Everything Bargnani: Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

[meductic]

A lot of this apppears to be over reaction, and pictures are unflaterring to most of us...however...it seems to be playing out a lot more like Turk than Bosh. Fans upset. Gm voices displeasure/ in Turks case fine. Player responds in off season sounding disgruntled. The Star sends out Feschuk to protect Smith. You know how that ended... it feels like everyone is sticking to the script and hoping that the other plays their part. Bargnani is happy he gets traded. Fans are happy the "ingrate" is gone. The Star gets their story. Coangelo looks like he was on the side of the angels all along...

[joey_hesketh]

A lot of this apppears to be over reaction, and pictures are unflaterring to most of us...however...it seems to be playing out a lot more like Turk than Bosh. Fans upset. Gm voices displeasure/ in Turks case fine. Player responds in off season sounding disgruntled. The Star sends out Feschuk to protect Smith. You know how that ended... it feels like everyone is sticking to the script and hoping that the other plays their part. Bargnani is happy he gets traded. Fans are happy the "ingrate" is gone. The Star gets their story. Coangelo looks like he was on the side of the angels all along...

Great analysis. Funny how that works, eh?

[joey_hesketh]

what have i done

hahahaha

[Matt52]

If Bargnani remains a Raptor come training camp, I will be shocked. Shocked.

.... and disappointed, like many.

[joey_hesketh]

.... and disappointed, like many.

I don't disagree, however, its unfortunate it has come to this ... this is like the perfect marriage that takes a nose dive FAST. It's going to start to get ugly from here. Like Lebron James UGLY.

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

I know everyone seems to be upset at Bargnani for his comments, if indeed these were the exact words that he said, but what i find really bothering is given the playing time, opportunities, considered as the franchise player, he's still saying these things. i mean if i was given all that, screw all the fans and haters, ill stick to my hefty contract and continue padding my stats. but it seems its beyond that. mind you, he is already the 5th (if im counting it right) core player who has shown frustration with Toronto. After this guy gets traded, i think management has to take a loooong hard look at how this team is being run.

i think everybody needs to look at the big picture here and the age old question, why cant the Raptors hold in to anybody??

[Matt52]

Maybe we are thinking he is being prima donna when he is actually being realistic of his abilities.

I wonder if his questioning of role was along these lines:

I'm not a true C and there has never been a big banger with me to play PF or C,
I'm not a franchise player yet I advertised as one, and
I'm not paid like Kobe, LeBron and the crew, so quit expecting me to be like those guys.

In those cases, he has a point and it is fun devil's advocate.

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

A lot of this apppears to be over reaction, and pictures are unflaterring to most of us...however...it seems to be playing out a lot more like Turk than Bosh. Fans upset. Gm voices displeasure/ in Turks case fine. Player responds in off season sounding disgruntled. The Star sends out Feschuk to protect Smith. You know how that ended... it feels like everyone is sticking to the script and hoping that the other plays their part. Bargnani is happy he gets traded. Fans are happy the "ingrate" is gone. The Star gets their story. Coangelo looks like he was on the side of the angels all along...

And the funny thing is, it took Colangelo 5 years to voice his displeasure with Bargnani. Im not siding with Bargnani, but they shouldve nipped this problem in the bud a looooong time ago. Bargnani has already been with the Raptors for 5 years, i dont think his defense or rebounding ever declined, its been bad since the beginning, and only after 5 years colangelo says something publicly about it, right about when his contract is about to expire, he gets on the fans good side.

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

Maybe we are thinking he is being prima donna when he is actually being realistic of his abilities.

I wonder if his questioning of role was along these lines:

I'm not a true C and there has never been a big banger with me to play PF or C,
I'm not a franchise player yet I advertised as one, and
I'm not paid like Kobe, LeBron and the crew, so quit expecting me to be like those guys.

In those cases, he has a point and it is fun devil's advocate.

totally agree. we all know the obvious, but why is bargani being thrown under the bus only now? if he really sucked this bad, why did the raptors make him a franchise player? why is everybody getting on his case like he's a franchise player? he's not.

[joey_hesketh]

i think everybody needs to look at the big picture here and the age old question, why cant the Raptors hold in to anybody??

Same reason 25 other teams out there have a high turnover rate with decent/good players?
Besides Bosh leaving for Miami the way he did; Stoudamire left because of Butch Carter. Camby was traded and never wanted to leave. McGrady left because of Vince Carter. Vince Carter left because of Babcock. And then Bosh. Who else? Turk? Pfft, we traded him because he sucked.

But that was different management altogether back then. I don't think management is the issue. I think Coaching is a slight issue, which is possibly where Bargnani's 'frustration' lies. Though, not sure what he has to be frustrated about.

Bargnani was being 'shopped' long before he "stated" his desire to leave. It's all hear-say at this point anyway.

[meductic]

.

And the funny thing is, it took Colangelo 5 years to voice his displeasure with Bargnani. Im not siding with Bargnani, but they shouldve nipped this problem in the bud a looooong time ago. Bargnani has already been with the Raptors for 5 years, i dont think his defense or rebounding ever declined, its been bad since the beginning, and only after 5 years colangelo says something publicly about it, right about when his contract is about to expire, he gets on the fans good side.

