<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy @ Dec 20 2007, 08:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kid Chocolate @ Dec 20 2007, 07:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I think it's the Heats fault, they overplayed him and tried to kill him.</div> Usually I feel bad for athletes that get hurt, but . . . </div> I know I know.. Shhhh ...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rory @ Dec 20 2007, 08:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>He's a steroid user. Just look at pics of him from Georgetown/Charlotte and now. Bigger muscles, bigger head, flexing and shouting after each play. Too bad they won't catch him, since the medication he takes for his kidney would show up as a steroid anyway.</div> really? i always thought of him as a jacked guy
i dont blame him. the nets suck, Rod thorn is overrated, he saw this coming before we did, he luckily went to Miami and won a ring while we arent going to makle the playoffs.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jizzy @ Dec 20 2007, 09:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>i dont blame him. the nets suck, Rod thorn is overrated, he saw this coming before we did, he luckily went to Miami and won a ring while we arent going to makle the playoffs.</div> Maybe it's time to bring out this post from a few years ago one last time: --------------- DUMPY on the man called ZerO: --------------- Look, I was thrilled when the Nets signed Mourning; I thought he'd be the missing piece to the team's championship hopes. And when his illness returned, well, that was just bad luck, and stuff happens. And then he wanted to try to come back and play, against all common sense, and I gave him a lot of credit for that. But then . . . the Nets' ownership had a little hiccup, and due to a strange set of circumstances and terrible timing, KMart was allowed--some would say forced--to leave as a free agent. The Nets also either traded or declined to resign a few other key components of their team, such as Kerry Kittles, Lucious Harris, and Rodney Rogers, although at the time Nets management insisted that their departures were solely personnel decisions, not financial ones, and history has since proven them to be correct ones. Jason Kidd, who underwent surgery at around the same time, was pretty disgruntled by the whole thing, although he eventually agreed to wait and trust Rod Thorn to fix things. Regardless, Zo immediately began a one-man campaign to rip the entire Nets organization, from ownership, management, down to the fans. Every day it was the same old story: Zo was firing away at whoever's name came to the lips that day. It was a shame, too, because I believed that even without KMart, Kittles, Harris, and Rogers, and happy and healthy Zo could have led this team to the division title. Alas, it was not to be. Mourning made it clear day after day that he didn't want to be a Net, that he wanted nothing to do with the organization. And it was more than just his words, which were pretty damning. It was his play, too. He wanted nothing to do with his teammates. Zo refused to pass the ball. He was a black hole; every time he got the ball, he would drive to the hoop. The result? As many turnovers as field goals through the first month of the season (no joke). Yet Zo did not stop his campaign, continuing to blast team management and ownership. As a fan, I found his behavior juvenile and insulting. He wanted out, wanted to be released, bought out, traded, whatever, just so long as he didn't have to play for . . . that . . . New Jersey . . . team anymore. He wanted to play for someone else, anyone else, that had a better chance of reaching the finals. You see, Zo didn't want to be a major cog--he wanted to ride someone else's coattails to a ring. The Nets agreed to buy him out, and send him on his way, and offered him money to just go away. But that wasn't enough for Zo--for the Nets didn't offer him enough money! No, when it came right down to it, when given the chance to leave, become a free agent, and go where he wanted, he refused--BECAUSE THE NETS WOULDN'T PAY HIM ENOUGH TO DO SO. Read that again, so it sinks in. What was Zo really after, anyway? There really was only one answer: He wanted to stroke his ego. He wanted his money AND to play for another team where other players would win him a championship. And until it happened, he would continue to publicly insult the Nets organization on a daily basis. It reached the point where I publicly stated that, if I was in a position to do so, I would happily give away a first round pick for nothing in return, if some team would just agree to take Zo also. Unfortunately, I didn't have such power, and the CBA wouldn't allow it, anyway. How could I go from being squarely in Zo's court to so fervently against him in just a few short months? It was solely due to his arrogant, petulant behavior. Now, I know that as Heat fans, you want to root for all your players, and try to find reasons to root for them. We all do; that's what makes us fans. But I submit that if there was ever a time when you could look past the laundry (i.e., the uniform), and see the person beneath, warts and all, and see that the Emperor has no clothes, this should be that time. Great, Zo gives money to charity. I'll bet Kenneth Lay did, too, and just about every other millionaire, despite what is in their hearts. And Zo showed his true colors by the way he acted towards Nets management and the fans. I've never despised a player in any sport. Until now, and you'll never get me to change my mind. Zo deserves our contempt, and nothing more. Heat fans argue that more athletes should be like Mourning. Do they mean that more athletes should violate their contractual duty to perform their personal services at the level that was expected when the contract was entered? Do they mean that more athletes should publicly insult team ownership and management to the greatest possible extent? Do they mean that more veterans athletes should adopt the view that they "deserve" a championship, and conspire to manipulate the system in a way that will enable them to do so, even if it reduces the competitive balance and level playing field that must be in place for sports leagues to operate fairly? Do they mean that fewer athletes should place value in playing their entire career for one organization, through thick and thin, and instead show no respect or loyalty to a team or its fan base--or for that matter, teammates? If all it took to be a "great character" person was giving some money to charity and performing some public service, then I submit that I and many of my friends and coworkers should be revered as heroes. To me, it takes more than that. The fact that a person contributes to charity and gives away some of his time does not make him or her a great person. If so, think how easy it would be for the most vile and dispicable person in this world to rehabilitate his image! Sure, he has some redeeming qualities, and I don't think that anyone is saying that he doesn't. He's not a monster--just a selfish, self-absorbed, petulant man who is not a team player and who believes that the world owes him something. I'd even submit that pretty much everyone has some number of redeeming qualities. Again, don't get me wrong: I WANTED to like Zo. I WANTED to root for him. But in the end, he abandoned his team, his teammates, and the fans in order to achieve his own aims. Now, maybe that's normal behavior these days--you know, everyone looking out for number one, and everyone else be damned, and all that. But I can't condone it, because it violates every tenet that sports stands for, or should stand for.
He's done. He already said this would be his last season. Good riddance, greedy bastard. When GP was taking a vet minimum with the Lakers, he demanded the MLE from Thorn.
Wow, good post, Dumpy. Zo actually used to be one of my favorite players, right behind Shawn Kemp. Until he came to the Nets. He's such an asshole.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peg182 @ Dec 20 2007, 12:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Wow, good post, Dumpy. Zo actually used to be one of my favorite players, right behind Shawn Kemp. Until he came to the Nets. He's such an asshole.</div> Yea, me too. Fake, fraud.
Yeah, i was one of those who thought that Zo was the missing piece. We were just unlucky that the kidney problems arose soon after he signed.
