Marcelo Huertas: "In the NBA, players are babies, the owners of the ball. Everyone is afraid to deal with the athlete."

[Bertrob]

Yes the NBA is full of crybabies and divas it starts at the top from its best players

[levon]

In the first year was very complicated because it was a team in rebuilding, farewell to Kobe Bryant, parties, the team had no goal, focus. Kobe wasn’t playing well anymore, could not take the team in the back

One of my favorite mistranslations

[dockingsched]

Huertas actuality played relatively well and was probably better than anyone else at running the offense. He most definitely deserved every minute Calderon got and deserved some more minutes that went to players like Clarkson.

There’s really no justification for Calderon getting on the court ahead of him so he’s right to be upset confused as to why that happened.

[BallerTalk]

He's not crying. He was promised one thing but a different situation occurred.

I'm sure teams feel the same way when guys come over and disappoint.

[DTP]

I wish I could be disappointed with my role in my job while making 2 million bucks.

Everything is relative

Never played for an NBA franchise nor a professional league that pays you money to play basketball.

That being said, most people on this board know enough that a 30 year old rookie/vet player is not going to get a lot of playing time. The team was bad when he signed and they absolutely had to make room for guys like Deangelo and Ingram to get minutes.

Was he naive enough to think he would be a player that changed the outcome of games on a young team that has had awful seasons with coaching changes? Was he better than Lou Williams and Jordan Clarkson ?

He expected to play and couldn’t make the rotation. If he was good enough another NBA team could have stepped in and given him and get a vet min deal.

I pretty much place the blame on his agent more than anyone else. Its the agent's job to put that reality in perspective for him and it seems like he never did.

[Ckay]

Never forget!

Watch on YouTube

[Phreak50]

Slightly off topic but if anyone wants to read a brilliantly interesting insight into the NBA we never hear about, Luc Longley’s book ‘Running with the Bulls’ is one of the best.

[jordan0386]

Great insight. But he didn't read his situation correctly.

After 8th in a rotation you just gotta pray and make every shot at practice

[TravisScott55]

It's not like he's wrong. NBA players are very pampered and they are soft.

[Frankie23]

There's always a debate where you have to chose between playing a true professional even if he's not good, or giving minutes to a young talent who's partying all nights and won't ever be a professional. Basically, you're stuck with an idiot and your franchise will suck.

In Europe it's easier to get rid of non professional players, cause you can hire whoever you want, harder in the NBA where there's a draft, cap space, etc.

[ISayshowmee]

I wanted Huertas to succeed. But this guy's game is not suited for the NBA. He ran around the court with the ball like a chicken whose head just got cutoff. I had no idea what he wanted to with the ball....neither did he !!!

[Cappy_Smurf]

Huertas actuality played relatively well and was probably better than anyone else at running the offense. He most definitely deserved every minute Calderon got and deserved some more minutes that went to players like Clarkson.

There’s really no justification for Calderon getting on the court ahead of him so he’s right to be upset confused as to why that happened.

I remember one year when Earl Watson was playing for Utah, and he went to the media to complain about his playing time. At first it was really weird, but then it kind of made sense, in that it sounded like he was promised minutes if he chose to sign there.

Of course, no GM is going to admit to promising playing time to anyone, but I think it happens a lot more than fans realize. In this situation, I think most people would be ok with teams breaking a promise when a player is playing like crap, but it sounds like Huertas had every reason to feel as if he were cheated.

[meekrab]

Huertas actuality played relatively well and was probably better than anyone else at running the offense.

I mean sure, the front office sold him some Nebraska waterfront property, but he was awful on the court, stats-wise. Can't shoot, can't get to the line, especially can't shoot from 3PT, can't hang on to the ball, Olé defense. Dude doesn't belong on an NBA court and it's a sad story that he was convinced that he did.

[EAS Law]

As I was reading Huertas' statements, I felt angry for him.

I then took a step back, realized the context of the entire situation, and believe that Huertas is completely delusional and full of himself.

Of course Luke had a mandate to play two lotto picks lots of minutes. They both are very good prospects.

Huertas was 30 while playing with you guys, Lakers? wtf was he on thinking he as going to come here as a 30 yr old rookie and play heavy minutes?

I don't see anything wrong with what Walton did. Huertas would have been better off accepting that he was getting paid to be a locker room influence LIKE HE WAS TOLD when he signed.

[Slava]

Marcelo had a front seat view of Kobe's farewell season. That would go for $10M on eBay.

[BackseatBoss]

I mean things like this is why I don’t feel sad at all for the teams when their players leave. I can feel some sympathy to the fans, since their the ones suffering, but in the end sometimes a player leaves an organization because he’s promised things that never would happen. That’s why I feel completely indifferent about Durant leaving. What if he was promised by management that Harden would get extended just to see him traded away for little value? What if he also was promised that Ibaka will stay just to find out he was being shopped around. Would you want to stick around a workplace that promises you one thing and in the end you get the opposite, when there’s a better company with better personnel, better benefits, same salary saying “come on over”? I highly doubt it.

[kombayn]

The only person he should be pointing a finger at right now is his agent. He put him in a bad situation and took the money, Huertas in a good situation could fill a Delladova or Mills type player. He needed to be on a team that will utilize his kills. Memphis comes to mind as a good landing spot. The NBA is different to Euroleague and Europe in general, it's still iso heavy and relies on your best talents and scorers off the dribble. Anyone who watches the NBA knows one player can take over an entire game. Which is what makes the Warriors so interesting because they've moved away from that slowly, but the Warriors panicked when they lost to the Cavs in the FInals that they needed that "get out of the way, I'm taking over" player like Durant.

[GoGreen]

Sounds like he had a difficult experience with an organization that didn't really know what direction they wanted to head towards. He's right. Things like this very much depend on circumstance and situation. Good read.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Luke sounds like a good manager, keep everyone motivated with lies just in case you need them and then ignore all your promises and make your decisions based on what you think best at the time. Sucks having to manage people.

this is so true... finding the balance between keeping people motivated and being totally transparent with them is so difficult and not straightforward.

[KillaMayo]

I think one of the issues here is just a mentality difference between the US and Europe. In Europe, whenever you have a young talented player coming to the team, he is not given 30+ minutes and a similar role in the team with players who have played the game for a longer time. In the team he is looked as a guy who has to prove he belongs to the team in practice sessions. Youngsters (however talented they may seem) will have to earn their minutes as the season goes on. First getting minutes during the garbage time, then perhaps 10 minutes and if they prove themselves to the coach, they shall get more minutes.
In the NBA it's understandably different. The fans want to see their rookies play (especially if they are top 5 draft picks) and the whole process is hyped up to an unfathomable level. Meaning that the process of "proving themselves to the team" takes place on the court, not during practices, leading to top draft picks playing heavy minutes right from the get-go.

Huertas must have just felt disrespected by the fact that a rookie came to the team and got 40+ minutes, whilst he who had to work his ass off the year before was still stranded on the bench