I found this column to be interesting a lot of good info.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/pistons/.../d06-98449.htm
Anthony shows he's got game, but not maturity
By Chris McCosky / The Detroit News
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AUBURN HILLS--At this point, Carmelo Anthony probably looks upon the Pistons the way a deer looks upon a crowded freeway — bad things always happen there.
First, Anthony’s feelings were hurt when the Pistons chose not to draft him or have him work out last June. On March 6 in Denver, after Anthony had talked about making the Pistons regret their decision, he endured an awful 3-for-17 shooting night while getting abused defensively by Tayshaun Prince and Corliss Williamson.
The worst, though, had to be what happened at The Palace on Friday. Rarely do you see a team’s chemistry unravel as publicly as we saw the Nuggets’ unravel, and Anthony was at the heart of it.
“I really don’t feel like talking,” was all he would say afterward.
But his actions told the tale.
Anthony started strongly, making eight of his first 14 shots and scoring 16 of his 20 points in the first half. But, he would make just one of his next six shots, raising the ire of his teammates and coaches with his poor shot selection and lack of effort on defense.
With 6:02 left, the Nuggets called a timeout. Anthony had just taken two long and errant jump shots early in the shot clock. Point guard Andre Miller was incensed and began shouting to the coaching staff about Anthony.
Earlier in the game, Marcus Camby had come to the bench much the same way, shouting at the coaches to do something.
Anthony was clearly upset by Miller’s tirade. He sat down at the end of the bench, away from his teammates and refused to go back into the game. Coaches, players, even Miller, tried to coax him back onto the court. He refused.
“He got off early, but we weren’t challenging him,” Chauncey Billups said. “When we did challenge him, he stopped.”
Stopped producing, then stopped playing.
It was an immature move by a kid who has played way beyond his 20 years all season. No doubt he will have some explaining to do today.
Lauding Uncle Cliff
Just because his team is going to miss the playoffs for the first time in his 14-year career doesn’t mean former Piston Cliff Robinson has stopped playing hard and effectively.
In recent games, he has shut down such dangerous and diverse offensive threats as Chris Webber, Jermaine O’Neal, Pau Gasol and Carmelo Anthony.
“They have guys out here who are worth $120 million,” Robinson said. “I have to be worth at least half of that because I can go out on the floor and be effective at stopping a lot of these guys.”
One person who agrees with him is Kevin Garnett, who said Robinson was “hands down” the best defender he plays against.
“By far,” Garnett said. “Not even close. Cliff can guard one (point guards) through five (centers), and he’ll tell you that, too.”
Yes, he will. Put him on the All-Defensive team.
Sound bytes
* The Knicks’ Vin Baker, after the team got chewed out by team President Isiah Thomas last week: “I’ve been here three games, and it feels like it’s been three seasons.”
* The Rockets’ Maurice Taylor, after watching veteran teammate Jim Jackson throw down a vicious dunk last week: “I didn’t know he could dunk. I have never seen him dunk, and I used to watch the Ohio State-Michigan games. I just thought he was vertically challenged. He represented for all the old heads. All the guys with 10 years or more (in the NBA) can look at Jim Jackson and see they can still do it.”
* The Rockets’ Cuttino Mobley, same subject: “He wanted to show he could still dunk at 92 years old.”
Chris McCosky’s quick hits
* Knicks President Isiah Thomas retold one of my favorite stories from the Bad Boys days to New York reporters last week. The question of intimidating general managers came up. Zeke said: “I was afraid of Jack McCloskey. He was a tough guy. I’ll tell you a story — it was at the All-Star break, we were battling Boston every year. Joe Dumars and I had made the All-Star team. We were on the elevator with Jack McCloskey. And Red Auerbach walked in, got on the elevator. And Auerbach looked at McCloskey. McCloskey looked at Auerbach. And neither one of them said a word to each other. And when we got off the elevator, Joe and I looked at each other and said, ‘OK, we understand now.’”
