Darko's Weltanschauung ist ein Wolfen Weltanschauung
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 5:35 PM CST
140 comments
636 comments in the game thread. 407 comments in the game wrap-up. All of this attention for the arrival of an out-of-shape backup center on a 13-win squad. Why the love for Darko? Why the #darkogasm?
We remaining Wolves fans are a beaten-down group. Malik, the Joe Smith deal, Paul Grant, Steph going crazy, the 1999 Draft, Wally's contract, Cassell's injury during the WCF, Latrell's quest to feed his family, Ndudi Ebi, Mike James and Ricky Davis, Foye for Roy, McCants over Granger, KG's wasted prime, still owing a 1st round pick for the Marko Jaric trade, throwing in a 1st rounder for Marcus Banks, the Flip firing, the Casey firing, the Wittman hiring, finally sending KG out of town, and spending the last 3-4 years cheering for little more than cap space and draft picks; we're a tad cynical, a bit quick on the panic/hyperbole trigger, and, like a kicked dog, a bit uneasy about sticking our nose out in the open to sniff around the fresh box of kibbles that the new guy in town is laying down for our puppy perusal.
Why on earth would such a group be so excited about a guy described by his new boss as "traumatized" and "distraught"?
Whether he is aware of it or not, Darko knows exactly what it is like to be a Wolves fan. We know traumatized and distraught. We know it like the backs of our hands. Most of us who are still fans have probably had the conversation with ourselves about what it would take for all of the bad stuff to add up to a one-way ticket off the bandwagon. Like Darko, we constantly wonder if we should just give up and head off to our own personal Europe: Thunder fandom. We stick around for the hope of redemption. We stick around for the hope that, one of these days, the Wolves will land an A1 player in the draft and/or get lucky in free agency with a yet-to-be-developed gem. We do this year after year, despite the lotto balls never landing in our favor or the useful free agents never landing in our airport.
We want Darko to make it on the Wolves. I won't go as far to say that we need him to succeed and stay, but him doing so as a productive player would be a victory not only for the team and its roster, but for its fan base. Here is a guy that was left for NBA dead, a guy who was all set to head back home before he found a new place to play with a franchise that has never before polished up an unproven gem or attracted anything worthwhile. If he makes it here, the team we root for will have finally pulled something out of the fire instead of the other way around. This is why there is so much interest in Darko. This is why fans are so quick to embrace him and hope for the best. We like reclamation projects because we are hopeless Wolves fans who are reclamation projects all unto ourselves. If you don't believe me, wait until your ticket rep calls with an offer of 50% discounted 2010 season tickets. Darko making it back with the team as a whole would make a lot of this nonsensical hobby worthwhile...at least more than the modest amount of joy we get with late-season victories over teams who are resting their best players.
Is this hyperbole? Perhaps, but this is a fanbase on its last few straws and we'll grasp for any sign of hope. Darko is at a similar place in his NBA journey. Here's hoping that we all find something we can hang on to and pull ourselves up.
PS: I should also note that by writing this I have convinced myself that I have personally doomed any chance Darko had at success with the Wolves. His next outing will be 7 minutes of over-winded action resulting in 4 turnovers, a thrown-ball technical, and some nasty looks on the bench. Such is the life of a modern Wolves fan.
PPS: With all of this talk about Eastern Europeans and Weltanschauung, I think we need a German saying to wrap this little ditty up. How about this?
Lassen Sie uns atmen und vermeiden Tod.
1 recs |
140 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
so say we all
We love Darko because we ARE Darko.
And when he moves back to Europe, we will move with him, to the mythical land of Ricky Rubios and Nikola Pekovics. And we won’t have to hang our hopes on Europeans wanting to be here, because WE will be THERE.
Also: health care!
by losDelFuego on Feb 22, 2010 5:49 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
i have high hopes for this comment thread...
…And that was a hell of a way to start. Sehr gut.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 5:52 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Ich bin ein Darko!
No, I don’t speak German. As that nasty women in Dusseldorf once pointed out.
"I was trying to focus on breathing," Milicic said. "I was just focusing on breathing so I didn’t die."
I was walking around...
…a university area of Seoul when all-of-a-sudden a fairly nasty anti-American protest broke out. Now, one of the things you are told if you are an American stationed in Korea and something like this happens is that a) you make a bee-line back to the embassy or base and b) you suddenly become something other than an American if you are confronted.
I had a young Korean woman come up to me and angrily ask me if I was American and I said, “Nein, Ich bin ein Deutscher.” She proceed to answer, in what I suspect was perfect German, something along the lines of “No way, you sound nothing like a German.”
