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Bell's Comments After Being Benched

Raja's biggest selling points were being fiery (the Kobe incident) and his leadership. I have not followed him prior to this year, so, has he always spoken out like this, or is this the first time?

It seems like he has been slowly but surely getting less and less happy as a player, losses aside.
 
I think everyone is unhappy right now. I know I sure am. Everything collapsed when last summer everyone thought things were headed nowwhere but up. AJ, Raja, Hayward, Evans, and our regular guys all saw a new dynamic with AJ and D Will, the top PG and arguable top 5 player in the league as the leader, an estalished coach, everything pointed to at least some modicum of success, then it all falls apart. I am pleasantly surprised that what we have heard along these line has been so tame. Everyone is unhappy and I don't blame them. I do, however, blame them for sub-standard play as a result. I know I have had plenty of times I have been unhappy at work, but I still put in the work I am paid to do. They need to do what they are being paid to do as well.
 
vegas said:
Raja's biggest selling points were being fiery (the Kobe incident) and his leadership. I have not followed him prior to this year, so, has he always spoken out like this, or is this the first time?
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The entire '03/'04 team still has treadmarks from Raja throwing them under the bus. You can also ask KOC how his last attempt at re-signing Bell went.
 
I agree with the first sentence of Log.
I never thought the team was so good this summer, and was always surprised at how little the success of recent jazz teams was appreciated by the fans, especially last season and the beginning of this season.
 
Bell won us that one game, so he should be able to say whatever he wants.
I don't care if he's shooting 30% from the field because he can run a good curl and he takes a mean charge.

That being said... he should be saying it from the bench.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I know I have had plenty of times I have been unhappy at work, but I still put in the work I am paid to do. They need to do what they are being paid to do as well.
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Actually we expect quite a bit more of them then showing up and doing their job. (which is how I approach work) We expect them to hone their skills, give 100% effort, consistantly improve, win the game (not just play it) etc. etc.

Maybe you do that for work but I show up, do my job and go the **** home. I do travel weekly so we have that in common.
 
Is there an age cap on the D-League? Because that's where Raja needs to go to work on his "game"...
 
If its really better for the team like he says it is, then just accept your new role and keep your mouth shut.
Raja needs to realize he provides nothing to the team other then being a veteran leader. And now he just screwed that up by causing more problems in the locker room.
 
Did anyone Listen to Raja on Locke's show this afternoon? How did he explain his comments?
 
Dread said:
Actually we expect quite a bit more of them then showing up and doing their job. (which is how I approach work) We expect them to hone their skills, give 100% effort, consistantly improve, win the game (not just play it) etc. etc.

Maybe you do that for work but I show up, do my job and go the **** home. I do travel weekly so we have that in common.
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Actually I view this as setting and managing expectations. What you listed as presumably beyond the expectations of the job I think are simply the basic expectations for a person getting a million dollar salary. In my mind the simple basic expectation is for 205 hours per year to actually show up and give that 100% (82 games X 2.5 hours....yes actual playing time is less but let's at least expect them to be ready to play the entire duration of a game). If your boss wanted you to give 205 hours of top-notch effort would you consider that unreasonable? That is only 10% of a standard work year. Is that really such a terrible expectation?

In terms of those expectations, if you weren't at least meeting your employer's expectations you wouldn't be there any more. Some of us hold ourselves to higher standards in these terms and that is fine, but the key is still meeting your employer's expectations. In the case of NBA players I would think the expectation would be to actually play as you are required and asked to play. Standing around like quadraplegics on defense is probably not within the scope of the expectations for the job. I do not think it is too much to ask for a person with a multi-million dollar salary to get a hand in a shooters face or actually chase down a loose ball.

