| 25 March 2009
"Just looking at his family, I don't think financially he's hurting so that's not the reason he'd come out. If he believes he's ready for the NBA; you have to look at your draft status and do well in the pre-draft camps and stuff like that, he's got the talent. We'll see what happens." -- LeBron James on being willing to advise Stephen Curry with the draft decision
Um, thanks for the offer but I'm wondering how much Curry could relate to that advice.
When LBJ came out for the NBA draft, he didn't really have a decision to make. Nobody really recruited him for college seriously because everyone knew that a high school phenom who drove a Hummer during his senior year as he was on SportsCenter every night and getting superstar treatment off of soon to be famous store credit was probably not considering hitting the books for six months when he could be cashing in early on his waiting $90 million contract from Nike.
Curry is a borderline lottery pick who will most likely being more of a Steve Kerr type of weapon off the bench than a Monta Ellis athletic scorer in a starting role. He doesn't have agents drooling over the prospect of signing this guy and keeping his family well off for generations off of 3% of his earnings.
Maybe, LeBron thinks Curry is a better player than he actually is. Maybe, LeBron thinks that people will have a higher value determined for the shooter out of Davidson. Or Maybe LBJ is just too self-involved to think realize that not everybody goes down the same path as a pubescent celebrity who was destined as the number one pick in the draft before his senior year of high school.
I'll probably go with the latter on this one.
And quote #2:
"Our guys don't care about [home court]. They want to get healthy. And when we get healthy, we're willing to lace up against anybody." -- Doc Rivers on the Celtics losing out on home court advantage for the playoffs
Hey, Doc. I love the confidence. I love what you're doing with that and selling your guys on the fact that it doesn't matter where you play is a great motivational tool. It's what champions should do. But I get a little bit of a Tin Cup feeling with this one.
Throwing away games in the regular season is fine for a team like the Spurs, which is used to that kind of thing with a decade of dominance. But to try and make it harder for yourself by not caring about getting home court advantage sounds like you're actually trying to make it harder on your team. It's like you're trying to par the course with just a seven-iron when battling for home court was doable and something that would have greatly benefited you when you face LeBron and the Cavs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
You want to win the U.S. Open. Not be remembered for a 12 on the final hole because you were too stubborn to prove that you could do it.
Good luck in the playoffs.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