It is now time to find yet one more "ingrate" to throw under the bus to satisfy the calls for blood in the forum. It is just Bargnani's turn. Sometimes the management of this team resembles wrestling.

[Raptors_]

I don't disagree, however, its unfortunate it has come to this ... this is like the perfect marriage that takes a nose dive FAST. It's going to start to get ugly from here. Like Lebron James UGLY.

yea, hopefully BC trades him before the retard casual fans at the games will start booing bargnani which will ruin our chances of drawing any FA's here.

[Apollo]

Yes, but what would you rather hear from a player while he's still part of the team? I don't wanna hear anyone on this team even hypothetically speaking of playing somewhere else. To me it shows they don't have true faith in the organization, therefore I don't want them on the team.

I want to hear the truth. What Bargnani is hinting at to the public is he's not happy about what's going on. That's his public stance, he's avoiding fireworks probably to allow for a trade to go more smoothly. Behind closed doors is where I feel the fireworks are taking place.

Bosh led the team along suggesting they were a really option when they were not. He did it to until he was past the deadline and then he slowly but surely began to unplug himself from the team. He obviously handled it this way looking at his own best interests.

Both scenarios aren't fun to think about but I would say the Bosh scenario was a million times worse. Bargnani is keeping his gun holstered but he's keeping it in view. I'm not a fan of the his but I can appreciate the fact that he's being smart about this. He's walking a fine line until something happens. Expect him to fire back for real after a trade happens. I wouldn't want it any other way in this scenario.

[meductic]

yea, hopefully BC trades him before the retard casual fans at the games will start booing bargnani which will ruin our chances of drawing any FA's here.

Totally agree...

[Tank]

Turkoglu last year, Bargnani this year, albeit a lot less extreme. Gotta love the overseas smack talk.

Regarding that Bargnani photo, ugh. He's been in a professional sports league for 5 years and his extremely poor physique is a testament to his laziness. Please leave.

[Tim W.]

I know everyone seems to be upset at Bargnani for his comments, if indeed these were the exact words that he said, but what i find really bothering is given the playing time, opportunities, considered as the franchise player, he's still saying these things. i mean if i was given all that, screw all the fans and haters, ill stick to my hefty contract and continue padding my stats. but it seems its beyond that. mind you, he is already the 5th (if im counting it right) core player who has shown frustration with Toronto. After this guy gets traded, i think management has to take a loooong hard look at how this team is being run.

i think everybody needs to look at the big picture here and the age old question, why cant the Raptors hold in to anybody??

First of all, you're talking about several different regimes. The only continuous thread in this organization is the name and the city the team plays in. Can this current one be blamed for what happened with Vince or Stoudamire or McGrady? No. That's like a homeowner being responsible for things all the owners did.

In this case, the only thing that I would blame on management is that they saw more from Bargnani than was there. You draft a soft, jumpshooting big man who doesn't rebound or play defense and you shouldn't be surprised that's what you end up with. Other than that, he deserved the criticism levelled at him, so him complaining about it doesn't jibe with me.

[Tim W.]

Maybe we are thinking he is being prima donna when he is actually being realistic of his abilities.

I wonder if his questioning of role was along these lines:

I'm not a true C and there has never been a big banger with me to play PF or C,
I'm not a franchise player yet I advertised as one, and
I'm not paid like Kobe, LeBron and the crew, so quit expecting me to be like those guys.

In those cases, he has a point and it is fun devil's advocate.

The problem is, none of those things matter to me. If he played defense and rebounded, then I couldn't care less if he spent all his time on the perimeter and wasn't the franchise player. I never thought he would be one, anyway.

[Tim W.]

totally agree. we all know the obvious, but why is bargani being thrown under the bus only now? if he really sucked this bad, why did the raptors make him a franchise player? why is everybody getting on his case like he's a franchise player? he's not.

How do we know they haven't tried to do something before now. Maybe they have asked him to work on his weaknesses every year and only now are they resorting to saying in the media. We have no idea what's been going on behind closed doors before now.

And no one is getting on his case like he's a franchise player. I've got to say that tact bothers me. People are getting on his case like he's a basketball player. And those are the things we expect of ANY basketball player.

[Captain Haddock]

Meh. When people ask me if I like Toronto, I say, "Yeah, but the weather is absolute sh*t most of the year." And I love Toronto, and have a good job, and am very happy here. His other comments, again, meh, I have a feeling all the haterade that's being pushed his way is getting to him, it would get to me too. Not saying he doesn't deserve most of it, but I do think the sheer level of vitriol is a bit unnecessary at times.
Can't underestimate the language barrier either. My grandma speaks english in pretty much the same way he does, and when she came to Canada, she told one of my friends that it was nice that she wasn't so fat anymore, she meant to say my friend looked well and lost weight, but in her garbled english, the way she said it was, "and you're not fat not anymore."
He should be in better shape, though, although the season just ended and he seems more or less fine during the season. He definitely needs to put in his time to improve his conditioning, as I would argue that he looks gassed at the end of games and that's more detrimental to the team as we need him in the second half of games more than the first half.

[j bean]

The thing that makes me suspect that Bargnani was coddled behind closed doors and was upset to be called out in the media is that he calls Colangelo uncourageous.
Personally I'm glad if this acts as an impetus for major change.
On another note it shows again that communication throughout this organization is not first class and has to be addressed.