Another take on Pooh

[David A Wickerham <aw623@freenet.buffalo.edu> (by way of wickerhd@govt.co.saratoga.ny.us (Dave Wickerham))]

Here's another view of Pooh Richardson which may be helpful when the Dee
Brown deal goes down:

       
       Dan Barreiro: Pooh sees radical change in Wolves
                                      
       Thirty minutes after the Timberwolves won a team-record sixth
    consecutive game on Monday afternoon, an original Timberwolf quietly
           dressed in the visiting locker room at Target Center.
                                      
      When he joined the brand new Minnesota franchise nine years ago,
   Jerome (Pooh) Richardson thought the basketball world was his oyster.
    Now, he knows better. On this day -- marking the fourth consecutive
   game in which he has not even gotten off the bench for the pitiful Los
    Angeles Clippers -- a shoot-from-the-hip kid has become a reflective
                                  veteran.
                                      
    "It's funny when I think back to my days in Minnesota," he said. "I
   was so much younger. A lot of strange things were going on around the
      organization. A lot of the veteran guys like Ty Corbin and Tony
   Campbell, they wanted out. So when you're a young player and you don't
    know any better, and you see other guys want out, then you want out.
                                      
   "But look at the way it is now. Now you see Sam Mitchell is back here,
    and Terry Porter is here, and now these veteran guys want to stay."
                                      
    Richardson believes there should be a moral to the story for a young
                         guy named Stephon Marbury.
                                      
    "Do you think they're going to be able to keep this team together?"
    Pooh asked. "I hope so, man. I told Sam, 'You tell Stephon [Marbury]
    to stay right here. Don't let him go. He's in the perfect situation.
   You can see this team is putting something together now, and it would
                     be a shame to throw that away.' "
                                      
    Richardson knows that Marbury is a New York kid who still dreams of
      playing at Madison Square Garden. Pooh does not pretend to have
   Marbury's gifts as a player, or his options as a marketable commodity.
   But he says this to Marbury: Be careful what you wish for. Richardson
   is a California kid who always wanted to play in Los Angeles. He does,
                        and it has been a disaster.
                                      
    "I think New York would be tougher for him, I really do," Richardson
   said. "There, no matter what anybody says, he's the fourth option. You
      know Patrick [Ewing] wants the ball, and it's gotta go to Allan
     Houston and Grandmama [Larry Johnson in the commercial]. Here he's
     growing up as part of the Big Three. This team has a chance to be
                                something."
                                      
      It was as if Richardson, now the wise old veteran, was saying to
                       Marbury, "Don't blow it, kid."