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cgf wrote:If y'all are looking for a 2nd team to watch that's a lot less depressing than the Knicks, the Pels are a lot of fun.
...at least until Zion bails...
3toheadmelo wrote:If the Knicks signed KD I bet he would look like current Melo (yea I’m firing shots at my guy). But since he went somewhere else he looks he’s still in his prime. How is that even possible with an Achilles injury
3toheadmelo wrote:Wiseman’s first game tonight since he got suspended in college
3toheadmelo wrote:If the Knicks signed KD I bet he would look like current Melo (yea I’m firing shots at my guy). But since he went somewhere else he looks he’s still in his prime. How is that even possible with an Achilles injury
El Poochio wrote:cgf wrote:If y'all are looking for a 2nd team to watch that's a lot less depressing than the Knicks, the Pels are a lot of fun.
...at least until Zion bails...
I hate their spacing now around Ingram, he is gonna pull an AD eventually if it stays like this
Capn'O wrote:We're the recovering meth addict older brother. And we've been clean for a few years now, thank you very much. Very uncouth to bring it up.
HarthorneWingo wrote:bleedblue3303 wrote:bleedblue3303 wrote:
Sure. Am happy to get into more detail. But i def recomend the book as its one of the most fascinating reads I've had in a while. The Sixers experiment was one for the ages with the biggest cast of characters from top to bottom.
From what I remember. There was major Drama with Fultz's mother and constant battling with his trainer. He wasn't a huge prospect and was never properly trained or ready for the pressure of being a Pro. Let alone a number 1 draft pick. None of this is his fault as he was just and still is a kid. From what I remember there was even an incident after an argument with his mother where he ran out of the house screaming how he shouldn't have left school and knew the money would change everything. Then out of nowhere in the midst of all this turmoil, tension and family drama, he forgot how to shoot the ball. It's really sad because he seems like a good kid. From the description in the book Philly was def not the place for such a fragile kid as they really let the players do whatever they wanted and seems like there is very little emotional support. Read about Okafor or Noel or even Embid. I think a much more laid back environment like Orlando is perfect for him. I would love to see him on the Knicks but not sure how the pressures of NYC would work for Fultz. I think he is right where he should be and hoping his career flourishes.
Excerpts from the new book ‘Tanking to the Top’ by Yaron Weitzman, a behind the scenes look into The Process
Fultz never wanted to play for Philly
Fultz learned of the [trade] while driving around his hometown with his mom and Kenneth Tappin, a longtime friend, on the Friday night before the draft. He groaned upon hearing the news. In the weeks leading up to the draft he’d told Tappin that Philadelphia was one of the two cities he was hoping to avoid (the other being New York). He was worried about living and playing in such major markets and also about being so close to his hometown of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
The first signs of trouble after Summer League 2017
He and Lloyd Pierce, a Sixers assistant coach, set up on one side of the team’s temporary practice gym during an off day. Fultz launched dozens of jumpers. His form was disjointed. Only a few of the shots went in. ”I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Pierce told colleagues afterward. “The kid can’t shoot”. After Summer League, Fultz then returned to Maryland to pack up his stuff and continue training with Keith Williams (Fultz’s trainer) and Tappin, who had become his unofficial manager. ”My shot’s trash now,” he told Tappin.
Fultz had a dysfunctional relationship with his mom
[Ebony Fultz] took more control of Fultz’s schedule and finances. She’d argue with Markelle, whom she continued to view as her baby boy despite him now being a multimillion-dollar brand. They’d fight over cleaning out storage boxes in the family home. She’d call him dozens of times a day. One day, after a particularly trying fight with Ebony over his desire to purchase a new car, Fultz met Williams at the gym. “He shot the ball worse than he had in weeks,” said an onlooker.
Around September, Fultz moved into a house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. “That’s where everything went south,” a friend said. Ebony got an apartment downtown but felt like she needed to exert even more control.
She’d become annoyed if Markelle had girls over at night. She installed security cameras around his home. She’d often eavesdrop and sometimes even call to scold Markelle about comments she’d heard.
A couple weeks after they moved in, Ebony printed dozens of flyers for Tappin to put in their neighbors’ mailboxes, asking them to stop bothering her son. Tappin only distributed them to families that he thought had kids, which led to a fight, which led to her offering Markelle an ultimatum: Tappin or her. Tappin, knowing Fultz had no choice, moved out. That night, Ebony and Williams met Markelle at his home. Before long, Markelle and Ebony were yelling at each other. Crying, Markelle ran out of the house and into the street, barely avoiding a streaking car. Williams chased after him.
