An open letter to Corey Maggette.
Okay, the Warriors are 17 games into the season and this might seem a little early, but it’s not. You all just went and lost six straight and now own a winning percentage of .294. And then there’s you: the guy on the team wearing a muscle suit who either cannot or will not use said muscle for the forces of victory, namely playing some damn defense. I’m talking to you Corey. Now I know, I know. Not since college have you really been asked for much on the less-glamorous end of the court. So there’s quite a bit of behavior modification that needs to take place. But just on the off chance that Don Nelson has been afraid of offending you, the $50M man, let me fire the first shot. Corey, play some defense. The muscles have to be worth more than this. You have worked too hard in the gym to be the softest, weakest, non-defending-est mofo in the arena.
While other people were happily watching college football over the long holiday, I was lost in the hopelessly depressing spectacle of the latter half of the Warriors road trip. And game after ever-more saddening game, the FTB’ers were playing a little game of our own. A little game we started calling Where’s Corey? You can do it before practice today. See, you play it like this: every time the Dubs broadcast team is forced to show a highlight of the opposing team because of it’s overwhelming awesomeness, ask yourself a little question, “Where was I?” Then run the clip back and look for yourself. The loss to the Knicks was the final straw, man. Watching David Lee sky to the rack over and over and over would be enough, but what made it unbearable was your general attitude with regard to hustle and defense. So. Here it is. Our little game. Make the jump, watch the highlights and play along with us in the Monday-morning edition of Where’s Corey?
What did you see? Sure, you had a dunk in there, but I don’t care. And I know you had 32 and 12. But that means nothing now. We’re here to talk defense for a minute. Here are some of the lows from the video in case you didn’t rewind because you were waiting for more of your dunks.
Somehow you still managed to pick up five personal fouls, while watching David Lee dunk on your teammates like 50 different ways. Now, just so you know it’s not just you that I’m not happy with, I do have to take a moment to ask you to speak to Jack for me. Stephen Jackson almost made me spit out a mouthful of Peet’s when I was reading the paper the other day. When he was complaining about the lack of ball movement. Dude, wait. What? If you’re the de facto point guard and you aren’t passing the ball, then you can’t complain about the lack of passing. But I digress. Corey, today is about you. And believe it or not I care. I want to see you thrive. I want success for you. But to get there, you have to shake off the legacy of not defending, not caring about not defending, and accepting losing as the inevitable consequence of both. Listen to yourself talk about it for a minute, first in the SF Gate when you were signed and then again yesterday with the CoCo Times, then we’ll finish up.
I’m a good defender, I don’t know what Dunleavy was talking about…I’m just playing. Sometimes you slack on defense and you get that (reputation). But my job is to come out here and play extremely hard on both ends of the court…But some guys are built to score and some guys are built to play D. And there are some guys in the middle that play well at both ends. Me, I’m just trying to fit in and do the right things. Especially with defense, it just takes knowing your rotations, your angle cuts the right way, and I know I can get better at that.
And today.
It’s tough, I’ve been in this situation my whole career where you lose and keep losing, you know. I’m not going to give up. I hope no one else does. I know Steve is not going to give up, if nothing else, and AB. So we just need to stay together. That’s the biggest thing.
What are you trying to say, Corey? Am I supposed to be getting used to this? Because I’m not going to. “Staying together” is not the biggest thing. The biggest thing is winning. And you’re supposed to be upset. Because you just lost. Badly. To the worst soap opera in all of sports, with the best player on said soap opera sitting at home suspended. And this is all you’ve got? A shopworn soliloquy about not giving up and staying together? Where’s the passion? Where’s the part about you trying harder?
So. Mr. Maggette. In conclusion, some requests. Please work harder on the other end of the court. Please put some wood on somebody once in a while just so they know you’ve made it down the floor. And do me this one favor. Own your responsibilities as a star. Own the results. For the love of God, you know that defense isn’t your strength and you know that you’ve had a lifetime’s worth of losing, so man up already and be the change. And if Don hasn’t screamed himself to within one aspirin of a heart attack about where that change begins, it begins 75 feet from the place where you do your best work.
Turman
PS. Sorry about comparing you to Thunder, our displaced mascot, with the picture and all. But seriously, if you don’t want to play NBA-caliber defense, I’m willing to settle for some trampoline dunks during timeouts and some t-shirts boomeranged in my general direction. No, wait. I’m not. C’mon Corey, I know you’re cool folks and you’re good with Baron and all. Just work with me on this. It’ll be the post-Clippers rebirth you were hoping for. Now beard up.
Al Harrington went for 36 points and had 12 rebounds. And David Lee? 37 posits and 21 rebounds?! Wow. Did I mention Duhon’s 22 assists? Shameful.
Oh, but Belenelli got his first NBA start. And put up 3 points.
Comment by Gd. | 11.30.2008 | 11:21 pm
Where did all of that frontcourt production come from? Hmm. Defensive lapses from Thunder Maggette and company? Methinks yes.
Comment by admin | 11.30.2008 | 11:43 pm
Do you think Matt Barnes would have stood around and let Lee smash on us like that? How about Frenchy? Even Croshere. Damn, I know it doesn’t seem like those guys were big contributors last season, but I really do miss their defensive hustle and intensity when on the court (even if it was not so controlled). I would love to have seen Barnes’s elbow find its way to Lee’s nose.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 12.1.2008 | 10:02 am
You’re right. The team seems to be in shambles and there is plenty of blame to go around. Corey, for his part, should certainly shoulder some of that. I too would like him man up and take the responsibility that goes along with his superstar salary. But if history tells us anything, that probably won’t happen.
What about Don Nelson’s part in all of this? I’m not feeling his strategy right now. If the Warriors are rebuilding then commit to that path, right? This despondent coach that’s neither here nor there is getting old. And fast.
