Bonzi Wells on the Rise Guys

[Warhawk]

Heard parts of the interview and he basically said he's really looking forward to playing here. He's energized, feels that he's in a great situation, HATED the cowbell guy when he came to ARCO, said he's (the cowbell guy) widely reviled around the league , is willing to do whatever the coach wants to help the team (including playing any position from the 1 to the 5 ), is a pretty bad golfer (wants to play with guys who have scores of about 100 or so IIRC), and thinks he and SAR will fit in well. Said the goal is to contend for the championship, but don't be too disappointed if we don't get it because it is such a difficult thing to accomplish and SA didn't hurt themselves any during the offseason. Donated $25,000 towards Katrina and challenged the rest of the Kings to do the same since the Maloofs will double it.

I think that's the gist of the conversation, anyone else pitch in with stuff I missed or add clarification.

 

[Fillmoe]

you know what i just noticed? sar played with bibby in vancouver, bonzi played with sar in portland and miller and bonzi are childhood friends from indiana.... so the chemisty is gonna be real good with this team

 

[KingKong]

Off court perhaps, although because they played together doesn't necessarily mean they got along or will get along. We have some pretty likeable guys though, so I don't see much of an issue. On court is a different story. I hope the chemistry is strong.

 

[Bad Boy Bo]

you know what i just noticed? sar played with bibby in vancouver, bonzi played with sar in portland and miller and bonzi are childhood friends from indiana.... so the chemisty is gonna be real good with this team

I thought Wells was traded to Memphis before Rahim made it to Portland.

 

[PFFFT!!]

you know what i just noticed? sar played with bibby in vancouver, bonzi played with sar in portland and miller and bonzi are childhood friends from indiana.... so the chemisty is gonna be real good with this team

Didn't SAR join Portland after Bonzi's trade to Memphis?

 

[ReinadelosReys]

No trasnscript from me today, didn't have any of my stuff with me. Warhawk got the jist of things, but here are the things I was able to jot down (let me know if something doens't make sense) :

On being in Sac/with Kings: Very excited, what he’s asked for. Never had a problem in Mem except what happened at end of the year…Was a model citizen ...Maybe Fratello had own agenda, knew something that everyone else didn't (not playing FA's).

On SAR: Will bring a lot to the table….a 20-10 guy, play D etc….Playing with Brad will be good for him, stretch the D (with his perimeter shooting)…..

On the city's high expectations: people have to understand its tough to win a championship….will give it their all every game…only one champ every year, hopefully the city won’t get down on them if they don’t

On the Spurs, when asked about their new additions: “Yeah, how good are they?”

On Kings wide open system and what he needs/plans to do: ….don ‘t need to worry about stats…play within Kings system….play his role, lots of D, score some etc…

On the label attached to him: people have to get to know him….he’s a guy with toughness….only "plays a bad guy on TV"….free spirit, good person to be around…..people need to understand that.

On ‘Sheed and getting traded to winning organization: Winning heals a lot….Once the Kings start winning, maybe people will forget the things he's done in the past

On Kings soft label: He’ll give them (toughness) every night…he doesn’t mind being the bad guy as long as they are winning.

On talking with RA: Lots of convos with him…made him feel at home….told him how bad he wanted him, how he’d fit in, the teammates the city embracing him. Lifted his spirits up etc…

On Hurricane Katrina: City of Sac needs to come together as a family….step up as a family give to Gulf coast…even if you just help one person, it will change their life forever…

On Golf and what he’s doing: He’s been playing golf too….He’s going to put his game on the Kings website auction. ….No 70-80 golfers-don’t embarrass him please….come without their driver! Is challenging teammates to match or challenge contributions. Donated $25,000 today!....We have to do our parts as Americans and as Humans.

 

[Warhawk]

Thanks - I was listening while driving and obviously wasn't taking notes.

 

[Fillmoe]

Didn't SAR join Portland after Bonzi's trade to Memphis?

did he? if so than my bad... LOL

 

[thesanityannex]

On Kings soft label: He’ll give them (toughness) every night…he doesn’t mind being the bad guy as long as they are winning.

Perfect, Just what I wanted to hear. Hopefully this will rub off on the other guys as well, especially Miller. I want to see the Mean Miller of old.

 

[Bricklayer]

did he? if so than my bad... LOL

Yep, and Bibby and SAR weren't exactly busom buddies in Vancouver either.

Chemistry should still be ok if these three things go well:

1) Bonzi does not go nuts and spit on Rick
2) People don't complain about shots/roles
3) We win

Those are all kind of interrelated, but #2 is the one that bears watching. There may not be a single starter who gets as many shots as he would like, and several benchers who are going to get far fewer minutes than they'd prefer. Those sorts of things have bothered Bonzi (as well as possibly SAR, Peja and KT) in the past, so here's hoping he's grown up.

