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I’m a star but on the bench: Haddadi

TEHRAN - Iranian international Hamed Haddadi says he is a star of the Memphis Grizzlies but the NBA team leaves him on the bench and off the court most of the time.

“Grizzlies’ officials don’t let me show my abilities. I have done my best every time I was called up to play for my team, but I don’t know why they don’t trust me,” added Haddadi, who was the first Iranian basketball player to make it to the NBA.

“I want to play regularly for the Grizzlies; nevertheless I will have to change my team now since I am a star of the team but sitting on the bench,” he told the Mehr News Agency in an interview at the MNA offices on Monday.

The 7-foot-2 player helped Iran win the 25th FIBA Asia Championship for men two weeks ago. Haddadi, who scored 31 points in Iran’s final triumph two years ago, was once again the leading scorer for his side in the final with 19 points against China.

“I could not do my best against Jordan but played well against China in the final. We could have won the match even if Yao Ming would have played against us,” he added.

Sorry for the tittle of the topic but come on, tell me it is not funny. The guy is prepared to dominate the league in the next years.

I have to wonder if his words were taken out of context. Who did he say this to? I imagine the translation could be misinterpreted. Or was he talking about being the star on the Iranian team? I just can't imagine him saying he's the star on the entire Grizzlies team.

Regardless, since he has another two seasons left on his contract(I think) he can't change teams as he said. But it does add an interesting twist to the three seven footers, all of which are centers only and can't play power forward. The position is getting crowded. It would be nice if they had that kind of depth at all positions. If I were Lionel Hollins I would have my strategy to play hard in the middle on every possesion and not let any player have an easy basket. Three centers equals 15 hard fouls to give a game. Boston does it that way as does a few other good teams. Make teams beat you with the outside shot.

Even before this story appeared I was thinking that there must be a number of teams contacting Memphis about the availability of one of their centers. The speculation should grow a little more now.

First of all Haddadi has improved his game alot. Did you know that Haddadi was the mvp in the fiba asian championship tournament. Did you know that he helped Iran to a 9-0 run and did you know he helped Iran beat China in the finals of the fiba asian championship and did you know Iran beat China by 18 points in that game. China is supposedly supposed to be the best team in Asia with the best players but Iran showed them. Its not that Haddadi is bad its the racist redneck management of memphis that are not giving Haddadi a chance. Yes and I know he is not a franchise player, but he will always be better than guys like Thabeet, who is by the way a huge bust for the team. And finally to the racist management of Memphis did you know that Iranians are not arabs, and Iranians are a very important part of the aryan race, first learn something about Iran before making (Please Use More Appropriate Word) judgements. Go on wikipedia and learn something about Iran and the Iranian people, (Please Use More Appropriate Word).


And I cant believe the people on this forum, this guy has huge potential but no one is giving him the chance to show himself. What yall need to do is look at your selves in the mirror and stop discriminating and being racist. Peace and Out.

memphesis2 wrote:And I cant believe the people on this forum, this guy has huge potential but no one is giving him the chance to show himself. What yall need to do is look at your selves in the mirror and stop discriminating and being racist. Peace and Out.

I'm all for player fans - but go away, please.

Haddadi hasn't proven himself on the NBA level yet. He's a work in progress with great potential. However, just because he's shown well on the international level and against inferior NBA opponents doesn't mean he's ready to take Gasol's minutes. He needs to add some strength, desperately.

However, coming here and calling people (Please Use More Appropriate Word) and racist because they don't put your favorite player on the same pedestal that you do is just asinine.

Gee. I must be reading the thread wrong. I can't find one word relating to discrimination or racism from anyone other than memphesis2. And since Haddadi was signed as a free agent and not drafted as some low round, best player available, hide a player overseas pick, I don't think the Grizzlies management is playing some sort of race card.

Do you really believe they signed the guy to a multi year deal just to sit him and show the world that their "redneck" personalities are going to teach him a lesson? I've been around this site since 2001 and I have to say this is one of the strangest rants I've ever seen that's totally without fact.

wait a minute.... we're the ones paying millions to have this guy and investing time to help him learn English language and you call us racist? We fight for him to get into Canada cause they have such immigration laws they woudl not let him cross the border - how about you call the Toronto Raptors fans racist? they are the ones not letting him come to play basketball in their country. We do everything to get this guy into the league and he has been amazing.


