Control hit it right on the head and he even laid out plenty of points to prove his point and proves yours wrong, yet your blind faith in AI will not waver. Amazing.

You guys say there aren’t guys who can just score but you forget about Corey Maghette, Ricky Davis, John Salmons, Bob McAdoo, Nate Robinson, Tiny Archibald and Michael Adams to name a few. Guys who could just score. Tiny and Michael were not as selfish as Tiny led the L in assist and Adams was 20-10 for a couple season, but those little (6’1 and 5’9) got buckets. Throw in the fact that David Stern made sure AI got fouls calls which led to softer defense or more Ft’s (or both!) and you get 26ppg easy.

AI is one of the biggest jagoffs to ever step foot in the NBA. So what if he ran hard off screens or drove the lane against bigger players and took a lot hits and played with injuries. He also got $h!tted on while playing defense by even the worst of PG/SG’s, only hustle for his shots and if the play wasn’t for him he stood around on offense, refused to allow his team to get involved in the game and only worried about scoring points which is the actual reason he doesn’t have a chip.

Watching him take a game I’ve given my knees to, Reggie Lewis gave his life to, M.Jordan gave up his family to, Bill Russell took racial abuse for, Larry Bird gave his Back to, Grant and Isiah gave their ankles to, and for the thousands of other YMCA/open gym players who play like its game 7 of the NBA finals every Sunday, the little kid who has .00001% chance of playing NBA ball but dedicates himself to trying to make it anyway, to AI and supporters of his game I am happy he is out of the game.

1) Bush-out of office
2) Lil Wayne – going to jail
3) Gucci – going to jail
4) Starbury – out of the game
5) AI – out of the game
Next up
6) Roach infestation in hip/hop terminated

Bottom line: Fucking great player, but a whole lot of baggage.

““…He weighed 185 soaking wet”

Yeah, maybe with all his jewelry, hoodie, Tims, a basketball made out of stone in his hands $2000 in nickles in his pocket!

155-165lbs and 5′10-5′11

…AI is small man…”

Which is ever more the reason to marvel at how he dominated in his prime. As was said earlier.. he was the NBA for a stint.

Fact is, AI WAS the NBA for a long time. His off court demeanor transcended to the on-court culture of the league and almost single-handedly changed the culture. He changed the game for better or worse.

Ten years ago, as a compulsive-gamblers counselor, I was asked to fly to N.Y.C to the National Basketball Association office in Manhattan and met with league officials, players and union officials, concerned about players’ gambling. I was told, “We have a problem, and we’re trying to find out how bad the problem is” Officials asked me to keep my calendar open for the spring of the following year and said to me that they wanted me to address every team and player in the league.

They then flew my wife in and we had a second meeting they asked us develop questions that were going to be given to the players

to answer “We need to know how big the gambling problem is in the N.B.A,”

When I hadn’t heard from the N.B.A, I called and asked, “When do we start?” The talked were cancelled, and the response I got was this: “They said that the higher-ups didn’t want the media to find out”

It is a problem they hope you don’t think about. The time to fix it is now, say an obsessive-gambling expert.

Athletes may be more vulnerable than the general population when you look at the soft signs of compulsive gambling: high Levels of energy; unreasonable expectations of winning; very competitive personalities; distorted optimism; and bright with high IQs

It is time for college and professional sports to outline and executive a real program to help players who might have a gambling problem or gambling addiction problem. Yet college and professional sports still do not want to deal with this. They do not want the media and public to think there is a problem.

And over the years, I have spoken to many college and professional athletes who had a gambling problem. One NCAA study a few years ago reported: “There is a disturbing trend of gambling among athletes in college” You can’t think that these people will get into the pros and then just stop gambling.

Compulsive gambling is an addiction just like alcoholism and chemical dependency, and all three diseases are recognized by the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic and statistical manual. Nevertheless, we treat compulsive gambling differently than the other two addictions. Society and professional sports treat people with chemical dependency and alcoholism as sick persons, send them to treatment and get them back to work. Sports looks at compulsive gamblers as bad people and gets barred them from playing in professional sports.

If colleges and professional leagues wanted to help the players, they would run real programs that seriously address the issue of gambling and compulsive gambling. Education and early detection can make a difference between life and death for some people who have or will end up with a gambling addiction.