 

[Bricklayer]

Perfect, Just what I wanted to hear. Hopefully this will rub off on the other guys as well, especially Miller. I want to see the Mean Miller of old.

That was always the unquestionable upside of picking up Bonzi (although we did give away our toughest player to get him). But Bonzi Wells as leader? Eh...

 

[iheartBrad]

good lookin

 

[kingsfan916]

Bonzi is like a young doug christie who we need

 

[Warhawk]

Yep, and Bibby and SAR weren't exactly busom buddies in Vancouver either.

I think it has been said by both that they had no problems that weren't caused by losing games. They got along fine, IIRC.

http://www.khtk.com/article.asp?id=48647

Listen to the interview Grant and Mike had with him. Seemed to be glad to be back with Mike in a situation where they can win.

Edit - Digging hard for more info, I found this:

http://ad.abctv.com/nba/columns/lawrence_mitch/1080986.html

Grizz is apt to make a move by next week's trading deadline, since Bibby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are having their own Kobe-Shaq feud.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...areef+Memphis+teammate&hl=en&client=firefox-a

"You always miss the guys who get traded, but that's an opportunity to make new friends, too. I think Shareef will be all right."

Hard to know if there was really anything to it or not....

 

[Bricklayer]

I think it has been said by both that they had no problems that weren't caused by losing games. They got along fine, IIRC.

http://www.khtk.com/article.asp?id=48647

Listen to the interview Grant and Mike had with him. Seemed to be glad to be back with Mike in a situation where they can win.

Edit - Digging hard for more info, I found this:

http://ad.abctv.com/nba/columns/lawrence_mitch/1080986.html

Grizz is apt to make a move by next week's trading deadline, since Bibby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are having their own Kobe-Shaq feud.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Zkmht5bQA3AJ:insider.espn.go.com/insider/sportindex%3Fsport%3Dnba+Bibby%2BShareef%2BMemphis%2Bteammate&hl=en&client=firefox-a

"You always miss the guys who get traded, but that's an opportunity to make new friends, too. I think Shareef will be all right."

Hard to know if there was really anything to it or not....

Oh, I think there very definitely was something there. It went on for some time, and there were even allegations that Bibby was refusing to pass the ball to SAR because the ball never came back out. All of this kiss kiss stuff now is just the politically correct revisionist stuff you would expect from soon to be teammates. Doesn't mean there will necessarily be any issues now however -- entirely possible that both guys have matured and moved on + its certainly a different situation. But when you have a very public spat and say nothing about it for 5 years until all of a sudden its all hugs and kisses when it looks like you are going to be on the same team again, I'm not buying it.

 

[Warhawk]

Oh, I think there very definitely was something there. It went on for some time, and there were even allegations that Bibby was refusing to pass the ball to SAR because the ball never came back out. All of this kiss kiss stuff now is just the politically correct revisionist stuff you would expect from soon to be teammates. Doesn't mean there will necessarily be any issues now however -- entirely possible that both guys have matured and moved on + its certainly a different situation. But when you have a very public spat and say nothing about it for 5 years until all of a sudden its all hugs and kisses when it looks like you are going to be on the same team again, I'm not buying it.

Yeah, you might be right. Again, hard to know for sure, but I'll take your word on it.

 

[rexb_kings]

i'm just more confident now when we face teams with very good SG's (TMac,Kobe,Manu,Allen..etc.) at least now Bonzi can give them harder looks unlike when we had Mobley around. also, one more thing i liked abouth Bonzi is that he was onced labeled as Power Guard because of his power post up plays inside. Hope he'll be able to rediscover his previous game when he was at the level of borderline all-star player with Portland.

 

[Kings113]

Well that was when he was getting good minutes, as he didn't both years in Memphis. So I think he comes back on a higher level for us.

 

[Bricklayer]

i'm just more confident now when we face teams with very good SG's (TMac,Kobe,Manu,Allen..etc.) at least now Bonzi can give them harder looks unlike when we had Mobley around. also, one more thing i liked abouth Bonzi is that he was onced labeled as Power Guard because of his power post up plays inside. Hope he'll be able to rediscover his previous game when he was at the level of borderline all-star player with Portland.

Funny thing is that its easy to get the impression that Bonzi has fallen off because he wasn't getting minutes -- and of course because he's been such a ravening coach-killing jerk for the last few years. But its not really his game that fell off, its his minutes in the stupid Memphis egalitarian experiment. When you look at the stats, he was actually very prolific in his limited minutes in Memphis:

Per 48s
Bonzi last year (04-05): 23.2pts (.441, .346, .750) 7.4rebs 2.6ast 2.7stl 0.9blk 2.9TO
Bonzi best year (01-02): 25.7pts (.469, .384, .741) 9.1rebs 4.2ast 2.3stl 0.5blk 3.9TO
Bonzi over his career: 23.6pts (.464, .344, .716) 8.0rebs 4.2ast 2.5stl 0.5blk 3.9TO

really pretty consistent, and pretty damn good too. For comparison:

Peja per48 last year: 25.2pts (.444, .402, .920) 5.4rebs 2.6ast 1.5stl 0.2blk 1.9TO

Bonzi can be very good when he wants to be. In many ways maybe the key to the season -- the guy who has both the most potential to tear things down if he goes ballistic, as well as maybe the guy who has the most potential to make us for real as our lone defender and tough guy. That has to qualify as about the shakiest key player to a season this side of Artest, but the talent is there in spades if he can tap into it, and if he is used correctly.

