When Rodney Stuckey ignored John Kuester in a game earlier this month, he was quickly yanked for the rest of the game and benched for the next contest. When Tayshaun Prince gets into a screaming match with Kuester in the first half of a game, Kuester reportedly didn't even mention it during his halftime speech and gave Prince plenty of playing time in the second half.
Does that seem odd? You're not alone. From Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News:
After Monday's game, one player wondered why Stuckey was punished and Prince wasn't.
"You see it, the inconsistency," said the player, who didn't want to be quoted by name. "Everybody does."
[...] Which is worse, a player ignoring a coach or a player and coach having to be restrained? Both happened during the heat of the game, when emotions run high, but seemingly, Kuester handled them differently.
DBB reader joejoejoe explains the difference:
Also, Stuckey ignored the coach like a child. Prince confronted him like a man.
This makes sense to me -- there's something to be said for airing grievances immediately as opposed to passive aggression defiance.
But still, the fact that players are grumbling about how Stuckey was punished while Prince emerged unscathed is additional evidence of the rocky relationship the team has not only with its coach -- but also each other.
As DBB reader tads wrote yesterday, here's to hoping the good guys win.