http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctime...rs/12841636.htm This is one of the reasons why I love Jrich so much. Like Jamison, he was thrust into a leadership type of role when he really isnt a natural leader like Baron Davis. You can tell when someone is trying to lead and people reluctantly follow. When Davis came here he gladly stepped aside and assumed his natural role of supporter or 2nd leader. People wondered how he would handle his stats dropping a bit, but I think it is for the betterment of the team. If Davis can average 26ppg and Jrich about 22 I think both will make the All Star squad and we will make the playoffs...
Posted on Fri, Oct. 07, 2005 Richardson taking one for team By Marcus Thompson II CONTRA COSTA TIMES LAIE, Hawaii - The last group of interviews at Warriors' Media Day in Oakland on Monday was Baron Davis and Jason Richardson, each having his own table. Before Davis arrived, his table was engulfed with television cameras, microphones and tape recorders as journalists jockeyed for position. No one waited at Richardson's table. Richardson has taken the cliche, "take one for the team," to another level, happily handing over the reins of his squad to his stellar point guard friend. It's an act of selflessness that allegedly doesn't exist in the NBA. "It's not a big deal to me," Richardson said Thursday after Day 3 of the Warriors training camp held at BYU-Hawaii's Cannon Activities Center. "Most players in my situation -- being young, you were the man on the team, the face of the Warriors -- they probably would object to it. But I'm all for it. I'm a veteran now, I understand the business. I just know I can position myself to do better things with help." See, this used to be Richardson's show. He was the most talented player, the team's star. It was his face on Warriors ads in newspapers, his number on The City jerseys in stores. Then came Davis. All of a sudden, the Warriors had a new spokesman. It was Davis whom the Warriors sent to represent the team at the NBA draft lottery in New York, whom they sent to Washington, D.C., for photo ops with the First Lady. It's Davis doing live Web chats on nba.com, on the cover of Slam of Slam magazine, on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period." Davis is now behind the wheel of the Bat Mobile, relegating Richardson to the yellow cape and shotgun duties. But somehow, Richardson is happier. He's as excited about a season as he's ever been. When he made his first appearance at the Warriors facility this offseason, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "WE'RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!" "He's one of the most unselfish stars that I've ever played with," Davis said. "The only thing he wants to do is get better. There's no ego in him." Richardson's background suggests such. He said his mom, Elaine Richardson-Cook, shuns attention. He's got five siblings, so he knows something about sharing. He's a father, so he understands self-sacrifice. Even more, Richardson played college ball under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, a program noted for team basketball. "There are certain guys who are the man, but they don't have to say it or people don't have to put it on the front page or even their teammates don't have to pump that into their head all the time," Warriors guard Derek Fisher said. "There are certain guys who, based on their personality and their makeup, can be just as effective or even more effective if they can just go do their job. They don't have to answer these questions or make all these fabulous statements about why I'm the leader. "I think (Jason) wants to be on a good basketball team. I don't think he cares who gets this or who gets that. He's frustrated with the way things have gone so far in his career, and he wants to win. I think he'll step aside, or whatever moniker you want to put on it, to achieve winning." Richardson said his relationship with Davis, whom he knew before the two shared a backcourt, makes it easy to step aside. Not only does he like Davis as a person, but he knows Davis is the player to take him where he wants to go. One lesson Richardson said he learned last year was that individual success comes with team success. He noticed how players from winning teams, such as San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili and Seattle SuperSonics forward Rashard Lewis, were selected to the All-Star Game, for which Richardson said he was "hurt" to be passed over. He observed at how Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash elevated Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion to All-Star status. "I look at Baron doing that same thing with me," Richardson said. "I know I'm a pretty good player right now, but I think he can take my game to another level. "My last four years we were a selfish team. Last year, my personal goals were higher than the team because that was pretty much the type of team we were. But I'm not that type of player. I've never been a selfish type of player. I've always been unselfish." Notes: The Warriors broke away from the two-a-days and held one long practice Thursday. Forward Troy Murphy missed it because of the sprained right ankle he sustained in Wednesday's evening practice. Chris Taft also missed Thursday's practice with a strained right groin.
