I hope everyone listens to Tay…..move on.

This is as good as we could have hoped for, right? I’m pretty sure the team will be fine. Doesn’t even compare to ben refusing to enter a game.

And I’d like to reconsider my position from the previous thread based on Forty reminding me that Ben refusing to re-enter the game was WAY worse than this.

If the players are okay with it (they have no reason to publicly say otherwise), then we should move on.

OM – not a game!

At least Ben’s refusal to play was based on principle (he was unhappy with coaches/teammates for their lack of commitment to defense). Was it a misguided display of his unhappiness? Definitely, but at least it was based on something.

This was purely AI not wanting to get up early in the morning and knowing he had the “f**k you money” to get away with it.

Maybe Ben’s griping had the potential to be more divisive long-term, but as a fan I’m a tiny bit more willing to respect a difference in philosophy as opposed to pure selfishness.

Not a game… not a game… we talkin about practice.

Shakes head

Not a game, we talkin about practice.

allen iverson does not like to practice. it is not that complicated. give the guy a break. that is his philosophy.

Matt, really? That seems kind of like a reach to me. AI might have hung everybody out to dry by not showing up for practice, but he didn’t do it in a game that counted on (if I recall correctly) national TV. Ben did what he did late in the season on a 64 win team that absolutely should have won an NBA title. Had AI done what Ben did, the media, the internet, the fans all would have melted down. I think his tenure in Chicago has shown that Ben turned out to be somewhat petulant.

OM: you probably have a point, timing is important. For what it’s worth, though, no one realized until a day or two after the Orlando game that Ben had refused to play. Here’s the DBB post about it.

Ben did that because he was unhappy abut not being part of the offense whatsoever, way worse.

“If it was any other player on the roster who decided to stay home, I wouldn’t care.”

Really? Interesting….

If Herrmann had decided to stay home to wash his hair, the media would have had a FRENZY! ESPN might have even crashed.

The Ben Wallace refusal was absolutely worse. Iverson has a track record of doing this, as do other NBA players, so because there is a history of this behavior it should have been half expected and not read into so greatly. To defend Ben because of a philosophical difference – means that any player that wants to play in a different system or focus more on a certain area – can be defended on a philosophical grounds. Ben is a defensive player of course he wanted the team to focus more on defense, when they didn’t, he looked bad. It’s the same as a shooter wanting to shoot the ball more because that’s what he is good at. The concept is that a coach decides a philosophy and the players play by it. Ben was pouting and it was devastating to watch and altered the season. This won’t.

What bothers me the most is that everyone claims the practice was solely for the benefit of Iverson. Has that been said publicly? If so, I’d be interested in when and who. That seems like a philosophical grounds for not showing up to a practice – if it was announced beforehand as being for a specific player’s benefit, essentially blaming that player for a team’s problems. But maybe that’s just all DBB speculation. Fact is, the team is 5-5, including losses to Phoenix and two to Boston – hardly the end of the world. The two other losses were not Iverson’s fault – does anyone really think they were? When Josh Boone and the bigs on Minnesota, whose names I don’t even remember, are allowed to get double doubles – scoring all their points in the paint – how far do we stretch the blame to put it on our diminutive point guard?

I really think that Curry benching him won’t prove anything. That’s been done to Iverson before for this same thing – he still did it now – doesn’t that prove that it has no effect? That it won’t create respect? Did anyone really expect him to be a completely different person because he’s wearing a different jersey? Rahseed still gets techs. Kwame Brown is still Kwame Brown. How is this shocking?

Hey Matt, I’m not sure this has been discussed, at least I don’t remember it, but whatever happened to Ian? The last time I remember him being around is the Game 6 post during the Cleveland series in 07. Did he get too busy with law school or being a big shot lawyer type?

OM: You hit the nail on the head, he’s one busy dude. As luck would have it, though, I’m going to the game with him tonight. I’ll let him know he’s missed.

After the oxygen tanks blew up on Apollo 13 in space and everybody was going crazy at mission control the flight director asked calmly ‘What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?‘. The things that are good on the Pistons are still good. The things that were a question mark (the volatility of bringing in AI, the growth of the young players, the hunger of the vets) are still question marks. This missed practice episode gives the team an opportunity to test it’s internal discipline and gives Coach Curry a challenge that he can overcome and put his mark on the team.

I used to take the bus to work at an old job and I was routinely 5 minutes late. I thought it was no big deal because everybody was always milling about and getting coffee first thing in the AM so I thought I would just skip that and we’d be even. Plus I busted my ass every day at work (this was manual labor). My boss took me aside and said he wanted me there on time everyday to set an example, not for the extra 5 minutes of work. I told him that for me to get there by bus on time everyday I had to leave 30 minutes earlier to make the connection. He didn’t care. Long story short I was almost always on time from there on out BUT every once in awhile I would still be 5 minutes late. I loved my boss like a brother but I would still be late! Sometimes you are what you are and Iverson is imperfect when it comes to things like team discipline. You either accept the good things and hope for his best imperfect effort or you don’t put the guy on your team.

I’m happy Chauncey looks like the 2nd best PG in the NBA now and I’m still happy Joe Dumars shook things up in Detroit. I’m with Tay, let’s move on.

This reminds me of when my college prof chewed me out for missing a lecture. What we talkin bout? Lecture? Not an exam. Not an exam. Not an exam that I, that I die for. That I study for every test like it’s a final. Not an exam. Lecture.

Forty -

Best parody yet. +1

lol sorry billups isnt the 2nd best PG in the game now by far, hes shooting like 38%

Its funny Forty uses the college analogy because that’s exactly the example I gave to a friend today when we were discussing it. lol
My thing was, its not like the student doesnt care, he just doesnt appreciate the value of the lecture.

+1 indeed/

How ’bout an informal poll?

Should AI play? Yes or No?

Yes, I’m going to the game and I paid to see iverson :)

He better play, I finally got rid of the wife for the morning so I can watch this!

Dumars chatted with Iverson last night. I can imagine what was said. I think the bottom line with Allen is how hungry he really is to win a championship. Although Allen is slightly the better talent than Joe, Joe’s three rings kinda speak for itself.

Chemistry issues aside, which are severe IMHO, quite a bit of this is about AI learning to adapt to a winning, team oriented, culture. He doesn’t have much time to change his ways. We’ll see how it plays out, it’s still early, and no reason yet to be pessimistic. This team is very deep and talented, it’s just a question of figuring out what players to put on the court when. Not an easy equation to figure out, though.

I love MW’s comment knowing AI had “f*ck you money.” Perfect.

AI, you’ve proven you can score, in fact you’re a down right pimp when it comes to getting your own offense. Now show us you can be part of a team that already knows how to win and that needs you to help take to the next level. Practice, sprint, distribute, condition, whatever… just shut up and row.

Whew. OK, I’m officially over it! Let get back to what’s important. Go Pistons.

I wonder if RJ will still find a way to complain about billups injuring him…what a whiny girl

Now that amir has a streak (of 1) double doubles, is it time to jump off the free amir bandwagon and onto the awaken walter sharpe bandwagon? I’m all about staying ahead of the curve.

“Yeah, you can still have the party and eat the cake, but why bother?”

Kwame Brown would still like some cake.

/searching for “Office Space” line

“The ratio of people to cake is too big”

/Milton Waddam’d