Sad Brandon Roy Quote

[Finkelskyhook]

I don't think I can ever feel sorry for a professional athlete who makes millions of dollars simply because they get hurt. It's ridiculous. Poor Brandon Roy? What a joke. Athletes get paid to play a game and to workout. How can anyone feel bad for them? Am I alone in this? Please tell me because I'd like to hear differently.

I just heard a whole diatribe on live Facebook like this yesterday.  It's sad that people see things only through how wealthy a person is.  I found the person uttering the diatribe a joke.  

Brandon Roy is far from a joke.  He's trying to earn his paycheck.

As a class envy hater....What they make, IMHO, is irrelevent.  I'm sure they feel emotions like the rest of us.  I don't see the NBA game as simple or the lifestyle as simple.  If it was,  a helluva lot more people would be "playing the game and working out" for a living....Because I'm thinking all of us in this blog love the game as much as Brandon Roy does.

I find Roy's getting back from a devastating injury so soon admirable....We have a guy on our team who could take some lessons from Roy in that regard.  

For a lot of us, our profession is a big part of who we are.  An NBA player or a burger flipper....When that part of our life is compromised, it's equally as devastating.  Doesn't matter a rat's behind how much the guy makes.

[aporel#18]

Definitly do not agree that Nate Mc has been doing anything but a stellar job the last 2 years. Last season he had 13 players who averaged over 20 minutes per game when they played for the Blazers. That's a massive roster overhaul combined with massive losses to injuries, including 2 starting caliber centers. Nate McMillian has consistently been handed a roster that has been ravaged by injury and turned over by trade, yet he's still getting them to the playoffs by making the most out of what he has.

You call the Blazers' roster 'talented', and cite Batum, Rudy, and Wes Matthews..but every single one of those players has had pretty HUGE questions about them since last offseason. Whether it was the Matthews 'over-bid' (which we've learned to be a necessity), or Rudy and Batum's uninspired (and I'm being kind) play earlier this season, I think once again, this is just a case of McMillian doing the best he can with the cards he's been dealt.

Kevin Pritchard did a great job through all those injuries, and their drafting has been remarkable. They still have rights on Victor Claver and Joel Freeland, who are progressing here in the ACB Spanish League. Of course, they've been unlucky and they're not taking advantage on having a rich owner like Paul Allen.

I give credit to their coaching staff in the last three years for overcoming all those injuries, but I don't agree McMillan used his pieces in the right way. He relied on Roy's hero ball, who made most of his mates useless. Last year's playoffs, when things went awful, he gave minutes to Rudy Fernandez and he made the most of them. Until then, he used Miller at one, Roy at two, and whoever at the three. Forced by Roy's injuries, the Blazers had better ball movement.

I'm sorry, but that's the way I see McMillan. I liked him as a player, but as a coach he embraced the iso ball as offense, hurting his team's chances. The blazers under McMillan have played good defense though, to his credit.

This year Roy's injuries have crushed the kid. They seemed to be thinking about what could happen when they signed Matthews.

Batum is skinny, but he's a very good player. Gerald Wallace is a beast, and Matthews is an ok player, talented but not outstanding. Rudy Fernandez is a great shooter, not very commited to defense but he could do better. They are a talented group of swingmen, and there's not a lot of teams who have 4 better 2/3 on their roster.

Of course I'm not a pro, so I'm pretty biased by the media outcome. And you can add I hate the hero ball, I find it a negative for a team's success. If your hero is hurt, or the refs don't give him star treatment, you're dead on the playoffs. And even if everything goes well, you can't win one on five. The Lakers are successful not because of a hugely talented Kobe, they win because of their great frontcourt. Shaq and Gasol are the real MVPs of their teams. Oden could have make it work for McMillan, but he's on the Ralph Sampson road.

I wish luck and health for Roy and Oden, they could be a great duo to watch if they somehow get to play without injuries.

[fairweatherfan]

Roy with a nice recovery as he gets more PT in Game 3 and responds with 16 points and 4 assists.  Good to see him play well at home.

[chambers]

I forget the exact specifics of the 2006 draft, but I remember that the Timberwolves had the 6th pick and really wanted Randy Foye... but for whatever reason they worked out a trade in advance where they'd take Brandon Roy 6th, Celtics would take Foye 7th... Celtics would trade Foye (and Raef's bad contract) to the Blazers for Sebastian Telfair (and Ratliff's key expiring contract that helped us land KG)...and then the Blazers would flip Foye to the Timberwolves for Brandon Roy....

I think the incentive for the Timberwolves to cooperate was that they got the guy they coveted (Randy Foye), but get to pay him a little less by having him selected 7th instead of 6th.  Basically their involvement was irrelevant.  They could have just taken Foye 6th. 