One sports insider said to me: “Teams need to have a real program for players, coaches and referees, and they need to let somebody else run it. When you do it in-house, it’s like the fox running the chicken coop. You must be kidding yourself if you think any player, coach or referee is going to call the league and say, ‘I’ve got a gambling problem, and I need help.’ ”

When you look at the headlines about professional athletes, coaches and referees on the perils of gambling, odds are very good that might be looking at the tip of the iceberg. Here are several from the recent past:

= Pete Rose [on the Donahue show, November 1989]: “I didn’t seek help for my gambling problem until the middle of September, and I know it’s something I can’t lick by myself. I need help”

= Charles Barkley troubled by gambling addiction problem.

= Dolphins’ Will Allen investigated for pulling out gun in dispute over gambling debts.

= Antoine Walker has a scheduled court in Las Vegas in a case involving an $822,500 gambling debt.

= An arrest warrant for Shawn Chacon as a result of his alleged failure to pay Caesars Palace $150,000 in gambling markers.

= John Daly says gambling problem will “ruin me” and says he has lost between $50 million and $60 million during 12 years of heavy gambling .

= Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko was at the center of the match-fixing controversy in tennis.

= Michael Jordan was spotted at the baccarat pit of an Atlantic City casino in the wee hours of the morning before game two of the Eastern Conference Finals.

= Art Schlichter spent a decade in prison: “Ten years, seven months and two weeks, inside 44 various jails or prisons” because of gambling addiction.

= NBA referee Tim Donaghy is now in recovery for his gambling addiction. (From Tim Donaghy’s book if ever released: “I kept waiting for a Knicks game when Stafford, Bavetta and Kersey were working together. It was like knowing the winning lottery numbers before the drawing!”)

= March 1991: Lenny Dykstra, a notorious high-stakes bettor, was linked to a gambling probe in Mississippi.

= Paul Lo Duca says he bets with off-shore bookies, which, he claims, is legal. Running up big gambling debts — or even being perceived as a heavy gambler — leads to serious trouble. (What’s interesting about is that neither Major League Baseball nor the Mets seem bothered about the reports. Oh, the commissioner’s office mumbled something about gambling being bad.)

There are people in various sport’s halls of fame who are convicted drug addicts and alcoholics, yet compulsive gamblers are unable to get into these halls of fame. In fact, as far as professional sports goes, an alcoholic and chemical dependent person can get multiple chances, whereas a gambler cannot.

I am a recovering compulsive gambler who placed my last bet on April, 10, 1968, and I have been fighting the injustice of how sports, society and the judicial system deal with compulsive gamblers for the last 40 years. I run a national help line: 1-888-LAST BET.

Arnie Wexler ( aswexler@aol.com)

Arnie & Sheila Wexler Associates

Boynton Beach FL

Office #: 561-200-0165

Cell#: 954-501-5270

Arnie Wexler
Arnie & Sheila Wexler Associates
Boynton Beach, FL
561-200-0165

Contact Arnie Wexler
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If you haven’t seen those guys playing pickup, then you either don’t play pickup, or you ARE that guy and you should just go kill yourfuckingself.

AI ruined pickup basketball games with average, short players, THAT is his legacy.

eyes

Don’t care about his story, his life, or whatever else he does off the court. In this case, I am looking at him ON the court, for 48 minutes a game and that is it. He’s a greedy and selfish person on the court, and a horrible teammate who, if he had adapted his role and playing style slightly to suit his team, would have had a hell of a lot more success. I really don’t see how anything that might have happened to him in his past, or anything that could have happened to him off the court could have forced him to compensate by being a jacker.

The guy is selfish and didn’t adapt, and now he’s extinct. You got guys like Jerry Stackhouse and Michael Finley who have adapted their roles, and they still in the league playing the game they love…AI just couldn’t get over himself, he’d sacrifice his body all day, but he couldn’t sacrifice his ego even one inch. If he had all that heart and desire to win, then why couldn’t he do the right thing and change himself SLIGHTLY for the better of the team? He couldn’t because he’s a selfish and greedy motherfucker.

Big V

His popularity, impact off the court and the fact he is a ‘little guy’ is 90% of the reasons people give on why he is great and deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. Not a far stretch to think it had something to do with his playing time, etc.

I didn’t say he needed to average 15apg, nor did I say that was the standard for a great PG. All I said is that he COULD have averaged 15apg, he DID have that potential. You see him on the 2004 Olympic team? The guy was a fucking amazing point guard, his passing and vision were remarkable…but in the NBA all he had eyes for was the rim.

If you think that AI’s popularity among inner city people and the fact that he was short contributed to his coaches giving him additional playing time that he normally wouldn’t have deserved, I don’t know what to tell you except that that’s a preposterous theory.

Also, why does he need to average 15 apg? Is that the standard for a great PG? If so, who makes that cut?