just a blurb in an ESPN chat

[Jerryaki]

don't know how much weight ric bucher carries with you, but thought it was worth mentioning:

Kosal - Stockton, Ca: How do you feel about the Kings hiring of Eric Musselman?

Ric Bucher: (2:06 PM ET ) I'd feel better about it if they'd talked to someone from the Warriors and done their due diligence. Maybe Muss can handle things differently than he did at Golden State. But he has a lot of personalities to deal with there besides Artest. I want to see how Mike Bibby and Muss get along, for starters. I can tell you this: most of the rest of the Western Conference believes the Kings just made themselves irrelevant.

ETA: emphasis mine.

 

[macadocious]

Most so called NBA experts have been talking about the demise of the Kings for the past 3 years, although at this stage we are still not a legitamate title contender Petrie has made personnel moves that have allowed us to rebuild on the fly, which is very difficult to do in these salary cap times.

I still am not happy with the Adelman firing, but Mussleman if he can tone down his personality ( I believe that he is a person who can learn from his mistakes and by watching the mistakes that Fratello made, by butting heads with players) that he can be an excellent coach.

There is no doubt that he made the Warriors better. They had the best record with him in the past 12 years. So if he can build off that he is technically and strategically a top notch coach in this league. We will see if personality wise he is.

 

[thesanityannex]

I can tell you this: most of the rest of the Western Conference believes the Ric Bucher has always been irrelevant.

Edited for truth.

 

[NoBonus]

Ric Bucher also said Yao Ming is a dominant force... they guy knows about as much about NBA basketball as Monarch's Coach Whis.

 

[walker60]

Ric Bucher is an idiot. If Musselman could make the Warriors relevant, and yes that is not a typo, then how could he make the Kings irrelevant? Mike Bibby won't have problems with any coach, he's a classy guy. Bibby causing problems with the coach would be the least of my worries at this point....

 

[Bricklayer]

don't know how much weight ric bucher carries with you, but thought it was worth mentioning:

Kosal - Stockton, Ca: How do you feel about the Kings hiring of Eric Musselman?

Ric Bucher: (2:06 PM ET ) I'd feel better about it if they'd talked to someone from the Warriors and done their due diligence. Maybe Muss can handle things differently than he did at Golden State. But he has a lot of personalities to deal with there besides Artest. I want to see how Mike Bibby and Muss get along, for starters. I can tell you this: most of the rest of the Western Conference believes the Kings just made themselves irrelevant.

a) not much

b) not buying that the rest of the Western Conference thinks we automatically made ourselves irrelevant with this move, although I will double underline the difficulty in swapping out a 700 game winner (Top 15 all-time) in the belief you will be MORE relevant than the 8 straight playoff championship contending Kings of the Adelman era.


The ability to deal with personalities will likely be the defining factor for Musselman, but just because Bucher wants to jab from his bully pulpit doesn't mean that the rest of the world believes its a foregone conclusion Muss will fail.


P.S. BTW, may have to go with Bucher on the Yao question -- post All-Star break he took off and was just destroying people to the tune of about 25 and 11. May have fully arrived.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Ric's an idiot. We know the Maloofs did extensive background checks on Muss prior to the second interview but he'd like us to believe we wouldn't have talked to anyone at Golden State? Besides, what are they going to foolishly admit they railroaded the guy and have suffered for it ever since they brought in the big name coach they wanted? Why is he going to have a hard time with Bibby, because he isn't defensive oriented? Because he shoots too much? Then why do Muss and Arenas still chat regularly? If anyone hasn't done their homework its Ric.

 

[Bricklayer]

Ric's an idiot. We know the Maloofs did extensive background checks on Muss prior to the second interview but he'd like us to believe we wouldn't have talked to anyone at Golden State? Besides, what are they going to foolishly admit they railroaded the guy and have suffered for it ever since they brought in the big name coach they wanted? Why is he going to have a hard time with Bibby, because he isn't defensive oriented? Because he shoots too much? Then why do Muss and Arenas still chat regularly? If anyone hasn't done their homework its Ric.