* Brent Barry is not a fighter and neither is James Posey. Yet, the two almost dropped the gloves at the end of a game Thursday — almost. After Barry’s Sonics secured a 97-94 victory over the Grizzlies, Barry hurled the ball down the court in celebration. Posey took offense and shoved him into the seats. Barry got up and started to run toward his locker room, nudging Posey as he went past. Posey chased him until Barry’s teammate, Rashard Lewis, got between them. “The play was over, and he gave me a little cheap shot out of bounds,” Barry said. “He hit me, and it’s a man’s league, so when I was running back, I brushed up against him, letting him know I felt you hit me, I’m going to let you know, the game’s over. You might have hit me, but we are leaving your building with a win.”
* Hours after getting manhandled by the Pistons, the Nets put Jason Kidd on the injured list. Interesting. Kidd’s right knee has bothered him all season and there is little reason to believe it won’t continue to bother him throughout the playoffs. His injury is similar to the one that bothered Chucky Atkins last season and this season. All told, Atkins was hobbling for four months, and the situation didn’t get corrected until he underwent surgery this season. The Nets without Kidd, or with a diminished Kidd, won’t get it done in the East this season.
* The Spurs are similarly holding their breath regarding Tim Duncan’s right quadriceps injury. He can play, but there is no telling how much damage he is doing. “It’s a strange situation,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think it’s going to end up being a day-to-day, game-to-game sort of thing. He probably shouldn’t be playing back-to-backs is my guess. ... We’re trying to walk the line between strengthening and healing. Better to rest it now than risk losing him for the playoffs.”
* In Orlando, team President Bob Vander Weide is promising to spend money this summer to attract free agents. The problem is, the Magic are over the salary cap and don’t have much money to spend. All the Magic have at their disposal is the $5 million mid-level exception and the $1.3 million veteran’s exception. Still, that the Magic would contemplate paying the luxury tax to upgrade their talent base is news. Desperate times call for desperation actions. The Magic have one more year to show Tracy McGrady they are serious about building a winner around him.
* Can’t talk about the Magic without mentioning former Piston Grant Hill, who showed up at the team’s shoot-around last week with the latest X-rays of his troublesome left ankle. What they showed, besides the five 3-inch screws holding his ankle together, was a clear absence of any fracture. It was that fracture on the inside of his ankle that has prevented Hill from playing. “There were no setbacks and no problems, but I asked the doctor, will it look better in four or five months?” Hill said. “And when he said, ‘Yes,’ I’m thinking to myself, It makes more sense to wait. It was my decision to slow it down and no one else’s.” Hill has stopped his workouts for two months before going through a strenuous rehabilitation session this summer.
* Another old friend, Jerry Stackhouse, has been having issues with Coach Eddie Jordan in Washington. Remember a few weeks ago, Stackhouse, who underwent knee surgery before the season, said he was shutting it down for the rest of the year. The Wizards said, no, you are not. And, as if to reinforce that, Jordan played Stackhouse 41 minutes in back-to-back games. So, Stack came up with another plan to reduce his workload. He told Jordan to bench him, let somebody else start and don’t play him until the second quarter. That way, Stackhouse is assured of keeping his minutes down. “I think this plan is going to work,” Stackhouse said.
* Scottie Pippen is torn. His body is telling him it’s over, time to retire. His mind, however, is telling him, hey, you have one more year on your contract. You aren’t walking away from another $5.3 million. He managed to play in only 23 games this year. “I’d like to play once more to say goodbye to the game at this level,” Pippen said. “But I don’t think I can go anymore. I want to, but I don’t think I can.” Bet he finds a way.
* The Pacers are the best team nobody has seen. But that’s about to change. The Pacers weren’t scheduled to play on ABC this season, but the network is apparently going to alter its schedule and pick up the Pistons-Pacers game April 4 at The Palace. If that happens, the game will be moved to 1 p.m. “It’s ridiculous; totally ridiculous,” Jermaine O’Neal said about the Pacers’ network snub. “It baffles me. They put losing teams on TV. It’s hard to believe. Sooner or later, we’ll take our respect, and the way we do that is by winning games and getting further and further (in the playoffs).”
