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and Ricky Davis. Over at grantland, trying to show the path from being immature to maturing.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...id=grantland33
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...id=grantland33
The Rules of Pacers Digest
Hello everyone,
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"
"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?"
In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*""Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?
"In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
I wouldn't say it was strange, I thought it was great. Jonathan Abrams is a great storyteller.There is no NBA player named Monte Ellis. -
Re: Strange article about Lance....
The best part about the article is Ricky Davis drinking an appletini at lunch at PF Chang's. I hope he ordered it "Easy on the 'tini"
Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
That was definitely a nice story. Hope Lance keeps maturing and improving his game, one of the more exciting players the Pacers have had in a long time.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
Here's what Pacers fans are interested in, although I recommend the whole thing if you have time:
These are the sections about Lance
The NBA is more image-conscious than it was when Davis was in his prime. Teams are more sensitive and players are more business-oriented. The Malice at the Palace brawl in 2004 was the turning point. That image of Ron Artest maniacally hurdling over the stands played on an endless loop in David Stern's head, an infinite reminder of the need for change.
No franchise was more affected than the Indiana Pacers. The team methodically wiped its roster of every player involved in the fight, in a process that took years. "There's no question about it, the culture of the team is going to change and we're not done yet," then–team president Larry Bird told the Indianapolis Star in 2008. "We're going to continue to work on that through the summer.
"If you look at some of the guys in the proposed trades, they're a little bit older, went to school for at least three years. That's part of the change, more mature kids, some experience and getting guys that we think can come in here and play right away."
But there comes a time when every organization needs to take risks, no matter how small. "This league is not a Sunday church picnic," says Mark Boyle, the Pacers' longtime broadcaster. "Almost every team that has any success in this league takes a chance on somebody sooner or later because that's just the way it is."
Bird took that chance when he selected Lance Stephenson in the second round of the 2010 draft. Stephenson, a Brooklyn phenom, arrived with plenty of off-court baggage — his college recruitment had grown so sordid that then–Florida International coach Isiah Thomas bowed out of the process because he was so concerned that an NCAA investigation would follow a commitment from Stephenson.
Now Stephenson, 22, has become one of this season's biggest surprises. He's on the short list for the league's Most Improved Player award after spending two seasons watching, waiting, struggling, and occasionally stoking controversy.
Stephenson and Davis aren't the same kind of player. Stephenson's strength is his defense and ability to push the ball upcourt. Davis, in his prime, thrived on his silky jumper and trapezelike athleticism. But they have more in common than you might think.
Some players are trying to get in.
"I know what it takes to win games and I still feel like I'm in shape," Davis says. "I got it. It's just a matter of getting a workout, a 10-day."
Some players are trying to stay in.
"I've been waiting two years for this and I figured this was my only chance," Stephenson says. "Either I was going to play good now or be out the league."Lance Stephenson first dunked at an AAU tournament in sixth grade. From that point forward, he dunked whenever, over whomever, wherever he could. "Once I dunked once, I knew how to dunk," he says.
Stephenson didn't have a typical childhood. He was driven everyday and completely focused on basketball. He'd run up the Coney Island Beach steps, and challenge his father, Lance Sr.,2 to push-up competitions. "Lance just wanted to be a kid, and he had to deal with it day in and day out," says Gary Charles, who coached Stephenson in AAU. "I think sometimes he got out of character because people expected [so much of him]."
Stephenson always played above his age. He dropped 20 points as a fourth grader against eighth graders. He challenged O.J. Mayo, nearly three years his senior, and held his own. While still in junior high, he played on an AAU team with then–high school (and future NBA) players Danny Green and Joakim Noah. Stephenson played against Sebastian Telfair, another Coney Island product, when Stephenson was 10 years old. Lance Sr. hollered across the court at Telfair's uncles, bellowing that his son was ready for the spotlight right now. Telfair, five years older than Stephenson, was already a legend in New York basketball circles.
"[He] killed me," Stephenson says. "But that experience right there, scoring on him, I felt like I could be like him one day." In 2006, a Rucker Park announcer noticed Stephenson's penchant for thriving against older competition. He nicknamed him "Born Ready."
"Whoever put somebody in front of me, I went after them," Stephenson says. "I felt like I was living up to the hype. I don't think it was bad hype."
