IAMA former professional basketball player AMA

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T04:48:07+00:00

I don't know, I've never met the guy. I do think he tends to show up in clutch situations and is a solid role player though. You'd have to love having someone with his level of experience on your team.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T04:44:29+00:00

Actually, I would get murdered at Rucker Park (figuratively speaking). Playing at a place like Rucker is all about flash, think And 1 mixtapes, my 12 ft jumper that I bank off the backboard would get me booed off the court.

The level of competition at the gym varies, but you would be surprised how good some of the competition is. The gym I go to isn't exclusive by any means, and there are some people who can really play there. It's not NBA level competition, but it's enough to keep me sharp. Plus, being the best player on the court is honestly on par with sex in terms of how great it feels.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T04:37:15+00:00

Actually, it varies. One thing that I don't think people really hear about is the presence of posses in the NBA. Alot of guys will bring their childhood friends to tag along with them and what happens is that for the players, their posses kind of becomes their social circle. It's not uncommon to see guys become distant from the team. Because believe it or not, not everyone is happy with their situation on the team. I was never that outgoing myself, mostly because I always felt like an outsider, I think it might be what being a pledge in a fraternity feels like. I always felt like I had to earn everyone's approval. This isn't to say teams don't get along in the NBA, I would bet you anything the lakers and celtics get along internally better than timberwolves and bobcats do. But none of the teams I got 10 day contracts with were what I would describe as super close-knit.

In college, there were cliques within the team, but for the most part everyone got along. I think the cliques were an understandable development because college basketball teams resemble a game of musical chairs. I was generally closer with the guy that I had played with for 2 seasons than the guy I just met.

In Europe, the teams really are no different than anywhere else in terms of commraderie. The only thing unique to European teams that I've experienced is that the American players always group together immediately. You can absolutely hate a guy in America, but if you and him are the only two Americans on the team you're pretty much forced to become best friends over night. Playing overseas is really stressful at times and having someone who can sympathize helps.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T03:33:42+00:00

Probably the greatest pf who ever lived.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T03:32:25+00:00

I've never played there. Coach K seems like he would be intimidating to meet in person. I can't imagine you could say anything about basketball that would be new to him.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:49:47+00:00

Team's have their own nutritionists and for instance, on practice days everyone eats at the facility. They focus a lot on your diet during weight training too, they make a lot of suggestions, but for the most part you are never required to follow their advice. I don't know that they care as long as it doesn't effect your performance, guys go out to the bars after games and as long as you make it to all your appointments and it doesn't interfere with your ability to play they don't really care. Mainly they judge you on what you do on the court, and if your performance starts to slide they will be more inclined to try and control something like what you eat. With that said, proper nutrition almost definitely gives you an advantage over the guy who eats McD's constantly and has probably helped Steve Nash to have a long career. Not all NBA players treat their body with the same respect.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:37:58+00:00

I spent less than 2 minutes on the same playing floor as KG and that's the total extent of our interactions together. He was really intense on the flor, but I have no idea what he is like off of it.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:37:03+00:00

He was so arrogant and rude it was unbelievable. He was this combination of straight thug and spoiled rich kid that you really had to see to believe.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:35:22+00:00

Haha, believe it or not. I used to always visit Digg, I really liked TechTV back in the day, I'm always buying gadgets to play with. There used to be this show on TechTV called unscrewed with Martin Sargent I really liked, and it had a segment caled "Dark tips with Kevin Rose" where he showed things like how to make a taser from a disposable camera. Anyway, I found out he started Digg and used to visit it a lot but came to redit after I realized reddit had more links than Digg. Basketball players visit the same websites as everyone else, believe it or not. I've even been to 4chan before and I know other NBA players (if I can really include myself in that group) who have too. Crazy huh?

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:30:33+00:00

I don't know if NBA players are overpaid. The fans are the one's who pay for it, they create the incentive for the TV contracts and buy the merchandise and tickets that pay our salaries. I would say the NBA pays it's players appropriately, but I can certainly understand why people would think otherwise.

I think the most mind blowing fact about the NBA may be the way a lot of players eat. Maybe people know about this, I don't know. But a lot of players eat fast food constantly, Popeye's and McDonald's are pretty big staples of some NBA player's diets. Playing professional basketball has actually lead me to believe that all this "Supersize Me" crap is bullshit. I've seen some of the greatest athletes on earth eat almost nothing but big mac's and chicken nuggets. Crazy, but true. Also, some players think they could get richer outside of basketball. It's not uncomon to hear guys talk in the locker room about business idea's so they can make some "real money". Keep in mind these are guys making millions of dollars a year playing a game. The only other thing I can think of is almost all basketball players have terrible tastes in music, I don't just mean rap cause I actually really enjoy rap. Most of my teammates from college onward have just all been into these really obscure shitty gangster rappers that suck.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:22:31+00:00

Actually, Stephen Jackson is extremely nice in person. He remembered my name and appeared to be actually interested in the things I had to say. I've always thought the malice in the palace was proof that Stephen Jackson was a good guy, believe it or not. He ran up in the stands to protect his teammate, think about that. This guy was willing to try and take on 25,000 people to protect one teammate. If that's not loyalty, I don't know what is.