The trade really boiled down to Boston trading Brandon Roy and a bad contract for Telfair, a 2nd rounder, and an expiring contract.   

Couple thoughts:
#1 For a year or so before we understood how good Foye and Roy were, a few people on this forum would complain that we gave up Randy Foye for Sebastian Telfair.  Some people thought Foye was going to be a star.  Going into the draft he was considered to be a better prospect than Roy.  People who paid attention to the actual draft had to keep correcting these incorrect fans by saying, "For the love of god... we didn't give up Foye!  We gave up Brandon Roy. We only selected Foye 7th, because a trade was worked out in advance.  We NEVER had a chance at getting Foye.  Get it right!!!"...   

#2  Once Roy became a star, we'd have fans come on here saying, "I can't believe we gave up Brandon Roy for Sebastian Telfair"... which would then cause a bunch of (incorrect) fans to say, "uh... we didn't give up Roy.  He was drafted 6th.  We traded Randy Foye for Telfair!... get it right!... which was, in fact, wrong.   

#3 Over time... people finally accepted the reality... we certainly could have drafted Brandon Roy.  Had we not had a trade worked out in advance, the Timberwolves certainly would have taken Foye and Roy would have been ours at #7.  We absolutely traded Brandon Roy (and raef's bad contract) for Telfair (and the crucial Ratliff expiring contract).  This was now seen as a bad move considering we lucked into Rondo later in the draft and Telfair never amounted to crap.  Once this fact finally sunk in with the fan base, it was rationalized in two ways:  First, dumping Raef for Ratliff was key in landing KG.  Second, it had been said that Danny Ainge liked Roy, but didn't believe his knee would hold up.  Apparently, Ainge was deftly afraid of taking Roy, because he expected at any point his career would be over.  Fans scoffed at this.

#4 Not that I wish any harm on Roy or celebrate his downfall... but it's interesting to note that Danny Ainge was entirely right.  He didn't want Roy.  He didn't think he'd hold up.  He hasn't.   

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

#6  Even more interesting to note... Ainge just traded Kendrick Perkins (who he doesn't think will hold up) for Jeff Green.  Seems stupid now, but will we eventually come to realize this was another intelligent move?
     

As of now... Roy will probably never be the same, but not bad enough to retire.  The Blazers are on the hook paying him 15-18 million per year through 2013/14.   Probably a risk they shouldn't have taken considering his knee issue.   Avoiding those kind of longterm contracts on injury-prone players is what causes a GM to dump a guy like Perk at the trade deadline for talent.   We probably could have given Perk a fat extension this summer... I dont' think Ainge wanted any part of that.

I bring all of this up, because it's just a perfect example of how perceptions change with time.  Unless Roy grows a new knee and wins multiple titles... looks like Ainge got this one right.

that was one of the best posts I've read here and I've been reading cb for years. I didn't know that Ainge didn't want Roy because of the knees. Always thought he gave up an all star for life but he was 100% right.

[indeedproceed]

Roy with a nice recovery as he gets more PT in Game 3 and responds with 16 points and 4 assists.  Good to see him play well at home.

Yeah that was nice to see. Really enjoyed the game last night.

[Celticsfan336]

Such a shame... SAD SAD SAD....this is one of my favorite non celtics players of all time, such a class act and a truly remarkable talent who could of had plenty of chances at a ring if things went him way.
Honestly, for the injuries he has and his knees, or the lack there of.....how he is still a gamechanger (even off the bench) is remarkable.

[hpantazo]

Such a shame... SAD SAD SAD....this is one of my favorite non celtics players of all time, such a class act and a truly remarkable talent who could of had plenty of chances at a ring if things went him way.
Honestly, for the injuries he has and his knees, or the lack there of.....how he is still a gamechanger (even off the bench) is remarkable.

imo, it's the blazers who should feel sad that they gave such a large contract to a guy with bad knees

[mgent]

Tears of joy tonight?

Does he have it in him to become Dejuan Blair?

[BballTim]

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

Good post overall, but much in the same way the "we gave up Randy Foye! Brandon Roy!" thing was a bit of a pet peeve of a lot of people, the "Danny would've selected Kevin Durant" myth is also false.

Is it?  I'm pretty sure I've heard Chad Ford, Marc Stein and Bill Simmons all agree on this in a podcast that Danny was totally going to take Durant.  But whatever... not that important, i guess.

I was going on Doc Rivers saying recently that the Boston Celtics would've taken Greg Oden. Gimme a minute, I will find the quote.

