this is the aspect of the trading system most of us as fans dont see or understand.
http://my.nba.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300025597
I want to talk about the trade. People see trades and don't realize how it affects real life.
A lot of people are basketball fans, and they're just like, "Oh, Houston gets Bobby Jackson," or "Oh, Shaq goes to Phoenix." What people don't realize is that, we are basketball players, but we're also human beings, and we have wives and kids. It's a huge adjustment. Families have to move. There's also relationships that you've created in a city.
And a lot of times, players don't see it coming. Bobby Jackson didn't see it coming. You got your kids in school and your wife is adapting to the city. And bam, you gotta go somewhere else. I kinda want people to understand that trades are a little more than just, you know, player swapping. There's a lot of stuff behind closed doors.
Bobby Jackson was real close to my family. We would go out to dinner together as families. We got really close. So it's hard from an off-the-court perspective.
I found out about the trade from my wife after the game on Wednesday. Bobby's wife found out during the game that he was going to be traded. She told my wife and after the game, my wife told me as I was pulling out of the parking lot. Initially, it was like shock, because I had heard rumors of guys being traded, but I had never heard him being involved.
We went to dinner and then we went back to his house to see how his family was doing with the trade, to see when he had to take off and all that stuff. He was fine. He just wanted to stay around to see what was gonna happen with the team. Because he had been here last year, when we went through injuries and struggled. And he was a huge part of us turning this thing around.
Now, being in first place and going on a playoff run in the second half of the season, he just wanted to see how far this team would go. And he really enjoyed all of his teammates, being out here and being around in the locker room. So, that was another part of what he was gonna miss.
I had an appearance after practice yesterday, but I went over his house after that. He was packing and my daughter was in the room with him, because my wife took my daughter over there to play with the kids before they left. My daughter was helping him pack, bringing him hangers and just spending time. He and her had gotten really close, because he would always come, pick up my daughter and take her with his girls to the movies, Chuck E. Cheese, the museum, or just on family outings.
He was just sitting in there, getting his stuff together and we were actually watching the game, Miami and Houston. He was in there watching his team now. Normally, we're teammates watching the game together, but he was watching the team he was about to go to. He was just moving slow and I could tell that he was going to miss everything.
His daughters are four and seven, and they're like sisters with my daughter. They spend so much time together, and I've seen how much my daughter has grown, being able to play with his daughters, because they're so much older. When she wakes up in the morning, she calls their names because she wants to go over their house.
Actually, one of the first names that she got down was Bobby's, because she was always like "Bobby, Bobby." It was just hilarious the way she said it. So, I would pick up his girls sometimes and he would do the same. They're like sisters. They fight, they run around the house together and they get into stuff together.
Right now, my daughter's almost two. And she doesn't understand to tell us "Where's the girls?", but you can just tell it's going to be a little different, an adjustment for her.
BUSINESS COMES FIRST
I definitely can separate the personal from the business, but at first, it's hard. Because you're thinking about the person and the friend that you're losing.
I always understand that it's a business. The team is just trying to get better, trying to get deeper. To get something good like that, you're going to have to give up something good. I understand the basketball decision of it and I understand Jeff Bower's position. Even if I was the GM, just because I was friends with somebody doesn't mean I would keep them on my team. The ultimate goal is to make the basketball club better.
But I look at it from both ends. We're losing a friend and a great teammate. But on the business side, I can understand it, because we just got deeper and it will help us in the long run going into the playoffs.
A TIGHT-KNIT GROUP
I felt bad for Marquinhos and Adam too, because they're young and they don't know what to expect. Bobby, on the trade side, he's going back the coach that he played for and had success with. Basketball-wise, he's gonna be alright. But the other guys, they're young and have never been traded. Marquinhos doesn't speak English that well so going to another city, not knowing anyone and not being able to communicate, that's going to be a tough for him.
This whole team does things together off the court too. Someone may be just be like, "Yo, we're playing cards over at my house" and everybody will go over, wives and kids too. One person will be like, "I'm going to the movies tonight," and the next guy will say, "Alright, I'm coming too." We spend so much time together off the court.