 

[thesanityannex]

Bonzi could be the best thing to happen to Sacramento since Webber, but there is also the flipside.

 

[PixelPusher]

Edit - Digging hard for more info, I found this:

http://ad.abctv.com/nba/columns/lawrence_mitch/1080986.html

Grizz is apt to make a move by next week's trading deadline, since Bibby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are having their own Kobe-Shaq feud.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...areef+Memphis+teammate&hl=en&client=firefox-a

My favorite line from that article (which of course is several years old) was this:

When the Grizzlies talked to the Knicks about Allan Houston in a possible Mike Bibby deal, they were told that Houston is "untouchable."

I can just hear Isiah Thomas screaming "A time machine! My kingdom for a time machine! Anybody? PLEASE?"

 

[ForlornKing]

I think that Mr. Carril was raised in Compton, in the Deep Ghetto as a kid, and he has a lot of respect for these thugs we get. That's why we always make them so GOOD!


Yes, I was kidding everyone.

 

[SacTownKid]

I am VERY excitied at what Bonzi brings to the table. I have wanted to see this guy in a Kings uniform for a long time and its hard to believe the Kings actually got a player that I had wanted. Usually they get the guy you've never really heard of, or payed much attention to.

 

[VF21]

On the city's high expectations: people have to understand its tough to win a championship….will give it their all every game…only one champ every year, hopefully the city won’t get down on them if they don’t.

Excuse me, Mr. Wells? But maybe - just maybe - you should actually get to know the fans here in Sacramento before you start lecturing them on what to expect. Hopefully the city won't get down on them if they don't win a championship? That bothers me. At this point, I would much rather he'd said somthing about the team doing the best job they possibly can and knowing that the fans would be behind them, etc.

Bonzi Wells is the LAST guy I want to hear telling us what we have to understand.

-----------------------------------

Don't get me wrong. I'm very excited to have him here and hope he's able to put his demons behind him. Those kinds of comments, however, aren't doing anything to endear him to me. My attitude is get to know me before you decide to tell me what I have to understand. Play your heart out FIRST, then we'll talk about whether or not the city gets down on you.

 

[PixelPusher]

Excuse me, Mr. Wells? But maybe - just maybe - you should actually get to know the fans here in Sacramento before you start lecturing them on what to expect. Hopefully the city won't get down on them if they don't win a championship? That bothers me. At this point, I would much rather he'd said somthing about the team doing the best job they possibly can and knowing that the fans would be behind them, etc.

Bonzi Wells is the LAST guy I want to hear telling us what we have to understand.

-----------------------------------

Don't get me wrong. I'm very excited to have him here and hope he's able to put his demons behind him. Those kinds of comments, however, aren't doing anything to endear him to me. My attitude is get to know me before you decide to tell me what I have to understand. Play your heart out FIRST, then we'll talk about whether or not the city gets down on you.

I listened to that interview this morning, and I don't remember the exact quote, but he started that statement by mentioning his experience with Portland fans and how negative they were when they didn't meet their championship expectations, so I think that statement is more directed back at them than at us.

 

[Kings113]

Also wasn't he asked the question?

As far as what I think about that part, doesn't mean much to me.

 

[VF21]

I listened to that interview this morning, and I don't remember the exact quote, but he started that statement by mentioning his experience with Portland fans and how negative they were when they didn't meet their championship expectations, so I think that statement is more directed back at them than at us.

Thank you. That's good to hear. Hopefully he won't ever compare us to Portland fans, although - all things considered - you can't really blame Trailblazers fans for losing faith. I don't think it was just about the team not meeting championship expectations.

They didn't get the nickname Jailblazers because of their standing in the Western Conference.

 

[ReinadelosReys]

I listened to that interview this morning, and I don't remember the exact quote, but he started that statement by mentioning his experience with Portland fans and how negative they were when they didn't meet their championship expectations, so I think that statement is more directed back at them than at us.

Thank you Pixel for clearing that up, sorry for the confusion. Although, I am sure Bonzi is more grateful he isn't at the receiving end of VF's wrath

 

[VF21]

Wrath? Moi?

 

[tubiscus]

Wrath? Moi?

As VF's wrath goes, I thought it was kind of a softball......maybe she's going soft in her ancientness!!