Stephenson was New York's first mega–prep star athlete whose high school career coincided with the rise of social media. He heard all the criticism and acclaim in real time. He heard it when he enrolled at Bishop Loughlin instead of nearby fabled Abraham Lincoln High School, setting off a maelstrom in Coney Island. He heard it when he abruptly transferred to Lincoln just two days after beginning at Bishop Loughlin, later citing the distance he had to travel to school. He heard it when he was suspended for five days in 2008 after a skirmish with teammate Devon McMillan. And he heard it when, later that same year, he and a teammate were arrested for groping a female student. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
But on the court, Stephenson dominated. Lincoln captured four PSAL city titles during his reign. Telfair had won three. Stephon Marbury, another Brooklyn son and Lincoln graduate, only captured one. It seemed as if Stephenson played at Madison Square Garden as often as the Knicks. By his senior season, he'd surpassed Telfair's state scoring record of 2,785 points.
Lincoln coach Dwayne "Tiny" Morton remembers calling a play that Stephenson failed to run during a championship game.
"Lance, we just went over the play and you still didn't run what you were supposed to run," Morton said to him.
"Coach, when I get in a groove, when I get out there, I don't remember plays. Just give me the ball and I'm going to score," Stephenson responded.
"That's what he used to do," Morton says. "And he scored a lot of points and we won a lot of championships."
But colleges were skittish about recruiting Stephenson. He was an enterprising kid in high school, with his eye on the big picture. Among his questionable choices: At Lincoln, he filmed an Internet reality show and toured an Under Armour facility run by a Terrapin booster on a trip to the University of Maryland.
Stephenson eventually landed at Cincinnati, where he averaged 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in a solid if unremarkable freshman season. He declared for the NBA draft shortly thereafter. On draft night, Stephenson gathered with family and friends in Manhattan. The Knicks, his hometown team, had back-to-back picks in the middle of the second round. With their first pick, the team chose Andy Rautins from Syracuse with the 38th selection. Then NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver began, "With the 39th pick, the New York Knicks select Lan … " The family rose to their feet, tension creeping into their throats, before Silver finished his sentence: "Landry Fields."
"Can you imagine?" says Albert Ebanks, Stephenson's agent. "Everyone jumped up."
But Stephenson didn't have to wait much longer after that — Bird and the Pacers grabbed him just one spot later. Ebanks says he knew that it didn't matter where Stephenson was taken, that he'd make a path for himself. "I would describe him as a three-dog, one-bone guy," Ebanks says. "You put three dogs in a ring and put a bone in the center, he's going to be the one to come back with that bone."
In a different era, Stephenson likely would have leaped to the NBA from high school. "I probably would," Stephenson says. "But I liked that one year of school. I learned a lot."Larry Bird is mentoring Lance Stephenson.
Bird resigned from his team presidency last summer, but he still texts Stephenson small notes of encouragement. "Force D-Wade left, don't let him go middle," he wrote before a recent game against the Heat. They talk at least a handful of times a month.
"My impression is that Larry really went out of his way, really liked him as a player, thought he could be very good and that he made a conscious effort to talk to him all the time and took a specific interest in him," says Donnie Walsh, who resumed the Pacers' presidency when Bird stepped down.
"Larry just liked him as a player," Walsh says. "He understood what he had heard about him. So I think he took the attitude when he first came here of, You're not going to play. You're going to learn how to play. You better not get into any trouble. There was a lot of attention by Larry on the off-the-court stuff. This is how you act as a pro. I think that the kid listened, for the most part. From what I heard, it was rough in the first year. But we had good guys on the team, so they got involved and helped him."
As Davis's parents had after he was drafted, Stephenson's parents moved to his new city with him.
"The team did its best to vet him and to look into some of the scenarios or situations that you just sort of get into, and to see them for what they are worth — which is really, in the big picture of things, mischief more than malice," Ebanks says. "They weren't taking a flyer on him. They did their homework."
Morton says the Pacers called him before the draft and asked how Stephenson would react to acquiring money for the first time.
"I told him it's a great question," Morton says. "Most of us, if we were born with a little money, if you give us a lot of money, it could change us. I wouldn't know what he would do with a lot of money. It would depend on his management team, I told him."
