NBA Season 2017-2018 - Page 33

“I’m a person,” he says. “I’ve got real feelings and I’m not afraid to be vulnerable in front of people who watch us play or that follow the league. It’s f–ked up that you’re saying that stuff about me, because just a couple months before, I was the greatest thing since sliced bread because I was playing for your team. Your team is on TV every day, playing late into the playoffs and you get to brag about how good your city is to some other people around the country. It was all good when I was doing something for you. It was all good when I was representing you. Now I decided to take my career in my hands and I’m a ‘bitch’? That’s confusing … because some people that I’d seen that cheered for me, people that I actually talked to, the faces they were giving me, the tone they had when they looked at me, it was weird.

“Those people really mean a lot to me to this day,” he says. “No matter if they talk to me or they’re mad at me. Whether it’s Sam Presti or Troy Weaver or Russell Westbrook or Nick Collison. Whether it’s Wilson Taylor or Clay Bennett and his family, I love them from the bottom of my heart. We’re not talking, but eventually we will.

“I didn’t have that perspective at first. I didn’t have it when I went back to OKC. I was like, ‘F–k all of them.’ I didn’t have it when they gave my number away. I was, ‘F–k all of them.’ My best friend works for the team, I told him, ‘F–k all y’all. That’s f–ked up.’ Then I had to get out of my head, tell myself, ‘It’s not that serious, it is what it is.’ I understand it’s not my number anymore, they can do whatever they want with it, but you hand that number to a two-way player, you’ve got to be, like, ‘Nah, we’ve got too many good memories with this number, man.’ But at some point, that thing’s going to be in the rafters anyway; it’s all good. I did something they didn’t like. They did something I didn’t like. S–t happens. If I was on my death bed, I guarantee you Sam Presti and Russell Westbrook would come check on me. So I’m going to look at it that way rather than the other way.”

“If I [respond], it’s: ‘No, you’re sensitive. Shut up. You’re supposed to take it. Everybody did it. Michael went through it.’ I’m like, hold up. Michael Jordan did not go through this. You know what Michael Jordan went through? Reading the paper and it says, ‘Oh, Michael Jordan was 7-for-33 the night before, how the f–k is he going to bounce back?’ That’s criticism. Criticism is not, ‘_____, you moved to _____, you’re a bitch, a coward.’ That’s not criticism. Criticism is calling me Mr. Unreliable and bouncing back the next night.”

“Basically, Dallas was up in the series. With that being said, the way it was back then, was that the NBA would come in in order to extend a series, to go over plays that they felt should have went in Miami’s favor that didn’t and that went in Dallas’s favor that shouldn’t have and they started to program and training the referees to look for certain things.

I think basically Dallas basically got screwed out of a championship in that situation because the NBA started to manipulate the series to make sure it was extended and Dallas could never recover from it.

Let’s not forget at that time, Ed Rush was the supervisor of officials. And he hated Mark Cuban’s guts. He absolutely hated Mark Cuban.

He’s programming and training these referees to look for certain things that definitely put Miami at an advantage. Ed Rush used to tell us that Mark Cuban was someone that created a lot of extra work for us, constantly calling the league office and that really just got everyone to start to dislike Cuban."

On November 18 2017 13:19 Jerubaal wrote:


Not to nitpick, but it was Eratosthenes. :p

I just realized the irony...Washington Irving...Kyrie Irving.

Durant is falling into the current fallacy that because some people are being rude, you're excused to be rude.

LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested in China earlier this month for shoplifting sunglasses before the University of Southern California (UCLA) season opener in Shanghai.

Mr Trump claimed he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his help in the case.

"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal," Mr Trump tweeted. "I should have left them in jail!"

But Mr Ball's father, LaVar, told ESPN that Mr Trump had little to do with the players' release. “What was he over there for?" he asked of the President's trip to China. "Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

That same day, White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino fired back at the elder Mr Ball from his personal Twitter account.

"Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren’t for President @realDonaldTrump, his son would be in China for a long, long, long time!" Mr Scavino wrote. The President issued his tweet the next day.