* Maybe you’ve heard, but the Raptors’ Vince Carter has pulled himself off the U.S. Olympic team. “It’s for my well-being,” Carter said. “I don’t want to burn out before the season. I’ve been there too many times. It’s just too much. It’s the course of the whole thing that’s going to kill me. I don’t think my body would take it.” Carter also is getting married this summer. His leaving probably opens up a spot for LeBron James, whom Olympic Coach Larry Brown loves. If Kobe Bryant can’t play, then expect Carmelo Anthony to get a call.
* Houston’s Yao Ming was asked what he knew about his new teammate, veteran Charles Oakley, whom the Rockets signed to a 10-day contract. “More fighting than playing,” Yao said smiling. He’s right. Part of the reason Oakley was signed was to protect Yao. “All (Yao) needs to know is he’s got a good man beside him,” Oakley said. “He doesn’t have to worry about Shaq (O’Neal) no more. I guess every city has policemen and they have a job to do, and I think that every team needs someone to let other teams know that no matter what happens with the score or whatever, they’re going to come out and play hard. They’re not going to be no pushovers.”
* Foreign players beware: If you say something controversial to your native newspapers, it will get translated and repeated here. Warriors rookie Mickael Pietrus found that out last week. He criticized his teammates in a French sports magazine, saying they didn’t care about winning and that he wouldn’t be sad to leave Golden State. When word got out, in English, he did some backpedaling. “I’m very sorry about it.”
* ABC and ESPN analyst Bill Walton, big surprise, is not a fan of Rasheed Wallace. “It is working so far,” Walton said of Wallace with the Pistons. “I hope it works. I want nothing but the best for Rasheed Wallace. I would love to see him go on and achieve all the levels of greatness people have predicted for him forever. I would love to see him become a historical-level player, model his life after Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa, give up his own life for the sake of others and ... should I hold my breath?”
http://www.detnews.com/2004/pistons/.../d06-98449.htm
Anthony shows he's got game, but not maturity
By Chris McCosky / The Detroit News
Comment on this story
Send this story to a friend
Get Home Delivery
AUBURN HILLS--At this point, Carmelo Anthony probably looks upon the Pistons the way a deer looks upon a crowded freeway — bad things always happen there.
First, Anthony’s feelings were hurt when the Pistons chose not to draft him or have him work out last June. On March 6 in Denver, after Anthony had talked about making the Pistons regret their decision, he endured an awful 3-for-17 shooting night while getting abused defensively by Tayshaun Prince and Corliss Williamson.
The worst, though, had to be what happened at The Palace on Friday. Rarely do you see a team’s chemistry unravel as publicly as we saw the Nuggets’ unravel, and Anthony was at the heart of it.
“I really don’t feel like talking,” was all he would say afterward.
But his actions told the tale.
Anthony started strongly, making eight of his first 14 shots and scoring 16 of his 20 points in the first half. But, he would make just one of his next six shots, raising the ire of his teammates and coaches with his poor shot selection and lack of effort on defense.
With 6:02 left, the Nuggets called a timeout. Anthony had just taken two long and errant jump shots early in the shot clock. Point guard Andre Miller was incensed and began shouting to the coaching staff about Anthony.
Earlier in the game, Marcus Camby had come to the bench much the same way, shouting at the coaches to do something.
Anthony was clearly upset by Miller’s tirade. He sat down at the end of the bench, away from his teammates and refused to go back into the game. Coaches, players, even Miller, tried to coax him back onto the court. He refused.
“He got off early, but we weren’t challenging him,” Chauncey Billups said. “When we did challenge him, he stopped.”
Stopped producing, then stopped playing.
It was an immature move by a kid who has played way beyond his 20 years all season. No doubt he will have some explaining to do today.
Lauding Uncle Cliff
Just because his team is going to miss the playoffs for the first time in his 14-year career doesn’t mean former Piston Cliff Robinson has stopped playing hard and effectively.