But Stephenson's NBA journey was almost derailed before it began. In August 2010, he was accused of pushing his girlfriend down a flight of stairs during an argument. Bird, still in the process of redefining Indiana's identity, quickly released a statement. In it, he wrote that the Pacers had worked too hard "to permit the actions of one individual to reverse all of the positive strides that have been made as a franchise over the last couple of years or to hurt the image of the rest of the players on our team." Authorities dismissed the case in 2011. Stephenson's name hasn't appeared in the blotter since.
On the court, his game had stalled, too. Stephenson dismissed the constructive criticism of older teammates. He was aloof and moody. Jim O'Brien coached Stephenson when he broke into the league. "I'll pass," he simply replied when asked to be interviewed about Stephenson.
Stephenson seldom played in his first two seasons. "We've had some guys here in the '90s that were older-school guys who would have snapped him in half by now," Boyle says. "I'm surprised that he's still in one piece. He agitates his own teammates during practices. Not that it's that bad. But day after day for six months, I imagine it gets on your nerves."
Pacers assistant Dan Burke identified Stephenson as a talented player in need of some molding. He's the reason coaches want to coach, he thought. He also recognized that Stephenson's nickname, Born Ready, was far from accurate.
"I think he thought he had to come in and show everybody he was the man by defying the vets, defying leadership," Burke says. "It wasn't defiance in an explosive or antagonistic way. It was just him trying to be himself. He needs a little bit of that bravado to perform, and I think he just needed to find out where he crossed the line, and that was something we had to tell him every day, that some of the things you are doing isn't helping the team. It could be something as mundane as keeping your locker clean and being a good neighbor."
The transformation started, oddly enough, when Stephenson agitated LeBron James in last season's playoffs. Stephenson had watched the intensity of the playoffs, the way players bore down on defense, how every possession counted. He wanted to play, to do anything to help his team. Television cameras caught Stephenson making a choke signal after James missed a technical free throw in the third quarter of the series' third game.
"I was trying to do anything to get into anybody's head on the floor," Stephenson says. "I felt like at that moment I got in his head and I made him miss that shot. That helped us win that game. I try to be involved even if I'm not on the floor."
That didn't sit well with Miami.
"Lance Stephenson?" James asked incredulously. "You want a quote about Lance Stephenson? I'm not even going to give him the time." Old-school enforcement ensued. Veteran Juwan Howard aggressively approached Stephenson before the series' next game. Dexter Pittman, a reserve big man who played for Miami last season, clotheslined Stephenson during the waning moments of the fifth game. "I think you've got to stop and wonder at that point, Is it me or is it everybody else?" Burke says.
Stephenson is right. Indiana did win the third game and assumed a 2-1 series lead. But then James turned in a 40-point, 18-rebound, nine-assist masterpiece in the next game. Miami won the final three games on its way to a championship, and Stephenson learned something about tugging the tiger's tail.
"It gave LeBron a little trigger," Stephenson says. "It made him go harder the next game. He responded well after I did that. Coach got on me a little bit and I just calmed down."
Stephenson still talks, especially at practice. But when an opponent talks back, he turns it up a gear.
"That gets me motivated because when you talk junk that means that you got to score or you got to show that you're not just talking, you're playing hard too," Stephenson says.
At a recent practice, Stephenson and teammate George Hill pressed Gerald Green after a defensive lapse. The badgering was harmless, yet persistent enough for Coach Frank Vogel to quietly ask them to stop. "He's young and a lot of guys grow up talking on the court," Walsh says. "Act like you've been there before. The less you say on the court to referees and other players, the more confident I think you are. It's kind of like, we all grow up in the city. After a while, you got to know that the guys who wolfed all the time weren't very tough. The guys who never said anything scared the **** out of me."Even players with the most irrational sense of confidence need to start somewhere. Stephenson found his against Sacramento in November. When the Kings forced Indiana into overtime, Stephenson was surprised to find himself still on the floor. It was only the third game of what he considered his make-or-break season. He had never played serious minutes when it mattered this much. But he was unfazed, connecting on a 3-pointer in overtime, helping to force a second overtime. The Pacers won easily in the second OT.
Stephenson had spent two years studying Danny Granger, Paul George, and others who played ahead of him. They knew the defensive signals, the calls, when to shoot a gap, how to trail a shooter. This was all new for him. Cincinnati mostly stuck to zone defense. Its offense was unsophisticated. But in the NBA, you can't tell your coach you're in a zone and can't be pestered with plays.
"You can't be too wild in this league because everybody's smart," Stephenson says. Assistant coach Brian Shaw kept telling Stephenson that players like Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady did not arrive in the NBA as All-Stars.
