Nate's talking to a 20 year old kid, about to go in for major surgery that will involve a long grueling rehab...and Nate's supposed to say "Good luck with all that. I don't know what the future holds, but when you come back you might not be starting anymore." I tend to disagree with that. Give the kid something positive to think about and work towards as he goes through it. It's called a "pep talk".
Thanks for translating, Number 10. It sounds like Pritchard talked him into the surgery. This relieves the surplus roster pressure.
Wow--the guy is so averse to trading away any of his chosen ones that he'd rather one or two go under the knife than make a consolidation deal to alleviate PT concerns. Sad... (Green is the sarcasm color, right?)
Green is the universal color of nature, movement, and agreement. Sorry for your error, but thanks for accidentally agreeing with me. I'll take it any way I can get it. Red means you're angry, pink means you're gay, and brown means you're calling BS.
I know, I basically agree, and I think the pep talk is the right move. But it's still a peeve of mine how often Nate makes premature statements then does something else. So, I vented on it. If I were Nico I don't think I'd trust Nate on this, based on past experience.
http://www.basketusa.com/news/frenc...imerais-reprendre-au-moment-du-all-star-game/ His shoulder having finally given way, Nicolas Batum is the biggest French absence of the start of the NBA season. While he's unavailable for up to five months, the Blazer's wing was willing to respond to Basket USA's questions to talk about his health and his team's condition. Right off the bat, how do you feel after your operation? It's alright... but five months pisses me off. I knew since August that I would need surgery one day or another. Have you started rehab? I started around 15 days ago. Three days after the operation because I didn't want to lose time. It's the second major operation of your career (after having a broken foot 4 years ago). How did you react learning that? Like I said, it pisses me off. But I have to deal with it, and the important thing is that I'm recovering well. What do you think of the Blazers' start to the season? The beginning was difficult with two losses at home but now we're doing well, we're progressing... What is your opinion of Portland's big signing, Andre Miller? He's an experienced point guard, which we needed to help Blake at the point. He's a good signing for us. Do you think that Portland can stop you from going to play with the French national team this summer in Turkey? I think that it could be difficult. To tell you the truth, I don't know after what happened last summer... We didn't really talk about it with Kevin Pritchard or Nate McMillan. Once I'm back, we'll see. What time-line have you set for your return? The doctors told me that I should return around March but I'm targeting the All-Start Break to come back and practice again. We'll have to see how well rehab goes. Last question, what do you think about Le Mans' season so far? They're doing well, they have a good team and they played well Friday night. It's really too bad that they didn't qualify for the Euroleague.
If he knew in August, why didn't he inform the doctors of his discomfort then, instead of waiting until the last minute in October? That pisses ME off.
pdf link - the article is on page 12. As far as I know, l'Equipe haven't put the full interview up on their website yet. Nicolas Batum, the Blazer wing, started playing again on January 25th, with a more important attacking role. At Cowboys Stadium, Nicolas Batum got an eyeful, as did everyone. Just back on the court three weeks ago after an operation on his right shoulder and a half a season missed, the French wing took advantage of this break to evaluate his comeback, touching on his objectives for the Spring and his future with “Les Bleus.” You have just played ten games after three months out. How are you doing? I think that I'm at 85% right now, but it feels good to be back. I was on the bench for 45 games, that's a lot. I'm really happy to be back. So was it the right decision to have the surgery? The operation came naturally. As soon as July we knew that it was a fracture. It hurt, but I kept on playing. I played in the Euros as well as training camp. But you get beat up at camp. Guys are playing for their contracts. My shoulder got hit many times and the last shot I took from Greg Oden, two days before the start of the season, really hurt me. That's when I knew that it was best to get it operated on. With hindsight, do you regret playing in the Euros with France under such conditions? No, I don't regret it at all. The Euros made me more mature, bolder. In the Euro League, with Le Mans, I was more subdued. With France, I also wanted to stay to the side. Playing with Tony (Parker), Boris (Diaw), Ronny (Turiaf), Flo (Pietrus) and having responsibilities made a mark on people here. In the game against Italy, Tony wasn't playing, but all the others were and I was the one with the ball at the end. How do you explain Portland letting you play in the Euros? I don't know. There was a one in a hundred chance of them letting me go there. But still, I'd had the fracture since March. And between March and July, I missed two games because of a sprained ankle! So it would have been uncalled for if Portland made you miss the Euros when they hadn't done anything for your shoulder for a month and a half? Yeah, I think so. I just kept on playing without complaining. It hurt but it wasn't unbearable, I managed to play. As of today, is your shoulder fully recovered? There's still a bit of soreness, but I've had two, three falls and it's fine, even if it hurt a bit against Utah. Have you picked up your habits in the team again? Not starting is helping me a bit. In the second team, I have more offensive responsibilities than last year when I was starting. Since I've been back, I've been on the court in money time. What are your goals for the second part of the season? I want to show that it isn't a lost season. I'm only going to play 35 games but I want to play them well. I'm no longer a rookie. Now, I'm in the League, I want to do something here. Collectively, will Portland have to battle to make the playoffs? With all the injuries that we've had, we were almost forgotten this season when in pre-season, we were targeting the NBA finals! But the team keeps on playing, we've had some big wins. We beat Dallas twice, also San Antonio and the Lakers. We're eighth, but Denver, in second place, is only four games ahead. We're still in the running. Let's talk about the French team. Will you be at the World Championships in Turkey this summer? I want to go, but I can't talk about it. Portland knows what I think. And Portland isn't inclined to let you go? Given what's happened this year, where everyone is gone down one by one, let's just say that they're cautious. Which is almost normal. Could Portland give you the veto? They could make me understand very clearly that, if I want to play next season, it would be best that I don't go. Last year, I played 79 games, I did my job, they had no reason to keep me out. Now, having already missed 45 games...
