There should be a rule in professional sports that if you have nothing to do with the success of the team you're on, you don't get the accolades. Plain and simple. Adam Morrison, chosen 3rd overall in 2006 where a few months prior he was crying over a loss, hasn't played a single second in these playoffs and averaged 1.3 points this year for the Lakers.
He's getting a ring.
Or as El Guerito's main man Stuart Scott would say, "The boy's getting his vitamins!"
Traded along with Shannon Brown from Charlotte partly because he couldn't handle the expectations of being the 3rd overall pick (coach Larry Brown's words not mine), Morrison was Jordan's first pick at his new job back in 2006.
Do you remember when Jordan had to sell his share of the Washington Wizards in order to play as a Wizard? When he retired again and headed back to the office they gave him the pink slip. Now, I have no idea why Jordan was let go but the man is a HORRIBLE judge of talent. Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison...
Lastly, how does one justify the career of Mark Madsen??? In 9 season's in the NBA he has averaged 2.2 points a game and 2.6 rebounds per game. Good free throw shooter? No, 52.7% from the charity stripe. Excellent defender? Hell no, .3 steals a game and .2 blocks a game. Ah! He's a distributor. Please, .4 assists per game. It's not like he's not getting the minutes to bump some stats. He's averaging 11.48 minutes per game for his career! That's more than enough minutes to try and make as much of an impact you possibly can (think Sasha Vujacic). Not Madsen though, he's content to run up and down the court doing jack SHIT. Put in ANYBODY from a random YMCA gym for the exact same minutes and you can't do worst. Nine seasons. Nine fucking seasons.
Oy vey.
I'll quickly respond today as to what i believe El Guerito's response would be to this post.
ReplyDeleteMadsen possesses all the intangibles that don't show up on the stats. He dives for lose balls, he boxes people out, he hustles on defense blah, blah, blah.
I hate this argument given in defense of players with mediocre talent because there is no way to measure the "hustle" skill. I wish the NBA WOULD keep stats of diving for lose balls and boxing out. It would be recorded as:
dove for a loose ball successfully and awarded possession to team
or
failed miserably (as 90% of the dives we see)
You could no longer say Madsen has the "intangibles" to warrant an NBA career any longer. The Morrisons' and the Gugliottas' could no longer hide behind the "hustler", "workman", and "cleans up the garbage" labels.
With respect to Tom Gugliotta I'm referring to his last four years in the league which should have never happened. The boy was definitely NOT getting his vitamins.
wow. the second to last paragraph on my previous comment had the word 'longer' in it THREE times!
ReplyDeletesorry aboot the redundancy. Just got done mowing grass in 95 degree weather. I'm a little fried. (or deep fried as my racist african-american friend would say)
...because Mexicans deep fry everything..
never mind.
no, I pretty much agree with your post. You jumped the gun on my expected reaction. I've always viewed the back end roster players who "get a ring" as a minor technicality. They clearly don't influence the ootcome but I would be quick to differentiate them from limited role players. Like Shannon Brown, he played very little in the finals, but was key in game 5 vs Denver and in other spurts. No shame in him getting a ring, but a player this young into his career, obviously if he ever gets one as a starter, it's more legit. But to me it's comparing apples and oranges. Defining how good a player was, the end all, be all is not rings. Was Robert Horry better than Charles Barkley? Of course not.
ReplyDelete"Hustle" and "grit" players get glorified for their energy but I've always said that's overrated. Maybe you should redirect your frustrations at your Suns. Or did you forget about Robin Lopez picked at 15?