If I were not meeting my employer's expectations as far as my job were concerned I would expect to be disciplined or fired, or I would have to get my *** in gear and do what I was being paid to do. Why not expect that of NBA players too?
 
mellow said:
Did anyone Listen to Raja on Locke's show this afternoon? How did he explain his comments?
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footinmouth.jpg
 
Raja's comments were stupid, but I thought his interview with Locke today was pretty good. I don't remember a lot of what he said, but he seemed to say that he is willing to take whatever role Coach Corbin decides is best. He said he still completely supports Corbin and doesn't want to be traded or anything like that.

Regarding the one on one comment about CJ, Raja stated that the team has run Sloan's system, but Bell thinks that the team has done a lot of one on one stuff this season and it often has worked the best. He said he didn't mean it as a dig at anyone.

Regarding the comments about Coach: He just said he wishes Corbin would have sat down with him a little bit and not just said it in passing. He said he realizes Corbin is busy (in response to Locke asking when Bell thought Corbin had the time to sit down with him) but just wanted Corbin to give a little more info like "hey bell, we think you can help off the bench" or "we think CJ can be better starting."

CJ said that he has seen this move coming for a while, but just wanted to be talked to a little bit about it. He also said he is open to eventually handling 15 minutes a night but doesn't think he is ready (mentally I think he meant) to do that yet.

Locke pointed out that his stats are about statistically the same this year compared to his last year in Phoenix, but that Bell is getting about 3 less shots (3 pointers) a game so it doesn't seem like he is in a huge slump. Bell stated that he has gone back to looking at his old stats to remind himself that it isn't as bad as it feels sometimes. He said this year has been more frustrating, not really disappointing. He is most frustrated that the team started off so hot and has subsequently struggled.

He basically seemed to try and say all the right things about being willing to do whatever is best for the team.

There was more than this and this is a pretty crappy summary. I am writing down this stuff a long time after listening to it. So someone else will probably want to correct some of the things I remembered or misstated.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Actually I view this as setting and managing expectations. What you listed as presumably beyond the expectations of the job I think are simply the basic expectations for a person getting a million dollar salary. In my mind the simple basic expectation is for 205 hours per year to actually show up and give that 100% (82 games X 2.5 hours....yes actual playing time is less but let's at least expect them to be ready to play the entire duration of a game). If your boss wanted you to give 205 hours of top-notch effort would you consider that unreasonable? That is only 10% of a standard work year. Is that really such a terrible expectation?

In terms of those expectations, if you weren't at least meeting your employer's expectations you wouldn't be there any more. Some of us hold ourselves to higher standards in these terms and that is fine, but the key is still meeting your employer's expectations. In the case of NBA players I would think the expectation would be to actually play as you are required and asked to play. Standing around like quadraplegics on defense is probably not within the scope of the expectations for the job. I do not think it is too much to ask for a person with a multi-million dollar salary to get a hand in a shooters face or actually chase down a loose ball.

If I were not meeting my employer's expectations as far as my job were concerned I would expect to be disciplined or fired, or I would have to get my *** in gear and do what I was being paid to do. Why not expect that of NBA players too?
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Because they belong to a union. Wanna feel like a NBA player? Move to NJ or Cali and get a unionized job. Then you can listen to Bon Jovi songs and think of how horrible it would be if you had your union go on strike and had to work on the docks. The key word not being docks, but work. ;)
 
green said:
Because they belong to a union. Wanna feel like a NBA player? Move to NJ or Cali and get a unionized job. Then you can listen to Bon Jovi songs and think of how horrible it would be if you had your union go on strike and had to work on the docks. The key word not being docks, but work. ;)
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D'oh! I forgot the union connection. We really are screwed.
 
“The way he we play is a lot of 1 on 1 a lot of guys just trying to create for themselves and that is not my forte.”
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Are you kidding me? I've probably only seen half the games this season so I'm not sure how much this is true now, but back in his first stint with us that was his game -- take the ball, break outside the offense, and go one-on-one. Of course, this was tolerated since he and Harpring were Jerry's pet players.
 
"It was a brief conversation, one that Raja wishes had more teeth to it"

funny, that's how I feel about his play...
 
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