Okafor in trouble again

[tazzmaniac]

Second, when the team paying him millions introduced him to the press he threw his jersey to the floor after the presser.

Okafor did not throw his jersey to the floor.  That was a video edit to make him and the Sixers look bad.  The unedited video clearly shows him laying the jersey down on the table top.   
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/29/jahlil-okafor-jersey_n_7686904.html

[tazzmaniac]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him. 

[pearljammer10]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him.

Yeah but hiding off court issues such as these (getting involved with them in the first place) is on him as well as its on the organization. The 76ers are a mess and they are putting their young foundation players in jeopardy of going down a terrible career path. It's a terrible precedent they are setting on their young players. Who is going to want to play for an organization that doesn't help guide and steer their players in the right direction?

[Moranis]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him.

Yeah but hiding off court issues such as these (getting involved with them in the first place) is on him as well as its on the organization. The 76ers are a mess and they are putting their young foundation players in jeopardy of going down a terrible career path. It's a terrible precedent they are setting on their young players. Who is going to want to play for an organization that doesn't help guide and steer their players in the right direction?

You can't blame the Sixers for the off court incidents of one player. 

[pearljammer10]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him.

Yeah but hiding off court issues such as these (getting involved with them in the first place) is on him as well as its on the organization. The 76ers are a mess and they are putting their young foundation players in jeopardy of going down a terrible career path. It's a terrible precedent they are setting on their young players. Who is going to want to play for an organization that doesn't help guide and steer their players in the right direction?

You can't blame the Sixers for the off court incidents of one player.

His actions are his own yes.

But the 76ers can assist in controlling that by bringing in a veteran presence to guide and role model for Okafor and the other youngsters on this team, by developing a better culture on court, off court, and within the locker room.

Put a guy in the locker room who is going to say, "Okafor last time you got drunk and tried to punch someone out you got a gun put to your head. Come watch game film with me instead."

Or: "What are you doing going 40 mph over the speed limit? You're going to jeopardize yourself, your career, and your teammates."

Or: "You're not going out in Boston tonight, we are having a team dinner, team meeting, and work on stuff."

That falls completely on the 76ers organization. Its a disgrace what they are doing to the game and these young players by developing a losing mentality. It results in behavior that Okafor is exhibiting.

[tazzmaniac]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him.

Yeah but hiding off court issues such as these (getting involved with them in the first place) is on him as well as its on the organization. The 76ers are a mess and they are putting their young foundation players in jeopardy of going down a terrible career path. It's a terrible precedent they are setting on their young players. Who is going to want to play for an organization that doesn't help guide and steer their players in the right direction?

If the Sixers organization is so bad, why aren't there stories of all their other players behaving badly?  Just because you have a losing team doesn't mean that you're not developing your players.  The Sixers, with their lack of talent, were a top 12 defense with Noel at center last year.  That doesn't happen if you're not focused on developing your players.  Here's a few items regarding player development from a good article on Hinkie's approach. 

Virtually overnight, the Sixers went from not even having Microsoft Outlook to having mandated biometrics. From day one, Hinkie has had every player wear a fatigue-tracking GPS device, made by an Australian company called Catapult, at practice. The team would soon measure hydration and, thanks to take-home monitors, sleep.

Two years into Brown's four-year contract, Hinkie has handed his coach a staff of more than a dozen, with individuals responsible for everything from offense and defense, to analytics, to sports science, to video, to strength and conditioning. One basketball-ops staffer, Lance "Doc" Pearson, has a Ph.D. in cognitive and neural systems from Boston University and degrees in mathematics, computer science and philosophy from the University of Kentucky. Another guy, who teaches team-building part time, is a Navy SEAL.

But exertion -- as with any goal for these Sixers -- is more than a cliché. After every game, a squad of as many as eight staffers, under the direction of Pearson and assistant coach Vance Walberg, constructs something called an Effort Chart. Every Sixer, on every possession, is graded on five complex, proprietary criteria. On offense, for instance, the team wants to reward pace, so staffers time a player's first three steps when a miss is recovered. On defense, they'll recognize accomplishments such as contested shots, tips and deflections. Report cards, linked to video for review, are announced to the team. "We set it up as a competition," undrafted forward JaKarr Sampson gushes. Brown harps on the team average -- a score of 20 is high -- and denotes improvement in 10-game chunks.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12318808/the-philadelphia-76ers-radical-guide-winning 

[moiso]

The Sixers are a bad team but it's not the JailBlazers here.  Okafor is the only one getting into trouble.  Maybe a mentor would help, but it doesn't guarantee that all of these incidents wouldn't have happened.  Plenty of guys get into trouble on teams with strong veteran leaders.  Didn't our own Glen Davis break his hand punching his friend despite KG, Pierce, and Allen being on the team?  An old fart isn't usually going to be hanging out with the 19 year olds anyway.

[Moranis]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

I haven't seen anything to indicate the Sixers knew about the first two incidents until after the 3rd incident was publicized.  I don't recall him exhibiting any other bad behavior (e.g. late to practice).  If Okafor was fulfilling his basketball obligations and there were no known off the court issues, the Sixers had no reason to rein him in.  Clearly they need to address the issue now but if Okafor continues to behave badly that's still on him.

