<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy @ Feb 8 2008, 03:31 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (J-HoAgZ @ Feb 8 2008, 02:27 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ly_yng @ Feb 8 2008, 02:19 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy @ Feb 8 2008, 02:47 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>--Kidd is going through the motions. There are so many talented players in this league, that attitude can make all the difference between success and failure.
--Carter may need surgery on his ankle. [PLEASE STOP BLAMING CARTER! He's hurt. If he stopped playing, you'd all whine about how he wasn't a gamer and bring out that half-a-season stuff. You can't have it both ways. After the past two seasons, he deserves the benefit of the doubt that he's trying as hard as he can]</div>
I give Carter a lot of credit for playing through injury, and stand by the evaluation that he doesn't have the mental makeup to be a 14 million dollar part of a championship-level team.
He's a nice guy who would is only playing basketball because he's incredibly talented, and the job is incredibly lucrative. He has no unnatural passion for the game - that doesn't make him a bad person, it just makes him a bad investment.
</div>
I agree completely. There's players in the league who have a love for the game and would play in the NBA for free and would be greatful for being paid minimum wage for playing a game that they love. Then there's people like Carter who are only in the game for the fat paycheck..
</div>
that's unfair. you are suggesting that unless you yell and scream and trash-talk you aren't passionate about what you do? He just has a different mental makeup. Boone is also quiet and introspective; it's interesting that he heard the same talk before the draft. Just because you don't have the personality to be a vocal leader doesn't mean that you aren't talented or that you don't play as hard as you can.
</div>
Hey now...
Tim Duncan is incredibly mentally tough. Shawn Marion isn't mentally tough, per say, but he's certainly got the mental makeup to be a key member on a championship level team. Ray Allen is going to be HUGE in the playoffs for Boston. Hell, even Kobe's an introvert.
It's not a question of introvert versus extrovert, it's a question of what priority basketball is in your life. Carter shows no commitment to running the floor, and no commitment to defense. He is, in the context of a basketball court, flat out lazy. It isn't a Kidd situation, where his knees are giving out - he's got the physical talent to be a GREAT defender, and he's just never bothered to put any effort into improving this area of his game. He could be an AMAZING transition player, but I've never seen him beat ANYONE down the floor. These are, by and large, effort plays.
Same goes for his soap opera-esque, on-again off-again love affair with his jump shot. The only thing separating Dwayne Wade from Vince Carter is the will to put their bodies on the line. You can't even call it self-preservation, because Vince won't even turn it on at the end of the game.
It doesn't make him a bad person. It just means that if basketball paid the same as any desk job, he'd probably be doing something else. He doesn't have an obsession with winning, or even a strong desire to pull his team up (which, at his contract number, he should). He is, essentially, a role player. And role players shouldn't make 14 million a year, no matter how fancy their layups are.
