nyknickzingis wrote:Lots of quotes from ShaqBest bit was this
“If you look at how the second team runs the triangle, guys who don’t have a lot of experience in the game and a lot of habits, they ran a lot of it late in the fourth quarter and got a couple of backdoor plays,’’ O’Neal said. “It definitely does work. Look at the guys, when Phil put this team together, I was liking it: Porzingis, Carmelo, Rose, [Joakim] Noah. I said, ‘OK, it’s going to work if they embrace the triangle. I like it.’ But again, the ball can never stop
I think it's some of both.
Some of the players just aren't playing team basketball. The younger players or the limited players, you have to shade that a little. Some players just don't understand yet HOW to play a certain way. Some players don't have the SKILL to play a certain way.
Melo and Rose just don't care. This is on the players side. If you just don't care, that's on you.
Here's a real life example. Married guy finds out his wife is banging some guy at her job. She's a cheating whore. Guy can decide to just leave her, say nothing, exit as clean as he can or guy can cheat back and rub it in his wife's or future ex wifes face.
In response A, the guy comes to terms that he might be in a horrible situation, but nothing, no one, can make him surrender his dignity. Only he can choose to give that up. And that two wrong don't make a right. Players who operate like this are professionals in my book. Good team, bad team, good coach, bad coach, good franchise, bad franchise - Play the game the right way. Don't let circumstance dictate your reaction
In response B, the guy decides two wrongs make a right. If he's not getting what he wants, then it doesn't matter that he does something bad to someone else, just using their flaws and harm inflicted as an excuse to feel justified in the behavior. This is a toxic person doing toxic things against themselves. These are the players who think Dolan is an idiot, the coach I hate, the system is stupid, so why should I even bother to try on defense?
One of the thing I really love about David Lee was, as a Knick, he gave everything he had, night after night. Even if the team around him wasn't so great, even if the future looked bleak, even if the coaching was mindless, even if the franchise seemed like a gigantic mess.
If a player gives everything he has, and the team loses, well he did his best. What more can I ask of him? When a player however just doesn't care and rationalizes being a selfish player, to me, that's undignified. Take the team out of it, you just don't even respect yourself at that point.
How you react says more about you than your direct actions, and your actions say everything about you.
It's not easy to turn the other cheek. To forgive. To show social grace when insulted. But it say something about you. When Melo refuses to play team ball and refuses to play defense, to me, it's undignified. It's unprofessional. It says something about his character. It says he doesn't deserve the honor of wearing a Knicks jersey.