainder of their series!
....I STILL don't understand why in the world you take a HS kid with the 1st pick in the draft and then you not only don't play him....but the coach goes to the media and calls him 'immature"...what the fuck did you think you were getting when you draft a hs senior who can' t even drink legally yet??? Jordan should have traded the pick....he didn't want to develop the young guys for the future he wanted to " win now" for his own ego sake....How many times did we hear that Jordan wants to make one last drive for the playoffs???? For what? To lose in the 1st round? So instead of developing guys like Kwame and Jared Jeffries ( this years pick)....you had jordan playing 40 minutes a nite and other relics like Charles Oakley taking away quality time form youngsters....Jordan set this franchise back further ( if that was possible)....and for all this drive they missed the playoffs!!!! I liken it to the very LAST guy in the Olympic marathon...out of 300 nations competing, one guy has to finish dead last.....that poor guy must go running into the empty stadium thinking " I just trained day and night, ate only health food and didn't put any beer or cigarettes into my body for ten years ....AND IM LAST!!!....I could have eaten Mcdonalds every day, drank beer day and night and STILL would have been last!!
He wouldnt even be in the race.....does this have anything to do with the midget racing the pig???.....
I am still angry about the Wizards. TM, you make some decent points but first, I'm not sure there was much if any value being offered for that No. 1 pick. Everyone else knew it was a lousy draft. Look at the other guys picked high, Tyson chandler and Eddy Curry, neither of them will ever be all stars. Kwame has awesome upside. Jared Jeffries is a damn nice player that they should have gotten more credit for drafting. Unfortunately he suffered a season ending injury early on, in December I think. The media spin has been amazing. Every local sports columnist has written multiple stories, and it rivals political commentaries how they've chosen up sides and parroted the party line. for most of them, that means facing up to the fact that MJ is gone and their bread is buttered by the team. So they come out with this stuff that he was unsuccesful as a team exec. If that was the problem, why did Pollin wait two years while MJ filled the seats every night to mention it to him? That's bs. Susan O'Malley and her crowd knew they were out as soon as Pollin sold the team (he is 79) to the Leonis/Jordan group. The idea that Jordan was a big failure as a team exec is a recent invention, never heard until this past week. Everyone recognized that he took over a terrible team, with no prospects. The Pollin brain trust had crippled the team by letting go of Webber and the two Wallaces, all of whom became all stars. Plus they were cap constrained, as if any free agent would come anyway. The Rick Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse trade looked pretty damn good when it was made. Hamilton is in his contract year and the Wizards were not going to make another Juwan Howard mistake by giving him a monster contract. So they let him go for an all star.