Comment by Gd. | 12.1.2008 | 10:16 am
I agree that Nelson’s losing the plot here, but it’s also about individuals. You don’t let middling players scorch you like that on GP, not if you have a competitive bone in your body. I’m afraid we don’t have many of those inherently driven players on our squad right now. It’s not just about making rotations and knowing the angles. Sometimes it’s just about not wanting to get moted, period. Even if he wasn’t guarding him, do you think Kobe Bryant would have let that type of ish happen to the Lakers. He would have manned-up and taken on David Lee, Chris Duhon and the entire squad. That’s how a real competitor thinks, or rather reacts.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 12.1.2008 | 10:36 am
Maggette is softer than Mike Dunleavy jr. on D. There, I said it. He is. For Corey to be that soft given his physical attributes there must be an even softer heart beating in there somewhere. We got exposed for what we are with Jax out over the weekend. A bunch of heartless stars playing with a bunch of overmatched youngsters. Not a good look for our warriors.
The longer time passes, the more upset I get at not giving baron the contract he negotiated, or even a better one. The fact of the matter is, he kept jax and the rest of the launchers in check with his handle and he provided us with that physical, intimidating defensive presence on the perimiter. People complain all day about his game, but he was a great help defender and caused havoc with his ability to create turnovers. HE was the soul of this team, not Jax, and now we are stuck with a sidekick trying to be the man. Rowell bungled this to all hell and i for one am done living and dying with this team. They will have to play 500 ball for a good 20 games before I start giving a (insert four letter word) again.
I have watched lots of basketball in my day, and as a warriors fan I have watched a lot of BAD basketball, but this team really takes the cake for its indifference. Any chance we can trade Maggette for baron?
Comment by garin423 | 12.1.2008 | 11:25 am
I second what garin423 said.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 12.1.2008 | 12:02 pm
There are a lot of consiglieri vying for the title of capo right now. Agreed, Boom was the boss last year and that cleared up a lot of the issues around offensive strategy and ball movement. And as a havoc maker who created steals and encouraged pressure defense at the perimeter, he would assuredly be asking more of Corey too.
Comment by admin | 12.1.2008 | 12:19 pm
The only Dukie to even sniff the NBA Finals: Danny Ferry (whose role on the Spurs was as a spot-up shooter and moving screener).
It seems like every star out of Duke comes into the league with a specific skill set and either can’t or won’t stretch their game (nor effort) to accomplish anything outside of their comfort zone to help their respective NBA team. That’s why Elton hasn’t made Philly an insta-contender, why Dunleavy Jr. never lived up to his No. 3 pick status, and why Maggette has never done anything in his career other than score 20/game, shoot tons of free throws and work on his guns (no Plax, not those guns).
I’m starting to wonder whether the best NBA players out of college aren’t the guys who have to carry their own teams, the guys like Brandon Roy, Chris Paul or Tim Duncan who didn’t come from a team full of Mickey D’s All-Americans. Maggette should be a fourth-banana on a great team with tough leadership already in place, but teams like that don’t hand out 5/year, $50 million contracts to guys like Maggs.
Comment by BayAreaSportsGuy | 12.1.2008 | 2:44 pm
This is off topic but the Warriors situation has me thinking conspiracy plots.
I find it hard to believe Nellie would sign a contract extention with this team under their current makeup. In fact, I was shocked when it happened even before this team tanked so hard. Is Nellie purposely tanking this team while showcasing talent in an effort to put together a team tailor made to his liking? I mean Maggette was a straight up desperation move after losing baron and we got Crawford because we had to move Al. Given Nellie doesn’t believe Monta is the end all be all, you think Nellie negotiated something with Rowell that would give him the authority to m move all these guys for talent all the while positioning for the first pick in the draft?
I know people say he stayed on to be the winningest coach, but with this team it may take him three more years to get the wins he needs! This would also seem to make sense of the whole Mully freezing out by Rowell.
I need to think about stuff like this so I don’t think about all the three point plays we love to give up…
Comment by garin423 | 12.1.2008 | 6:11 pm
Or worse case conspiracy theory is that Nellie doesn’t care about the “Most Wins” achievement, and doesn’t care about ending his career with a competitive Warriors team, but wants to get fired and attempt to collect a paycheck into his first couple years of retirement. It would be hard to believe that’s the case. It’s hard work even just going through the motions, but anyway, that’s one conspiracy theory floating out there on the internets.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 12.1.2008 | 6:18 pm
Pull yourselves together gentlemen! It’s only the 18th game of the season.
Comment by admin | 12.1.2008 | 6:29 pm
Let’s see what the Dubs have to say tonight against the Heat…
“The NBA’s top scorer versus the league’s worst defensive team”.
Comment by Gd. | 12.1.2008 | 7:46 pm
Much better tonight Corey. I could see some real effort and hustle. Until that 14 year old dude, Quinn, hit a game tying three in your eyeball without you leaving the ground. Dude, you should have batted that into the 20th row. You’re a leaper. Worse still, you had a foul to give. Had you been closer sooner you could have grabbed his little ass and forced them to inbounds the ball again. Argh.
But thanks for the effort. I saw a difference. Keep working.
Comment by admin | 12.1.2008 | 11:42 pm
Hey Corey, I also saw you try and get a charging foul at the end of the game when you were up four with the game in hand. Thanks for that totally unnecessary three point play.
I have never seen a team fail to get so many loose balls over a period of so many games in my life. Thank God for CJ Watson. This is going to be a loooooooooooooong year.
Comment by garin423 | 12.2.2008 | 11:35 am
Isn’t “Where’s Corey?” a fun game? Now if I can just figure out a way to make it a drinking game.
Comment by admin | 12.2.2008 | 12:51 pm