    But the Celtics, despite having the second-worst record in the league, slipped to fifth in the lottery. They flipped the pick for Ray Allen(notes), which helped lure Kevin Garnett(notes), and the franchise's 17th title soon followed. Had the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick, Rivers said, Oden would have been the choice.

    "Even though everybody changes now, we were all for Oden, and I think 98 percent of the league,'' Rivers said. "But now I hear it all over our staff, I hear it everywhere, ‘Oh, no, we were Durant guys.' I don't believe that. I think we would have drafted Oden.''

  I still don't see how Doc hearing the Celts staff say they'd have taken Durant and being skeptical about it is proof that we'd have taken Oden.

'Proof' is a bit of a funny word. I'd say there is not a more compelling piece of evidence out there that says otherwise. The only 'Proof' at this point would be a time machine and a luckier lottery, but I don't think you can find a more compelling source than Doc Rivers flatly saying the Celtics (and hence Danny Ainge) would've taken Greg Oden.

  Wyc was on weei this morning. They asked him about Oden vs Durant. He said (paraphrasing) "true story. Danny told me he was drafting Durant, I told him we'd talk about it later. But we'd have gone with Danny on the draft and i turns out he was right about it".

[indeedproceed]

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

Good post overall, but much in the same way the "we gave up Randy Foye! Brandon Roy!" thing was a bit of a pet peeve of a lot of people, the "Danny would've selected Kevin Durant" myth is also false.

Is it?  I'm pretty sure I've heard Chad Ford, Marc Stein and Bill Simmons all agree on this in a podcast that Danny was totally going to take Durant.  But whatever... not that important, i guess.

I was going on Doc Rivers saying recently that the Boston Celtics would've taken Greg Oden. Gimme a minute, I will find the quote.

    But the Celtics, despite having the second-worst record in the league, slipped to fifth in the lottery. They flipped the pick for Ray Allen(notes), which helped lure Kevin Garnett(notes), and the franchise's 17th title soon followed. Had the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick, Rivers said, Oden would have been the choice.

    "Even though everybody changes now, we were all for Oden, and I think 98 percent of the league,'' Rivers said. "But now I hear it all over our staff, I hear it everywhere, ‘Oh, no, we were Durant guys.' I don't believe that. I think we would have drafted Oden.''

  I still don't see how Doc hearing the Celts staff say they'd have taken Durant and being skeptical about it is proof that we'd have taken Oden.

'Proof' is a bit of a funny word. I'd say there is not a more compelling piece of evidence out there that says otherwise. The only 'Proof' at this point would be a time machine and a luckier lottery, but I don't think you can find a more compelling source than Doc Rivers flatly saying the Celtics (and hence Danny Ainge) would've taken Greg Oden.

  Wyc was on weei this morning. They asked him about Oden vs Durant. He said (paraphrasing) "true story. Danny told me he was drafting Durant, I told him we'd talk about it later. But we'd have gone with Danny on the draft and i turns out he was right about it".

Ah, and so the plot thickens. I believe Doc, but Wyc makes no less a viable witness.

[BballTim]

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

Good post overall, but much in the same way the "we gave up Randy Foye! Brandon Roy!" thing was a bit of a pet peeve of a lot of people, the "Danny would've selected Kevin Durant" myth is also false.

Is it?  I'm pretty sure I've heard Chad Ford, Marc Stein and Bill Simmons all agree on this in a podcast that Danny was totally going to take Durant.  But whatever... not that important, i guess.

I was going on Doc Rivers saying recently that the Boston Celtics would've taken Greg Oden. Gimme a minute, I will find the quote.

    But the Celtics, despite having the second-worst record in the league, slipped to fifth in the lottery. They flipped the pick for Ray Allen(notes), which helped lure Kevin Garnett(notes), and the franchise's 17th title soon followed. Had the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick, Rivers said, Oden would have been the choice.

    "Even though everybody changes now, we were all for Oden, and I think 98 percent of the league,'' Rivers said. "But now I hear it all over our staff, I hear it everywhere, ‘Oh, no, we were Durant guys.' I don't believe that. I think we would have drafted Oden.''

  I still don't see how Doc hearing the Celts staff say they'd have taken Durant and being skeptical about it is proof that we'd have taken Oden.

'Proof' is a bit of a funny word. I'd say there is not a more compelling piece of evidence out there that says otherwise. The only 'Proof' at this point would be a time machine and a luckier lottery, but I don't think you can find a more compelling source than Doc Rivers flatly saying the Celtics (and hence Danny Ainge) would've taken Greg Oden.

  Wyc was on weei this morning. They asked him about Oden vs Durant. He said (paraphrasing) "true story. Danny told me he was drafting Durant, I told him we'd talk about it later. But we'd have gone with Danny on the draft and i turns out he was right about it".

