Taking a year off like Jordan? Huh, you’re not Michael Jordan. You’re the current version of Latrell Spreewell.
Why is that? Sprewell assaulted his coach, which you’re comparing to what exactly?
Hehe yeah, Marbury’s year off is pretty much equivalent to my current 20 year streak of taking a year off from the NBA…(and the NFL and the NHL, and MLB)
Sprewell turning down his contract, same as Marbury.
He hardly played last year and didn’t play much the year before that, so it’s more like three years off.
Earlier this year this article about why attitude is more important than talent in sports featured this bit:
*Talent alone, however, is not enough. “Great players can have great impacts, but great players with great attitudes have really great impacts,” says Malik Rose, a current New York Knicks forward who won two NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs. “When a star comes along and spreads his intensity and desire to the other players, it’s huge.” When the Spurs captured those titles in 1999 and 2003, the team was led by a pair of players, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, with Hall of Fame skills, Hall of Fame work ethics, and Hall of Fame attitudes. They led by example—hustling after every loose ball and playing each game as if it were vital to existence. “That’s why we won,” Rose says. “Everyone followed those guys.”
With the lowly Knicks, however, Rose has failed even to reach the playoffs. To informed observers, the reason is obvious: Whereas San Antonio had Robinson and Duncan, New York was, until recently, led by Stephon Marbury, a player with an uncanny ability to disappoint. Marbury has been traded three times in his career, and the aftermath is always the same: The team he leaves gets better; the team he joins suffers. “It’s the simple case of Steph wanting to be a star more than he wants to win,” says Russ Bengtson, a contributing editor for Slam Magazine. “He wants that big contract, that shoe deal. When that’s what drives you, as opposed to being a part of a team and winning a championship, you’re doomed to fail. Steph’s a star, but hardly a leader.”*