Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Nate Robinson Maturing? Nah.

I'm convinced that no one at Newsday knows anything about the NBA. In today's article in Newsday Alan Hahn writes that Nate seems to be growing up. The evidence -- he passed the ball in a practice instead of going 1-on-5 against the defense. Wow. That's impressive. Let's just crown him the next John Stockton. But this may in fact be great progress for someone who is being pushed for the backup PG spot by the great [please read with all of the sarcasm that was intended] Mardy Collins. Just not someone who will ever be a starter in the league. At least however, Hahn says he remains skeptical about Robinson's ability to "shed his class-clown personality". But was this article worth writing at all? About a guy who is in double-digits, not in any statistical category, but on the depth chart?

I am starting to think that Cablevision secretly bought Newsday though. How else could articles like this, or the drivel written by Ken Berger, be published unless it was part of James Dolan's media empire? Next case in point is that in the same article Hahn suggests that Nate Robinson's progress was hurt by Steve Francis' presence on the team. Nice to throw a former player under the bus. Does no one think that the example set by Marbury undermining Coach Brown's authority or Isiah's directive to a bunch of scrubs to be thugs (against the Nuggets) or his unwanted smooching of an employee helps set the tone for Robinson's bad behavior? Not at Newsday at least.

But the final insult of my intelligence was Hahn's asking "Is he the point guard of the future? Or with the emergence of Mardy Collins, is he merely a trade asset to be used to acquire an established veteran such as Ron Artest?". Nate a "trade chip" to get Artest? Zach Randolph is a trade chip. David Lee is a trade chip. Next year's #1 is a trade chip. Nate is a "throw in".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John and Nate do share common roots - John from Spokane and Nate from Seattle. Beyond that, Nate has a long path to walk to even reach Stockton's shadow.