Thankfully, the humor of the situation overcame the politics and I was able to explain to her in Korean why I was laughing and how the last thing I suspected at that particular point in time was to run across a Korean who was fluent in German and how I should have simply stuck with the ol’ “I’m a Canadian” standby. And yes, she thought that was pretty funny too.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Walking around Sivas, Turkey
I was taking pictures of some Selcuk architecture, and turned around to snap a couple of photos of two very young kids, a boy and a girl. They were carrying home a heavy bucket full to the brim with water, each of them holding one end of a stick through its handle. The stick broke, the bucket sloshed some water out, they were struggling with it…. I went over and grabbed the handle, and gestured for them to show me where to carry it.
We walked along in companionable silence for a bit, and then the little girl (the most adorable little girls in the world live in Turkey) looked up and asked “Bist du vrum Deutschland?” in German clear as a bell. Lots of Turkish people know German, before reunification there were loads of migrant laborers from Turkey living there. I thought for a second and gave the truth instead of the Canada answer: “Nein, ich bin vrum Ah-mehr-ree-kah.”
When we got to their house, their mom said something very long in Turkish to me, beneficently, and offered me a room for the night. But I was taking the bus back to Ankara that night. Lost opportunity.
"It has come to the editor’s attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission."
Damn that’s nothing sort of hilarious … what are the odds!
Official Kahn/Rambis band-wagon rider since 2009
by Wim (Belgium) on Feb 23, 2010 10:47 AM CST up reply actions
Australians always do better in France
When they realize we’re not British…
Germany was the only place my phrasebook communication wasn’t appreciated (and I always make an effort). The mean girl in Dusseldorf was in fact English. Bitch.
"I was trying to focus on breathing," Milicic said. "I was just focusing on breathing so I didn’t die."
by Auswolf on Feb 23, 2010 2:17 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
you'd be surprised...
how many asian people learn german without living here nor having relatives. ;)
i pretty much hate my language so i can’t even imagine their motivation to learn it. in germany half of the common, daily used words are already english (or as we call it: “denglisch”, a mixture of a german and english word), so why would you try to learn all the old stuff.
maybe i know one reason: germans older than 30 aren’t capable of talking appropriate english or communating in any other way, so business partners across all continents have to learn german :o)
Darko Bandwagon
Awesome job.. stop-n-pop
Danke
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 8:07 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Agreed
Never has personal schadenfreude been so eloquently or enticingly put.
"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."
The #1 reason I am a tiny bit hopeful
is that I’ve been following the Wolves since KG was a rookie, and like the entire time everyone said “Well, we need X, Y, and Z. But the #1 thing the Wolves need is a legit 7 foot center who can defend the rim”. I mean like every single season.
The best we got was the occasional good game from Garrett/Kandi and the remains of Ervin Johnson.
During those brief bursts of competence, the Wolves seemed to play much better.
Last night … ditto.
I am also concerned about comments from Orlando fans about how he’d look great one game and completely out of it and moody other games.
However, I agree with your points
"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." -- Yogi Berra
Das ist nicht gut
Ich bin nicht gut Deutsch lesen.
One thing to consider...
Does signing Darko limit are ability to sign Gay?
Well, any additional signing would reduce our cap space
So yes.
But we’re not getting Gay anyway. An extra spot open in New York, plus extra space in Sacramento, Washington, and Los Angeles means there are that many more teams with money to spend. Wherever Gay goes, he’ll be getting massively overpaid.
Morey made an interesting point on Simmons...
… that he thinks any top-tier player movement will be predicated on sign-and-trades, which favors a team with enticing assets and some cap space, not necessarily teams with shit tons of cap space and nothing to send back to the contract team. The sign and trade angle hasn’t been tossed around here too much, as we’re all pretty much moaning about being a mil or two short of max space. It seems to me much more likely, however, that one of the big hitters would rather sign for hometown money and leave, all things being equal.
Interesting
Though we fit the description of a team with the requisite parts to be on the receiving end of a sign-and-trade, there’s still the matter of convincing a player to come to a cold weather, mid market team that just finished with the league’s 2nd worst record.
The hometown money aspect of sign-and-trades means the team with Bird Rights can go what would be the max to sign them. For guys like Gay, Johnson, and Boozer, who likely can’t get the full max, the only benefit they stand to receive from relocating via sign-and-trade rather than an outright signing is for their contracts to be a year longer. I’m not sure how much that matters to them.