I expect him to be a good player and hope we never see Thabeet out of the DLeague as long as he's with Memphis.

I really think Haddadi has the game to be a good rotation player, in the mold of Gortat. In my dreams, our center rotation would be Gasol with 32 and Haddadi with the rest (...and hope we never see Thabeet out of the DLeague as long as he's with Memphis. [2]).

memphesis2 wrote:First of all Haddadi has improved his game alot. Did you know that Haddadi was the mvp in the fiba asian championship tournament. Did you know that he helped Iran to a 9-0 run and did you know he helped Iran beat China in the finals of the fiba asian championship and did you know Iran beat China by 18 points in that game. China is supposedly supposed to be the best team in Asia with the best players but Iran showed them. Its not that Haddadi is bad its the racist redneck management of memphis that are not giving Haddadi a chance. Yes and I know he is not a franchise player, but he will always be better than guys like Thabeet, who is by the way a huge bust for the team. And finally to the racist management of Memphis did you know that Iranians are not arabs, and Iranians are a very important part of the aryan race, first learn something about Iran before making (Please Use More Appropriate Word) judgements. Go on wikipedia and learn something about Iran and the Iranian people, (Please Use More Appropriate Word).


And I cant believe the people on this forum, this guy has huge potential but no one is giving him the chance to show himself. What yall need to do is look at your selves in the mirror and stop discriminating and being racist. Peace and Out.

Chill out man! First of all, I´m a brazilian and I never suffered any kind of racist feelings from anyone of this forum, and I know that there´s some american that could don´t like me, cause I´m a latin guy or cause my english is in the level of a 5 yr old.
Second, since the last season I always remember how much support the great majority of our forum showed to support. If you go back, you would see that we (and the FO) considered him the greatest surprise of the season, along with Gasol.

So man, chill...

Iran #1! Iron Sheik #1!

Hey guys, Raptor fan here and I'm an Iranian. I definitely think his words were taken out of context, I highly doubt he says he's the star of Memphis Grizzlies for a few reasons: (1) because everyone knows this is Gay and Mayo's team; (2) Hamed is a humble person, (3) he knows he hasn't proven himself at the NBA level on a consistent basis. Plus, Iranian newspapers are notorious for mistranslating what Iranian athletes say into English. So Mehr translated the words wrong probably. Once I found out exactly what he said, then things can be clarified.

take care ... good luck in this season, hope Mayo shines like he's suppose to.

Go Haddadi! Go Mayo! Good Luck Griz!

slow down boys, don't go too far. We are talking about bball.

Haddadi is a good player but talking about franchise player, not too soon.
And come on, you know how many people are good playing bball but not playing as a franchise player for a team?????



Grow up Ha-daddy

memphesis2 wrote:First of all Haddadi has improved his game alot. Did you know that Haddadi was the mvp in the fiba asian championship tournament. Did you know that he helped Iran to a 9-0 run and did you know he helped Iran beat China in the finals of the fiba asian championship and did you know Iran beat China by 18 points in that game. China is supposedly supposed to be the best team in Asia with the best players but Iran showed them. Its not that Haddadi is bad its the racist redneck management of memphis that are not giving Haddadi a chance. Yes and I know he is not a franchise player, but he will always be better than guys like Thabeet, who is by the way a huge bust for the team. And finally to the racist management of Memphis did you know that Iranians are not arabs, and Iranians are a very important part of the aryan race, first learn something about Iran before making (Please Use More Appropriate Word) judgements. Go on wikipedia and learn something about Iran and the Iranian people, (Please Use More Appropriate Word).


And I cant believe the people on this forum, this guy has huge potential but no one is giving him the chance to show himself. What yall need to do is look at your selves in the mirror and stop discriminating and being racist. Peace and Out.

Sometimes I just quote and post "lol" because I find the quote humorous, but I didn't actually laugh out loud; but with this one, I really laughed out loud. Thank you.
lol.

memphis fan racist? first of all the guy come here to tell us again what haddadi did on the asain championship when we all already know and then says we are racist? i think more people in the grizz forum are foregeiners that from tennessee. Also you cant tell raptors fan anything cause they have not made the laws in canada. it is like it is.

