http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/13916629p-14754932c.html
Mark Kreidler: Peja's pinky is only part of the problem
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Peja Stojakovic doesn't get it, that he is being punished now for all the perceived sins in his NBA past. He doesn't yet understand that he is being held to answer not for this year's injury, but for years of pent-up frustration from some of the same folks who once measured him for holy wings.
This is Stojakovic's time to be found guilty of failing to achieve immortal status. People around here wanted him to be All-Galactic first team. Turns out, he's just a really, really good shooter.
So it's about a pinky owie all of a sudden?
Wow: not at all. What it is about is history.
Stojakovic came off the floor after the Kings' practice on Monday and removed a bulky looking glove from his right hand. The glove is designed to provide protection and allow him to play while still trying to heal a sprain in the fifth metacarpal as it extends down from his pinky finger.
He hated the glove, no question. Every time anybody asked about it, Stojakovic tried hard not to make the bitter-beer face, and he used words like "weird" and "different" to describe how it felt on his hand. But it was either that or an old-fashioned tape job, and given that Stojakovic already had decided he would play tonight against Charlotte, he needed to at least see how it went.
Why play tonight, as opposed to any other night? Well, that's a fair question. The official answer is that another X-ray Monday proved negative, suggesting that the constant pain in Stojakovic's hand is just a very bad sprain.
"It will still be there," he said of the ache. "They (doctors) don't know. It might be there for a couple of weeks. But, you know ... I'm going to try to play through it and try to get used to it."
Unofficially, though, Stojakovic needs to get back on the floor after three games and a fair pot of controversy away from it. He needs to stop seeing his name plastered next to the "soft" entry in the sports dictionary.
He needs to get back to playing and scoring, which in Stojakovic's mind would put things right. What he still doesn't see is that the game is rigged.
Bonzi Wells probably didn't realize what a rich vein he was tapping last week, when his comments raised the general issue of Peja's toughness. Wells is new in town. The Stojakovic conversation runs years deep, through years and layers of emotion, playoff disappointments and vague, almost whispered comments about his ability to thrive in difficult moments.
The Stojakovic who arrived in Sacramento from the Greek leagues in 1999 was the player who came of age just as the Kings became genuine championship contenders. He looked fabulous in a winning uniform. He was surrounded by players who made him better, people like Vlade Divac and Doug Christie. He was tabbed for greatness.
As time has proved, Stojakovic is a fine but limited player. He's a classic shooter, a guy annually ranked by his peers as among the elite in the world at that craft. He rebounds only a little, plays some defense, doesn't mix it up inside.
Nothing wrong with that, unless you were planning to pay him a maximum contract (don't!) or crown the man as the Next Great Thing in the NBA. Stojakovic never was that, and he never will be, but sometimes the dream dies hard.
The furor around the Peja Pinky has surprisingly little to do with this particular injury. It's November, after all, and the reconstituted Kings haven't even figured out what they are as a team.
But some longtime followers of the franchise see this injury as emblematic of Stojakovic's soft career, which they see as itself emblematic of the Kings' late-era softness in general. "Injured metacarpal" becomes "bruised pinky," which reminds them of how many times they screamed at their TVs for Stojakovic to go banging in the lane or scrap for the loose ball, or that airball he tossed up at the end of regulation against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals of 2002, and - say, how many years was everyone planning to hold this grudge, anyway?
Stojakovic took a radio reporter's question about his "pain management" Monday as, in his words, "you guys testing with your questions my loyalty to the team." He's missing the point, which is that people have been questioning his toughness - not his loyalty, his toughness - for years.
They want the player they saw in their dreams, the player Stojakovic never was. He is a great, pure shooter who can help any team in the league win games. Only sometimes is that going to be enough.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
Mark Kreidler: Peja's pinky is only part of the problem
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Peja Stojakovic doesn't get it, that he is being punished now for all the perceived sins in his NBA past. He doesn't yet understand that he is being held to answer not for this year's injury, but for years of pent-up frustration from some of the same folks who once measured him for holy wings.
This is Stojakovic's time to be found guilty of failing to achieve immortal status. People around here wanted him to be All-Galactic first team. Turns out, he's just a really, really good shooter.
So it's about a pinky owie all of a sudden?
Wow: not at all. What it is about is history.
Stojakovic came off the floor after the Kings' practice on Monday and removed a bulky looking glove from his right hand. The glove is designed to provide protection and allow him to play while still trying to heal a sprain in the fifth metacarpal as it extends down from his pinky finger.
He hated the glove, no question. Every time anybody asked about it, Stojakovic tried hard not to make the bitter-beer face, and he used words like "weird" and "different" to describe how it felt on his hand. But it was either that or an old-fashioned tape job, and given that Stojakovic already had decided he would play tonight against Charlotte, he needed to at least see how it went.
Why play tonight, as opposed to any other night? Well, that's a fair question. The official answer is that another X-ray Monday proved negative, suggesting that the constant pain in Stojakovic's hand is just a very bad sprain.
"It will still be there," he said of the ache. "They (doctors) don't know. It might be there for a couple of weeks. But, you know ... I'm going to try to play through it and try to get used to it."
Unofficially, though, Stojakovic needs to get back on the floor after three games and a fair pot of controversy away from it. He needs to stop seeing his name plastered next to the "soft" entry in the sports dictionary.
He needs to get back to playing and scoring, which in Stojakovic's mind would put things right. What he still doesn't see is that the game is rigged.
Bonzi Wells probably didn't realize what a rich vein he was tapping last week, when his comments raised the general issue of Peja's toughness. Wells is new in town. The Stojakovic conversation runs years deep, through years and layers of emotion, playoff disappointments and vague, almost whispered comments about his ability to thrive in difficult moments.
The Stojakovic who arrived in Sacramento from the Greek leagues in 1999 was the player who came of age just as the Kings became genuine championship contenders. He looked fabulous in a winning uniform. He was surrounded by players who made him better, people like Vlade Divac and Doug Christie. He was tabbed for greatness.
As time has proved, Stojakovic is a fine but limited player. He's a classic shooter, a guy annually ranked by his peers as among the elite in the world at that craft. He rebounds only a little, plays some defense, doesn't mix it up inside.
Nothing wrong with that, unless you were planning to pay him a maximum contract (don't!) or crown the man as the Next Great Thing in the NBA. Stojakovic never was that, and he never will be, but sometimes the dream dies hard.
The furor around the Peja Pinky has surprisingly little to do with this particular injury. It's November, after all, and the reconstituted Kings haven't even figured out what they are as a team.
But some longtime followers of the franchise see this injury as emblematic of Stojakovic's soft career, which they see as itself emblematic of the Kings' late-era softness in general. "Injured metacarpal" becomes "bruised pinky," which reminds them of how many times they screamed at their TVs for Stojakovic to go banging in the lane or scrap for the loose ball, or that airball he tossed up at the end of regulation against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals of 2002, and - say, how many years was everyone planning to hold this grudge, anyway?
Stojakovic took a radio reporter's question about his "pain management" Monday as, in his words, "you guys testing with your questions my loyalty to the team." He's missing the point, which is that people have been questioning his toughness - not his loyalty, his toughness - for years.
They want the player they saw in their dreams, the player Stojakovic never was. He is a great, pure shooter who can help any team in the league win games. Only sometimes is that going to be enough.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