I've never been on a team like that, and I don't think Bobby had either. That's another reason why it's tough.
Being a tight group really makes a difference on the floor too. The chemistry carries over. And also, we can get on one another with a level of respect. We're not holding back. I can get on Chris about not playing hard or something and he knows that it's nothing personal, because he knows how much I love him and respect him. Anybody can get on me, and if you have respect for each other, then there isn't any problem.
And it helps that we've had mostly the same group for two years now too. We've grown a lot this year. I think every player on this team has tried to make their game better, and ultimately, it helps the team out. We've really be gelling.
WELCOME BONZI AND MIKE
Once we get these new guys adapted to our defensive strategies and what we're trying to accomplish on the offensive end, I think we're better. These guys are veterans. They'll adapt pretty well and fairly quickly.
Our system is definitely a difficult system to adapt to, because it's all reads. There aren't necessarily spots you need to be at. It's really all based on reads. But we'll implement things that are going to benefit them.
I feel like, going into the playoffs, when we have offensive struggles, it'll help having a guy like Bonzi Wells to go to in the block, another post-up guy. He's also a big guard who can defend big guards. And then Mike James' quickness and his outside threat is also a good addition. I think the addition of these two guys will pay off in the long run.
THE BREAK
What's funny is that, when I was in the Bahamas for All-Star weekend, Bobby and his wife introduced me and my wife to Bonzi and his wife. Bonzi and Jermaine O'Neal were together there. And Bobby had been traded for Bonzi in Sacramento, so I guess when Bonzi was getting his stuff together in Sacramento and his wife was moving out there, her and Bobby's wife got together to talk about the different cities and stuff.
So, when we went out to the Bahamas, we saw them out there, and Bobby and his wife introduced us all. So, we were hanging out and talking about basketball and everything. Bonzi said, "Why don't y'all lose some games, so we can catch up! We're on an eight-game winning streak and we still can't catch y'all."
So when he walked into the locker room today, I was like, "You still want us to lose games?" Ha ha.
But there were about 12 players at Atlantis in the Bahamas. We were all in different parts of the hotel, but at dinner and at the night club was where we all ran into each other. It was a good vacation, relaxing, tanning and all that good stuff. My daughter stayed at home because she was a little under the weather and I didn't want her doing all the traveling.
I just watched the Skills Challenge with Chris, the Three Point Shootout with Peja, and the last few minutes of the game. But I think that everything that the NBA did for the city of New Orleans was impressive. They did a lot of community work, but also all the revenue that All-Star weekend brings to the city. That means work for a lot of people. The NBA should be proud of itself for what it's doing for the city of New Orleans, and it makes me feel proud to be a part of that organization.
HOME STRETCH
Right now, everybody's jockeying for position and we know that these 30 games are gonna go by really fast. We're gonna have some tough games and it's really gonna be playoff basketball every night. If you've watched these games coming out of the All-Star break, you've seen teams really going at each other, because everybody understands how important each game is, especially in the West. If you lose a few games, you're on the outside looking in. So coach brought us together and told us how tough this was gonna be and how hard we gotta play.
I haven't seen anybody else's schedule, but I feel like we got the toughest schedule coming out of the All-Star break. It's crazy. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio. Then we got Washington, Phoenix and Utah. It doesn't stop. But I look at it like this: If we get through this stretch right here, and we win these games, it's gonna say a lot about our team.
I knew Chris was gonna have a big game against Dallas, because he was all excited about playing in the All-Star Game and getting back into the rhythm of things. And then the trade, Kidd coming to Dallas and all the media saying that Dallas made their championship run by bringing Kidd. We're in the same division, so I think Chris kinda took that personally. And whenever you have a guy who's been the best point guard of the last decade, and you have a young, up-and-coming point guard, you're going to have some challenges. He's gonna want to take his spot. Jason Kidd has carried the torch for so long. Now, Chris wants to carry it. There's always a game within the game.
I get the same feeling anytime I get a chance to go against Shaq or Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett, any of those guys. You always take on that personal challenge. You want to win your matchup and the overall game. You feel like, "If I shut this guy down and I do my part on offense as well, my team has a huge chance of winning, because this guy is the focal point of their team."
http://my.nba.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300025597
I want to talk about the trade. People see trades and don't realize how it affects real life.
