Yep. Kid knows the NBA better than I do. He was a point guard in high school.
Now Now
No one is suggesting that.
No one is taking the Prophet's side.
Just suggesting that you don't toss out the babies with the bathwater. The sins of the Prophet are not to be visited upon our fledgling big men.
Plenty of great players have languished on crappy teams that didn't come close to sniffing a pennant, the finals...that's a specious argument.
Ted Williams and Stan Musial come readily to mind, all-time greats who both made it to the World Series in 1947, and thereafter, thanks to the hidebound racist policies of the Red Sox and the Cardinals, found their teams consumed in mediocrity
with their collection of leaden white boys, while teams such as the Dodgers, Indians, Giants and Braves went to the bank (and the post-season) thanks to their commitment to signing up the cream of African-American talent. Branch Rickey and Bill Veeck were surely principled, humanists, but they were not angling for heaven....they were also canny businessmen, and reasoned that he who gets the best ball players, wins the most games, and, incidentally, MAKE THE MOST MONEY.
Of course, the Yankees of the 1950s were not exactly passing the cup for the NAACP, and when Elston Howard became their first black ballplayer, Casey Stengel famously said, "Well, when we finally get one, and he can't run..." COUGH.
I'm not claiming to be prescient by any means, but expectations notwithstanding, I was surely not expecting Durant nor Irving Walker nor Leonard to sign on the bottom line. I was hoping the Knicks would make a run at either Randle OR Portis, and was gassed when we signed both on a 2+1 and a 1+1 respectively.
They have been progressing year by year, and I mean, tell me, how easy is it raise your game on crappy teams?
I too, was startles to hear Kiid assert, with his customary modesty, that in his estimation, Randle is a better player than Maurice Lucas. Kiid, as you have no doubt noticed over time, likes to rattle Forumite's cages at regular intervals.
Lucas is a proven pro with a championship resume. Randle (and Portis) are works in progress, but not JERKS IN REGRESS as you seem to be, if not suggesting, responding in kind to Kiid's theater of the absurd.
'Nuff said.
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