Actually I would have to agree on the Bibby point -- can almost see that being the toughest sell of all (although he could certianly lose Ron or Bonzi if he messes up). But Mike is stubborn, and more than a little difficult to coach at times I think. Could see that being a real challenge for a guy who in Golden State was considerably too far on the "lay down the law" side of things. Doubt it would have anything like the consequences of losing one of the more volatile personalities, but it has cold war potential.


Anyway, we'll see. Always kills me when I see otherwise bright professionals who simply suck at interpersonal relationships. Seems such a waste, and almost a choice. Hopefully Muss has been a little humbled, and being a bright guy, learned from those mistakes.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

But Bibby is a pro and hasn't had a blow up or any major issues since he came into the league. I understand how important it is to have a coach that gets along with the players, but I think Muss's bad rap was largely manufactured to get rid of a coach hired as a placeholder who actually turned the team's fortune around. Most recent stories indicate Muss is close with lots of his former players including several of the ones that supposedly had issues with him.

 

[NoBonus]

P.S. BTW, may have to go with Bucher on the Yao question -- post All-Star break he took off and was just destroying people to the tune of about 25 and 11. May have fully arrived.

So he was a somewhat dominant player on a sub-500 club... that does not equate to a dominant NBA player in my book. I guess the fact that he made the All-NBA third team is what he is talking about... still not dominant in any sort of league-wide way. Maybe he is dominant playing one-on-one against Ric Bucher?

 

[Jerryaki]

So he was a somewhat dominant player on a sub-500 club... that does not equate to a dominant NBA player in my book. I guess the fact that he made the All-NBA third team is what he is talking about... still not dominant in any sort of league-wide way. Maybe he is dominant playing one-on-one against Ric Bucher?

at this point in time, would you rather have brad miller or yao ming on the kings?

i'd rather have yao.

 

[NoBonus]

at this point in time, would you rather have brad miller or yao ming on the kings?

i'd rather have yao.

I agree, but I would never refer to either of those guys (up to this point) as dominant.

 

[Venom]

I don't remember Bibby being particularly well known for coachability while in Vancouver/Memphis. However, when it comes to coaches, he strikes me as the "silent assasin" type. There won't be any overt blowups, he'll just quietly poison the locker room.

Yao Ming is a stud. He struggled early, while still consistently showing flashes. I always thought he would eventually flourish, just not while Van Gundy was still his coach and not with T-Mac as a teammate. Although, the second part was debatable this past season.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't remember Bibby being particularly well known for coachability while in Vancouver/Memphis.

He never played in Memphis, and considering how lowly Vancouver was as both a team and a NBA city he seemed to keep his cool pretty well. I certainly never heard anything bad about him while he was there and you'd think the fact that we brought him in as a replacement for the uncoachable point guard we had at the time might count for something.

 

[Bricklayer]

at this point in time, would you rather have brad miller or yao ming on the kings?

i'd rather have yao.

Um...and its not even close.

Yao was, as of the end of the season, easily the most dominant center in the game. Took him a while. But he finally arrived. Now the only questions is does he come back with that same level of aggressiveness or not.

 

[NoBonus]

Um...and its not even close.

Yao was, as of the end of the season, easily the most dominant center in the game. Took him a while. But he finally arrived. Now the only questions is does he come back with that same level of aggressiveness or not.

I think the best question is how well would he do on a better team; he could be improved dramatically or could be shown as one-dimentional depending on how things turned out. One thing is for certain, his "dominance" did not lead to any great team success for Houston. I think Houston should trade him to Sac for Brad just for the sake of seeing how he would do. It does make me wonder, though, what influence the Chinese government would have in any movement regarding Yao... is he required to play on a team that wears red?

 

[walker60]

How did Bibby even become involved as someone who might have a bad relationship with coach Muss? I think anyone would have to be more worried about Artest, Bonzi (ya-ya him and Muss' dad were great buddies), and KT than Bibby. Has Bibby ever done anything to merit someone questioning his attitude toward coaches? As far as I can recall, Bibby has always been a good professional.