A lot of people are basketball fans, and they're just like, "Oh, Houston gets Bobby Jackson," or "Oh, Shaq goes to Phoenix." What people don't realize is that, we are basketball players, but we're also human beings, and we have wives and kids. It's a huge adjustment. Families have to move. There's also relationships that you've created in a city.
And a lot of times, players don't see it coming. Bobby Jackson didn't see it coming. You got your kids in school and your wife is adapting to the city. And bam, you gotta go somewhere else. I kinda want people to understand that trades are a little more than just, you know, player swapping. There's a lot of stuff behind closed doors.
Bobby Jackson was real close to my family. We would go out to dinner together as families. We got really close. So it's hard from an off-the-court perspective.
I found out about the trade from my wife after the game on Wednesday. Bobby's wife found out during the game that he was going to be traded. She told my wife and after the game, my wife told me as I was pulling out of the parking lot. Initially, it was like shock, because I had heard rumors of guys being traded, but I had never heard him being involved.
We went to dinner and then we went back to his house to see how his family was doing with the trade, to see when he had to take off and all that stuff. He was fine. He just wanted to stay around to see what was gonna happen with the team. Because he had been here last year, when we went through injuries and struggled. And he was a huge part of us turning this thing around.
Now, being in first place and going on a playoff run in the second half of the season, he just wanted to see how far this team would go. And he really enjoyed all of his teammates, being out here and being around in the locker room. So, that was another part of what he was gonna miss.
I had an appearance after practice yesterday, but I went over his house after that. He was packing and my daughter was in the room with him, because my wife took my daughter over there to play with the kids before they left. My daughter was helping him pack, bringing him hangers and just spending time. He and her had gotten really close, because he would always come, pick up my daughter and take her with his girls to the movies, Chuck E. Cheese, the museum, or just on family outings.
He was just sitting in there, getting his stuff together and we were actually watching the game, Miami and Houston. He was in there watching his team now. Normally, we're teammates watching the game together, but he was watching the team he was about to go to. He was just moving slow and I could tell that he was going to miss everything.
His daughters are four and seven, and they're like sisters with my daughter. They spend so much time together, and I've seen how much my daughter has grown, being able to play with his daughters, because they're so much older. When she wakes up in the morning, she calls their names because she wants to go over their house.
Actually, one of the first names that she got down was Bobby's, because she was always like "Bobby, Bobby." It was just hilarious the way she said it. So, I would pick up his girls sometimes and he would do the same. They're like sisters. They fight, they run around the house together and they get into stuff together.
Right now, my daughter's almost two. And she doesn't understand to tell us "Where's the girls?", but you can just tell it's going to be a little different, an adjustment for her.
BUSINESS COMES FIRST
I definitely can separate the personal from the business, but at first, it's hard. Because you're thinking about the person and the friend that you're losing.
I always understand that it's a business. The team is just trying to get better, trying to get deeper. To get something good like that, you're going to have to give up something good. I understand the basketball decision of it and I understand Jeff Bower's position. Even if I was the GM, just because I was friends with somebody doesn't mean I would keep them on my team. The ultimate goal is to make the basketball club better.
But I look at it from both ends. We're losing a friend and a great teammate. But on the business side, I can understand it, because we just got deeper and it will help us in the long run going into the playoffs.
A TIGHT-KNIT GROUP
I felt bad for Marquinhos and Adam too, because they're young and they don't know what to expect. Bobby, on the trade side, he's going back the coach that he played for and had success with. Basketball-wise, he's gonna be alright. But the other guys, they're young and have never been traded. Marquinhos doesn't speak English that well so going to another city, not knowing anyone and not being able to communicate, that's going to be a tough for him.
This whole team does things together off the court too. Someone may be just be like, "Yo, we're playing cards over at my house" and everybody will go over, wives and kids too. One person will be like, "I'm going to the movies tonight," and the next guy will say, "Alright, I'm coming too." We spend so much time together off the court.
I've never been on a team like that, and I don't think Bobby had either. That's another reason why it's tough.
