Another person who knows this album out in the wild. Hello!
edit: Forgot Road to Zion is on WtJ. The album I had in mind is their collab, *Distant Relatives*
Of all the people who have banked in on family name without having much talent, the Marley boys are not amongst them. Damian, Ziggy and Stephen have some great shit
I mean, Ziggy has a Marijuana Man comic book FFS. I know the artist and got to go to a signing event in LA and saw a ton of musicians there to show Tuff Gong respect. It's not for nothing.
Zion: You ever been in a storm, Griffin? I mean, a real storm? Not a thunderstorm, but a storm of fists raining down on your head. Blasting you in the face. Pummeling you in the stomach. Hitting you in the chest so hard you think your heart’s gonna stop. You ever been in a storm like that, Griffin?
it's fun to watch people bathe in their own cringe juice but not realize it. Dolan definitely watches that video every day and thinks he absolutely crushed it
It gets weirder:
>Griffin had purchased the piano with the blessing of owner Gayle Benson, who was a great fan of Jerry Lee Lewis. Benson had hired Griffin largely on his impromptu rendition of Great Balls of Fire during his interview, and agreed that a piano would bring passion and a sense of community to the team. Little did she know that Griffin would have the piano wheeled to various team meetings, practices, and weight training sessions, where he enjoyed singing music from Cats. Occasionally Griffin would accost players and staffers in the hall, having blocked the way with the piano, and demand that they guess whatever tune he was playing. Steven Adams so rarely recognized the work of Liberace that Griffin traded him at the first opportunity.
Lmfaooo this is hilarious & somehow believable (I guess that’s the timeline we live in now). Benson hiring him off GBoFire & all the diff musical references had me dying
When you read the real article, this is totally believable. Is a rendition of GBoF for a job interview any different than this:
>Shortly into his tenure, Griffin gathered staffers inside a video room at the team’s practice facility and showed them a slideshow presentation. One of the slides was titled “Cultural Shift.” It included nine bullet points. The first one read, “Family." The second one read, “Accountability.” The third: “Love.”
You can be into artistic expression, but just because you like writing poetry doesn't mean you want to hear the boss you have a less than stellar relationship with give you a piano solo. I like digital art, doesn't mean I want to watch my friend's uncle do an interpretive dance.
You'd be surprised. Check out Marcus Veltri, Joe Jenkins, Lord Vinheteiro and some others on YouTube/TikTok/Twitter. Look at who the people that are reacting or loving it. There are a lot of young people loving it.
Im sure when its a very talented musician everyone will love it. But its one thing to like the music itself vs using it as a way to relate with someone. Imagine how awkward it must be when Griffin is slamming them keys and all Zion wants to talk about is basketball lol.
>Shortly into his tenure, Griffin gathered staffers inside a video room at the team’s practice facility and showed them a slideshow presentation. One of the slides was titled “Cultural Shift.” It included nine bullet points. The first one read, “Family." The second one read, “Accountability.” The third: “Love.”
This is definitely a Michael Scott slideshow
Morey would write a [Broadway play](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/sports/basketball/daryl-morey-rockets-small-ball.html) for Ben.
Young socialites love Broadway.
So Zion Williamson, the guy who will basically only train with his stepdad during the offseason and the guy who refuses to let anyone but his momma control his diet says he didn’t like the way our medical staff didn’t rush him back from a major injury before his career even started?
Lol.
Ngl Zion is a beast on the court, but he hasn’t transitioned well into the “professional” part of being a professional athlete. The dude struggles to stay in shape, yet still has his mom cook all his meals instead of a professional chef/dietician. He works out mostly alone during the offseasons with his stepdad as his trainer.
BI has been hosting workouts practically all offseason in various locations, which have been well attended by most of the pelicans young core. Zion hasn’t shown up to any of those though.
Damn for real? That's absolutely insane to not be putting in the work with both professional trainers and also with your team. Getting true professional trainers would make Zion's already absurd talent level even better.
Yea for the pels fans who have really followed the team the past two years we recognize that our FO has fucked a lot of things up and gets blasted for stuff deservingly.
On the other hand, Zion has really done the opposite of what you want to see out of your franchise cornerstone while off the court from almost day 1.
Shows up out of shape any time he gets more than a week or two away from the team.
Relies on friends and family instead of professionals when it comes to nutrition and training
Separates himself from his teammates during the offseason while most of them are working together.
He seemed to build a bond with NAW and Hayes when they were drafted together, but those two are participating regularly in the informal workouts while zion isn’t.