 

[ezekielbear]

He still holds a grudge from the "Webber to the Knicks is a DONE DEAL"...

 

[Warhawk]

How did Bibby even become involved as someone who might have a bad relationship with coach Muss? I think anyone would have to be more worried about Artest, Bonzi (ya-ya him and Muss' dad were great buddies), and KT than Bibby. Has Bibby ever done anything to merit someone questioning his attitude toward coaches? As far as I can recall, Bibby has always been a good professional.

I think the biggest knock on Bibby has been less than stellar defense and apparently tuning out Rick during timeouts - at least it APPEARS he's not listening.

Neither of which would probably endear him to Coach Muss.

 

[BMiller52]

He still holds a grudge from the "Webber to the Knicks is a DONE DEAL"...

Ahh so that's why he's always hating on the kings. I can't recall one good thing he's said about us the last couple years.

 

[ezekielbear]

Ahh so that's why he's always hating on the kings. I can't recall one good thing he's said about us the last couple years.

He seriously almost broke down and began crying on live TV...it was hilarious.

And he tried SO hard to make it seem like what he heard was the truth.

The guy is such a tool. lol

But, to me, that's obvious as to the reason why he hated on the Kings, ESPECIALLY Chris, for such a long while.

 

[BMiller52]

He seriously almost broke down and began crying on live TV...it was hilarious.

And he tried SO hard to make it seem like what he heard was the truth.

The guy is such a tool. lol

But, to me, that's obvious as to the reason why he hated on the Kings, ESPECIALLY Chris, for such a long while.

Any chance I could find a clip of that somewhere?

 

[ezekielbear]

Lol, I'll keep an eye out for it...see if any of the guys on Mixmakers have the clip of it..they tend to have a lot of that stuff...couple guys from my site may have it too. I'll look around bro.

It was hilarious.

 

[BMiller52]

Lol, I'll keep an eye out for it...see if any of the guys on Mixmakers have the clip of it..they tend to have a lot of that stuff...couple guys from my site may have it too. I'll look around bro.

It was hilarious.

Thanks man.

 

[Kings113]

Didn't people say the same thing about the Suns w/o Amare? That they'd be irrelevant and a .500/sub-.500 team? Bucher's garbage. Off-season dealings haven't even started yet, who knows how the roster looks and who's here and not in late September.

 

[chelle]

As far as I am concerned, Bibby has not done anything to warrent the fear that he will poison the locker room or cause problems with the coach. Unless he does, I will not worry a bit about it. While some off court stuff may be a bit less than stellar, on court he has very few real issues. I see no reason to doubt that he will continue as such.

This team is "fresh with no mistakes in it." No need to borrow problems. When they do happen - I'm sure we will discuss them in detail!

 

[SacTownKid]

Irrelevant?! Good, let them think that if its true. They'll be rudely awakened come next season.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Irrelevant?! Good, let them think that if its true. They'll be rudely awakened come next season.

Exactly my philosophy. Its easy to make my predictions but damn, those ESPN "experts" sure will look stupid if they continue to hate on the Kings. if im not mistaken, people were literally pointing us out last season as being an underachiever and that we were not going to make the playoffs (I still remember Charles Barkley with his "the jazz are going to make the playoffs as the 8th seed"). When we got Ron and started winning, their attitudes changed so fast, that if you werent a Kings fan, you'd swear that they were supportive of the Kings the entire season. They as in our doubters and haters.

 

[Bricklayer]

They as in our doubters and haters.

Er, I know its popular on every team's messageboard to say "woe is us, they all hate us etc.", but last year much of the media (Marc Stein excepted) was guilty of OVERESTIMATING us and predicting our softarific squad at the start of the year was going to win the division or whatnot. Think the reaction that set in, if there was one, was embarrassment/hope that we would fail after making everybpdy look dumb.

 

[Entity]

on the yao issue. Wasn't SAR a 20 and 12 guy on atlantas aweful teams?