Re: See, it's OK to be critical...

["Jim Meninno" <jam@london.com>]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>

> Antoine's not perfect. That's not a crime. But if it's OK to criticize
Kobe
> or Iverson or Jordan or other stars, why can't we criticize Antoine? He
can
> get better (don't you believe there's room for improvement when you're
> shooting 38 percent? And that 3-point percentage that seemed so gaudy
early
> is down around 35 percent now, not so gaudy at all).

Who ever said that Antoine couldn't get better?  I haven't seen anyone
writing that.  Of course he could get better.  I could get better, you could
get better, everyone could get better.  I think the issue is that you go on
and on and on about how he does what he wants instead of what the coach
tells him to, and the only evidence you give is that after three and a half
years of banging their heads against a wall for Rick Pitino, Antoine and the
rest of the team gave up.  They're 15-8 and their coach is praising Antoine
and Paul night after night.  Some of us would like to know what more you
need to convince you that winning is actually what is important to them.

>I'm not saying Antoine is a bad player or the team would be better off
>without him. But the only thing keeping him from being great is his own
>judgment. Don't settle... attack the basket... post up... then use the
>3-pointer as a weapon playing off the rest of your game. There's no way our
>best big guy, best rebounder, best offensive rebounder and best passer
>should be shattering the NBA record for 3-point attempts by some 200
heaves.
>No way.

I can't tell you how tired of this debate I am.  Bottom line, for me, is
that Antoine doensn't have the kind of inside game that can be consistently
effective against good post defenders.  I wish he did, but he doesn't.  If
the team had a player like that, I certainly would hope that Antoine would
sacrifice some of his "heaves" to get that player some shots.  But, they
don't, and they're winning, so I'm gonna just go to the game tonight and try
to enjoy it.

Jim