Posted by TheGame:
I just wonder at what point do you get on the players? Obviously leading the league in 20+ pt losses is not enough despite the level of talent. So when are we allowed to be fed up? When they literally sit down in loungers on the court? Please explain to me, at what point it is okay to criticize the players? This is not a sarcastic question. It's a legitimate question that I'm sure will be ignored.
The reality is that LB quit on his players long before they quit on him. From day one, he determined that these guys could not play the way he wanted and set out to get rid of them and make a point to management. Eventually the players realized that LB was not about them or building a future team with them. Add up all the losses, the pressure from the NY media, and LB's bull**** and you get some frustrated and confused players. Is that an excuse for lack of effort? No. Players should play hard all the time b/c that is what they are paid to do. However, I don't think all the players quit. It is easy to lose by 20+ when the players have no idea what the coach is doing. As a player, you have to understand the system your team is running (or at least, have faith in the system) in order to be efficient or else you are just running around on the court. Which reminds me of the only Bill Walton quote I actually like, "Don't confuse activity for achievement" or in this case, don't confuse a lack of achievement for a lack of effort. I think what looked like a lack of effort may have been more the result of a lack of chemistry and frustration. I am sure some players did just go through the motions (JJ1 being the prime example), but I know Crawford, Nate, Lee, Frye, Rose, and Q-Rich played hard b/c that is simply how they play. I am not going to judge the team based on its effort in the situation last year. I don't think that is fair b/c players get frustrated just like anyone else. Management had a responsibility to give the players a competent coach and by competent, I mean someone who understood that it was his job to coach the players that were there and get the most out of them (not work to whole season to get new players). We have that coach now, so let's see what the team does before we condemn the players.
I agree with some of what you're sayign and disagree with others. First of all this attempt to discredit LB is ridiculous and is based solely upon our hatred for him. He's a great coach. No matter what happened with him here or the Olympic team or the amount of times he's left other teams, he is still a great coach. Now that's out of the way. It was managements job to find a coach that fit our team. They did not do that. Instead they went out and hired LB because they knew it would get the fan base revved up(as Nalod would say once again we were Starphuched) And despite all the warnings from Bippity about thinking we would have a Phoenix type turnaround just because of the coach,the fans beleived in this nonsense bill of goods anyway. Why? Because they are real fans and have faith in their team(sarcasm intended). It was a bad hire. When you get a guy like LB you don't ask him to change. You don't expect him to change his 30 year old system. You either go along with his system or you don't hire him. We instead hired him and then rebelled against him when he wouldn't change. Typical NY lunacy which I've been talking about for years. GM vs. coach instead of being on the same page. I was called an idiot for talking about it. It's been going on since JVG was here, last year just made it obvious to those that didn't beleive it. That's the way we operate.
I agree on LB. I think LB came here thinking that because he won and the players never had that if it came down to him vs. Isiah he would win. His intention was to expose the roster. When it was exposed he felt that Dolan would go after Isiah. He didn't understand Dolan's loyalty. LB got the axe. See you. But what I dont' understand is what that has to do with our players and their effort. No doubt LB caused a lot of the lunacy. But not having a veteran leader(which we still don't have) is one of the reasons the lunacy got so out of control. There was no one capable of nipping it in the bud. Taht's why when things go wrong here, they really go wrong. We don't just have 5 or 6 game losing streaks, we have utter collapses. Because our leaders add to the chaos, they don't subtract from it. Instead of trying to get our team back on track and performing despite their legit or illegitimate reasons, our players add to the din of nonsense. I remember Islesfan(TMS, fishmike, Allanfan etc) talkinga bout this before it happened. Everyone fought with him. Guess what. He was right.
As for the quitting. Listen, I've played ball since I was 7 years old. I've played year round. Been in organized teams with great coaches and been on awful teams with guys that can't even spell basketball. I've been in situations where we struggled because the coaching was so bad. I've been in situations where I've underachieved because I found it difficult to adjust to the role handed to me. But in all those situations I've been blessed with playing with teammates that understood one simple thing that most true athletes understand. YOU DON'T PLAY FOR THE COACH. YOU PLAY FOR YOURSELF! I was asked to play power forward for a team because I was the best rebounder. I'm 6-0 and played PG all my life and was asked to play PF. Guess what, I was the worst PF in the league. But I busted my ass. I worked hard. I tried to rebound. I couldn't. I was too small. I failed miserably. The next year we got a true PF. I was moved back to guard. Because I worked so hard trying to fill the role asked of me that next year I was the best rebounding Guard in the league(on the planet if you asked me). I went from being a soft jumpshooter to a rugged physical player in the media in 1 year. Why? Because I didn't cry. Actually I take that back. I did cry. I cried everyday. But what I did not d was, I didn't quit.And I became the better player because of it. I knew the result of learning somehting new. I knew that was more important than being Starbippity. I listened despite the fact that I couldn't help the team win. Because I listened the next year I did.
Our players instead quit on LB, and Lenny and Herb. Will they do this to Isiah? Only the season will tell us.
........Does that mean I'm back to being a heterosexual?