Just thought of another thing
It’s interesting that Morey would say that teams with some cap space plus lots of spare part assets to send back via S&T are the ones who could have the best shot at the big names, because that describes his team to a T. Or at least it used to. Before the SAC/NYK trade, Houston was going to have ~$10 million in cap space with a lot of young, cheap, expendable players. Was he preaching this angle before the trade to generate interest from the Houston fanbase and is now trying to be consistent? Or does he really believe it, but thought the value the package he got from SAC/NYK was worth exiting free agency for?
To his credit...
… he got a few pick-type chips back. Not anything that would get a deal done, but something that could sweeten something built around, say, Ariza. If I remember correctly (and that’s a big if here), he said something like, “As you know I’ve been saying all along, I think these players are moving by sign-and-trades,” and then went on to say how they’re set up pretty well for something like that. At the very least, the whole thing prompted me to start thinking that squeaking out that max space in the next few months is probably not going to keep us from playing entirely. It may just be possible for some players to make themselves, their agents, their former team, and their new team all reasonably happy. I agree we’re still unlikely, just something to chew one.
No
Jefferson would headline a sign and trade deal with Memphis for Gay.
It does lay bare our suffering and misery doesn't it?
Drooling over a perennial underachiever who hates the NBA and has about a 2% chance of being here any more than 12 hours after the last game of the season?
Frankly it might have been better when we didn’t speak of how bereft we actually are; we all knew how bad it was, but now that it’s’ forced itself front and center, can we even look in our collective mirror—a mirror that goes by the name of Darko?
by Eric in Madison on Feb 22, 2010 6:13 PM CST reply actions
it does and yes...
…We are a sad, sad group. We may as well own up to it at this point. Wir sind Darko.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 6:20 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Rambis reveals that
Darko is really the love child of Κυριάκος Ραμπίδης, aka Kyriakos Rambidis, from his playing days in Greece.
"Never make predictions, especially about the future." Casey Stengel
Ich bin ein Darko-liner!
"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."
by biggity2bit on Feb 22, 2010 10:02 PM CST up reply actions
Ich bin ein Darko-liner!
"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."
by biggity2bit on Feb 22, 2010 10:02 PM CST up reply actions
Sounds good with a good cup of French Roast
"Never make predictions, especially about the future." Casey Stengel
If only I had read on..
"I was trying to focus on breathing," Milicic said. "I was just focusing on breathing so I didn’t die."
Wolves Coverage...
Did anyone else notice during the Wolves round table when they listed all of the 2nd tier Free Agents available in 2010? I seem to remember the list consisting of (Tyson Chandler, TJ Ford, Jamal Crawford, Kelenna Azubuike, Joel Przybilla, Josh Howard, Brendan Haywood, and Rudy Gay). I know the fact that half these guys aren’t actually available should make me mad, but it just made me laugh. I’m not being sarcastic when I say I love our Wolves coverage. It’s the Mom and Pop Shop of NBA coverage.
Kelenna Azubuike makes me sad...
….because we had a chance to sign him for basically pennies and didn’t
Having him here on the local team
is the only reason I’m not quite as sad. But man he would have improved the Wolves. His injury makes me sadder than anything.
The Warriors may screw up everything else, but they find some incredible D-League/undrafted talent (and that 2nd rounder Ellis).
I don't care how pathetic it is...
the Wolves have been my favorite team since their inception and always will be. Now that I live in Dallas I can you to scratch Haywood off of the available list. He gets big time love already here and Cuban spends money to keep what he wants…he is no longer available. I think Darko will work out (maybe I just hope…s#!t he could be the best Wolves center ever since I can’t of any good ones we’vre had). Also, I think Azubuike would be a good addition for a second tier guy. Brewer, Azubuike and Turner (I hope) is a nice wing rotaion.
Darko
I would love nothing more than for Darko to fit in with the Wolves, play well, and sign a modest deal. But these things are almost mutually exclusive. If he plays really well, teams will overpay for him. The only thing we have going for us is that we’ll give him a legit shot and maybe he’ll be happy enough here to take a modest salary. Or maybe he’ll be happy here and play in Europe anyway.
The exact same thing happened with Chauncy. We gave him minutes. He played well. Then signed somewhere else and became a star.
The flip side is Marcus Banks. We gave him a shot. He played well. Someone gave him a great contract and he walked. We lucked out on Banks, not so much Chauncy. The ideal situation for the Wolves is to give Darko another 1 year deal, with a player option for a second year.
by Mac of the MIAC on Feb 22, 2010 6:36 PM CST reply actions
While this aptly exemplifies the jaded nature of a wolves fan...
