...guys I've seen. http://columbian.com/article/20091204/BLOGS05/912049995/-1/blazerbanter Interesting read.
Is this a joke? McMillan is essentially saying that Miller is a bust, and he wishes he weren't on the team. He makes no bones about it. This is about as damning a statement as I have ever seen a coach make. What in the hell is McMillan thinking? This kind of talk is only going to make things tougher for Andre on the team, and make it tougher to trade him. He's too quiet . . . he's not blending in . . . he needs the ball in his hands . . . we felt he had "something left"??? Cripes. This is a major faux pas as far as I'm concerned. McMillan should be taken out behind the woodshed by Paul Allen and given a beating.
+1 Talk about reading something into it. I agree, he "paused"..but is that pause to think about his answer and describe clearly what he is thinking or is it due to the editor's interference to infer that Nate wants to say something very bad in a positive light. I think he's being honest about Miller and said a few things that others have suspected.
Am I the only one who is puzzled by the implication that being "quiet" makes a guy a "problem" in the locker-room?
Who f'n cares, Blake is no better than Miller, and the reason Miller isn't working so far is because he's sitting on the f'n bench. McMoron needs to PLAY HIS BEST 5, for fucks sake.
Mostly it sound like Nate envision him helping the bench which they no longer have. I think he knows he's going to have to eventually start Miller. The negative on the quiet part is from not getting feed back more than anything it sounds like.
I'll give you guys my take on being "quiet" in the locker room. As somebody who was almost painfully shy as a kid and a teenager AND participated in team sports like soccer and football I can tell you first hand that it's very easy for people to misinterpret your reticence as hostility or indifference. As a result of my own shyness I think I can safely say it had a fairly direct effect on me suffering through a couple of pretty frustrating seasons with coaches who mistook me for a malcontent and a "bad guy." On a freshmen high-school football team. I didn't hang out with my football "buddies" after practice and I didn't play grab ass in the locker room and I didn't do a lot of "rah-rah-ing" from the sideline or in games. I just played defensive end and I unloaded on guys as hard as I could ... and I was good at it. Regardless, when I got to my sophomore year I'd been pretty much black-balled by coaches (these guys talk to each other apparently) and I could never crack more than spot minutes in games, one assistant even encouraged me to quit "for the good of the team," so I did. My biggest sin? I was told I was too quiet and too much to myself and I held myself above and a part from my teammates -- or at least I was perceived that way. As a result I decided to go into cross-country that fall and focus all my energy on wrestling, two sports that didn't require me to do anything but rely on my own performance and I excelled. In retrospect I remember feeling misunderstood and slighted and robbed, but now I realize that I caused people to become uneasy around me and that I probably made things very uncomfortable for certain people. If I'd had coaches that only cared about performance on the field, things might have gone differently, but they placed a great deal of emphasis on the brotherhood angle and I think I threatened that a bit. Part of me can't help but empathize with Miller somewhat in this situation, but I also understand that it's possible that his shyness or "quietness" probably walls him off from his teammates, and for a team that seemed to focus so heavily on chemistry and a collegial atmosphere -- and indeed seemed to feed of this to succeed -- I wonder if it isn't best for both sides that he moves on.
Great post. It's good that you use reason instead of just "BLAKE SUCKS, I HATE HIM, YOU HAVE TO START YOUR 5 BEST PLAYERS FIRE NATE RAHARHRAHRHARAHAR"
Nice post. I was pretty much the same way growing up. Glad I outgrew it finally. My dad can walk into any room and make everyone in it feel awkward with his silence. Maybe that's why I've always had friends who are social oddballs. My wife is as shy as they come too. Although she's made amazing progress over the last decade. Anyway, I've been that guy who has screwed up group dynamics myself (before I finally acquired some social skills). So yeah, I can see how Miller might be an odd fit. Still, though, there's a part of me that just can't quite understand what the big deal is. These guys are paid an ass load of money to play a kid's game. You don't have to be everybody's best friend to do it.
For teams that are full of guys who play hoop because they see themselves as professionals first and friends second, I think that's the right attitude. For this team, where I think almost too much emphasis has been placed on "niceness" and everybody being "buddies," apparently Dre's no-nonsense, 'to himself' approach isn't flying with the kids. If you want my honest opinion I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon finds Andre a little threatening : He's an older guy, he doesn't talk much, he's all business, his style of game cuts into Brandon's turf a little. Frankly, I don't think Brandon is old enough, mature enough or established enough to handle a guy like Miller on his team. Secondly I think Nate is a little bit threatened by him too ... especially since their offensive philosophies are so divergent and Dre doesn't appear to want to talk about it.
You'd think a coach who was a PG would not screw up other PG's on his team as much as he does, wouldn't you? I agree with nikolollolokolouopous. Shyness and quietness is not the same as disrespect or not being interested. One of my best friends when I was a high school student was a quiet guy, who never yells much or gets super excited about sports. He also didn't take sports seriously (in the competitive sense) if he wasn't playing, but when he was playing he knew how to run a team well. He didn't yell if he made a good play, or steal. He just did his job and let it do his speaking for him. As for me, I was a painfully shy kid (I would bet a lot of us suffered from the same affliction, and that's probably part of the reason why we look for a website to debate on sports, because of the anonymity). I was also insecure, and when I didn't perform on the court like the popular kids did (by getting excited) I basically had a similar experience with the coach. I remember one time him telling me I needed to be more vocal in supporting of the team, or I'd be off the team. This despite the fact I was watching the plays and could figure out what was going to happen before it happened (at least, as best as a 13 year old could), and kind of figured out how to orchestrate the defense to stop said player. But he didn't want to see that for whatever reason. So the next year, I didn't make the team. Some of that was because the coaches son was on the team and he picked the popular kids (including one who was a friend of mine who was like Chris Dudley, if Chris Dudley was a SF, and had no shot outside of 4 feet) and some of it was because I knew I wasn't going to make the team so I just half-assed it. Of course the coach was a complete jack ass and I regret not at the time having the guts to point out that little fact to him and his stupid son.
