<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PORTLAND ? The Sonics pride themselves on their unselfishness and team unity, but in the wake of blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead, several players expressed a growing disdain toward Danny Fortson and his antics, which might have cost them a game they believed they should have won. They love his defensive aggressiveness and the way he gobbles up rebounds, but it's times like last night, when Fortson gets drawn into a verbal confrontation with the opposition and refuses to walk away, that his teammates shake their heads in disgust. They've tried interventions and giving advice, but none of that seems to work when Fortson is pushing and shoving beneath the boards, as he did with Portland's Shareef Abdur-Rahim for much of last night's 100-94 loss at the Rose Garden. Both players were given a technical for their war of words in the third quarter, and the jawing continued in the fourth. During one confrontation, Abdur-Rahim fell to the floor, a play Fortson said was a flop. Harsh words flew. And before anyone knew what had happened, officials had ejected Fortson with 9 minutes, 11 seconds remaining and Seattle's 13-point, third-quarter lead dwindling. Standing on the sideline, Sonics coach Nate McMillan's view of the play was obstructed. Only when guard Antonio Daniels walked to the sideline and said, "It's Danny," did the coach understand that he would have to devise schemes to hold off the hard-charging Trail Blazers without his big-bodied enforcer. "He's not helping himself, and he's definitely not helping us when he gets kicked out of the game," said Ray Allen, who scored 21 points. "I try to arbitrate a lot of times for Danny with the stuff that he does with the referees, but he's got to take it upon himself to police himself. ... We all get frustrated, but we can't let that get us thrown out of the game." </div> <font size="1">Full Story courtesy of Percy Allen and the Seattle Times.</font> We all love Danny, and we all probably agree he gets a rawer deal from the refs than most, but Ray's right, at some point he's got to take responsibility for his own actions. Put his team before his pride, so to speak. Portland shot 19 freethrows in that last quarter, too.
Fortson should have shown more composure and he shouldn't have gotten ejected but to imply that he was the reason why the Sonics lost is bs. The other players on the court have to step up. Fortson wasn't responsible for 38 fourth quarter points by the Blazers nor is he responsible for Rahim and Randolph scoring 44 points between them. Danny Fortson aggressiveness/nastiness is something that the Sonics have lacked for years and I believe is the primary reason why we have the best record in the league right now. When Fortson tones down his play that is when he becomes ineffective. He needs to stop getting into it w/ the refs but considering how they have had the quickest whistles in league history w/ him, I don't blame him for an occassional outburst. When the blame games starts going on that is when everyone is going to start looking out for themselves. Keep things like this in house. Only use the media to get the attention of your teammates as a last resort.