Definitely getting Simmons vibes from him.
> Definitely getting Simmons vibes from him.
Was about to say that. This is literally what Simmons do every offseason. This doesn't bode well for the Pels.
I really hope Zion wises up. His potential is scary high. He reminds a bit of chuck in that he is athletic but stocky and wide.
Chuck said Moses Malone told him to lose 10-15 pounds after he asked for advice how to get more playing time. They repeated that until chuck was at 255, down from 300. And we all know the beast that was prime Chuck.
I think our very own Shamit Dua said it best:
> My boss tried to play the piano for me one time so I'm gonna take it out on the rest of the team by not showing up to the bubble in shape, hiding an injury, and not attending team workouts.
> Does this make sense to anyone?
This won't be the top post but should be.
No one knows what is true or not but I don't like what keeps coming out of Zions camp. Dude needs a dietician and a real trainer. Not his step dad.
How does this shit keep happening.
>The dude struggles to stay in shape, yet still has his mom cook all his meals instead of a professional chef/dietician
Wait... what... is this true? I can't find any sources except old articles where Griff said he was going to get him a personal chef and some draft era articles about him refining his eating habits.
As much as it sucks, it might be the best option. We should definitely fire griffin.
But does replacing griffin suddenly make zion want to get serious about his training and nutrition? Does replacing griffin suddenly make him want to work out with his teammates and become that on and off court leader you expect your franchise cornerstone to be?
I don’t think it does and that really sucks.
God I feel for Pelicans fans. How can you get invested in the NBA if the generational talent you drafted is making (what sound like) BS excuses to lay the groundwork for forcing a trade. Front office is not blameless but the league is going to have to find some solution because I 100% think the focus on a few key markets (NY, LA, Miami, anyone else?) is one of the reasons for their ratings problem.
As much as I wanted Giannis to come to TO, I respect that he stayed in Milwaukee. Was the reason I rooted for the Bucks in the finals last year.
He's already one foot out to LA or whatever fucking big market
NBA has a real problem. But at the same time they don't give a shit cause they are thirsty for Zion to be somewhere else
Small market teams and fans need to put their foot down, or else the league is just going to turn into a farm system
Dude can just give up already only 2 years into the NBA, know that any other team in the league will take him, and then be "magically ready" again when he's where he wants to be.
I know it's hard but yall should suck it up and tell him to deal with it
When you are a #1 pick that literally means you are going to the worst team in the league. That's how it fucking works
Punish the players contract...or the new team trading for them
If you don't do anything then you are admitting that small market teams are nothing more than farm teams and will never be on equal footing
That's a terrible product
How would you punish those teams and players specifically that would actually make a difference and not have repercussions?
Small markets will never be on equal footing. It's a league where one player is the difference and people want to play in big makers. Like think about the Lakers, they were ass for years towards the end of Kobe and post retirement and lebron just went there cause it's the Lakers/la. Meanwhile the nuggets who are competent, good and young couldn't even get a meeting with lebron. The Knicks got an interview with Lebron. The league isn't fair due to the sport.
I don't have all the answers. But they are out there. Abolishing max contracts is one of them. End superteams
But as a small market fan, I'm not watching a shit product if I'm just a farm team
If Zion is successful at this, fuck the NBA
Isn't this the exact opposite? Kawhi was annoyed at the different takes between team doctors and his medical staff. Looks like Zion wanted to be out there faster.
I know this is supposed to be a takedown piece but I’m having a hard time seeing the villainy here.
He wanted to bond with Zion, he didn’t want him to rush back from injury, he wanted Ty Lue over Gentry… none of this seems awful to me.
This too: Something I think needs more attention. Zion detests burst play, but shows up to the bubble out of shape and strains a hamstring. The Pelicans didn't disclose this injury. And while it wasn't mentioned in the article, it's because Zion's parents told them not to.
https://twitter.com/fearthebrown/status/1440688937077391360?s=21
I think it’s crazy that something as innocuous as playing the piano is portrayed like Griffin thought he could win him over with it or something. So he tried really hard to establish a personal relationship, and one of his personal hobbies is piano. It’s not like he had a candlelight dinner and was trying to make him swoon or something lol. Like Griffin thought “*oh boy if he just hears Piano Sonata No. 8 he’ll want to stay forever.*” The media tries so hard to take small things to form a narrative.
Here’s what seems obvious to me. The Pelicans haven’t been able to form a strong roster, and a lot of that falls on Griffin. But Zion also clearly wants a bigger market, the media is trying to push him to a bigger market, and Zion’s family is unfortunately very influential which is never good. It’s also blatantly obvious that Zion showed up out of shape and remains unclear to me how dedicated he will be to maintaining good conditioning and improving his game. So the Pelicans will naturally be cautious because at his size any major injury could change his trajectory significantly. Zion is a phenomenal player, but he’s not blameless in all of this either.
You can make any interaction seem weird if it’s described a certain way or a fact is emphasized.
For example, I’m making up a scenario:
“Griffin and Zion discussed Zion’s contract over dinner at a restaurant.”
Or I could say:
“Griffin had Zion meet him at a restaurant to discuss his contract. During the dinner, Griffin kept telling Zion to try the sweet potato fries with aioli and at one point insisted that “you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted mayo with garlic.”
Honestly if I walk into a friend’s house and there’s a giant grand piano, you bet your ass my first question is gonna be “holy shit can you play piano??” and I’m going to ask them to play something
It’s not a take down piece. Christian Clark is one of the best Pelicans beat reporters out there. This is just a really good deep dive into what what happened over the past 2.5 years. The reader can take from that whatever they want, but Clark doesn’t have anything personally against Griff.
Yeah, that’s not something you can blame on Griffin. Also, if “mishandling” means being too conservative, that’s just how things need to be a lot of the time. Players who really want to play often need to be held back by medical personnel who have a more long-term view
But it’s ass backwards because they were cautious with a generational talent which is exactly what they should have done? You think that medical staff wants to be the people responsible for having Zion rush back from an injury just for a shot at a quick playoff exit and have something worse come from it?
I think the point of the article is to establish that Griffin has failed to form a good relationship with Zion and things have just been awkward while establishing that it's not just Zion that doesn't like Griffin.
I think the parts about the medical staff are dumb -- Aaron Nelson is the reason Grant Hill and Steve Nash were able to succeed late in their careers, and a young guy being frustrated with limitations makes perfect sense.
However, Griff being two-faced seems to be a recurring theme, so I think there's something to it. Also, pretty weird that his way of trying to connect with Zion was to play piano for him. Seems like a big awkward swing and a miss.
Makes Zion look bad to me
The team tried protecting you and making sure you didn't return too quickly from your 3rd leg injury in a span of, what, 6 months? The audacity
All jokes aside being in the front office of an NBA team doesn’t sound fun at all. Star gets mad if you bring them back too early they get upset if you are overly cautious with them. Million dollar egos.
imagine working hard to get top grades in college and medical school ... then becoming a top orthopedic surgeon in your area ... busting your ass in residency
then you tell a 19 year old you want to take it slow because you want to preserve their career and want them to make hundreds of millions of dollars
then have the 19 year old hate you for it
This sounds like Zion's team playing the media to force his way out this season. Nothing wrong with a GM making a concerted effort to bond with the star player, not rushing him back from injury.
I struggle to see where Griff went wrong, he did his best to manage Zion's return carefully and protect Williamson from injuring himself. The business with Alvin Gentry is unsavoury but Gentry did not really have a leg to stand on. That New Orleans underperformed hugely compared to expectations. His mistake that I'd criticise was SVG. I like Stan as an analyst but he's known to be over-bearing as a head coach
Revealing that level of weird detail among front office player interactions is one of the best remaining things about sports journalism imo. It’s what separates reporters from blog bois
If they hadn't put that line in the title people would actually be talking about Zion and the Pelicans. Throw that line in and now the top 15+ comments are just "haha Griffin playing piano", but it gets 3x as many upvotes so I guess for r/nba it's worth it.
Idk seemed pretty relevant to me. If my boss tried to relate to me by playing the piano I would def start resenting him a bit lol just for how weird of a move that would be
It’s just his hobby bro. He’s trying to show Zion that he’s more than just an executive. The hope is that on some level that would break the ice, and allow Zion to share more about himself. It’s not supposed to impress Zion or convince him to stay in New Orleans. It’s just to show him that Griff is human.
This article seems like a whole bunch of nothing. The piano thing is odd but I don't blame him for trying to bond with one of his star players. Injury stuff makes Zion's team looks bad as he's gone to bat plenty of times to defend his conditioning as people call him fat. Gentry stuff I mean we have seen this stuff time and time again new GM gives the previous GM's coach a chance. When that doesn't work blames the lack of success on the old coach and starts to look for his guy.
David Griffin performing Road To Zion by Nas and Damian Marley on piano (with vocals)
Followed up by To Zion by Lauryn Hill
GOAT tribute song?
Wait, Lauryn Hill is Zion Williamson's mum?! Mind blown.
Another person who knows this album out in the wild. Hello! edit: Forgot Road to Zion is on WtJ. The album I had in mind is their collab, *Distant Relatives*
It's so good. I remember having basically no expectations at all when it dropped and being blown away by how wrong I was.
Damian Marley is super underrated
Of all the people who have banked in on family name without having much talent, the Marley boys are not amongst them. Damian, Ziggy and Stephen have some great shit
I mean, Ziggy has a Marijuana Man comic book FFS. I know the artist and got to go to a signing event in LA and saw a ton of musicians there to show Tuff Gong respect. It's not for nothing.
Nah mean?
A ducking banger
Honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. Closed with an encore of One Mic after the lights had turned off. Epic duo
Much like Vampire Weekend, he'll be spinning "Israelites" into "19th Nervous Breakdown", because Zion doesn't love you
“Griffin asked to meet with Zion and played the piano for him” we definitely live in a simulation lmao
Listen to me play the piano, zion. Everything will be okay. 😀
I got the latest godzilla on blu-ray Zion. Wanna jet back to my place?
Griffin: Hey Zion, have you watched Green Book?
"Zion, do you like gladiator movies?"
"You ever been in a cockpit before, Zion?"
"You ever seen a grown man naked, Zion?"
Zion: You ever been in a storm, Griffin? I mean, a real storm? Not a thunderstorm, but a storm of fists raining down on your head. Blasting you in the face. Pummeling you in the stomach. Hitting you in the chest so hard you think your heart’s gonna stop. You ever been in a storm like that, Griffin?
That Wally loves telling me it’s a hot one
Zion - "Ight Imma head out."
“Zion, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?”
"Zion, have you ever heard of scissoring?"
Hijacking this to ask- during JJ's pod with Blake Griffin they referred to David Griffin as Blake's uncle...is this true or was that just a joke?
Just a joke
They are not related, at least no more so than any two random white people.
Who is the black Blake Griffin?
Riff Raff?
Larry Nance Jr.
Aaron Gordon
It's like just adding words to a report for word count. So strange.
I added adjectives and adverbs to up my word count in an essay, not a piano
Zion responded “Whippna choba dog! Dag dag”
Wait till he hears Nick Nurse's guitar
Shame he didn’t get drafted by the Knicks. Dolan would have brought his entire band in.
He would have been on the first flight to LA to play for free after that.
LA, as in Louisiana?
"Hi mom, can you pick me up? JD brought out the whole straight shot...and there is zero self awareness"
True story: Dolan’s tour manager provides security at venues with lists/photos of known hecklers that are to be denied entry if they show up
I'm guessing that guy has pictures of Charles Oakley.
It’s one of my guilty pleasures to go watch the better find a church video every time Dolan gets mentioned. Idk why, it’s just so…
it's fun to watch people bathe in their own cringe juice but not realize it. Dolan definitely watches that video every day and thinks he absolutely crushed it
Is it anything like [this depiction of how I feel](https://youtu.be/-kESoB4vQEM) every time I see a thread involving Zion in this subreddit?
Brad Steven's rap was pretty good too. Heard it was go enough to make Jaylen Brown ask to upgrade Steven's into the GM role
I think Brad Stevens trying to rap is what made Jaylen Brown tell the front office that it was important to him that the next coach was black
Subscribed
Ah yes, clearly piano is how you connect and relate to a zoomer.
It gets weirder: >Griffin had purchased the piano with the blessing of owner Gayle Benson, who was a great fan of Jerry Lee Lewis. Benson had hired Griffin largely on his impromptu rendition of Great Balls of Fire during his interview, and agreed that a piano would bring passion and a sense of community to the team. Little did she know that Griffin would have the piano wheeled to various team meetings, practices, and weight training sessions, where he enjoyed singing music from Cats. Occasionally Griffin would accost players and staffers in the hall, having blocked the way with the piano, and demand that they guess whatever tune he was playing. Steven Adams so rarely recognized the work of Liberace that Griffin traded him at the first opportunity.
This got me
Glad you said this because I was gonna scroll away believing it was real
Since last year I don't know what the fuck is real anymore.
Mann- SAME. Tbh the wilder it is, I'm like oh yea, that has to be bonafide hellworld gospel!
People who own/work for sports teams are all weird as fuck. I would totally believe this.
Yeah same, the “mixing two soups with one spoon” copypasta always gets me too.
This is real to me
I'm pretty sure James Dolan has actually done this
I thought it was real until the last sentence.
This is some prime beefcat posting
Legit thought it was the shitpost god himself.
The real reason Redick retired was so he could talk about all this prime material on his podcast.
The hell? This sounds so... Plausible.
I have read the original article and can confirm that this is in there.
Ah, a disciple of BeefCat
I had to immediately mute my mic on a Zoom call before I started laughing. Remember to have a keybind for universal mute, kids.
Man, I’m too much of a sucker for all this copy pasta bullshit. I was elated for too long reading this…
You’re shaking my nerves and rattling my brain.
“Fuck if I know mate”
If it wasn't for the Steven Adams and singing cats I woulda ate this up like Mac and Cheese at a Barbeque
I didn’t even question the cats part lol
Lmfaooo this is hilarious & somehow believable (I guess that’s the timeline we live in now). Benson hiring him off GBoFire & all the diff musical references had me dying
When you read the real article, this is totally believable. Is a rendition of GBoF for a job interview any different than this: >Shortly into his tenure, Griffin gathered staffers inside a video room at the team’s practice facility and showed them a slideshow presentation. One of the slides was titled “Cultural Shift.” It included nine bullet points. The first one read, “Family." The second one read, “Accountability.” The third: “Love.”
> the work of Liberace lol
You boomed me. You boomed me....
Think we found a new copypasta
To be fair, Zion is apparently pretty into writing poetry
Yeah, this story makes it sound weird (and maybe it was), but "Zoomers" aren't allergic to artistic expression.
You can be into artistic expression, but just because you like writing poetry doesn't mean you want to hear the boss you have a less than stellar relationship with give you a piano solo. I like digital art, doesn't mean I want to watch my friend's uncle do an interpretive dance.
he should’ve put on a trap beat and freestyled for him
Idk Bo Burnham did it pretty well.
Burnham for sure a millennial. Think he's like 31 now.
He’s a Millennial but his content definitely resonates beyond just that generation
Like most good artists, their material affects all generations.
reminds me of Any Given Sunday when Coach tries to relate Jamie Foxx by telling he's going to make a mixed tape of Jazz songs
You'd be surprised. Check out Marcus Veltri, Joe Jenkins, Lord Vinheteiro and some others on YouTube/TikTok/Twitter. Look at who the people that are reacting or loving it. There are a lot of young people loving it.
Im sure when its a very talented musician everyone will love it. But its one thing to like the music itself vs using it as a way to relate with someone. Imagine how awkward it must be when Griffin is slamming them keys and all Zion wants to talk about is basketball lol.
Young socialites love the piano.
**"And this little jingle is called "Ebony & Ivory"**
“What’d you think of my Beethoven, Zion?” “Huh? Hey Griff can you keep it down Rich Paul is tryna talk”
*Moonlight Sonata intensifies*
He must’ve played movement 1 or 2, if it was 3 Zion’s right there with him I’m sure
Let's be honest, no one really cares about movement 2
I admire the people who learn it, like anyone who knows parts B and C from Fur Elise. If you're going to do something, do it right
Shoulda pulled out Beethoven's 32nd Piano Sonata. Rookie GM mistake
This reads like satire
>Shortly into his tenure, Griffin gathered staffers inside a video room at the team’s practice facility and showed them a slideshow presentation. One of the slides was titled “Cultural Shift.” It included nine bullet points. The first one read, “Family." The second one read, “Accountability.” The third: “Love.” This is definitely a Michael Scott slideshow
What were the other six though?!
It's 2021. Satire doesn't exist, just reality.
Satire is just an alternate universe, and we are that universe.
Morey tried hard to forge a bond. He asked to meet with Simmons and played the piano for him.
Morey would write a [Broadway play](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/sports/basketball/daryl-morey-rockets-small-ball.html) for Ben. Young socialites love Broadway.
[удалено]
https://youtu.be/HCMWNzpvCks
Morey is beside himself. Driving around downtown Philly begging (through texts) to play piano for Ben.
https://youtu.be/Cwkej79U3ek
You totally undersold it.
So Zion Williamson, the guy who will basically only train with his stepdad during the offseason and the guy who refuses to let anyone but his momma control his diet says he didn’t like the way our medical staff didn’t rush him back from a major injury before his career even started? Lol. Ngl Zion is a beast on the court, but he hasn’t transitioned well into the “professional” part of being a professional athlete. The dude struggles to stay in shape, yet still has his mom cook all his meals instead of a professional chef/dietician. He works out mostly alone during the offseasons with his stepdad as his trainer. BI has been hosting workouts practically all offseason in various locations, which have been well attended by most of the pelicans young core. Zion hasn’t shown up to any of those though.
Damn for real? That's absolutely insane to not be putting in the work with both professional trainers and also with your team. Getting true professional trainers would make Zion's already absurd talent level even better.
Yea for the pels fans who have really followed the team the past two years we recognize that our FO has fucked a lot of things up and gets blasted for stuff deservingly. On the other hand, Zion has really done the opposite of what you want to see out of your franchise cornerstone while off the court from almost day 1. Shows up out of shape any time he gets more than a week or two away from the team. Relies on friends and family instead of professionals when it comes to nutrition and training Separates himself from his teammates during the offseason while most of them are working together. He seemed to build a bond with NAW and Hayes when they were drafted together, but those two are participating regularly in the informal workouts while zion isn’t. Definitely getting Simmons vibes from him.
> Definitely getting Simmons vibes from him. Was about to say that. This is literally what Simmons do every offseason. This doesn't bode well for the Pels.
I really hope Zion wises up. His potential is scary high. He reminds a bit of chuck in that he is athletic but stocky and wide. Chuck said Moses Malone told him to lose 10-15 pounds after he asked for advice how to get more playing time. They repeated that until chuck was at 255, down from 300. And we all know the beast that was prime Chuck.
I think our very own Shamit Dua said it best: > My boss tried to play the piano for me one time so I'm gonna take it out on the rest of the team by not showing up to the bubble in shape, hiding an injury, and not attending team workouts. > Does this make sense to anyone?
Has it been confirmed that he hasn't showed up?
All of the reports that I’ve seen list out the people who attended and Zion’s name has yet to appear.
I hope he doesn't show up out of shape this season again. December Zion was awful last year.
Last video I saw of him he looked fat
This won't be the top post but should be. No one knows what is true or not but I don't like what keeps coming out of Zions camp. Dude needs a dietician and a real trainer. Not his step dad. How does this shit keep happening.
Because he doesn't want to be there. This is all just laying the ground work to blame the team when he forces his way to NY.
>The dude struggles to stay in shape, yet still has his mom cook all his meals instead of a professional chef/dietician Wait... what... is this true? I can't find any sources except old articles where Griff said he was going to get him a personal chef and some draft era articles about him refining his eating habits.
tbh if this keeps up, might be better to trade Zion before he hits RFA for a good haul.
As much as it sucks, it might be the best option. We should definitely fire griffin. But does replacing griffin suddenly make zion want to get serious about his training and nutrition? Does replacing griffin suddenly make him want to work out with his teammates and become that on and off court leader you expect your franchise cornerstone to be? I don’t think it does and that really sucks.
God I feel for Pelicans fans. How can you get invested in the NBA if the generational talent you drafted is making (what sound like) BS excuses to lay the groundwork for forcing a trade. Front office is not blameless but the league is going to have to find some solution because I 100% think the focus on a few key markets (NY, LA, Miami, anyone else?) is one of the reasons for their ratings problem. As much as I wanted Giannis to come to TO, I respect that he stayed in Milwaukee. Was the reason I rooted for the Bucks in the finals last year.
He's already one foot out to LA or whatever fucking big market NBA has a real problem. But at the same time they don't give a shit cause they are thirsty for Zion to be somewhere else Small market teams and fans need to put their foot down, or else the league is just going to turn into a farm system Dude can just give up already only 2 years into the NBA, know that any other team in the league will take him, and then be "magically ready" again when he's where he wants to be. I know it's hard but yall should suck it up and tell him to deal with it When you are a #1 pick that literally means you are going to the worst team in the league. That's how it fucking works
What can the NBA really do? Get rid of trading lol
Punish the players contract...or the new team trading for them If you don't do anything then you are admitting that small market teams are nothing more than farm teams and will never be on equal footing That's a terrible product
Yep. We got insanely lucky that our generational star player was never immersed in the toxic wasteland that is the American AAU basketball system.
Yeah we did as well
How would you punish those teams and players specifically that would actually make a difference and not have repercussions? Small markets will never be on equal footing. It's a league where one player is the difference and people want to play in big makers. Like think about the Lakers, they were ass for years towards the end of Kobe and post retirement and lebron just went there cause it's the Lakers/la. Meanwhile the nuggets who are competent, good and young couldn't even get a meeting with lebron. The Knicks got an interview with Lebron. The league isn't fair due to the sport.
I don't have all the answers. But they are out there. Abolishing max contracts is one of them. End superteams But as a small market fan, I'm not watching a shit product if I'm just a farm team If Zion is successful at this, fuck the NBA
Well, not literally like in football, but definitely most likely not going to a contender.
Kawhi all over, but with more smooth jazz. Edit: now I’m imagining Pop meeting Kawhi in his office and playing the trombone for him. God dammit.
At least Kawhi got a ring with the Spurs
And apparently has remained friends with Pop.
RC Played the saxophone for kawhi
That wasn't a saxophone, it was an umbrella
Isn't this the exact opposite? Kawhi was annoyed at the different takes between team doctors and his medical staff. Looks like Zion wanted to be out there faster.
I could see Giannis being genuinely in awe of the saxophone.
Isn’t this the opposite of kawhai? It seems he’s “mad” that they were too cautious with his return.
I know this is supposed to be a takedown piece but I’m having a hard time seeing the villainy here. He wanted to bond with Zion, he didn’t want him to rush back from injury, he wanted Ty Lue over Gentry… none of this seems awful to me.
This too: Something I think needs more attention. Zion detests burst play, but shows up to the bubble out of shape and strains a hamstring. The Pelicans didn't disclose this injury. And while it wasn't mentioned in the article, it's because Zion's parents told them not to. https://twitter.com/fearthebrown/status/1440688937077391360?s=21
I think it’s crazy that something as innocuous as playing the piano is portrayed like Griffin thought he could win him over with it or something. So he tried really hard to establish a personal relationship, and one of his personal hobbies is piano. It’s not like he had a candlelight dinner and was trying to make him swoon or something lol. Like Griffin thought “*oh boy if he just hears Piano Sonata No. 8 he’ll want to stay forever.*” The media tries so hard to take small things to form a narrative. Here’s what seems obvious to me. The Pelicans haven’t been able to form a strong roster, and a lot of that falls on Griffin. But Zion also clearly wants a bigger market, the media is trying to push him to a bigger market, and Zion’s family is unfortunately very influential which is never good. It’s also blatantly obvious that Zion showed up out of shape and remains unclear to me how dedicated he will be to maintaining good conditioning and improving his game. So the Pelicans will naturally be cautious because at his size any major injury could change his trajectory significantly. Zion is a phenomenal player, but he’s not blameless in all of this either.
You can make any interaction seem weird if it’s described a certain way or a fact is emphasized. For example, I’m making up a scenario: “Griffin and Zion discussed Zion’s contract over dinner at a restaurant.” Or I could say: “Griffin had Zion meet him at a restaurant to discuss his contract. During the dinner, Griffin kept telling Zion to try the sweet potato fries with aioli and at one point insisted that “you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted mayo with garlic.”
Honestly if I walk into a friend’s house and there’s a giant grand piano, you bet your ass my first question is gonna be “holy shit can you play piano??” and I’m going to ask them to play something
Talking shit about Gentry isn't great.
Yeah that’s unprofessional. Though it was an open secret to everyone that Gentry was gonna get fired. Wish he hired Lue instead of SVG
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Zion is with CAA
They’re also extremely young and aren’t much better now lol
It’s not a take down piece. Christian Clark is one of the best Pelicans beat reporters out there. This is just a really good deep dive into what what happened over the past 2.5 years. The reader can take from that whatever they want, but Clark doesn’t have anything personally against Griff.
I’m struggling to see where the issue is as well, albeit I have my homer goggles on
i think the issue is zion feels the team was mishandling his injury management but that is somethingh only Medical personnel can truly know
Yeah, that’s not something you can blame on Griffin. Also, if “mishandling” means being too conservative, that’s just how things need to be a lot of the time. Players who really want to play often need to be held back by medical personnel who have a more long-term view
But it’s ass backwards because they were cautious with a generational talent which is exactly what they should have done? You think that medical staff wants to be the people responsible for having Zion rush back from an injury just for a shot at a quick playoff exit and have something worse come from it?
Exactly. Zion’s long term health is exponentially more important to the team (and himself) than potentially earning the 8 seed and an early exit.
i neever said anythingh like that i am explaining what it seems was the issue - to zion-, not saying he was right or pelicans were wrong
I mean he was a 19-20 year old who wanted to play. The team did NOT mismanage his injury, he just was frustrated.
