Links To The Present: March 3, 2010
2010-03-03
Brian Windhorst talks about Z waiting for a roster spot to clear before committing to the Cavs in his must listen podcast.
“To Hickson’s credit, he has slowly continued to establish himself this season. One of the reasons Brown reversed course and decided to make Hickson the starter instead of the more natural Anderson Varejao — who will probably still see a lot of time matched with Lopez on Wednesday — is how well Hickson plays with the other starters.” [Brian Windhorst]
“Just in case he’d forgotten, the Cavaliers gave Zydrunas Ilgauskas a collective hug over the past two days.” [Brian Windhorst]
The guys over at WFNY organized a big collective hug for Z with a Haiku contest.
Also from WFNY, Andy Varejao’s place in NBA history?
[Marc Berman – NY Post] “Knicks forward Al Harrington doesn’t see it [LeBron in NYC] happening, and he’s not in the minority.”
“Not only is it a way to maximize his salary, but it would put pressure on whatever team he is on to surround him with the best talent in order to win a championship.” [George Willis – NY Post]
CDR says a lot but doesn’t really say anything about LBJ’s plans…
Peter May thinks the Cavs will be just fine until Shaq gets back.
Bill Veeck is rolling over in his grave.
ben (new york): How much better is Lebron than anyone else right now, including Kobe? And the scary thing is his jumpshot is still not as pure/consistent as it seems it can and will be as he works on it some more ditto for his postup game.
David Thorpe: Way better.
Hilarious Windhorst Tweet: For fun, my two fave Rosen lines about LeBron? 1. “The best King James can ever be is an average NBA player” 2. LeBron is an “airhead kid.”
@Colin and Tom
Rosen has actually admitted that he was dead wrong with his statement about Lebron eventually being just an average player. I’m a bit too lazy to find the link on Fox where he actually said it, though. Maybe I’ll come back after lunch.
Well Rodman was annoying to look at, annoying to listen to, was really annoying if you were another player guarding him or another camera man. Take everything about Varejao, multiply it by 100, make him look like a freak, and then give him sheeds temper – and you have rodman. Kobe’s maturity annoys me. People talk about how he’s so cerebral and in post game comments he seems very calm and collected and talks about winning, but during the games I think he is one of the most overly-emotional players in the league and not in a good way. His… Read more »
As a fairly new fan of basketball, what makes these guys so annoying? The more recent ones I get, because I’ve seen them. KG yells at everybody, about everything. Andy is always flying around with his hair going every which way. DeShawn Stevenson is dumb, like really dumb. Guaran-Sheed, that’s all that needs to be said there, I think. But what about the others?
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/rosen/021213.html
My favorite Rosen quote about LeBron is “A barely adequate left hand.” Ha. Isn’t LeBron universally praised for his dexterity with both hands? I always hear people talk about his left hand is actually his dominant hand at the rim.
@Colin – I agree with you. That’s the thing about speculating. A lot of times if you’re dead wrong there’s no accountability. I really appreciate David Thorpe because he takes a coach’s perspective and often has strong opinions, but he’s not too stubborn to say “well I was wrong there” – he seems like a very humble guy. I agree with John that Rosen offers a different (important) perspective, but I think he must long for the good ol’ days or something because very often he seems to nit-pick and be overly negative. Also, I have read a lot of… Read more »
Here’s a good question… has Rosen ever admitted to being wrong about LeBron? I think people (ok, Cavs fans) wouldn’t have a problem with him if he just came out and said, “You know what? I was wrong about LeBron James. Dead wrong.” That seems to be a problem among a lot of the writers who make predictions. I know sometimes you can make predictions and forget about them (I’ve done that). But to make a statement as bold as Rosen did, and be wrong about it…. I’m sure he’s been reminded. Its ok to be wrong. (That being said,… Read more »
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/rosen/021213.html If he really was like that, it’d be interesting to know what stopped lebron from becoming a total ass. A little off topic (hey, we all do it), but when people interview Lebron, instead of asking the same old questions, I’d sort of love to know whether he worries about his own soul/personality, etc, being treated the way he is. I mean, I love the guy and have a total sports-crush, but I feel like, the best person in history could not take being treated like god from the age of what, 16? 15? and come through it as… Read more »
Rich, Rosen is excellent at providing a “coaching” view of the league. He’s excellent at spotting things like who doesn’t make rotations the correct way, who doesn’t have the proper stance and balance on defense, the guys who don’t drive to their off-hands, the guys who take plays off, et cetera. Like a lot of people who know something very well, they tend to place a little too much importance on what they know. LeBron is a great example of Rosen’s blind spot. LBJ had a lot of fundamental flaws when he was in high school, which were all Rosen… Read more »
Tom, Barkley might have been an annoying player, but dear god if the man doesn’t speak it as he sees it… He doesn’t care about what the national media thinks, he doesn’t care what others think. He just talks his mind, and i LOVE him for that.
And yet Charley Rosen is treated as some sort of god when it comes to basketball. Who knows why.
My most annoying players of all time:
Dennis Rodman
Kobe Bryant
Rick Barry
Bill Lambier
Charles Barkley
Kevin Garnett
Gilbert Arenas
DeShawn Stevenson
Rasheed Wallace