Being a tight group really makes a difference on the floor too. The chemistry carries over. And also, we can get on one another with a level of respect. We're not holding back. I can get on Chris about not playing hard or something and he knows that it's nothing personal, because he knows how much I love him and respect him. Anybody can get on me, and if you have respect for each other, then there isn't any problem.
And it helps that we've had mostly the same group for two years now too. We've grown a lot this year. I think every player on this team has tried to make their game better, and ultimately, it helps the team out. We've really be gelling.
WELCOME BONZI AND MIKE
Once we get these new guys adapted to our defensive strategies and what we're trying to accomplish on the offensive end, I think we're better. These guys are veterans. They'll adapt pretty well and fairly quickly.
Our system is definitely a difficult system to adapt to, because it's all reads. There aren't necessarily spots you need to be at. It's really all based on reads. But we'll implement things that are going to benefit them.
I feel like, going into the playoffs, when we have offensive struggles, it'll help having a guy like Bonzi Wells to go to in the block, another post-up guy. He's also a big guard who can defend big guards. And then Mike James' quickness and his outside threat is also a good addition. I think the addition of these two guys will pay off in the long run.
THE BREAK
What's funny is that, when I was in the Bahamas for All-Star weekend, Bobby and his wife introduced me and my wife to Bonzi and his wife. Bonzi and Jermaine O'Neal were together there. And Bobby had been traded for Bonzi in Sacramento, so I guess when Bonzi was getting his stuff together in Sacramento and his wife was moving out there, her and Bobby's wife got together to talk about the different cities and stuff.
So, when we went out to the Bahamas, we saw them out there, and Bobby and his wife introduced us all. So, we were hanging out and talking about basketball and everything. Bonzi said, "Why don't y'all lose some games, so we can catch up! We're on an eight-game winning streak and we still can't catch y'all."
So when he walked into the locker room today, I was like, "You still want us to lose games?" Ha ha.
But there were about 12 players at Atlantis in the Bahamas. We were all in different parts of the hotel, but at dinner and at the night club was where we all ran into each other. It was a good vacation, relaxing, tanning and all that good stuff. My daughter stayed at home because she was a little under the weather and I didn't want her doing all the traveling.
I just watched the Skills Challenge with Chris, the Three Point Shootout with Peja, and the last few minutes of the game. But I think that everything that the NBA did for the city of New Orleans was impressive. They did a lot of community work, but also all the revenue that All-Star weekend brings to the city. That means work for a lot of people. The NBA should be proud of itself for what it's doing for the city of New Orleans, and it makes me feel proud to be a part of that organization.
HOME STRETCH
Right now, everybody's jockeying for position and we know that these 30 games are gonna go by really fast. We're gonna have some tough games and it's really gonna be playoff basketball every night. If you've watched these games coming out of the All-Star break, you've seen teams really going at each other, because everybody understands how important each game is, especially in the West. If you lose a few games, you're on the outside looking in. So coach brought us together and told us how tough this was gonna be and how hard we gotta play.
I haven't seen anybody else's schedule, but I feel like we got the toughest schedule coming out of the All-Star break. It's crazy. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio. Then we got Washington, Phoenix and Utah. It doesn't stop. But I look at it like this: If we get through this stretch right here, and we win these games, it's gonna say a lot about our team.
I knew Chris was gonna have a big game against Dallas, because he was all excited about playing in the All-Star Game and getting back into the rhythm of things. And then the trade, Kidd coming to Dallas and all the media saying that Dallas made their championship run by bringing Kidd. We're in the same division, so I think Chris kinda took that personally. And whenever you have a guy who's been the best point guard of the last decade, and you have a young, up-and-coming point guard, you're going to have some challenges. He's gonna want to take his spot. Jason Kidd has carried the torch for so long. Now, Chris wants to carry it. There's always a game within the game.
I get the same feeling anytime I get a chance to go against Shaq or Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett, any of those guys. You always take on that personal challenge. You want to win your matchup and the overall game. You feel like, "If I shut this guy down and I do my part on offense as well, my team has a huge chance of winning, because this guy is the focal point of their team."