I think the last thing we should be worrying about right now is another team stealing Darko away from us.
:)
We are goofy, aren’t we?
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 7:34 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Ya
I don’t think Darko signs with another team if he does well here. It’s kinda like Birdman in Denver – we gave him the shot, and if he chooses to stay it’s because (arguably) he found something here that transcended money or stats – a degree of happiness. I think if he rediscovers his fun and enthusiasm for the game here, then what can any other team offer? Why leave the one NBA situation you’ve played well at and like who’s offering you a contract?
"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."
by biggity2bit on Feb 22, 2010 10:00 PM CST up reply actions
Your 1st paragraph could actually be good for the Wolves
Assuming Darko plays well enough to warrant a contract extension, the Wolves should make sure they do not overpay. If he forgets how miserable he was a week ago and signs for an extra mil somewhere else where he may be miserable, it would be proof he cares more about the money than playing, and in that case will probably be back to begging for a contract extension. If he stays here for less, you know he wants to be a player, not just make money.
For the record
The wolves wouldn’t pay chauncey because they had brandon. McHale told him that brandon was their guy and told him to go to Detroit.
A Darko Fan since 2010!
by TheEvilProfessor on Feb 22, 2010 7:03 PM CST up reply actions
Perhaps a more understandable mistake than many McHale made
but it probably still makes the top 3 with Roy→Foye and Allen→Marbury.
Less understandable
for the fact that Brandon retired without ever playing another game after Chauncey left.
Well it's not like we knew Brandon wasn't going to get healthy again
He was a top point guard at the time, and getting paid a ton. We expected him back, and it didn’t make sense to spend the kind of money it would have taken to retain Billups with that expectation.
I for one
will readily admit that I thought Chauncey was a knucklehead at the time.
I also recall even after he won the finals MVP in ‘04, there were still plenty of talking heads that said this will be one of those ’look back and ask, how the heck did that guy win it?’ years. “Mr. Big Shot” was a long time in the making…
Dark Love is a-Brewin...
People forget...
…that Troy Hudson had a better first year here than Chauncey. Problem was, he had injury problems the following years, just like Brandon
I can't claim to be one
but there were many who said at the time the Wolves were foolish for keeping Brandon over Chauncey. My biggest question is would Chauncey have been this good w/o playing for Larry Brown?
Even if not
he still was one of the best other players of the KG era.
by wouldn’t pay you mean ‘offered as much as Detroit and the chance to compete for the starting spot in training camp’ I guess. Chauncey turned down our offer for the guaranteed starting spot in Detroit rather than earning it here.
BTW, how can KG’s contract not be on that list? It probably had a bigger impact on our ability to do anything than all the others combined.
It was the Wolves Seabiscuit moment
Broken down, hard luck team, finds a frustrated, angry center who doesn’t fulfill the promise of his overhyped lineage. For at least one night they find some magic. Now let’s see if Kahn can keep the team and player together and going in the right direction.
It also didn’t hurt the story line that this may seriously have been one of the 10 best games in Wolves history by a 7 foot center. Worthy of at least a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
serbobuscuit
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 7:36 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
If you can get that nickname to stick over the next couple months
maybe he’ll be back next season.
Let’s all practice:
Serbobiscuit
Serbobiscuit
Serbpbiscuit
You can have a 60% imaginary internet credit share
;)
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
I will say this
those game threads reached those numbers more so because of the obnoxious arguing that took place. I also think the format of the game drew more attention than a normal game would have. But Darko certainly did add to those numbers. I think I read a short 1-10 word comment about how amazing Darko was playing probably 50-75 times.
If Darko doesn’t want to come back after this year, I certainly hope Kahn offers to buy out the remainder of his contract for a reasonable amount. And by reasonable I mean at an ok discount for us. I don’t think Darko would take the buyout at that point anyways, but I do think he would appreciate the gesture and maybe rethink his decision… or at the very least he is even happier with how our franchise treated him and he spreads the word. I mean, if a guy like Navarro (I don’t think Pau ever really said much negative about Mem did he?) can have that big of an impact on the Grizzlies fortune, Darko should be able to get a few listeners as well.
I think
Darko’s contract expires after then next 20 odd games, so no need for a buyout. Unless you meant that he’d want to leave before this season is over.
"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."
by biggity2bit on Feb 22, 2010 10:03 PM CST up reply actions
Well
he did say he was angry with NY for trading him rather than buying him out… so yeah, I think if things don’t continue to improve he will want out rather than wasting his time playing 20 games and maybe getting injured in the process (although he does need the conditioning… so a player that we really want to resign in the first place would probably not want the buyout with no chance to sign witha Euro team at this point anyways).
Another concern
is maybe he just views this as a chance to show Euro teams he can still play and the attitude imporvement and effort is just an act so he can get a Euro contract. But hopefully he still feels he has something to prove in the NBA and will sincerly want to give it a shot. Big guys that can defend and rebound are worth a lot in the NBA just look at Gortat and Pryzbilla who both make between 6-7 million per year if Darko decides to stay for half that and can play at a decent level through the end of the season he may be worth it for our team.
How much?
How much is he worth to you? If the Euros offer him 5 million would you go 6?
by TheMorningAfter on Feb 23, 2010 4:49 PM CST up reply actions
A lot depends on how he plays
but I think 6 is pretty steep given how volitile he is, I wouldn’t think he would be worth more than 4-5 million assuming he plays well.
Salut!
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 8:09 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I do think it says all we need to know about this franchise. . . .
That the night they team goes commercial free and interactive, hoping to generate hype on a Sunday night (50% off season tix!) the team gets down by 17 before the end of the 1st quarter and we all get seduced by a guy whose whole career has been marked by inconsistency.
What are the odds that he doesn’t go 0-6 FG 1pt 2reb 5 fouls next game?
That to me is the Darkotomy of being a Wolves fan.
Extra points for the Darko pun
Well done.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on Feb 22, 2010 9:13 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
hope
…is what matters for wolves fans. the thing about Darko…he’s like 25-ish, he’s a legit 7 footer who can run (when in shape), rebound, block a shot or two and hit an occasional jumper. maybe the best thing about him is…he’s hit ROCK BOTTOM – in terms of frustration. I’ve wanted the timberpups to get him for a while. i think he will like it in the MN. I think he will excel. Like Rambis said, he has all the tools you look for in a big. When they realize that they need to start Darko, and Love together, and let big Al come off the bench to prevent the scoring droughts with the second unit…we will start to win those close games.
just my pov.
Thanks Brandon
I mean nodnarb!
If he really has hit rockbottom, then our analogy between him and our franchise is moot… guess we should send him to the Nets…
For me, the reason I want him to succeed is because he's the "underdog."
As a Timberwolves fan, I usually root for the worse team (underdog). I think that Darko could also be considered an underdog as he was drafted second overall in a draft that featured LeBron, Melo, Amare, and Bosh.
Experience
Without having seen last night’s game, the one thing I like about Darko is that he has some experience and presumably an understanding of how to play the game. It’s hard to watch Ryan Hollins, and it’ll be hard to watch any rookie “project” big men that we draft, this summer.
While I was all for taking DeAndre Jordan in 2008, I don’t have as much patience, as a fan, in 2010. If Darko can do the things I hoped DeAndre would do (interior defense, block shots) and he can keep his sanity in Minnesota, I hope he sticks around.
DeAndre Jordan
Is someone I had kinda hoped that the Wolves were going to get after the Houston/LA/New York trade. As it stands now, the Clippers are something like $300,000 away from being able to offer a max contract, based on the estimated salary cap for next year. My hope was that Khan would have been heads up enough to offer something like Pecherov and one or two second rounders for Jordan. But maybe they can trade him into cap space over the offseason.
Wouldn't have worked.
The Clippers would have no problem moving Deandre Jordan after the negotiations with a free agent. If they were to say Deandre Jordan is available for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder, teams would line up to take him.
No, they need that space beforehand
Otherwise they can’t offer the max.
John Doe
Usually always knows what he is talking about and I am guessing he is saying that the Clippers would need to know they have a max free agent lined up before they got rid of Jordan.
by TheMorningAfter on Feb 23, 2010 8:59 AM CST up reply actions
agree
Darko may have more bball smarts than any wolf. Can’t wait for game 2.
by ChicagoViking on Feb 23, 2010 9:41 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
Agreed!
I think Darko has been kicked around about as much as any guy in the league, which is a fine parallel to we who still hold out hope for this franchise, those who remain devoted in the face of sheer failure sprinkled with rare moments of success. Every so often, we catch a moment where we are given something to feel positive about. If you look back on the 4-game streak we had a few weeks ago, or January of last season, you see the same threads of desperate hope; something to cling to in a series of dark years for the team. A hint the team was finally turning a corner and all the suffering was somehow worthwhile.
Hell, if Darko is reflective of we fans, all the more reason to embrace the guy and hope he decides he fits here, too.
Really an excellent post, S-N-P. Very insightful.
I have convinced myself that I have personally doomed any chance Darko had at success with the Wolves. His next outing will be 7 minutes of over-winded action resulting in 4 turnovers, a thrown-ball technical, and some nasty looks on the bench.
I’m afraid so. This is why I caution everyone against making statements that could feel incredibly silly as soon as tomorrow night…
Caution?!
We need no stinking caution! ;)
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
I am going to make two comparisons. Well, really one.
Joe Smith. Tom Gugliotta. Those are two “bigs” I can think of whose first games with the team struck me as exceeding expectations.
Smith came onto the court and just shot like a mad fool his first game with the team. He had one of those scoring nights.
Gugliotta, actually, played an analogous game to Darko’s first one. He arrived with the Wolves on 2/21/95, having been dealt from Golden State (where he’d become something of a pariah for being acquired in the deal that sent away Chris Webber). Off the bench that first night, Googs played a healthy 30 minutes, shot 4 of 7 for 11 points with 11 boards, and put up a ridiculous 7 steals. Hit a three. Had a couple of assists, looked like a good passer.
Milicic: 4 of 7 for 8 points with 8 boards, a couple of assists and that same sense of heady passing, a block…. Okay, he didn’t come close to a triple double on assists, but then he only played 2/3 of the minutes Googs had and he was out of shape.
No, we shouldn’t get weird about it, but the outlines of the situations are similar. Well-rounded game, player who’s never quite fit, &c. Darko’s the bargain basement version, is the thing. But then, Gugliotta was also a year older than Darko when he arrived here as something of a pariah….
"It has come to the editor’s attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission."
Donnie Darko the play?
Love how you ran with the evil bunny idea but is that picture from a play? I watched the movie a few times and that does not look familar. So if it is hoopus night and Donnie is still playing well do we start a “Please sign a very modest contract extension!” chant?
by TheMorningAfter on Feb 23, 2010 9:22 AM CST reply actions
so what you're saying is
“all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”
by losDelFuego on Feb 23, 2010 10:29 AM CST up reply actions
Ya
What a bizzaro night. Our second leading scorer and number one rebounder that night is still on our team – none other than Senor Blount.
Growing my own "Darko-stache" since last Monday.
by biggity2bit on Feb 23, 2010 10:47 AM CST up reply actions
Exactly half of that squad is in the league...
and KG is literally the only one playing in a meaningful way right now. Ew.
Dark Love is a-Brewin...
Even KG's play
is coming at an annual cost of about a third of the salary cap over this year and the next two.
That contract.
If I’m the Celtics… Holy. Shit. At least they got one in the bag.
Lucky they did
If the Celtics hadn’t one that title, in a couple years they would be calling the trade and contract extension on of the worst moves in franchise history.
Eh, maybe
That deal made them a contender regardless of if they had won, plus it didn’t give away Rondo or Perkins. The championship validates it, but I think a shot at a championship was worth the trade. Al is a stud but I’d make that deal a million times over if I were them. All in all they traded very little for a HOF player.
I think the trade was good but....
….the 3 yr/$60 mill extension was the questionable part.
Even taking that into account
KG was a max guy at the time. If you have a chance at locking a guy of that caliber up in order to have a chance to compete for multiple championships, you do it. If anyone should’ve gotten that sort of deal at the time, it was KG.
I know that he had a lot of miles on that aging body, but it would’ve been foolish to essentially rent him for a year without even knowing how the team would work together that year or in the future. At the time, it wasn’t a guarantee that they’d win it all right away. Giving them 3 ostensible tries at a ’ship would seem to a proper bet, considering anything less would be too short for a real chance, and anything more would give them a player whose value has likely depreciated past the point of being worth the contract.
Nobody knew that he’d sink like a stone due to major injuries. I think they banked on a slow decline, and with that in mind it makes sense to me.
One could argue
that KG doesn’t get such a lucrative extension unless Boston wins a title. They couldn’t have expected to get any stronger in years after 2008. I doubt they’d throw $60 million his way if his efforts that year had fallen short.
Yep
From the ESPN coverage of the trade: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2956103
“Garnett liked the idea so much he gave the Celtics something of a discount when he subsequently signed an extension.
Based on salary figures obtained by ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, Garnett signed a three-year extension worth just over $51 million, with $8.8 million in trade bonuses that take the overall value of the extension to $60 million. Garnett eliminated the early termination portion of his contract as part of the transaction and will see that trade kicker spread out evenly over the next five seasons.
