I'm not going for convincing you to see it my way. In fact if we had a whole board of westkoast's it would be no fun :lol: We do agree, except we see some of the comments in a different light. Nothing wrong with that. Im with you on Okafor. I havent seen him play yet. Just going off of what I read about it. From what i've read and heard from others is that he has the potential to be a pretty good player. I actually dont think he's arrogant. He sounds confident to me and I like that in a player. Even if he doesn't have any idea about NBA life. Who would want to see a guy play who said words like 'Man im not really sure if I can do this, I guess its 50/50 we will see'. Hes a solid pick to add to any team, but most important a team that is still waiting for the foundation to dry. I just feel that alot of pressure is being put on to this guy by the Bobcat's, the media, and even himself. The Bobcat's are really riding for him. The reason I say that is because of the marketing they are doing in a city that just loves basketball. The Hornets never had a problem filling seats and I am sure the city is just happy to have a team back to watch. I think they should not focus in on one player and give the media more gas to put extra pressure on the guy. That's all. Other than that the jury is still out on the guy until at least the all-star break.
A franchise player to me, is a player that makes a whole boat load of different to the squad. A player who cannot be replaced. John Stockton to me was a franchise player with Karl Malone. If John was not around or couldn't play the Jazz would not have been successful for all those years. Same goes for Karl. Shaq/Kobe and Magic/Kareem same deal. You know the Jazz alot better than I do so when you say he wasn't a leader like that i'll treat it as the gospel. I was under the impression his hustle, his physical training, him never missing games, and his kind heart towards his teammates was him leading in his own way. I see Duncan as being one of those kinds of leaders himself. Quiet and not rowdy but still leads by example and how he carries himself.
You're right about riding Okafor a lot. The good thing for the Bobcats is that if there's any rookie who's got the mental strength to do it, it's Emeka. The guy taught himself calculus so he could skip a class, and he graduated with a 3.9 in business. Amazing!
