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| | Tuesday, August 29 | |||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||
Head coach L.A. Lakers 555 Nash St. El Segundo, Ca. Hi, Phil, Well, I see you signed J.R. Rider, so I don't have to ask how your summer's going, eh? I bet you can hear 'em laughing all weekend up there at the Blazers offices in Portland. They haven't had such a good time since Bob Whitsitt dumped J.R. on Atlanta. They actually had a party that day, Phil. Listen, Phil I want you to know I respect your skills as a coach and your knack of dealing with the guys. But, Phil, I've got to tell you it was a big mistake talking poor Mitch Kupchak into this one, it being his first deal as Lakers general manager. Phil, you and Mitch as good as surrendered your title when you signed my guy J.R. You poisoned the well. You let this charming snake oil salesman of a player win you over and he is going to damage your team both on the court and in the locker room and in ways you can't imagine. I know what I'm talking about Phil. I've seen J.R. in action. That smile's a winner, isn't it? And he only wants to win. He's told you that. Willing to do anything you want, eh, Phil? Team guy to the hilt. He give you that speech? So, tell me, Phil, after your guys ran their little background check -- Phil, you did a background check, right -- you decided that the Hawks, Blazers and T-Wolves didn't know what they were talking about? Combined, how many championships have they won the past 20 years? That's right, you've got them 7-0. That makes you seven times smarter. But all those titles can't help you now, Phil. Signing J.R. is going to be a disaster, even at $723,000. Especially at that low salary number because now Jay (that's what we all call him) has absolutely nothing to lose. At some point, he's going to decide that this isn't enough money to motivate him. Let me tell you how this thing is going to happen, Phil: First thing to know, Jay will go south when you least expect it. Might happen after you make him a starter or after you design some plays for him. Might happen after he's had a big game or a solid practice or after you've said something nice about him. Here's a particularly dangerous one, Phil: "J.R. has performed even beyond our expectations." Here's another dangerous statement: "J.R. has fit right in with this teammates." See, Jay will fit in, especially with the younger players because he's a very likable guy, likes to talk the talk with the kids, introduce them to his craps-shooting homeys. What's going to happen is one day Jay will show up very late for a practice. And then he will do it again. You will have the entire squad onboard the charter plane and Jay will phone to say he's in traffic. You'll leave him and you'll lose him. You don't leave him, you lose the rest of them. On the court, pal, you're gonna see that triangle turn into a circle soon as Jay gets the ball, backs and fills, looks and dribbles and dribbles and dribbles. Watch Shaq's face when that happens. Look at Kobe. They won't be happy. Phil, you won't be happy. Jay will decide on a Tuesday he isn't making enough money to start, that he wants to play off the bench. On Thursday, he will conduct one of his spontaneous press conferences and tell the writers he's not going to shoot more than five, six times a game, not for what he's making. A little story for you: One day Lenny Wilkens tells Jay he wants him to come off that pick on a catch-and-shoot. "You're our best shooter," Lenny says. "We don't want you to hesitate. Jay shakes his head, no. 'Can't do it. Got to look for my teammates. If I'm drawing the double somebody's open...' " This is a few weeks after Jay announced he needed to be The Man. This was a few days after he refused to start a game because another player was in the lineup during shootaround. This was a few days after he told Wilkens he had no interest in filling that Fred Brown sixth man role -- and who was Fred Brown, anyway? Phil you're not the only guy with an ego who says he can change a guy. Pat Riley was interested in Jay. I'd have paid to watch that. But Riles isn't a big fan of Lenny, figures he can do it better. Lenny thought he could change Jay with kindness and respect. He wasn't going to yell like Mike Dunleavy or P.J. Carlesimo. Pete Babcock, GM of the Hawks, was warned by his brother Rob, the Wolves personnel director, but he took a chance with Jay, anyway. And you're right, Phil, when you say that Jay's no Dennis Rodman, but your wrong about the differences. Winning was important to Dennis and he respected Mike and Scottie enough to behave some of the time. Jay won't be influenced. He isn't coachable. He won't change. He respects no one. He is smart, very smart and he will con you every day. And finally, Phil, that notion Jay will behave on a winning team ... he was suspended three games with Portland in '98-99, three games the previous year, two last season, plus three more that were never enforced because the Hawks cut him March 17. He was busted by county cops when they caught him in the back seat of a car, smoking pot out of a modified coke can, and he was pushed into counseling by the league after evidence he smoked heavily in an Orlando hotel room. He's gone to practice at the wrong gym, gone to the press table in the middle of a game to ask about his stats and gone on a profane rampage because unnamed teammates allegedly were laughing during a bad loss. During a game in Milwaukee one night, he argued with a fan about who was worth more money. In Oakland he left the bench and went into the stands to defend his brother in an argument. Learn from this, Phil. You'll be vacationing in Montana when the Blazers and Spurs play for the Western title. Sincerely, Jeffrey D. Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Lakers gamble by signing troubled Rider Denberg: Broken promises the norm | |||||
