Chris Forsberg was doing his usual thing a C's practice today... tweeting out this photo of KG working with Semih Erden and Luke Harangody on pick and roll defense. It's a great photo that shows KG in full coach mode. Then he added video of it in his recap and got this quote from Doc.
"He helps the ones he likes," said Rivers. "That's true. Kevin's great and, I won't use names, but Kevin tries to help every big that comes in here. If that big doesn't listen to him one time, he'll never speak to him again. Literally, not speak to them. That's happened a couple of times and it's been good for that guy. Now, the two guys that he did get to, are no longer here and that may be one of the reasons. If you're not going to listen to Kevin when he's trying to help you, you're probably messed up."
So...
I gots to thinkin...
KG hasn't been here that long. And there haven't been that many bigs that are no longer with the team. So why not try to figure out who the idiots were that didn't want to pay attention to one of the best defensive big men in the game's history.
KG's first season was 2007-08. The bigs on that team that are no longer here are:
- PJ Brown
- Scot Pollard
- Leon Powe
- Brian Scalabrine (we'll toss him into the equation for the fun of it)
The bigs from 08-09 that aren't here anymore are:
- Mikki Moore
- Patrick O'Bryant
And the departed bigs from last year are:
- Shelden Williams
- Rasheed Wallace
Let's start crossing names off:
PJ Brown and Sheed clearly don't qualify. We know KG had no problems talking to Leon Powe and everyone loved Scal. That leaves Pollard, Moore, POB and Shelden.
Pollard was never really a factor on this team and he'd been around for a while... so that leaves Moore, POB and Shel. I have a hard time believing that Shelden Williams didn't at least LISTEN to KG... but it's possible. I'm DEFINITELY putting some money down on O'Bryant. Probably Mikki too... even though he was a veteran.
What do all these guys have in common? How about a distinct lack of improvement despite expectations? When you think about the work it takes to become great in the league... this little glimpse into who's willing to learn lessons when they're presented is a bit telling. Everyone that makes the NBA has talent. It's what you DO with that talent that separates you from the rest. Of course, we don't know exactly WHO the offending parties were... but at least a couple of these names make sense.