You said that a single game was the reason he was not a star. He is a star and a single game cannot define whether a player is a star or not, so I think you're just as wrong on both of your points as you would be if you said he sucked. Ed O.
You can say it all you want, but Zach Randolph is an All Star, third team all-NBA, and possibly the star of this year's playoffs. Did you see him in the fourth quarter last night? Performances like that in the playoffs in a must win game is, in my opinion, what makes someone a star.
I will stipulate for the record that Zach has upped his play and is playing just like the first line of Eric's post. That said...do you think it's good business or basketball practice to invest a 6-year max contract in a player whom who think could be a 20/10 PF and eventual 3rd-Team All-NBA while having off-the-court issues for the entire length of the contract---hoping that he makes it in the last (contract?) year of his deal? And even if you do, to not jettison him halfway through if it's looking like he's not a key player going forward while making the max? I get why MEM signed him to the extension and think it's relatively well-deserved. But the answer to my question will show whether you're a Z-bo fan with the Hindsight Version of the Rose City Glasses (nothing wrong with that) or someone that is logically presenting a basketball argument.
While I agree in part with the premise, I think that you take random games from playoffs to have too much meaning. By your definitions, Bonzi Wells (45 pts), Ben Gordon (42), Rex Chapman (42) and Sleepy Floyd are stars, b/c they scored a bunch in the playoffs. I disagree. Though if you say that Z-Bo's performances have put him on the path to being one? Absolutely, I agree. But you have to do something in the CF or Finals to make that "leap", in my opinion.
I was I'm favor of trading Randolph if we were going to get a top flight starting small forward in return. With Oden's arrival, I hoped we could move Aldridge to PF and get Prince, Marion, Jefferson, or Rashard Lewis for Randolph. But when all we got was Channing Frye, I knew we had made a huge mistake. By the way, we lost the game where Bonzi had 45. Zach is leading his team to VICTORIES, the most ever won by an 8th seed in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies were at the bottom of the barrel (24-58, last in division) before Zach arrived less than 2 years ago. Now, they are one win away from the Western Conference Finals. The Grizzlies had never even won a single playoff game before he got there.
Same here. I wasn't against trading Randolph. I was against trading him for Channing Frye who wasn't a very valuable player. If that was the best the team could get for him, I think they would have been better off holding onto him.
THIS.... I was pissed at what we got in return. I was for trading him, but what we got in return was a joke. We could have waited until the following year's trade deadline, but we jumped the gun. If we waited, maybe Zach would have still been a Blazer; since Oden went down his rookie year.
Pritchard was a missionary from the Oregonian, on a mission to delete any blackness from the team. The Oregonian's criticism had devalued Zach around the league. National news (AP, TV basketball pundits, etc.) get their biases from local news around the league. He had nothing to criticize in his next 2 towns, yet Zach got dumped by the Clippers (because the Clippers dump everyone expensive) and the Knicks (because local pundits were pre-slanted by the Oregonian's hatred and trashed him). I've followed 3 other teams (Lakers, Vancouver Grizzlies, Sonics) and never, ever seen a local sports media who loves to (and gets away with) trashing their local team. Portlandia is indeed weird.
I'm sure that Mike Lupica and Pete Vecsey scour all of Canzano's columns before coming up with their own opinion.
I've heard that skepticism before, so I pre-answered it. They don't need to read the Oregonian for it to affect them, since wherever it is they get their information depends on the Oregonian for daily Blazer news.
Bingo. As I said at the time, it seemed as if KP had set an arbitrary deadline for himself to get a deal done.
No, obviously there was some federal DEA probe no one heard about and it was only a matter of time until ZBO was to be indicted. :MARIS61:
