Simmons with some quality blasts at the Blazers

No its not you MM, close second though

 

It's hard to defend a lot of this stuff and with the whole Oden interview and now Simmons the Blazers look like a second-rate franchise.

Factor in that it's been 12 months since Rich Cho was fired. That is just embarrassing.

 

It can't be me, I love myself

 

Get the Oden shot whenever you get a chance. "Look how the Blazers screwed up the Oden situation. Other teams would of never allowed this to happen" what a load of crap.

GO would have been a bust where ever he ended up. He would have had the same personality and become a sad victim to his body and situation no matter where he went.

As if being a bust or players going astray hasn't happened to other good organizations. Dallas is a pretty good organization, "how could they let Odom go off the deep end like that. I'm not saying it's their fault, only that you didn't see Odom doing that at a quality organization like the Lakers"

Eddie Curry, Arenas, Meta, Amare . . . every player that ends up being a headtrip in the NBA . . . are you going to blame the organization and say you don't see that happen in San Anotnio?

 

Certainly Oden bears some of the responsibility for his descent into alcohol abuse and not taking care of himself ... but I find myself asking these two questions and coming up with the same answer:

1. Is this a stable, well run organization? No.
2. Did Oden's handling seem particularly well handled at the time he was going through all of these setbacks? Also No.

I dunno, kind of hard to fault Simmons for pointing this out.

 

The ONLY thing you might say is the Blazers could have cut Oden loose earlier, freeing up money for a player who would produce. I'd be willing to say some organizations might have done so - Dallas got rid of Kardashian's hubby pretty fast. But Simmons is saying the opposite. It's easy to take cheap shots. Does he say what the team should have done different? No, just that other teams would have done it!

Wasn't it Simmons who was so peeved the Blazers got the #1 pick?

 

Yes, it was. And it permanently jaded him for life. He quickly got very bitter and evil, and his hatred for the Blazers erupted. Then, because Boston failed to get the #1 or #2, Ainge was quick on his feet, assembled the Big 3 on draft night, and Boston got themselves a ring. Hollinger's bitterness was already growing, and the championship caused the bitterness and evil in his heart go grow exponentially - like a serial killer after his first taste of murder, Hollinger's lust and hatred that evolved from the events surrounding that draft has forced him to constantly attack the Blazers.

 

The fact that Oden even delved so deep into Alcoholism says, to me, that the Blazers weren't paying enough attention.

If they had someone working with Oden fulltime, to help him as he matures as a young man, and to ensure that his nutrition and workout regime was in order; I just can't see them ignoring such problems that have surfaced, if they were taking proper care of him.

This was a number one pick, multi-million dollar investment for the team, who's success rests on his development.
Not to mention a 'once in a generation' centre, and the Blazers allow him to go into party mode for extended periods?

I believe the Blazers failed the team, the fans, but most of all Greg, as an organization in regards to their 'duty of care' for a young man who was trying to find his way.

 

Really? You know how many athletes have later admitted their demons, and said nobody around them had a clue? Do you know what it's like living with an addict? Addicts are deceiving by nature, and they become very good at concealing their use of substances. It's even easier for a guy like Oden to get away with it because he was so frequently injured, he didn't have as much exposure (i.e. he wasn't in his normal practice and game routines where he was expected to perform).

 

Could the Blazers have handled things differently with Oden? Sure. I probably would have fired the whole fucking training staff after the first or second year or injuries.

With that said, to say that it was the Blazers or the city that caused Greg to have this downfall is fucking ludicrous. It's amazing that professional athletes have to be babysat these days. Nobody babysat Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, or Charles Barkley. Oden was fucking coddled from day one. By the organization, by his handlers, and even by the city. That guy was given so much time and patience it's just stupid. Even until the end people were saying we should hold onto him because he could be great. Grow up Greg. You weren't a child. Kids go off to college at your age and take care of themselves.