”The money did all this,” Markelle, tears streaking down his face, sniveled to Williams. “I don’t want this no more. You should have left me in college.”
Living in a new city by himself with Tappin gone and Williams pushed to the side left him with few places to turn. He’d found some solace in Embiid’s apartment, playing the card game Exploding Kittens and watching NBA games and highlights, but an argument between Ebony and some people in Embiid’s circle had strained that relationship.
Fultz’s trainer’s questionable methods
Fultz’s form was deteriorating. A small hitch had developed. He’d bring the ball up toward his face and pause before pushing it forward. ”It’s like somebody’s holding my arms down when I’m lifting them to shoot”.
Keith Williams (Fultz’s trainer), searching for answers, instructed Fultz to shoot while lying on the gym floor, or by dribbling the ball into his shot to create a rhythm—anything to help reset his muscle memory.
One morning in early September, Brett Brown approached Williams at the facility. “What do you think is going on?” he asked Williams. “It’s mental, Brett,” Williams replied. He told Brown he was working to fix Fultz’s release point.
Fultz continued working with Williams through the season, often without the Sixers’ knowledge, and that as recently as January Williams had led Fultz through a shooting session involving three different-sized basketballs.
Breakdown of Fultz’s relationship with the Sixers
Fultz participated in a number of informal team scrimmages before training camp, never shooting the ball from outside the paint. Brown took it upon himself to “fix him.” When that proved unsuccessful, he began consulting with team doctors, searching for a medical explanation.
”I remember getting a phone call and [Sixers’ VP of player personnel ] Marc Eversley is at my ass,” Williams recalled. “He said, ’Keith, this is not the **** kid we drafted. What the **** is going on?’”
In late January, during a national broadcast of a Sixers game, Brett Brown informed the ESPN crew that Fultz was dealing with “some psychosomatic issues involved with getting over the hump and getting back on the court.”
The comments stung Fultz. “You really can’t trust NO ONE!” he tweeted that night
Fultz was already leery of Brown, who he believed had promised him a starting spot before the season and then gone back on his word, and of the front office, who he felt had tried forcing him to play a few weeks earlier during a trip to London
Fultz’s new trainer Drew Hanlen states that it was the ‘yips’
He’d trained with Drew Hanlen, the skills coach who also worked with Embiid. Hanlen spent the summer hyping up Fultz’s progress on social media, but never shared video of Fultz’s supposedly reworked shot. He also became the latest person close to Fultz to attribute the shooting breakdown to something beyond a physical injury. “Markelle, obviously, he had one of the most documented cases of kind of the yips of basketball in recent years,” Hanlen told the Talking Schmidt Podcast in June, “where he completely forgot how to shoot and had multiple hitches in his shot.
Fultz gets traded
[Elton Brand] dumped Fultz onto the Orlando Magic in exchange for reserve Jonathan Simmons and a pair of late draft picks. Fultz hadn’t played since November. His shot had short-circuited once again, and after Brown had played T. J. McConnell over him in a game against the Phoenix Suns his mother had berated Sixers assistant general manager Ned Cohen. The following morning, Fultz’s agent, Raymond Brothers, notified The Athletic’s David Aldridge that Fultz would see a shoulder specialist and that he would not participate in any games or practices until then. The Sixers learned of the news via Twitter. Fultz visited around ten specialists (none affiliated with the Sixers), and in December was diagnosed with a nerve disorder called thoracic outlet syndrome. It was reported that he’d miss three to six weeks, but by then the Sixers were ready to move on.
Sounds pretty compelling. I'll have to hear to SOUL has to say about this. Why would the Magic be a more desirable destination compared to the Sixers? Because of Simmons?
Monk1718 wrote:Amare rockin a Nets hoodie with Nash on tnt lol
Chanel Bomber wrote:Monk1718 wrote:Amare rockin a Nets hoodie with Nash on tnt lol
Once a Knick always a Net
thebuzzardman wrote:Chanel Bomber wrote:Monk1718 wrote:Amare rockin a Nets hoodie with Nash on tnt lol
Once a Knick always a Net
Amare just into the Nets because more Hatmars in Brooklyn than Manhattan.
Mostly because he thinks Shtreimels look cool.