The three-year extension breaks down to earnings of $14.7 million in the 2009-10 season, $17.1 million in 2010-11 and $19.5 million in 2011-12. Garnett was already scheduled to earn $22 million and $23 million over the next two seasons."
Yep.
They’ll still take the title, but over the next couple of years they better have that Championship Season highlight reel cued up and ready to play.
I See This as the Final Indignity
The low point. The nadir. We can go no lower. The Nets might be 5-51, but they do have Brook Lopez, who’s going to be great. We are pinning our hopes on Darko. It’s like a market capitulation.
I remember one cold night way back when. I was not living here yet, but was in town for a Wolves game. I bought tickets off the street for way below face value and we were sitting about 10 rows behind the Indiana bench. The Pacers put an everloving whooping on our boys, taking a 30+ point lead going into the fourth and they pulled all their starters. Rookie Donyell Marshall was so pathetic that I stood up and pleaded with him to play some defense. I looked at his apathetic play and contemplated the Wolves shelling out $40 million plus for his “services” and I sunk into a deep despair about this club. When Mike Brown entered the game and the scoreboard showed a Big Brown Bear, the indignity was complete.
The very next day, the Wolves traded Marshall for Gugliotta. The day after that, they beat Shaq’s Magic team in Minneapolis. That game against Indiana was the nadir. Here’s hoping that pining for something good from Darko is the nadir, too.
Pining for a Troy Hudson/Marko Jaric backcourt.
I hope you're right
That this is the nadir.
But if there’s one thing being a Wolves fan has taught us is that it could always get worse.
By the way—great memory: 2/17/95, 110-78 loss to the Pacers; Donyell came off the bench and scored 5 points in 23 minutes in his last game as a Wolf. They weren’t particularly patient with Donyell, were they?
2/19/95, Googs didn’t play that night, but they beat the Magic 100-95, shutting down Shaq to the tune of 36 and 12.
Wolves starting lineup both games
Doug West
Christian Laettner
Sean Rooks
JR Rider
The Immortal Winston Garland
Question: is this year’s team any better?
by Eric in Madison on Feb 23, 2010 11:48 AM CST up reply actions
It is shocking that the 94-95 team will probably have a better record
That team won 21. This year’s team is on pace for 19 wins. Sad.
Jefferson > Rooks
Love > Laettner
Gomes = West ?
Rider > Brewer (sadly – couldn’t stand JR)
Flynn > Garland
"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." -- Yogi Berra
by Wile E Coyote on Feb 23, 2010 12:10 PM CST up reply actions
Overall talent of the league
is probably just that much better… Either that or JR Rider was just that good…. crap.
Sunday Afternoon
That Magic game was a Sunday afternoon and I was listening to it on the way back to ND. Part of me was cursing my luck — why couldn’t they have played like that when I was there? The other part was just happy that maybe things were going to get better. And they did.
Marshall had a pretty good career, but he was terrible as a rookie. Awful.
Pining for a Troy Hudson/Marko Jaric backcourt.
Marshall was terrible that season
and is yet another cautionary tale. As bad as he was, do you remember his first game? He went for 26 points and, as I recall, a bunch of blocked shots off the bench the first game of the year. We thought he’d be a star.
by Eric in Madison on Feb 23, 2010 2:33 PM CST up reply actions
One of the underrated “Wolves got hosed” drafts was 1994.
Glenn Robinson goes #1.
Jason Kidd goes #2.
Grant Hill goes #3.
Donyell Marshall goes #4.
Wolves were tied with Milwaukee and Detroit for the 2nd Worst Record. Obviously, that means we get the 4th Pick. 2 or 3 nets us a Hall of Famer.
Good call
I had forgotten that one, which is so overshadowed by such epic drafts like 1992, when the Wolves had the worst record in the league by 6 games and the draft went
Shaq
Mourning
Laettner
The more I look at that…that’s an all time hosing. Always good to remember that every now and then.
by Eric in Madison on Feb 23, 2010 2:53 PM CST up reply actions
Not to dump an entire box of salt on the wounds...
but imagine if we got Grant Hill or Jason Kidd, and then were still bad-enough right away to draft Kevin Garnett, the next year.
As Bill Simmons would write, “I am now going to light myself on fire.”
That whole 92-94
run of lotteries was as bad as it gets. In 93, they were the 2nd worst team, got pushed back to 5 and took JR.
by Eric in Madison on Feb 23, 2010 3:02 PM CST up reply actions
and picks 1-3 probably would have netted Webber...
either by us picking him or doing the Penny trade that GS did.