In recent games, he has shut down such dangerous and diverse offensive threats as Chris Webber, Jermaine O’Neal, Pau Gasol and Carmelo Anthony.
“They have guys out here who are worth $120 million,” Robinson said. “I have to be worth at least half of that because I can go out on the floor and be effective at stopping a lot of these guys.”
One person who agrees with him is Kevin Garnett, who said Robinson was “hands down” the best defender he plays against.
“By far,” Garnett said. “Not even close. Cliff can guard one (point guards) through five (centers), and he’ll tell you that, too.”
Yes, he will. Put him on the All-Defensive team.
Sound bytes
* The Knicks’ Vin Baker, after the team got chewed out by team President Isiah Thomas last week: “I’ve been here three games, and it feels like it’s been three seasons.”
* The Rockets’ Maurice Taylor, after watching veteran teammate Jim Jackson throw down a vicious dunk last week: “I didn’t know he could dunk. I have never seen him dunk, and I used to watch the Ohio State-Michigan games. I just thought he was vertically challenged. He represented for all the old heads. All the guys with 10 years or more (in the NBA) can look at Jim Jackson and see they can still do it.”
* The Rockets’ Cuttino Mobley, same subject: “He wanted to show he could still dunk at 92 years old.”
Chris McCosky’s quick hits
* Knicks President Isiah Thomas retold one of my favorite stories from the Bad Boys days to New York reporters last week. The question of intimidating general managers came up. Zeke said: “I was afraid of Jack McCloskey. He was a tough guy. I’ll tell you a story — it was at the All-Star break, we were battling Boston every year. Joe Dumars and I had made the All-Star team. We were on the elevator with Jack McCloskey. And Red Auerbach walked in, got on the elevator. And Auerbach looked at McCloskey. McCloskey looked at Auerbach. And neither one of them said a word to each other. And when we got off the elevator, Joe and I looked at each other and said, ‘OK, we understand now.’”
* Brent Barry is not a fighter and neither is James Posey. Yet, the two almost dropped the gloves at the end of a game Thursday — almost. After Barry’s Sonics secured a 97-94 victory over the Grizzlies, Barry hurled the ball down the court in celebration. Posey took offense and shoved him into the seats. Barry got up and started to run toward his locker room, nudging Posey as he went past. Posey chased him until Barry’s teammate, Rashard Lewis, got between them. “The play was over, and he gave me a little cheap shot out of bounds,” Barry said. “He hit me, and it’s a man’s league, so when I was running back, I brushed up against him, letting him know I felt you hit me, I’m going to let you know, the game’s over. You might have hit me, but we are leaving your building with a win.”
* Hours after getting manhandled by the Pistons, the Nets put Jason Kidd on the injured list. Interesting. Kidd’s right knee has bothered him all season and there is little reason to believe it won’t continue to bother him throughout the playoffs. His injury is similar to the one that bothered Chucky Atkins last season and this season. All told, Atkins was hobbling for four months, and the situation didn’t get corrected until he underwent surgery this season. The Nets without Kidd, or with a diminished Kidd, won’t get it done in the East this season.
* The Spurs are similarly holding their breath regarding Tim Duncan’s right quadriceps injury. He can play, but there is no telling how much damage he is doing. “It’s a strange situation,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think it’s going to end up being a day-to-day, game-to-game sort of thing. He probably shouldn’t be playing back-to-backs is my guess. ... We’re trying to walk the line between strengthening and healing. Better to rest it now than risk losing him for the playoffs.”
* In Orlando, team President Bob Vander Weide is promising to spend money this summer to attract free agents. The problem is, the Magic are over the salary cap and don’t have much money to spend. All the Magic have at their disposal is the $5 million mid-level exception and the $1.3 million veteran’s exception. Still, that the Magic would contemplate paying the luxury tax to upgrade their talent base is news. Desperate times call for desperation actions. The Magic have one more year to show Tracy McGrady they are serious about building a winner around him.