Ah, and so the plot thickens. I believe Doc, but Wyc makes no less a viable witness.

  C'mon, he said "true story". Wyc doesn't use those words lightly...

[indeedproceed]

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

Good post overall, but much in the same way the "we gave up Randy Foye! Brandon Roy!" thing was a bit of a pet peeve of a lot of people, the "Danny would've selected Kevin Durant" myth is also false.

Is it?  I'm pretty sure I've heard Chad Ford, Marc Stein and Bill Simmons all agree on this in a podcast that Danny was totally going to take Durant.  But whatever... not that important, i guess.

I was going on Doc Rivers saying recently that the Boston Celtics would've taken Greg Oden. Gimme a minute, I will find the quote.

    But the Celtics, despite having the second-worst record in the league, slipped to fifth in the lottery. They flipped the pick for Ray Allen(notes), which helped lure Kevin Garnett(notes), and the franchise's 17th title soon followed. Had the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick, Rivers said, Oden would have been the choice.

    "Even though everybody changes now, we were all for Oden, and I think 98 percent of the league,'' Rivers said. "But now I hear it all over our staff, I hear it everywhere, ‘Oh, no, we were Durant guys.' I don't believe that. I think we would have drafted Oden.''

  I still don't see how Doc hearing the Celts staff say they'd have taken Durant and being skeptical about it is proof that we'd have taken Oden.

'Proof' is a bit of a funny word. I'd say there is not a more compelling piece of evidence out there that says otherwise. The only 'Proof' at this point would be a time machine and a luckier lottery, but I don't think you can find a more compelling source than Doc Rivers flatly saying the Celtics (and hence Danny Ainge) would've taken Greg Oden.

  Wyc was on weei this morning. They asked him about Oden vs Durant. He said (paraphrasing) "true story. Danny told me he was drafting Durant, I told him we'd talk about it later. But we'd have gone with Danny on the draft and i turns out he was right about it".

Ah, and so the plot thickens. I believe Doc, but Wyc makes no less a viable witness.

  C'mon, he said "true story". Wyc doesn't use those words lightly...

Hey now Cochran, you've got your star witness and I've got mine.

[BballTim]

#5 Funny to realize that Danny Ainge also supposedly was the only GM who would have taken Kevin Durant over Greg Oden... for many of the same reasons.

Good post overall, but much in the same way the "we gave up Randy Foye! Brandon Roy!" thing was a bit of a pet peeve of a lot of people, the "Danny would've selected Kevin Durant" myth is also false.

Is it?  I'm pretty sure I've heard Chad Ford, Marc Stein and Bill Simmons all agree on this in a podcast that Danny was totally going to take Durant.  But whatever... not that important, i guess.

I was going on Doc Rivers saying recently that the Boston Celtics would've taken Greg Oden. Gimme a minute, I will find the quote.

    But the Celtics, despite having the second-worst record in the league, slipped to fifth in the lottery. They flipped the pick for Ray Allen(notes), which helped lure Kevin Garnett(notes), and the franchise's 17th title soon followed. Had the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick, Rivers said, Oden would have been the choice.

    "Even though everybody changes now, we were all for Oden, and I think 98 percent of the league,'' Rivers said. "But now I hear it all over our staff, I hear it everywhere, ‘Oh, no, we were Durant guys.' I don't believe that. I think we would have drafted Oden.''

  I still don't see how Doc hearing the Celts staff say they'd have taken Durant and being skeptical about it is proof that we'd have taken Oden.

'Proof' is a bit of a funny word. I'd say there is not a more compelling piece of evidence out there that says otherwise. The only 'Proof' at this point would be a time machine and a luckier lottery, but I don't think you can find a more compelling source than Doc Rivers flatly saying the Celtics (and hence Danny Ainge) would've taken Greg Oden.

  Wyc was on weei this morning. They asked him about Oden vs Durant. He said (paraphrasing) "true story. Danny told me he was drafting Durant, I told him we'd talk about it later. But we'd have gone with Danny on the draft and i turns out he was right about it".

Ah, and so the plot thickens. I believe Doc, but Wyc makes no less a viable witness.

  C'mon, he said "true story". Wyc doesn't use those words lightly...

Hey now Cochran, you've got your star witness and I've got mine.

  That Oden glove, it just doesn't fit...

[Surferdad]

Roy needs to learn how to live without that big explosion, if he's patient he'll get his minutes. He's earning a big paycheck, and he should think about the team.

Good summary.  Without his explosive crossover, he is destined to be a middle-of-the-road journeyman.  He can't expect to just step back into his starting role.