Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd Thrift
You’ve seriously never heard people say that erratic minutes hurt performance? Have you even watched basketball?
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Of course (and it happens in other sports, too). It's just that it's a chicken or egg thing:
Player -
"My numbers are down because I'm not getting consistent minutes."
Team -
"Your playing time is inconsistent because you're not playing well."
So, given that neither his numbers nor his playing time were significantly down for a whole season after the anthem hullabaloo (
and that, as I recall, the publicity/controversy had faded), I'm applying Occam's Razor, the most-likely explanation - the one that the statistics and other factors bear out - and not the one that fits a media-driven narrative.
Again, I'm certainly open to facts and so forth that support the less-likely scenarios. But pretty much everything I read about his timeline glosses over the fact that he played well for a whole year after the suspension and initial controversy, and that the issue had pretty much - as I recall - faded. Instead, the lazy journalism simply goes with 1) anthem controversy & suspension, followed by 2) reduced playing time, and 3) eventual blackball. They don't bother to include - let along explain - what happened between #1 and #2.
Finally, it bears repeating that M A'R's career trajectory would not raise a single eyebrow had it not been for the anthem stuff...
At any rate, agree to disagree I suppose. I'm sure I won't convince you. In fact, I'm not convinced that
I'm right. I'm simply suggesting that my take is the more-likelier one. But you could be right, too.