Thursday, June 25, 2015

Bustin' the Bust

Jalen Rose had a storied career, certainly not an overly successful career, and now is trying to weave his way through the media world currently employed by the ABC/ESPN conglomerate focusing on the basketball coverage. Earlier this evening, Jalen along with his colleagues had the responsibility of covering the National Basketball Association draft.  Didn't watch much of it so it's not really  in my place to critique it overly, but one particular comment Rose made really struck a chord.

Jalen's colleague, when describing Kristaps Porzingis, the Latvian who was taken by the New York Knicks with the fourth overall selection used the phrasing that he suspected that this pick could be in the bust territory, like a lot of the other recent New York Knicks first round picks. This assertation, which I didn't have a problem with personally because my bias(negative connotation) towards European basketball players took a nose-dive when the Toronto Raptors selected Andrea Bargnani back in 2006 who makes Michael Olowakandi look like the next Scottie Pippen. My favourite reference pertaining to Bargnani came from a broadcaster who's employed by the Fan 590/sportsnet, who shall remain nameless, referencing that he wouldn't trust Bargnani to cover the coach. It's ironic that Porzingis and said Bargnani will now be teammates because the way Porzingis projects, it's very plausible that these two will be on similar career paths. Torontonians can only sympathize with the fans of New York as Knicks supporters haven't had much to cheer about lately. Two lanky Europeans who are both built like myself, which is not a great thing to be eight feet tall and soaking wet. Not in the NBA anyways with pending defensive assignments against the likes of Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard etc etc who's ferocious physicality to will eat these two alive.

So Jalen, you say have the problem with the word "bust" hey.....let's take a closer look at your career. We'll begin his story with his success at Michigan, but really the only success he had was in his wallet because Michigan during the 1992-1994 seasons, paid players under the table, including Jalen who was part of the eclectic group ever known as the "fab five". He got paid to win a championship which years later tarnished the reputation of the Wolverine program itself and didn't instill a very good image of Rose and the other members of the five. Based on his college tenure, this blogger rightly or wrongly, considers it a wash.

Let's move on to the 1994 NBA draft, he's selected thirteenth overall by the Denver Nuggets. Commendable considering how high he was drafted but was aided by the program he was affiliated with in college and his exploits may not of been as recognized had he played with an institution that did things according to the rulebook.  Two non chalant years in Denver eventually landed him in basketball mecha o Indianapolis, Indiana with the Pacers. After some early team struggles when be began his tenure there, the team slowly transisted into an Eastern power. How so you ask, well it was because of the 90's version of Steph Curry, sharp shooting Reggie Miller. What I'm about to imply next most won't probably agree with but it's based on complete subjectivity and because I'm the author of this blog, of course it's right when I make the implication that the compliments Rose provided to Miller which on paper were serviceable statistics, doesn't live up to the high first round pick that he was. When I think of a thirteenth overall pick in their fifth to sixth year, I visualize someone that is a team leader, leading their troops to divisional titles and conference championship appearances. I do not view a veteran thirteenth overall selection as somebody who is riding coat tails and being a secondary piece for the team's greater good doing enough. Frankly, this is a bust and if you don't oblige to this opinion, well you're probably going to want to stop reading this blog as if you haven't already figured out by now, I speak in absolutes and my ego makes me believe I am always right so even though this may be an opinionated piece on the face, it might as well be factual coming from me.

We're now leaving the friendly city of Indianapolis and working our way towards Chicago. His memorability in Chicago is drawing a complete blank because ultimately he did nothing of significance. Two out of the three seasons he had in Chicago were injury plagued which unfairly usually leads people down the bust path, with him being no exception.

There are many variations of busts in all sports, but if my T
Jalen Rose had a storied career, certainly not an overly successful career, and now is trying to weave his way through the media world currently employed by the ABC/ESPN conglomerate focusing on the basketball coverage. Earlier this evening, Jalen along with his colleagues had the responsibility of covering the National Basketball Association draft.  Didn't watch much of it so it's not really  in my place to critique it overly, but one particular comment Rose made really struck a chord.

Jalen's colleague, when describing Kristaps Porzingis, the Latvian who was taken by the New York Knicks with the fourth overall selection used the phrasing that he suspected that this pick could be in the bust territory, like a lot of the other recent New York Knicks first round picks. This assertation, which I didn't have a problem with personally because my bias(negative connotation) towards European basketball players took a nose-dive when the Toronto Raptors selected Andrea Bargnani back in 2006 who makes Michael Olowakandi look like the next Scottie Pippen. My favourite reference pertaining to Bargnani came from a broadcaster who's employed by the Fan 590/sportsnet, who shall remain nameless, referencing that he wouldn't trust Bargnani to cover the coach. It's ironic that Porzingis and said Bargnani will now be teammates because the way Porzingis projects, it's very plausible that these two will be on similar career paths. Torontonians can only sympathize with the fans of New York as Knicks supporters haven't had much to cheer about lately. Two lanky Europeans who are both built like myself, which is not a great thing to be eight feet tall and soaking wet. Not in the NBA anyways with pending defensive assignments against the likes of Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard etc etc who's ferocious physicality to will eat these two alive.