Yeah, I like both Richardson and Jamison for those qualities. Certainly, they both doesn't have a character like Davis that draw people toward him. But, when they are in the role of leaders, they do whatever they can do. Jamison started whole 'let's work out in Oakland throughout summer', and when he was gone, Richardson kept doing that. And, the role of leaders were taken away, they didn't go nuts and demanded a trade or something. Instead, they just went ahead and did their jobs. I hope he now can handle the ball well. If so, that will change his game to completely different level...
My one reservation about this article is this part: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"My last four years we were a selfish team. Last year, my personal goals were higher than the team because that was pretty much the type of team we were. But I'm not that type of player. I've never been a selfish type of player. I've always been unselfish." </div> If it looks familiar to any Warriors fan, it's because Richardson said the exact same thing durning the team's training camp in '03. Richardson said the team was made up of a bunch of individuals, all going for their own stats, and now that Arenas and Jamison were gone (implying that they were the two most selfish players on the team) things would be different. I really hope they are different, and I totally agree with Richardson when he says that he now knows that individual success comes with team success. I just hope that his statements this year are more than the lip service he gave the media two years ago. I really think it will, but then again I'm an eternal optimist.
I thought some of Richardson's comments were familar based on the way Richardson talked about playing for stats. I thought that selfishness ended in 2003-04 when Nick Van Exel/Speedy Claxton came aboard and we had a healthy true center in the middle and a high post/passing power forward that could defend down low. The Dubs were pretty unselfish after they jettisoned Jamison and couldn't match Arenas on the Washington offer. But we lost so much talent, we couldn't score consistently. We also lacked a system to get non-scorers, or guys that can't create their own shot, easier buckets. All these guys on our roster were inconsistent players, so we did not set the tone on either end, whereas Arenas and Jamison could get you points at the foul line on offense even if they were struggling hitting some shots or failing to play defense. They both could create their own shot and were hard to stop because both were big, quick, could post up smaller targets, knew how to get to the line and sink their shots (about 80% accuracy). They basically forced the other coach to switch matchups because Jamison and Arenas could force that hand. So we did move the ball quite a bit after those two were no longer Warriors, but man how many games did we lose in 4th quarters or second halves by only a few points? We also shot very poorly from the free throw line. We broke down when it came to the 3-2 zone and we were still the same perimeter based team that couldn't score unless they beat slow transition teams, penetrated against the zone or shot the deep ball well with a man in their face. It also didn't help to pass and cut in a predictable fashion where they know NVE or Claxton are the only ballhandlers. And Dun couldn't shoot worth crap at the time when it mattered or beat that many people off the dribble to create for the team unless it was pure transition offense. So, we basically traded offense for defense and possessed the same kind of mediocrity because we had no catalyst to make the other 4 better (and lacked a system to make 5 players on the floor make each other better). NVE, Dampier, Cliffy, Dunleavy, Richardson were good passers but weren't anything to be scared of offensively. Also, unless that 5 man is a consistent offensive player inside, who cares if the power forward can shoot a low percentage 3-pointer. Plus backcourt + small forward defense really sucked and we played very awkward team defense. Also we couldn't stop dribble penetration or getting out on a perimeter shoot (the other team would switch it up so that Dunleavy had to run out on the arc which he was too slow to do or they would just attack with ballhandlers and close out on us with the 3-2 zone). I'm glad that we did have Cliffy though because he was a good leader when we had none and he did 3 things well. He could do the big shots from distance (sometimes Antoine Walker style but oh well), he could play post defense, and he could pass. I was just sorry to see him blow up on Dunleavy because man I could really relate to how badly Dunleavy played defense in 2003. He was god awful. Watching the guy was so painful because his timing was so bad during the games and announcer Jim Barnett wasn't helping with the constant praise. And maybe I mentioned it earlier, but yes all 5 of our starters sucked at free throws. My goodness we sucked. Dampier shot bricks, Richardson shot bricks, Dunleavy even airballed a free throw because he was so nervous, Cliffy missed a bunch and NVE missed some free throws sinking it from the 20 foot mark (stand closer dammit!). Our best moneymakers from the line were Claxton and Cardinal and neither were offensive forces. Forgot to mention thanks Warriorsfan for getting that article in plain sight. I hate registering to see what the article is about because I never do.