Simmons is just trying to stir the pot, but to blame the Blazers for Greg in that regard is silly.

 

Of course addicts can often behave in a coercive, deceitful manner.

Oden changed over time, distancing himself from teammates, sitting by himself on the bench(if he was even there). Along with talk of sightings where he was drunk frequently.
When that change in Odens behaviour is evident to even the most casual of fans, then the Blazers ought to have been on top of it.

Sadly this happens a lot with professional athletes, and precautions should be in place no matter the worth of the player, but with so much of the owners money invested in one individual, you would think they would be extra careful.

 

Great points, especially about young people having to deal with pressures in the real world. They'll never have the luxury of a multi-million dollar safety net in life.

 

You wouldn't even believe how coddled these guys are. They are literally treated like children. I'm surprised they don't have nap mats and juice boxes at the practice facility. They are told where to be almost every second of every day, and in some cases the Blazers have them driven around by employees. They have all this money and very very little responsibility. They have people who look over their money and pay their bills, they have people who drive them around, they have people who keep them to their schedules. These guys never have to grow up.

 

You write posts that long on a cell phone. Thats a talent!

 

Amazing talent, actually. But a sickness that you can't get away from this place!

 

oden sent something really long on his cell phone once

 

I don't get all this bullshit. He was like 20 right, it wasn't like he was a little 12 year old living by himself. Who knows, if he hadn't sucked back on all that booze, maybe he'd still be playing. It could have interfered with his healing process.

But I doubt anything could have saved him. His body couldn't take it. No one needs 3 microfractures in a row without even taking the court.

Oh, the Blazers are so horrible because they didn't hire someone to tuck Greggie Weggie in at night. And make sure he takes his flintstone vitamins!

 

Thoughts:

1) Based on Oden's now-former (I'm sure) friend's wording it that Oden called himself "almost" an alcoholic, you guys are calling him an "addict." Just because of a second-hand account of his own amateur self-diagnosis that he drank too much for a few months.

2) As I have often said, the national press gets its slant by reading local media hacks from every NBA city. Simmons is just repeating last week's Jaynes article speculating that no one wants to be our GM (yet we see interviews, and experienced GMs saying they're interested and not getting interviews). But now that someone in the national media repeats Jaynes, wow, it now carries authority. Big deal. I respect someone like Woj more, who comes up with original stuff, and doesn't just parrot Canzano and Jaynes like Simmons does.

3) Pritchard lovers now criticize "the organization" or Allen for Pritchard's bad leadership--while criticizing Allen for firing Pritchard for this same lack of leadership.

After sex symbol Rudy posted on his blog how lonely he was during holidays, and people noticed how teammates ignored him in the locker room, I posted a couple of times, we're losing this guy's loyalty, why doesn't Pritchard fix him up with some Spanish-speaking friends? I was told, that's not his job.

I also constantly got after the team for not making Oden stay in town, and was always told that someone's monkey's uncle had heard a rumor that his aunt's friend's cousin had seen Oden's shadow walking through a door 2 weeks ago, so Oden must be working out fervently in Portland, and get off the poor guy's back.

Now, the Pritchard loyalists get after Allen and "the organization" for ignoring Oden. Who in the organization should have been monitoring him?

 

And remember how Oden bulked up way too much above the waist, until the trainers bragged to the media who told McMillan who put a stop to it? Where was the GM, Pritchard, in monitoring what the dumb trainers were up to? He was gloating to his fiance Quick about how great he was, reading his own publicity. Then their mistake was covered up, instead of getting them fired for probably causing the next injury.

How you guys can hate on Paul Allen for not monitoring Oden is beyond me. And then hate him for canning the guy who was supposed to be doing it.

So there are "some quality blasts" from me.

 

I'm very dangerous when I don't drink. You call Simmons doing his Jaynes imitation "quality blasts?" He ain't got nuttn'.

That's right, I put the apostrophe before the period. Deal with it.