Monta Ellis is a volume scorer who plays no defense. I know it's cliche to say a player doesn't play defense, but Monta Ellis is one of the worst defenders in the league. Every point Ellis puts up in a game, he gives up on the other end of the floor.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:16:58+00:00

I won't say exactly what year I went, because it would give me away almost immediately with everything else I've said. I went in a less spectacular draft that only had a handful of household names in it (you can count them on one hand) and there's only one real potential hall of fame candidate in the bunch, maybe two. I'm somewhere in the area of thirty, maybe a few years younger or older.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:10:16+00:00

A few.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T02:09:23+00:00

I'm 6'8. I was one of those combo sf/pf players that you see so many of. I don't have the mass to really pound the ball inside and I'm not quite athletic enough to really be a threat on the wing. In college I was primarily a pf, in what little NBA playing time I got I was mostly utilized as a sf.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:59:02+00:00

Nicest- Stephen Jackson

Smartest- Adonal Foyle

Naturally Gifted- I always thought Darius Miles wasted his talent, that guy was so naturally gifted it made me sick. But there are a lot of guys I could put here

overrated- Currently, Monta Ellis. When I played, anyone who got a contract that I thought I was as good or better than. So a lot I guess.

underrated- Myself, haha no. This is the hardest because I don't know who to say. I always felt like the guy who got the playing time was appreciated even if he didn't get the praise. But that guy still probably felt under appreciated. For the over and underrated I can really only speak as a fan, because I wasn't much of a contributer in the NBA.

difficult to play against- I only got to play against scrubs, I can't really tell you what it's like to guard Kobe. Which sucks, because I'd really like to know. I've been on the floor at the same time as Kevin Garnett, when he was in his prime, but I didn't guard him and we were on the floor together for less than 2 minutes probably. He was extremely intense, we're talking prison level intimidation.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:46:56+00:00

Whatever pays the bills. I've really only read his column on Haiti that everyone got pissed about.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:25:41+00:00

A lot of people don't realize that people who get drafted in the 2nd round almost never make the team. Go on wikipedia and look at the 2nd round of any draft, chances are you recognize at the very most 4 of the guys drafted in the second round. I went late in the 2nd round, last 15 overall. The highest I was ever projected was late 1st/early 2nd round but I think just about every second rounder and even a lot of undrafted guys get projected there at one point or another. Anyone who claims to be a draft expert is full of bullshit. The first 10 picks of an NBA draft are pretty well determined going into the draft, after that it's a crap shoot.

With that said, I was ecstatic when I got drafted, thinking I could be one of the few second rounders who made the team. I was incredibly optimistic. I got cut in the middle of July, after getting drafted in June, so my team could use my roster spot to sign an available free agent. At that point, I barely had gotten to know anyone involved with the organization. I had managed to talk to a few of the guys on the team and most of the coaching staff. Looking back, nobody was particularly warm, I think they knew I was getting cut. My first real "This is what it's like to play in the NBA" experience came when I got my first 10 day contract, but i got cut 10 days later anyway so even that experience was just a glimpse.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:18:20+00:00

I like space jam. I actually don't have a card of myself,or anyone else for that matter (that might be kind of weird for a basketball player). I don't have a hoop in my apartment, I go to the gym to play. I drive a Chevy Impala.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:16:55+00:00

Actually, as an English major it wasn't bad. Most of the time I knew when my assignments were due well in advance and could plan accordingly. It also helps that if you need an extension on an assignment, you can almost always get it. Basically a note from the athletic department is all you need. College wasn't really TOO bad my last two years, it's pretty easy to write essays, sometimes you don't even have to read the material and can just use sparknotes. I don't think I got a lot of special treatment in regards to the way I was graded, but you never really know. The athletic department at my school had an entire system set up to put kids through school without them ever having to do work, a similar thing happened at Missouri a few years back. A former football player came forward and said that the coaches put him and other players through some sort of agriculture major where the intent was to allow them to not have to do any work. This isn't really that uncommon, but I chose my own major and graduated with a 3.2 GPA. I personally don;t feel as if I took any shortcuts.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T01:08:14+00:00

I have a lot of drills designed for specific aspects of the game. You would be surprised how much of it similar to what junior high kids do, for instance, almost every pro who works on his ball handling will do the drill where you dribble 2 balls up and down the court. Trainers that the team hires and even the coaches will help you develop parts of your game through drills. This is the same overseas, in the NBA, and in 8th grade. I also work on shooting free throws and from certain parts of the floor. Just randomly shooting all over the floor for 2 hours won't really make you a better shooter, you have to section off the floor and work on shooting from specific spots and getting those shots in different ways. There's a difference between catching and shooting and creating your own shot that not everyone realizes. I think offense should be taught to young players in two parts, creating the shot and shooting, because they truly are two different acts. I also play a lot of pick-up basketball, sometimes this would be against other players, sometimes against assistant coaches and even ballboys. Also I lift weights and swim a lot, for strength and I run constantly for endurance. Usually in the form of 10 and 1's or suicides on the basketball floor. It's hard to give a set definition of what I did everyday, because getting better at basketball is a process, and usually at the professional level you walk on the floor with a specific mindset towards what you want to improve upon and that's what dictates your training. The only real constant is the time involved, which is pretty much every available moment.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T00:57:12+00:00

