<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Can Primoz Brezec play? Will he? We?€™ll see, I guess. Brezec is in his eighth NBA season and fourth team. He started for three seasons in Charlotte and two of those were productive, at least statistically, as he averaged 13 points and 7.4 rebounds in 2004-05 and 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in 05-06. His production fell off badly last season and even more this year before he was traded to Detroit earlier this season where he mostly sat. Can Brezec play? We don?€™t know. Can he talk? Absolutely, and the Slovenian big man does it in almost perfect gangsta slang. Why does a Slovenian talk like a rapper? Fellow Slovenian Rasho Nesterovic speculates it might be because he broke into the NBA in Indiana. ?€œ[Your English] depends on where you start in the NBA,?€? said Nesterovic. ?€œI started in Minnesota, he started in Indiana. That?€™s a pretty tough organization to pick up English.?€? Anyway on to Primoz, who held court briefly in the Raptors dressing room before the game and let it fly: Q. How do you feel about the trade? ?€œTo tell you the truth, at first I wasn?€™t that excited. I wanted to stay in Detroit and win a championship, I want to play there, I don?€™t want to sit on the bench. I was not so happy, Toronto?€™s got a lot of bigs. But now, talking to Bryan and Maurizio, I know I?€™m going to get a shot here. I just want an opportunity to play. In Detroit there was no playing time. I?€™m excited now. I know this is a great organization, Bryan is doing a great job, a lot of European guys. I know Sam, he was in Charlotte before I was there, I love it so far. I love the city, love the organization, they sell out every night. I want to be here. Hopefully I?€™m not going to be here for one year, hopefully I?€™m going to be here long term." Q. What went wrong in Detroit? "What went wrong? I?€™d rather not say. Everyone knows the problem in Detroit, you know. Great players, great organization. I don?€™t have one bad word, one bad thing to say. Joe Dumars is the man. The first to the 15th guys make you feel like family. But no playing time, man. No playing time. I was just looking for a chance, and I didn?€™t get it. In a month-and-a-half, two months, all I got was garbage time. That?€™s not me man. I?€™ve been a starter in this league, I know I can play, so I?€™m not going to sit on the bench. I guarantee you that. I am not going to sit on the bench." Q. And Charlotte? "Sam Vincent, he changed it up. He wanted to go more run-and-gun. I have no problem with that, I can run three days in a row. But I think I set a record in the NBA: out of 50 games I started I didn?€™t get the ball, I didn?€™t get a shot off. So I was like, you know what Sam? You don?€™t need me, you don?€™t like me and I don?€™t like you, so get me out of here. And see how they?€™re doing this year?" Q. Do you like the style here? "I love it. It?€™s a perfect situation here, it?€™s a perfect fit. They?€™re improving here every year, it?€™s going to be all right." Q. Why?€™d you want to get here so badly? "I want to be with the team. I don?€™t want to be in a hotel, waiting. I want to be here. Hopefully I can play tonight. I don?€™t have a chance to get used to the system, but I?€™m ready. I?€™m ready, whatever. I?€™m ready for a fight man."</div> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...WBwbbasketball/
I don't know about you guys, but I actually find him hilarious. I think the dude's got a bit of an ego, but he's also got a sense of humour and a swagger that this team really could use. I find we're too reserved on the court and it takes a lot to get our players fired up. Brezec always plays at that level and gets excited about the most routine plays (his celebration after his first point as a Raptor cracked me up). I also don't think he's that much of a headcase. Although he clearly wants to get some playing time, he hasn't held anything against Flip Saunders or even Bernie Bickerstaff for not giving him much minutes. He does seem to have a big grudge against Sam Vincent for not giving him a shot, but to be fair, Vincent has pretty much lost that clubhouse in his first season. I see Brezec's minutes fluctuating based on game situations and I don't think he'll necessarily have a problem with it, as long as he knows that he'll considered if we need some energy off the bench.
Also, this cracked me up. He's like a the hip hop Uros Slokar: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Primo Brezec Era began in Toronto at 6:40 p.m. last night and by about 6:43 he was hailing his first taxi. Or perhaps he was simply testing the wind when he scored, sticking his index finger up in the air and waving. The seven-foot Slovenian was acquired from Detroit for Juan Dixon in a trade widely viewed as a none-for-none, but first returns suggest otherwise. He got more first-half minutes than Chris Bosh, if you're scoring at home, and brought severe enthusiasm, not to mention 10 points, in a 115-92 romp over the Knicks. It was a game that raises one simple question: How did the Raptors blow a 14-point lead and lose to these bums Friday? He wasn't the only answer, but Brezec delighted the customers with his hustle and got Sam Mitchell's head shaking a few times with his sign language. Mitchell probably shakes his head plenty at Brezec anyway, letting on that the new man refers to him as "Gangster," in some variation. The cause seems to be that he learned his English from watching popular culture and, as Mitchell said, "everything started with gangster and ended with pimp. "I don't know who he was around or what movies he was watching,'' Mitchell added. "I don't even know my name. I don't think it's Coach anymore, or Sam. It's Gangster. I won't add the second part." Brezec suspects something was lost in the translation. "No, they call me Gangster. But Sam's Gangster, too,'' he said. "I respect Sam. He was there when I was in Charlotte. He's not scared and that's the most important thing in this business, to not be scared and trust the players. He don't take no (bleep) from nobody. I've got no problem if he curse me out if I do something wrong. Tell me." Mitchell probably won't need much encouragement there, although he lauded the new man's contribution. "You want guys who want to play. Here is a guy, regardless of how many minutes, when his name is called, he just wants to play," Mitchell said. "It's always been my motto, the guys who are playing well, play. I thought he did really well for a guy who didn't know what he was doing. He was talking on defence, he was active, running the court, or kind of leaking out a bit. Somebody with that kind of enthusiasm, it can pick you up a little bit.'' How about the sign language? There was the finger up after his first basket, a personal tradition from the time he scored the Charlotte Bobcats' first basket when they were an expansion team a few years ago. He also was running around holding up three fingers when Andrea Bargnani nailed a long ball, threw his arms in the air like a man crossing the tape after 400 metres after nailing a short turnaround and jabbed fingers both horizontally and vertically after Bargnani fed him for a tidy little jump-hook. Mitchell, at that point, was yelling at him to cut the (bleep) and get back on defence. Brezec was 4-for-4 shooting in 10 first-half minutes (to eight for Bosh) and later, in garbage time, he bumped it to 5-for-5, with three rebounds, a block and four fouls. "I haven't played the whole season. This was fun. I had a lot of fun today,'' Brezec said. "If I play one minute or two minutes, that's just me. Expect the same thing here. I'm very glad to be here.'' Hey, now he sounds like Mats Sundin.</div> <div align="center">Source: Toronto Star</div>