Yeah but hiding off court issues such as these (getting involved with them in the first place) is on him as well as its on the organization. The 76ers are a mess and they are putting their young foundation players in jeopardy of going down a terrible career path. It's a terrible precedent they are setting on their young players. Who is going to want to play for an organization that doesn't help guide and steer their players in the right direction?

You can't blame the Sixers for the off court incidents of one player.

His actions are his own yes.

But the 76ers can assist in controlling that by bringing in a veteran presence to guide and role model for Okafor and the other youngsters on this team, by developing a better culture on court, off court, and within the locker room.

Put a guy in the locker room who is going to say, "Okafor last time you got drunk and tried to punch someone out you got a gun put to your head. Come watch game film with me instead."

Or: "What are you doing going 40 mph over the speed limit? You're going to jeopardize yourself, your career, and your teammates."

Or: "You're not going out in Boston tonight, we are having a team dinner, team meeting, and work on stuff."

That falls completely on the 76ers organization. Its a disgrace what they are doing to the game and these young players by developing a losing mentality. It results in behavior that Okafor is exhibiting.

There are so many assumptions and leaps in logic in this post it is ridiculous. 

[Celtics18]

So, NBATV keeps running this interview with Okafor and Dennis Scott.  Gotta say, young Oak doesn't come across as the sharpest tool in the shed in that piece. 

I know you don't have to be a rocket scientist or anything to be a ball player, but the kid seems pretty dumb.  We'll see how it affects his future. 

[PhoSita]

Shocker -- an NBA team that refuses to field experienced professionals on the floor and on the bench has trouble getting its young guys to act like professionals.


Exactly how many off court incidents did Okafor have while he was at Duke under Coach K?

[PhoSita]

I know you don't have to be a rocket scientist or anything to be a ball player, but the kid seems pretty dumb.  We'll see how it affects his future.

All of these incidents certainly don't make him seem smart.  On the other hand, typically guys who play at Duke are good character guys who are smart enough, at least, to play the game of basketball well, and often much smarter than that.

[Celtics18]

I know you don't have to be a rocket scientist or anything to be a ball player, but the kid seems pretty dumb.  We'll see how it affects his future.

All of these incidents certainly don't make him seem smart.  On the other hand, typically guys who play at Duke are good character guys who are smart enough, at least, to play the game of basketball well, and often much smarter than that.

I don't disagree with that.  Jahlil Okafor still doesn't come across as very bright or likable to me.

Justise Winslow, on the other hand, seems like a great kid.

This is of course based purely on my very superficial access to various videos and interviews.  I know nothing substantial about either of these young men. 

It's one of the pitfalls of fame, though.  When you are in the public eye, random citizens like me are going to form opinions about you based on not knowing everything that goes into the "whole person."

It behooves someone in the public eye to work to make a good impression.  I felt that most young people coming into the league last year managed to make themselves seem likable.  I never really took to Jah Okafor. 

The latest stuff about him certainly doesn't help. 

[PhoSita]

I know you don't have to be a rocket scientist or anything to be a ball player, but the kid seems pretty dumb.  We'll see how it affects his future.

All of these incidents certainly don't make him seem smart.  On the other hand, typically guys who play at Duke are good character guys who are smart enough, at least, to play the game of basketball well, and often much smarter than that.

I don't disagree with that.  Jahlil Okafor still doesn't come across as very bright or likable to me.

Justise Winslow, on the other hand, seems like a great kid.

This is of course based purely on my very superficial access to various videos and interviews.  I know nothing substantial about either of these young men. 

It's one of the pitfalls of fame, though.  When you are in the public eye, random citizens like me are going to form opinions about you based on not knowing everything that goes into the "whole person."

It behooves someone in the public eye to work to make a good impression.  I felt that most young people coming into the league last year managed to make themselves seem likable.  I never really took to Jah Okafor. 

The latest stuff about him certainly doesn't help.

He's not doing himself any favors lately.

I will say, though -- it seems to me that it takes intelligence to have the kind of post-game Okafor has, especially at such a young age.  He's not one of these centers who just gets by on athleticism and is more like a volley ball player than a basketball player. 

Also, leading a team to a national championship has to say something good about your character and leadership abilities, though I'm sure Coach K and guys like Justise Winslow (who I also like a lot) had something to do with it.

I'm just speculating, though, since I have no idea what it takes to be a particularly good basketball player, let alone a professional.

[Sketch5]

That's three incidents for a 19 year old in a few weeks. If the Sixers won't reign him in, his agents need to. Maybe the agency can find him a mentor since his team is apparently incapable.

What about his parents. Look at Sully's dad, and he was just being a baby.

If that was my kid, I'd fly my butt over and stick my foot up his backside. I get these kids have money, But I never pulled that crap in fear off disappointing my parents. Kinda shows you he got away with a lot as a kid, and now as a man/child he's having guns pointed at him. Time to grow up.

I could see this happening when Philly was trading vets for peanuts. Some people here thought it was great going supertank mode, but I could see how this could be an issue. I thought it would be more on the court than off the court though. I think this is why rooks were better on some part in the pre-2000's. Teams usually had vets they could learn from and would become better players.

 This is why I think DA went hard for Lee and Amir. Two stand up guys, good in the lockerroom, and keeps guys straight. Hope fully this rubs off on a guy like Smart and he becomes a better leader on and off the floor.

[Donoghus]

Video of a 2nd fight in Boston involving Okafor.

http://www.tmz.com/2015/12/02/jahlil-okafor-fight-second-video-boston/