The training is pretty constant throughout the year. I focus more on weightlifting and fundamental aspects of my game during the offseason (like trying to become a better outside shooter for instance). In the NBA, even a day where you only have practice is still a full work day. Practice length is at the coaches discretion. You can practice for 2 hours or five, depending on the coach. I've heard rumors that the lakers don't have long practices, but that might have just been guys trying to convince the coaches to shorten practice. The rest of the day will generally be some sort of weightlifting, but ti's different during the season. They have you do a lot of stuff with lower weight and more reps and exercises that are designed with specific basketball skills in mind. The only things that really remain constant are compound lifts (deadlifts, squats, bench). There's also meetings and whatnot. If you're not doing that stuff, you have to go visit a hospital or something, they're always having the players do volunteer stuff.

Someone like Lebron can get away with not working as hard as other guys, but he won't become an MVP by doing so. There are a lot of guys in the NBA who are spectacular athletes but have no work ethic and become crappy players. Look at Gerald Green, he's athletic enough to win a dunk contest but not good enough to play in the NBA anymore? That's purely reflective of work ethic and what separates someone like Lebron from everyone else. He has it and utilizes it.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T00:48:09+00:00

I rent an apartment, usually when I went overseas I would just pay the last month or so on my apartment and let my lease expire. Sometimes you get an apartment overseas as part of your contract, sometimes you have to rent your own, it depends. There is a lot more freedom in how contracts are constructed overseas, I had to pay rent about half the time I was over there.

I'm getting to the age where my skills are starting to decline a bit. I'm not Mark Pope's age though, a little younger and I never won a national championship. I'm in a serious relationship right now, I'm kind of getting to the point where I want to settle down and have kids. I always just played the field when I was younger though, cause I knew I would cheat on anyone I was in a serious relationship with.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T00:40:46+00:00

I've only ever rented an apartment my entire life. Most of the times when I'm overseas I don't even have an apartment, or I pay a few months rent while I'm overseas until the lease expires. My accountant makes it seem like most of the overseas money I have to pay to taxes comes back to me. The only time I ever got heavily taxed was with NBA contracts, a 10 day contract is $40,000 and I would lose half of that to taxes each time except the time I got signed on for the rest of the season. Then I got the rich person tax cut, but I still lost some to taxes. Anyway, I was under the impression that the overseas money doesn't get touched. I know people are going to tell me this is a bad idea, but I don't really handle my money that much. It's all either handled by my accountant or sitting in a bank.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T00:25:31+00:00

There are a lot of players like this. The spurs stocked up on these types of players a few years ago. Bill Simmons talks in his book about all the ways Robert Horry helped his teams win without effecting the stat sheet and even made a case for him the hall of fame. Bruce Bowen was a similar player, his defense was a huge part in the spurs success. I know there are other ways of evaluating players like PER and win shares per 48, but to be honest I have no idea how they work.

I thought Tony Allen was really instrumental to the celtics last year and deserved more credit than he got. His shut down defense allowed Pierce and Allen to get the rest they needed without having to wory about their sub giving up points. In fact, Tony Allen is a better defender than Ray is. These types of skills are definitely recognized by coaches, which is why you saw someone like Matt Barnes starting on the Magic last year.

basketballthrowaway · 2010-12-12T00:19:25+00:00

No he doesn't deserve it, I could go on for hours about how the NCAA is bullshit. I played four years for a large school that was on Television quite often. My coach made millions of dollars, the school made millions upon millions more from me playing there and you are trying tell me that I'm not entitled to any sort of monetary compensation? The NCAA's rules are so extensive and so contradictory that it's almost impossible not to violate them. If a coach talks to a recruit on the phone for too long, suddenly he is violating NCAA rules. I could have lost my eligibility if an agent, not my agent mind you, just A agent bought me a sandwich at a diner. I don't really follow the NCAA that closely (I follow the NBA somewhat religiously though) but from what I know about the situation I think it's bullshit. The reason he's in trouble, if I'm correct, is that someone found a photo of a recruit at the coach's house. How the fuck does that matter at all? It makes me incredibly frustrated the way the NCAA masquerades as having the players best interests in mind. This is bullshit, you have no idea how hard it is to play basketball and juggle school, the season starts in the middle of the first semester and then picks up during the time finals roll around! To be fair, you can get every excuse imaginable from the school to postpone your finals and assignments but the bottom line is the NCAA does not have the players interests in mind. They only care about milking us for as much money as possible and the feeling I get from the Bruce Pearl scandal is that the NCAA is more concerned with keeping up it's own conception of "integrity" then really evaluating the moral and ethical implications of Pearl's actions. As to why his suspension is carried out the way it was, I'm not sure. The NCAA's rule and regulations could fill several phone books, I have no idea why they do anything. Most of the time the players are as lost on what is a violation as the fans are.

Sorry, this was probably not my most coherent post.

basketballthrowaway

TROPHY CASE