More On Rudy Fernandez Written by Seth Johnston ** Wednesday, 25 August 2010 14:56 If we assume that the price of player merchandise is influenced by demand, then virtually no one is confident that Rudy Fernandez will A) Remain in Portland and/or B) Ever be remotely liked by a Blazer fan ever again. Hipsters won't even wear his name ironically. You can purchase a sweet Rudy t-shirt from the online Blazers store for just $5. To put that in perspective, the Martell Webster version of the same shirt is nine dollars. Martell was a non-starter who was traded to the Timberwolves last summer. The Juwan Howard version is $10, I assume because a few people didn't hear that he actually plays for the Heat now. (Conspiracy theorists: Joel Przybilla's shirt is also $10.) I'd like to remind you that Rudy Fernandez is still on the Blazers. I would also like to remind you that it wasn't long ago when you could argue that he was the most popular player on the team. Yet his merchandise is half the price of a guy who only played in Portland for one season, averaged just 22 minutes per game in that single season, and now plays for the Miami Heat. Rudy's fall from the pedestal we put him on has been tremendous. We aren't blameless in this. Yes, he started playing worse and complaining more. I argue that we knew Rudy had elements to his personality that were difficult to embrace, just as we knew there were serious questions about how well his game would translate to the NBA. Both of these were mostly ignored for as long as they could be.*We built him up to be something that he clearly was not, and now we are relishing the act of tearing him down. Now, having sort of defended Rudy Fernandez, I await my smiting. ***** sethjonstn[at]gmail twitter. * Add comment (9)
Roy has a shirt for sale for $10 last I checked which was a few says ago. Maybe he's not popular either.
He makes a good point. We greatly over value our players and then trash them to hell when there's controversy.
Sums it up Nicely. *We built him up to be something that he clearly was not, and now we are relishing the act of tearing him down.
You know what though, we may have built him up in terms of talent, but his attitude is all him. The guy could be a disappointment and not be an asshole. I was fine with Rudy's limitations, but as soon as he opened up his mouth and started crying like a newborn infant, I lost all respect for the guy.
I agree Rudy is fully responsible for his attitude, but I would have to say we built him up in a way that was destined for failure
You know what though, I think we had realistic expectations for him. All we wanted was a guy to come in, back up Brandon, shoot the three, and provide some spectacular moments of basketball. He did that to a T in his rookie season. It wasn't the same guy last season, and that could be attributed to a number of things. Coach, point guard, injury, etc. Rudy did everything I thought he would in the 08-09 season. He didn't just miraculously change over the summer. I think he sand bagged it.
If Rudy wasn't being such a prick we would have chalked last year's performance up to a "bad year" and we'd all give him another chance. Hell, we'd probably be blaming Nate for his down year. But no. If he would just have kept his mouth shut and gave effort every night we would not be tearing him down. No way.
I think that hits the nail on the head. He had high expectations after being 7th in rookie of the year votes and having a number of instances of being on the second team and helping lead the team back from a 20+ point first half deficit (not to mention being a rookie record holder). The expectations were there to have a great 6th man who we all knew had limitations and would never leapfrog Roy as a starting SG (and he should have been well aware of that too). So we all thought we'd have this Steve Kerr type of shooting threat and great 6th man to come provide a spark off the bench for 23-24 mpg or whatever he ended up with. I don't think the fans at that time would have guessed in a million years Rudy would have dropped so far in productivity in his second year (when that rarely happens with a Euro adjusting to the NBA style) and would have expected Rudy to turn into such a whiner when his playing time remained exactly what everyone knew it would remain since Roy was still the starter. So the fans really don't have much of a choice but turning 180-degrees when a guy who shows so much promise suddenly doesn't look as good as he did in his rookie year and then he begins whining about playing time - which anyone with half a brain should have known wasn't ever going to change for him given his specific style of play and the fact Roy was playing his position.
That's Exactly what We wanted, But I doubt KP/MGMT/Sarge/Andy Dick Miller ever told him that. The way Rudy was touted into Portland and thrust into fan favorite was like telling Rudy he was the #2 option behind Roy, not just a backup. Being Rudy's first time in the NBA, it was a recipe for disaster. So who's the half-brain person who brought him over here on false premise?
I understand you're getting at the fact that Rudy came over here on his own free will since he bought out his own Euro contract in order to come here (since we just drafted him as a late round backup SG and never expected more out of him). But still for Rudy to have the false premise that he would be a starter would just shows how ignorant he was of the roster dynamics of the team that drafted him. His agent and Blazer management would have been telling him all along that he'll never be the starter if he comes to the NBA since it technically couldn't happen short of some unforeseen trade or injury.
No joke, up at the Nike store on MLK the ROY and ODEN shirts are still $14.99 and the RUDY shirts are on the clearance rack for $4.99! Maybe they know something we don't!
First off, I'm a Rudy fan. That said, his agent must have been pumping him full of some bullshit. "Hey Rudy, you're the European Kobe! You'll be starting ahead of this Roy cat by opening night!" I still think he can help us, if he chose to accept that roll!
See how far I have come on here! I now know that in "GEEK SPEAK" ..... This....... means you agree with me!
