SHAQ on ODEN - OUCH - MOTIVATION time!

Here's Shaq and Amare's thoughts on Greg - time to get motivated by these arrse's Greg!


"But over in the Phoenix locker room, there was little-to-no buzz about Oden's arrival. Amare Stoudemire practically rolled his eyes at the mention of Oden, clearly unimpressed. And O'Neal scoffed at the notion that anyone would project Oden to be the next Shaq.

The next Shaq lives with me. Seriously. My youngest son will probably be the next Shaq if he decides to play," O'Neal said. "I was a special case. David Robinson... there is only a couple special cases that only come around once every while. Yao (Ming), he's a special case."

And then, ever so subtly, O'Neal landed the real insult. It was veiled as a compliment, but was deliberate in its pronunciation.

"Guys like Odom and (Andrew) Bynum -- they are 7-foot and great athletes, but it will probably take a couple years to get to that dominant level," O'Neal said.

No, that's not a typo. He said "Odom," not Oden. If there is an ultimate insult in the NBA, it's mispronouncing a guy's name. Especially when he is the No. 1 overall draft pick. And don't think for a second that O'Neal didn't know he was mispronouncing Oden's name"

 

Yeah, Amare should be unimpressed. I mean, he was so dominant right after his microfracture surgery.

 

Amare is light years away talent wise from Oden.

Yes I said it.


Oden needs to play one full season, and then we can talk about his future, whether he'll be great or not.

 

Amare was a physical freak of nature when he came into the league.

 

I don't know why people don't mention it but Greg's problem right now is MOSTLY mental. Not all, he still doesn't have his body in game shape.

We will see what happens by the end of the year.

 

Yeah, I didn't think Oden was playing last night, turns out he was, but looked like a nobody out there.

The Suns have to stop being so good this year and start sucking so Amare wants to leave Phoenix and come to Chicago.

 

Oden got abused on the court last night. It happens.

Oden does need a lot of work on offense. At this point he's hardly a bigger scoring threat than Przybilla, if at all.

 

Oden had some nice moments against Amare- I liked it when he dunked and then kicked Amare. On the very next play he got a jump ball with Amare and just ripped the ball out of Amare's hands.

Oden is the sleeping giant- when he's ready to go, Amare will be the lesser player. It may take a couple years, but there is no way that I would trade Oden for Stoudamire (but don't ask me about Howard)- our guy has the better future. It'll take a full recovery physically and some seasoning.

 

I remember Shaq stubbing his toe on the backboard stanchion when he played for Orlando. He rolled around on the floor like a lil' baby. I was sad for him that day.

I always knew he was a little child on the inside, his size kept him from having to grow up.

I think Greg is going through some of the same issues but I hope he will learn to channel his abilities in an aggressive manner without being a dick about it. I am sure that up until now Greg hasn't had to put out that much effort to dominate. He is going to have to now, because there are people bigger than him in this league.

I bet Greg is really tired right now, he isn't used to a schedule like this against players like this. The mental part is going to be the hardest.


I wouldn't be surprised if Greg reads these forums or others like it.....IF you are reading it Greg...

YOU CAN'T WORRY ABOUT MAKING PEOPLE LOOK BAD, JUST DO IT WITH YOUR GAME. YOU HAVE TO BE COLD HEARTED ON THE FLOOR. YOU CAN SMILE, JUST SMILE AND TAKE PRIDE IN MAKING SOMEONE YOUR BITCH.

 

it's just Shaq. If he wasn't the biggest guy ever, I doubt anyone would pretend he was a source of wisdom on anything. His judgement on various things throughout his career seem reason to take his sage advice with a grain or two of discretion.

like... they had him shirtless post game on the pass last week. For an NBA player, dude is fat. Sir Charles was a fatboy too... it's possible to be very very good being fat, but that guy is still underachieving because he can't/won't control himself around food. He's been fat for a long while now. Doesn't the inability to be that physically gifted and never be able to come anywhere close to mastering the difficult art of the FT imply the same thing? That his mental makeup is questionable? How about some of his quotes while trying to be funny?

whatever doughboy

STOMP

 

He can be really funny though, he is just a total dick.

 

If memory serves, KP said something about people humiliating Greg to kick start his season. He was right. Quick was underwhelmed by Greg - he reportedly had a fantastic practice after. His NOH game brought stupidity quotes about his game - he had good 3 or 4 games after. Now he had Shaq and Amare being underwhelmed. Personally, I think this is a good thing... He will be pissed next time we see them and Sacramento should probably think about fore-fitting right now...

As for Shaq - I am on record saying I love Shaq's quotes - but sometimes it is clear that he is a little unsure about his legacy - the "not telling any secrets" quote is the difference between Shaq and Jordan - remember Jordan tutoring Kobe during a game between Chicago and LAL? MJ had his prickness moments as well - but you have to admire him for that kind of behavior.

 

Welcome to being a rookie big man in the NBA. Greg probably isn't the next Shaq, but he's still probably going to end up being pretty special (if he stays healthy). One game doesn't define a season, let alone a career.

 

here's to a 12/18 poster



STOMP

 

They key with Greg is to make sure you continue working with him, even if he's not getting it, and don't just toss him back in the shuffle. Focus on continued improvement.

Go back and look at Tyson Chandler's game logs from his first 3 years in the league. The guy looked like he was on the path to becoming a superstar. Start of his third season, he looked like he was about to arrive. He started the season off with a 13 points 22 rebound 4 block game. Then had a 13 point 14 rebound game. Followed by a 14 point 17 rebound game, followed by a 22 point 9 rebound.

Here is what happened though:

In his initial 4 game set, he averaged 18 PPG 15.3 RPG 2.3 BPG. Then he got injured. He was a little slowed down coming back, averaging 13.2 PPG 7.6 RPG. But even with the slowing down with the injury, he started off the season averaging 14.2 PPG 11.1 RPG 1.3 BPG.

You like that out of your young big man, espescially given that he was injured for the second stretch. Then the Bulls fired Cartwright, a big man, and put Skiles, a guard in at coach. Chandler only scored in double figures once (10 points) after Skiles took over and had 6 double digit rebound games only. This is the same guy who had double figures in scoring 8 out of 9 games with Cartwright coaching and double digit rebounds 5 out of the 9 games with Cartwright coaching.

Just can't waste a young big man like that.

 

Meh, Oden didn't impress anyone last night... what do you expect them to say...

Greg will be fine and a great player in this game, he just needs time. People's expectations were somewhat ridiculous.

 

Not surprising.. Greg isn't even 10 games yet into his career but clearly, the league is out to get him and wants to bring his star down and prove he isn't all that.

Oh well.. at least Greg got a kick into Amare's face on that one dunk.

 

Thinking more about it though, i think taht Shaq didn't take into account that Greg's rookie year will probably end up being as good if not better than Dwight's rookie year.

Just throwin' that out there. (He didn't say it, but I do believe he implied that Howard along with Yao are special cases)...

Shaq was out of this world from the start of his rookie year though. Greg won't ever touch Shaq offensively, and not too many big guys in the history of the league will/did... he was one of the most dominating players in the history of the game...

The comparison's to Shaq are flawed. Best case scenerio for Greg would be a Bill Russel/David Robinson type, imo.

 

My only concern for Greg is if he does not have as competitive a heart as most of us believe. He tends to seem sorta, not motivated enough at times.

This schedule is designed to cramp any young rookie though. Even Rudy is showing some signs of the many games they play so close together.