Point two: How come you say youd rather see Haddadi over Thabeet? He's the 2nd pick and you already want him in the Dleague? what did i miss this summer? ive been out of the game since the finals...

And dont let me be misunderstood. Id like Haddadi to be a 20-10 guy but come on, nowadays he hasnt proven a **** at nba I dont mind what happened in the asain championship with Iran, China without Yao and What else? Korea, Mongolia, Laos and Uzbekistan?

What do you guys think about a trade with the Toronto Raptors to get rid of Haddadi? Since he is very unhappy with his situation and wants more PT.

What would you think of a trade involving:

POB and CASH......POB expires after this year, while Haddadi doesn't expire until 2010-2011. Saves you guys some money, gives you an extra roster spot next year and your owner gets some more cash.

Thoughts?

^ keep dreaming

MattBoner wrote:^ keep dreaming

Keep talking without anything real to say .....That is a very plausable deal

memphesis2 wrote:First of all Haddadi has improved his game alot. Did you know that Haddadi was the mvp in the fiba asian championship tournament. Did you know that he helped Iran to a 9-0 run and did you know he helped Iran beat China in the finals of the fiba asian championship and did you know Iran beat China by 18 points in that game. China is supposedly supposed to be the best team in Asia with the best players but Iran showed them. Its not that Haddadi is bad its the racist redneck management of memphis that are not giving Haddadi a chance. Yes and I know he is not a franchise player, but he will always be better than guys like Thabeet, who is by the way a huge bust for the team. And finally to the racist management of Memphis did you know that Iranians are not arabs, and Iranians are a very important part of the aryan race, first learn something about Iran before making (Please Use More Appropriate Word) judgements. Go on wikipedia and learn something about Iran and the Iranian people, (Please Use More Appropriate Word).


And I cant believe the people on this forum, this guy has huge potential but no one is giving him the chance to show himself. What yall need to do is look at your selves in the mirror and stop discriminating and being racist. Peace and Out.

In response to you:
I really don't think anyone on this forum is being racist. The people on this forum know that he was playing against MUCH worse competition in the Asian Championships. He played well, but I think any NBA center would have played well also. If he put up those numbers in the NBA, they would probably consider him all-star material.

In response to Hamed's words:
I'm sure Haddadi doesn't think he's the star player of the team. The translation probably got messed up. I don't blame Haddadi for being angry with Memphis though. They already have a big man in Gasol and they went out and drafted another big man in Thabeet. It's obvious that Haddadi will be stuck on the bench or in the D-League if he stayed with Memphis. Drafting Thabeet was probably the worst move they could have done for Haddadi and their organization. They should have tried to develop Haddadi the way they plan on developing Thabeet. Haddadi is much more polished offensively and he could almost do the same things that Thabeet does defensively. Memphis should have drafted a guy like Evans who could play point for them.

Hey!

How dare you Grizzly fans make fun of my fellow countryman Haddadi. He is simply stating the truth: He is a superstar sitting on the bench.

You Grizzly fans don't know what you have until you lose it.

Since you have no use for Haddadi, considering you're stockpiled at the bigs, hand him over to me in Phoenix right now. I want him now!

Suns don't have any bigs - and with Amare leaving soon - Haddadi needs to be in a Suns uniform.

If given big minutes, Haddadi is going to surpass Wilt and Kareem in being one of the greatest big men ever lived. Problem is, the stuck-up ignorant Grizzlies don't wanna play him. Now hand him over to me now!

Memphis2 is possibly the dumbest person I have ever heard speak in regards to anything about the entire Memphis franchise. Anyway, Hadaddi IS the best player on the Memphis Grizzlies (with Jake Tsakalidas leading still as the all-time best). He deserves better, and he deserves the opportunity to release his mind, anger and frustrations of riding the grizzlies bench. I am glad that he spoke out, and hopefully we as an organization can move forward with the proper cases be taken into DEEP consideration. I would be ashamed if we do not listen to his words SERIOUSLY and respectfully. Think about it. Championships...

EliteBaller wrote:

MattBoner wrote:^ keep dreaming

Keep talking without anything real to say .....That is a very plausable deal

what else do i need to say? You're dreaming if you think the Grizz would ever consider throwing him away on Patrick OBryant just because he wants more playing time