The man can play. Step off your high cynical horses.
I bet you he's in better shape than 90% of the posters on this thread.
I am 5'11" and about 260 pounds, so in my case you are 100% right.
However, am I a professional athlete? No, I am not. I am an IT professional - I sit on a chair all day and wiggle a mouse around.
Does my ability to perform as a professional (and earn my pay-cheque) depend on me being in prime physical condition? No, it most certainly does not.
Much like Sully's career doesn't depend on him being able to understand server infrastructure or being able to troubleshoot networking faults.
It seems to be a very common rhetorical question / statement that gets presented by the Sully supporters out there, in an attempt to suggest that Sully isn't deserve of the criticism, or that the criticism is not fair.
To people who believe this, may I please point out that this is a professional criticism, not a personal criticism. We aren't suggesting that is any lesser a man / human person because of his conditioning and/or weight issues. We are suggesting that he is lesser a player because of it.
It's hard to argue that this isn't the case when you're watching him and constantly seeing things like:
1) Him lazily walking up the court on defense in transition situations, rather than running
2) Him lazily watching the ball roll past during loose ball situations, rather than running for it
3) Him failing to run out to the perimeter quickly enough to challenge an opponent's jumper
4) Watching opposing offensive players drive past him like he's standing still
When you see him come into the game fresh, and play hard - then after 3 minutes on the court he starts showing all of the above tenancies, then I think it's pretty fair to assume that the drop off in his game (as minutes go on) has a lot to do with his questionable conditioning.
I think it is then (based on that) fair to say that his questionable conditioning is starting to have an impact his effectiveness on the court - and that's a problem.
So now we're seeing all of these images of 'slimmer Sully'. That's great.
However:
1) How many times in the past has he claimed that he's working hard on his conditioning?
2) How many times have we believed him, only to be made fools?
3) Why is it that it has taken until now (contract year) for him to take it seriously?
4) Why should we believe he'll maintain this over the season, and through the next contact?
These are all legitimate concerns, and very fair reasons for people to be hesitant to put faith in the guy.
If you were my boss, and you had been pushing me for two years to work on my IT certifications, and I kept saying I would do it but never did, then why would you trust me? If my contract when expired and was coming up for renewal in 6 months, and suddenly I actually started working on my training, would you then have the faith to offer me another 3 year contract renewal?
You need to remember basketball is a business. Sully is an employee, Brad Stevens is his direct manager, and Danny Ainge is the GM of the business. He's been told by his manager to do XYZ necessary development tasks, and he has ignored it. The
general manager of the company himself has then told him he needs to achieve XYZ, and he promised he would. Then after a year, again nothing. How many business do you know of in which that type of attitude would stand?
People completely forget that these guys get paid MILLIONS of dollars to play basketball - it is a professional career, not hobby on the side. Nobody forced Sully to play professional basketball - nobody put a gun to his head. He chose this career. If you choose to enter into a career that is highly dependent on physical conditioning, then you had better be prepared (and willing) to put in effort to keep your back-side in shape. If you aren't willing to do that then you should expect to receive criticism and you should expect to fall behind.
Just like I need to constantly put in the time/training to keep myself up to speed on the latest technologies in order to excel in my career as an IT professional (and yes, sometimes I need to sacrifice personal time to achieve this), a guy like sully needs to put in the time/training to keep his body running at his physical peak - even if that means sacrificing some aspects of his personal lifestyle.
If I (and every other successful professional out there) is willing to do it for a salary not even 1/10th of what Sully gets, then so too should be more than happy to do so given the stupid amounts of money a guy in his 'role' earns.