I would haven taken Evan Turner 1st The draft was pretty eventful, especially for Portland, with a big decision taken before it began. That's when I learned that the General Manager, Kevin Pritchard, had been fired. I was sad because he's the one who brought me here. I owe my presence to him. He always helped me, always had confidence in me. So it definitely hurt me to see him leave and I truly wish him the best. But I'm sure that he will easily find a job. I followed the draft with management, the trainers, video guys, and other people from the club in a room right next to the office where the directors were meeting for the draft. This year, I followed the NCAA a bit and it was a good draft, rather homogenous. I know that not many people agree with me, but I would've taken Evan Turner first. I don't really know why, but I prefer Turner over John Wall, it's a matter of feeling, I prefer to watch him play, I love his game. It's efficient, he scores 20 points but also has 6 assists even though he's a 2. He finished top scorer in his conference, most assists as well. And I also wonder what Arenas will do with John Wall. They want to get rid of him? I don't see them playing together. I would've put Wall in Philadelphia. Washington could've given a 2nd.... well, 15th chance to Arenas, who remains a very good player, and put Turner at the 2. And Philly need a point guard, not a 2 or 3. That would've been logical to me. When I followed the draft, they told me no, John Wall should be #1, and as they had heard on TV, he was Magic Johnson in Gary Payton's body. It is true that he's very good, I'm not criticizing him. Aside from his commercial. If you haven't seen the Reebok commercial, watch it... There were a few selections which surprised me. For example Hayward, I wasn't expecting to see him taken 9th. I saw him more from #15 on. Otherwise, I asked myself why New Jersey took Favors if they really want Boozer to come or another 4. Alright, you certainly have to prepare for the future. I thought that they would take Wesley Johnson. That would've given them Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Johnson, that's not bad. So my personal mock draft was Turner, Wall and Johnson for the first three. I didn't even have Favors in my first 6. He has a good body, he's very interesting and has a lot of potential, but I didn't see him going so high. I hope that he'll make a liar out of me, and in any case he must not care about my opinion, with good reason! Personally, I, like all the French, was also waiting on the selection of Kevin (Seraphin). I met him when I was coming back from the Adidas Eurocamp. He was going there, so we ate together Sunday night. I told him a bit what it was like and we talked. I think that he has the mentality to succeed. And he has the physique to succeed. Apparently, he weighed 280 pounds with 9% body fat. There aren't too many bigs with numbers like that. It jumps out at you when you see one. After Kevin was selected, I stopped watching the draft. When I left, I was told that Webster was traded for Ryan Gomes. In fact, as I said, McMillan had told me that he was counting on me to play a bigger role next season. So I told myself that the trade was following that perspective. Otherwise, we took two guards and got Babbitt. And of course I'm going to give him the translation of his name, don't worry OK, it's a bad joke, but that's normal. With Alexis we had a great time with Hasheem Thabeet. It's along the same lines of the terrible puns that I told you about with Ali [Traore] last summer. We asked him "You assume Thabeet?" We didn't explain it to him. But I did translate it for OJ Mayo. He must've explained it to him, so the next time, I'm going to get blocked 15 times a game when I go into the paint against him. You'll see in the Memphis-Portland boxscore: Hasheem Thabeet 8 blocks for, Batum 8 blocks against... In any case, Babbitt will get a few jokes. Besides, he's a rookie. When I saw Babbitt in Portland I told myself "no I can't do that. Fortunately Alexis isn't with me." I was hoping that Kevin would come to us. Everyone in Portland was very enthusiastic about him, but we only had the 22nd pick. --------------------- Regarding the puns in the 2nd to last paragraph: My best guess, though I’m not completely sure on this: Thabeet, with a French pronunciation (Ta-beet), means “ta bite,” meaning “your dick.” Similarly, if you pronounce Babbitt Frenchie-style, as in Ba-beet, you get “bas bite” in French, meaning “dick down.”
So basically Babbitt and Thabeet are french idioms for peckers ... Now THAT is fucking funny. He's going to give Luke hell next season (hopefully just in practice and on the team plane and not when he's locking him up for the Hornets).