So Jalen, you say have the problem with the word "bust" hey.....let's take a closer look at your career. We'll begin his story with his success at Michigan, but really the only success he had was in his wallet because Michigan during the 1992-1994 seasons, paid players under the table, including Jalen who was part of the eclectic group ever known as the "fab five". He got paid to win a championship which years later tarnished the reputation of the Wolverine program itself and didn't instill a very good image of Rose and the other members of the five. Based on his college tenure, this blogger rightly or wrongly, considers it a wash.

Let's move on to the 1994 NBA draft, he's selected thirteenth overall by the Denver Nuggets. Commendable considering how high he was drafted but was aided by the program he was affiliated with in college and his exploits may not of been as recognized had he played with an institution that did things according to the rulebook.  Two non chalant years in Denver eventually landed him in basketball mecha o Indianapolis, Indiana with the Pacers. After some early team struggles when be began his tenure there, the team slowly transisted into an Eastern power. How so you ask, well it was because of the 90's version of Steph Curry, sharp shooting Reggie Miller. What I'm about to imply next most won't probably agree with but it's based on complete subjectivity and because I'm the author of this blog, of course it's right when I make the implication that the compliments Rose provided to Miller which on paper were serviceable statistics, doesn't live up to the high first round pick that he was. When I think of a thirteenth overall pick in their fifth to sixth year, I visualize someone that is a team leader, leading their troops to divisional titles and conference championship appearances. I do not view a veteran thirteenth overall selection as somebody who is riding coat tails and being a secondary piece for the team's greater good doing enough. Frankly, this is a bust and if you don't oblige to this opinion, well you're probably going to want to stop reading this blog as if you haven't already figured out by now, I speak in absolutes and my ego makes me believe I am always right so even though this may be an opinionated piece on the face, it might as well be factual coming from me.

We're now leaving the friendly city of Indianapolis and working our way towards Chicago. His memorability in Chicago is drawing a complete blank because ultimately he did nothing of significance. Two out of the three seasons he had in Chicago were injury plagued which unfairly usually leads people down the bust path, with him being no exception.

There are many variations of busts in all sports, but if my reasoning above wasn't enough to convince you that Jalen had a very underwhelming career the the icing on the cake will be that as a high first rounder, he was traded for Donyell Marshall and the Pilsbury dough boy himself, Lonny Baxter to the Toronto Raptors. The combination of Marshall and Baxter can be compared to the hockey equivalent of being traded for Shawn Thornton and a seventh round pick. To continue to prove my case, shortly after acquiring the veteran, the Raptors announced a rebuild. In fairness to Jalen, by that point the Raptors were in year fifteen of their rebuild so it wasn't like Jalen was the first veteran to be thrown into basketball hell. His stats while in, as an ESPN broadcaster would say "Toronto, Canada"....can we please stop excluding the provincial designation when  name dropping a Canadian city, why don't we Canadians start sufficing that player X is from Miami,America or Bridgeport, America. Just a little pet peeve of mine that had to be vented at some point in this piece. OK, back to Toronto, and I mean their ain't much more to be said because like I mentioned earlier, his stats were serviceable but unfortunately not serviceable enough to assist Toronto into any kind of tangible playoff success.

To conclude this bust-tacular tale, his travels then took him to very same place I spent time ragging earlier and that being the Big Apple itself, New York City. As if Spike Lee didn't already have enough trouble having to be agonized by bitter rivals Miller and the Pacers, now he had one of those Pacers on his very own Knicks. And surprise, surprise he was a cap dump. Because, as we all know it's a first rounders dream to be considered a cap dump. He left New York contributing what he came to New York with, that being a big fat goose egg. Lastly, he goes to the wonderful city of Phoenix Suns. Phoenix is a warm, year round tourist destination and warm certainly isn't an adjective that would describe Rose's time in the sun, heck warm isn't  a way to describe his entire basketball career how I view him as a player which by now should be apparent that he was my idol growing up.

You hate the word bust Jalen, what's intriguing about that it's the very thing that defined your long but not so illustrious career.

Hope you enjoyed!

Brett Murray

E-mail:bhm26@hotmail.com

Twitter: @bretzky26

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