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| Thursday, December 13 Updated: December 14, 5:56 AM ET Robinson: 'We're supposed to be a family' By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com |
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My friends in print occasionally give me grief when I say on TV, "so and so told me today…" We do that to separate what we know and who we talk to from what other people know and who they talk to. Give you an example. Last week, I spoke with Glenn Robinson before a game, about his relationship with George Karl. Some of those quotes wound up in other publications before you got to read them here. Unfortunate. I guess I need to tell people to back up and back off when I'm interviewing guys.
Anyway, Robinson was hot about Karl's latest critique, a blast at Big Dog in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel after Robinson missed practice last Wednesday. The Dog had four main points of contention:
"I don't care who the coach is," Robinson told me. "If I'm hurt, I'm not practicing. I don't care who you are. I don't care how many games you've won, or what your history is. If my body is hurting me, if my body is telling me that I can't go, I'm not gonna go. And I'm not a guy who doesn't like to practice. Sometimes I don't agree with some of the practice, but I think all players are like that. Even when (Karl) played, he probably didn't agree with some of the practices that he had as a player. That's not good, to take shots (at) your players throughout the media when things aren't going right. "I mean, if that was George's character, if he did it all the time, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But there wasn't anything negative coming out about Glenn Robinson when we were 9-1, when we started off on a great year. And I'm sick and tired of that, every time things are not going right, that the finger is pointed at Glenn Robinson. I'm out here working hard. I've been working hard my whole career. I love the game of basketball. And all I want to do is win." I asked Robinson if his relationship with Karl could get better. "Well, I don't know," he replied. "Like I said, if that was the way he is, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But to throw shots like that on the surprise, on the sneak tip, I don't think that's right. That's not right at all. I've never said anything bad about him to the media or anybody. We're supposed to be a family. And if you're a family, you keep certain things in the house. Certain things you don't go to school and tell your classmates and tell everybody what happened at home, or why you're on punishment, or something your mother did. Certain things stay at home." The Big Three in Milwaukee all love Karl. And hate him. As he loves, and hates, them. Each knows how to push the other's buttons. Robinson acknowledges that the Bucks may not have started the season with the type of intensity that was required for a title contender, and that they could go to the basket a little more, and a little harder. And he knows it's Karl's job to get the most out of him, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell. But still ... "There comes a point when you do get tired of it," Robinson said. "I'm from Gary, Indiana. I'm from a place where people are down with you and talk noise all the time…but please don't take my kindness for a weakness."
Around the league
"It was easy for both of us (the Spurs and Pacers) to take those guys where we took them," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich acknowledges. "If we had had the 12th pick, would (we) have taken Parker? If we had had the 18th pick, would we have taken Parker? Probably not. We were in the exact right position." Whatever the reason, Parker has been an utter revelation. Yes, he played professionally in France, but the number of French point guards who've succeeded in the NBA is, um, well, there haven't been any French point guards who've succeeded in the NBA. "I was just talking with somebody about this the other day," Popovich said. "What this kid is doing is incredible. He's 19. He's from another country. He's playing the toughest position in the league. Nobody from Europe has ever made it at that position. Nobody. He doesn't know the offense or the defense yet. He doesn't know the players he's playing with. And he has two new starters to work with. We've got (Steve) Smith and (Bruce) Bowen trying to figure out what the hell is going on, so they can't really help him." Now, it is Parker's first time through the league, but he's already added 10 pounds of muscle for the inevitable pounding he'll get down the stretch of the regular season and playoffs. And once again, a Spurs player has stepped aside for the good of the team. This time, it was Antonio Daniels who gave up his starting point guard spot, in the tradition of Avery Johnson for Daniels last season, and Sean Elliott for Danny Ferry, and David Robinson accepting a lesser offensive roll for Tim Duncan. What is in the water down there? You try and try to stir up trouble, and their guys act like professionals. "We just try to be deadly, persistently honest," Popovich says. "They like it or they don't like it, but they know what the deal is." |
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