C-Webb stays in Big 10 Country, never feuds with the coach, yada yada yada, this is depressing.
DARKO!!!
Garnett and Webber together in a frontcourt...
Undersized, but the greatest passing frontcourt ever?
I'm starting to lean towards..
….tit being a low point, but for different reasons. In just 2 games the Wolves “best” and highest paid player has been sent to the bench during crunch time in favor of a guy who was at the end of the Knicks’ bench last year. Listen to the way that Kevin Love talks about “the 2nd unit” in interviews. The presence of a legit 7 foot two way player is exposing several things on this squad and I hope the front office pays attention. This stuff should be completely eye-opening to even the most casual observer.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
All this season is about...
…at this point of the schedule, is to see who goes and who stays. That’s why
they’re giving the marginal guys so many minutes; to see if they have anything
to bring next year. Develop them or drop them – last chance. Expect more of the same…Wolves beat good teams and lose to The Sisters of Mercy in the next.
There are more reasons the good players on this team are riding the bench
than effort, turnovers, etc. For Hollins, though, I think the die is cast…
Darko? Clearly a headcase, but he knows the game and he’s only 24.
Definitely an anger management project. It’s not his skills I’m worried
about, but his psyche. If you check YouTube, when Motombo got in his
face, Darko cast a leer that would give you chills; right out of Psycho…
and his sado-sexual rants were pretty far out. I’m happy he spat them
out in his own language. His game intrigues me, though. He brings
something that this team has needed – good passing, challenges
shots, and he seems to connect to what the other players are doing.
He seems to have some basketball sense that’s lacking in the rest
of this squad. Social sense? uh, no, but remember, he just got married;
maybe she’ll lay down the law and straighten this guy out. Some guys
don’t need a psychiatrist. Some guys need a tough wife to keep them
in line, or a family to feed (Sprewell?).
Only thing - Rambis put Hollins in during that 4 game win streak and
people started believing. Well, Hollins went back to being Hollins again
and all hope was dashed. We kicked ourselves for believing. Darko? Same thing? Maybe, but I think he brings a lot more than Hollins. This guy has skills,
but some horses can’t be broke. Maybe his mare will calm him down so’s
he can be rid.
Don't kick a live dog.
by WillistonCoyote on Feb 23, 2010 1:29 PM CST reply actions
Last year is a player option
I could see trading him for an expiring next year if there’s another Portland type situation, but failing that, we’re stuck with him until 2012.
so do we play him
this year and next to try and boost his value or do we call the experiment a failure and move him to the end of the bench?
Practice against Darko will teach Hollins a thing or two
Darko’s on the practice squad is an added benefit. Hollins, Jefferson, even Love will get to learn how to defend a legit 7 footer. This alone makes the trade worthwhile. If Darko adds something on the game floor, all the more so!
Gee, I have low expectations.
Being the T-wolves
He will ride the bench till his last year, we get hit by an injury forcing him to start again. Then suddenly he looks like an amazing center and then signs with the lakers.
by TheMorningAfter on Feb 23, 2010 4:59 PM CST up reply actions
Tief durchatmen und dabei nicht abkratzen, Herr Milicic!
The Charles Barkley 2009/10 Ancestors Count: 9 Grandmothers, 2 Mothers Alltime: Reg. 32-2 Playoffs 7-0
"There were arms coming from everywhere, and I knew they weren’t going for the ball," Miller said. "I was just trying to get [the shot] up before they called some crap like ‘on the ground.’ "
"What do you want me to do?" Wright asked. "Do you want me to Derek Fisher him?"
"Give them some fucking credit, i mean for real." Jackson said.
"I just fell on my face for no reason," Bryant deadpanned. "I'm a klutz."
"Fucking right i'm preachin' it!" Carlisle replied. He later added "We need to not always make hard work out of sex." Take cover whenever he pulls the undoing-card..
"Rough life, isn't it. It's tough all over, isn't it." Smith chuckled.
Sheed for $30k: "They've got to know that he's a [darn] flopper. That's all Turkododo do."
"Ball." Hedo Turkoglu
Charles Barkley on the Eastern Conference race: "Cleveland and Orlando are the two best teams in the East. The Boston Celtics, people keep waiting on them to get healthy. I mean no disrespect, but old people don’t get healthy. They die."
Mutombo, Ewing and Yao at the restaurant...
MUTOMBO: "The chicken is the bomb."
EWING: [Rubbing belly] "I gotta go work out tonight. I'm full. You got a treadmill for me?"
YAO: " Leave your car keys here and run home. I'll give you the keys tomorrow."
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