"He always had the ball skills, the bravado," Shaw says. "That was a big part of his game, but like a lot of young players, you get in this league and you are playing against grown men. Now you're not the biggest, strongest guy anymore. Offensively, he needed to get confidence in his perimeter game, which he has now. But he had to learn how to guard scorers at his position. That was probably the weakest part of his game. At that position, you have to learn how to guard the best scorers night in and night out."
Granger has missed the bulk of the season with a knee injury, so Stephenson was added to the starting lineup in the season's seventh game. George slid down to small forward to make room for Stephenson as Indiana's shooting guard. He's started every game since. "I don't ever want to come off the bench," Stephenson says. "I want to be known as a starting player. So, I've got to keep working. If I keep doing that, the sky's the limit."
Vogel points to another game, against Denver, when Stephenson made little impact. Vogel told Stephenson that when he was not at his best, neither are the Pacers. "That's when he realized how important he is to this team and that he's not a fill-in for Danny Granger and keeping his seat warm," Vogel says. "He's a major factor at both ends of the ball in our success this year."
The Pacers are undeniably better with Stephenson on the floor. His averages of eight and a half points and four rebounds per game may not impress, especially for New York City's all-time leading high school scorer. But he has already succeeded where other phenoms have failed.
"Particularly in New York, he was made out to be the savior," says Walsh, a native who presided over the Knicks when Stephenson played in high school. "To a degree, he came into this league very, very young. He's still very young. I think he has made the adjustment to being a great talent and trying to get his game ready for the NBA game. A lot of guys can't [escape] the tag. This kid has gotten out of it and he realizes what he wants to do."
The Pacers, amazingly, have not missed a beat without Granger, a smart and collected leader on the court who emerged as the face of the franchise after the brawl. But Stephenson helped make the transition without him easier. Now, the Pacers are again eyeing a rematch with Miami in the playoffs. This time, Stephenson will have a chance to actually influence the outcome on the court.9
"He's still Lance," center Roy Hibbert says. "He still does the things that he does, but he does it in an aggressive nature."Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
Jeezus, what an *******.Jim O'Brien coached Stephenson when he broke into the league. "I'll pass," he simply replied when asked to be interviewed about Stephenson.Last edited by Sandman21; 04-11-2013, 03:43 PM."Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel
"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
That's a really nice article. Lance only wants to be a Antonio Davis, er, starter.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
A-Hole ex-coach remark not withstanding, this article pretty much dictates just how lucky Lance was to be picked up by Indiana with a support structure for him. I honestly don't know that he'd still be in the league today if a Sacramento or a team with a toxic locker room had drafted him."Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel
"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
Agreed.Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
Although in JOB's defense (ugh) Lance was a problem for him based on what we know. So, if he never experienced the "good" Lance, he wouldn't have anything nice to say. And it is better to simply pass than give an interview in which you'll be disparaging Lance the whole time.
That's the best I can come up with.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
That's an excellent article.
I loved the Lance parts and it also made me to root for Ricky Davis
Originally posted by IrishPacer
Empty vessels make the most noise.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
It was interesting, but the Lance, Ricky connection seemed forced. I agree it was strange.
Still a fun read.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
He has quickly become one of my favorite players on the team, when gets aggressive and starts breaking down the D the Pacers look unbeatable.You can't get champagne from a garden hose.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
What I gather from the article is how important it is to walk a thin line
The "swagger" Lance has if tempered , is one thing the Pacers really need. Outside of George Hill , he is really the only Pacer I see with the ability to get in a zone and take over the game for a short period of time
I would say David West and Tyler can somewhat but in different ways, becasue they are not guards who can initiate a scoring binge with the ball in their hands
Sometimes I fantasize what Paul George would be like if he had Lance's fearlessness and confidence to dominate and not back down from anyoneSittin on top of the world!Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
I guess I am the only person who lost it when they read O'Brien's "I'll pass" line. That was hilarious. Bravo, dipshit.Comment
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Re: Strange article about Lance....
When Lebron is assigned to guard you, you know you have to be an important piece of the team's success. Hopefully, Vogel has some plans for that situation in out next matchup. No Lance = no fastbreaks and pressure on the defense in transition.
Remember when we could have gotten 1-2 solid players and a possible Top 3 draft pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by trading away Paul George?Comment
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