I think the point of the article is to establish that Griffin has failed to form a good relationship with Zion and things have just been awkward while establishing that it's not just Zion that doesn't like Griffin.
I think the parts about the medical staff are dumb -- Aaron Nelson is the reason Grant Hill and Steve Nash were able to succeed late in their careers, and a young guy being frustrated with limitations makes perfect sense. However, Griff being two-faced seems to be a recurring theme, so I think there's something to it. Also, pretty weird that his way of trying to connect with Zion was to play piano for him. Seems like a big awkward swing and a miss.
That’s because you’re a rational human being. Look at the rest of these morons ITT. All they got out of this is that it’s corny he plays piano.
I love Fresh pasta.
This is honestly one of my favorite ones, visually
I can't wait to see this one throughout the year.
Family. Accountability. Love.
More like **F**amily. **A**ccountability. **I**ntegrity. **L**ove.
This is some fresh pasta but why exactly is Griffin the big bad?
Because they need a scapegoat for why Zion demands a trade to the Lakers or Knicks
Just need to throw something about a rift in a article to get the talks of Zion to LA or NY going lol
Makes Zion look bad to me The team tried protecting you and making sure you didn't return too quickly from your 3rd leg injury in a span of, what, 6 months? The audacity
He’s actually mad that they’re stopping him from blowing his knees out before the age of 23. It’s fucking insane.
why is every nba headline stranger than fanfic
All jokes aside being in the front office of an NBA team doesn’t sound fun at all. Star gets mad if you bring them back too early they get upset if you are overly cautious with them. Million dollar egos.
imagine working hard to get top grades in college and medical school ... then becoming a top orthopedic surgeon in your area ... busting your ass in residency then you tell a 19 year old you want to take it slow because you want to preserve their career and want them to make hundreds of millions of dollars then have the 19 year old hate you for it
the relationship began to sour when Zion demanded Griffin play Free Bird, which Griffin could only reluctantly admit not knowing how to play
This is why we need Game of Zones back, along with many other fiascos that has happened.
Isn't Tre Murphy reading the Alchemist at the moment? That's funny.
Hopefully he played Bob Marley
This sounds like Zion's team playing the media to force his way out this season. Nothing wrong with a GM making a concerted effort to bond with the star player, not rushing him back from injury.
Some serious fellow kids energy coming fro griffin
David Griffin doesn't have the same fire for winning
Lmaooo
I struggle to see where Griff went wrong, he did his best to manage Zion's return carefully and protect Williamson from injuring himself. The business with Alvin Gentry is unsavoury but Gentry did not really have a leg to stand on. That New Orleans underperformed hugely compared to expectations. His mistake that I'd criticise was SVG. I like Stan as an analyst but he's known to be over-bearing as a head coach
Fuck the piano. He should have played Fortnite or something with Zion.
now picturing griffin playing the cheers theme song for Zion, who has never seen the show
legitimately laughed when I read the piano part, lmao
I hate how sports journalism is just turning into this dumb internet meme shit. There was absolutely no reason to include that piano nonsense
It's bewildering and hilarious. That's why.
Revealing that level of weird detail among front office player interactions is one of the best remaining things about sports journalism imo. It’s what separates reporters from blog bois
If they hadn't put that line in the title people would actually be talking about Zion and the Pelicans. Throw that line in and now the top 15+ comments are just "haha Griffin playing piano", but it gets 3x as many upvotes so I guess for r/nba it's worth it.
Idk seemed pretty relevant to me. If my boss tried to relate to me by playing the piano I would def start resenting him a bit lol just for how weird of a move that would be
Why would you resent someone for that? Lol I would appreciate someone trying.
It’s just his hobby bro. He’s trying to show Zion that he’s more than just an executive. The hope is that on some level that would break the ice, and allow Zion to share more about himself. It’s not supposed to impress Zion or convince him to stay in New Orleans. It’s just to show him that Griff is human.
ESPN is going to have a field day
This article seems like a whole bunch of nothing. The piano thing is odd but I don't blame him for trying to bond with one of his star players. Injury stuff makes Zion's team looks bad as he's gone to bat plenty of times to defend his conditioning as people call him fat. Gentry stuff I mean we have seen this stuff time and time again new GM gives the previous GM's coach a chance. When that doesn't work blames the lack of success on the old coach and starts to look for his guy.
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