* Can’t talk about the Magic without mentioning former Piston Grant Hill, who showed up at the team’s shoot-around last week with the latest X-rays of his troublesome left ankle. What they showed, besides the five 3-inch screws holding his ankle together, was a clear absence of any fracture. It was that fracture on the inside of his ankle that has prevented Hill from playing. “There were no setbacks and no problems, but I asked the doctor, will it look better in four or five months?” Hill said. “And when he said, ‘Yes,’ I’m thinking to myself, It makes more sense to wait. It was my decision to slow it down and no one else’s.” Hill has stopped his workouts for two months before going through a strenuous rehabilitation session this summer.
* Another old friend, Jerry Stackhouse, has been having issues with Coach Eddie Jordan in Washington. Remember a few weeks ago, Stackhouse, who underwent knee surgery before the season, said he was shutting it down for the rest of the year. The Wizards said, no, you are not. And, as if to reinforce that, Jordan played Stackhouse 41 minutes in back-to-back games. So, Stack came up with another plan to reduce his workload. He told Jordan to bench him, let somebody else start and don’t play him until the second quarter. That way, Stackhouse is assured of keeping his minutes down. “I think this plan is going to work,” Stackhouse said.
* Scottie Pippen is torn. His body is telling him it’s over, time to retire. His mind, however, is telling him, hey, you have one more year on your contract. You aren’t walking away from another $5.3 million. He managed to play in only 23 games this year. “I’d like to play once more to say goodbye to the game at this level,” Pippen said. “But I don’t think I can go anymore. I want to, but I don’t think I can.” Bet he finds a way.
* The Pacers are the best team nobody has seen. But that’s about to change. The Pacers weren’t scheduled to play on ABC this season, but the network is apparently going to alter its schedule and pick up the Pistons-Pacers game April 4 at The Palace. If that happens, the game will be moved to 1 p.m. “It’s ridiculous; totally ridiculous,” Jermaine O’Neal said about the Pacers’ network snub. “It baffles me. They put losing teams on TV. It’s hard to believe. Sooner or later, we’ll take our respect, and the way we do that is by winning games and getting further and further (in the playoffs).”
* Maybe you’ve heard, but the Raptors’ Vince Carter has pulled himself off the U.S. Olympic team. “It’s for my well-being,” Carter said. “I don’t want to burn out before the season. I’ve been there too many times. It’s just too much. It’s the course of the whole thing that’s going to kill me. I don’t think my body would take it.” Carter also is getting married this summer. His leaving probably opens up a spot for LeBron James, whom Olympic Coach Larry Brown loves. If Kobe Bryant can’t play, then expect Carmelo Anthony to get a call.
* Houston’s Yao Ming was asked what he knew about his new teammate, veteran Charles Oakley, whom the Rockets signed to a 10-day contract. “More fighting than playing,” Yao said smiling. He’s right. Part of the reason Oakley was signed was to protect Yao. “All (Yao) needs to know is he’s got a good man beside him,” Oakley said. “He doesn’t have to worry about Shaq (O’Neal) no more. I guess every city has policemen and they have a job to do, and I think that every team needs someone to let other teams know that no matter what happens with the score or whatever, they’re going to come out and play hard. They’re not going to be no pushovers.”
* Foreign players beware: If you say something controversial to your native newspapers, it will get translated and repeated here. Warriors rookie Mickael Pietrus found that out last week. He criticized his teammates in a French sports magazine, saying they didn’t care about winning and that he wouldn’t be sad to leave Golden State. When word got out, in English, he did some backpedaling. “I’m very sorry about it.”
* ABC and ESPN analyst Bill Walton, big surprise, is not a fan of Rasheed Wallace. “It is working so far,” Walton said of Wallace with the Pistons. “I hope it works. I want nothing but the best for Rasheed Wallace. I would love to see him go on and achieve all the levels of greatness people have predicted for him forever. I would love to see him become a historical-level player, model his life after Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa, give up his own life for the sake of others and ... should I hold my breath?”