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That is not an excuse. They asked him a question about it, and he gave an honest answer. Not once did he ever say it contributed to the loss. He only said it was something different that they were not used to.
Talk about a disrespectful, rude, whiny, and classless excuse! After his Cavs lost to the Suns on Sunday night, LeBron James blamed the loss on the halftime ceremony to induct Jerry Colangelo into the Suns' Ring of Honor. From http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaulCoro/10082:
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LeBron James entered the uncouth zone, seemingly filing a complaint about the ceremony honoring his USA Basketball boss. He said, "It was definitely long and something that we weren't used to and we didn't know either. We came out to warm up and we had to wait another 20 minutes so it was definitely tough on us, especially because it takes a lot longer to warm up."
But not for Phoenix, right? Suns players were out there watching as well
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That is not an excuse. They asked him a question about it, and he gave an honest answer. Not once did he ever say it contributed to the loss. He only said it was something different that they were not used to.
Yea... you are an idiot, Jeremy.
I would put that in the category of "wished he had been a little more careful with the wording."
Obviously, I'm not losing sleep over it, but sometimes these guys can't win. Say nothing (like Russell) to avoid misinterpretation, and you're a jerk. Lie and give the people what they supposedly want, and you're a hypocrite. Answer an honest question with an honest reply, and you're a whiner. Oh well...
What has Colangelo done to deserve that honor?
I congratulate you. That really is the heart of the matter. Since LBJ plays on Team USA, he would know better than us. Apparently, he didn't see much point in it...draw your own conclusions...
It pretty much is to me. This is like retiring AJ's number, except AJ actually had a championship team.He may not be on it much longer if Colangelo reads that.Since LBJ plays on Team USA, he would know better than us.
Being the head of the mob in Maricopa County does nothing for you?
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an NBA owner."
Well, I admit, it's not as bad as calling a timeout when your team already has the game in hand, but you know! Still pretty bad!
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the ceremony...
- He put together the Suns team that always makes it to the playoffs, but cannot win an NBA championship.
- He put together the USA team that always makes it to the medal round, but only came out with a olympic bronze medal.
Amazing how some people like to reward failure.
Look, I understand all the hatred of the Suns right now. They acted like crap and a very vocal minority of their fanbase has acted just as poorly, daily pooring salt into the wounds of the members of this site. I get it.
However, your statement is both an oversimplification and gross understatement at the same time.
Before I really get started, I will have to concede that his time as owner was never punctuated with the le that would have been the crowning acheivement to an illustrious career as Suns GM, President and owner. I can't deny that this failing may tarnish his image in other fans eyes.
... Despite such, this suns franchise has the fourth-highest win percentage of any team in the League at 55.6%, trailing only the Lakers (61.3%), Spurs (59.5%) and Celtics (85.7%). That is quite the accomplishment given they are the only team of the four to not have at least one #1 overall selection.
He has meant the world to the sports scene in the city of Phoenix, not only building the Suns from the ground up, but being intrumental in the additions of the Coyotes and Diamondbacks, as well as owning the Mercury and the Rattlers for several years.
While that doesn't have much to do with the Suns, as part of the Phoenix organization, he was won an unprecidented four Executive of the Year awards (1976, 1981, 1989, 1993). He was the owner when the Suns had a stretch of seven consecutive 50-win seasons from 1989 to 1995. There was also a playoff streak of 13 consecutive seasons from 1989 to 2001. He's been there for two Finals appearances.
For his work with the Suns, the Hall of Fame saw it befitting to induct him. He was a member of the 2004 class.
When he sold the Suns in 2004 it was for an NBA record amount. Granted, there are team who'd sell for more had they been on the market, but for a team with no les, that's a nice distinction. Upon his recent retirement from Chairman of the Suns, it ended a record mark for longest tenure with one franchise (39 year).
He sat as Chairman on the NBA's Board of Governors for many years as well.
He may not have a handful of le to his name, but not every owner can be so fortunate to have multiple #1 overall picks to build a franchise around. What the Suns are is because of Colangelo's eye for talent, both domestic and abroad, Colangelo's eye for trades (DJ for Rick Robey not withstanding) and a keen ability to lure talent to the Suns via free agency, including signing the NBA's first ever unrestricted free agent (Tom Chambers).
He more than deserves his place in a Ring of Honor along with Barkley, Johnson, Chambers, Majerle, Davis, Hawkins, Westphal, Van Arsdale, Adams, long-time coach, Fitzsimmons, and long-time trainer, Proski.
Again, I understand your disdain for the current flock of Suns idiots. Just know Colangelo isn't one. My only hope is the Suns net a le before he passes away. Few in the NBA history deserve one more... not that such matters, as they are won, not distributed. Unfortunately, the current owner has tuned him out on several big issues, so he no longer has a say in the team.
JMArk, this is a well-constructed post and pretty much spot-on in every respect. I have been a big fan of the Colangelos for many years. In the essence of brevity and the fact that I'm at work, I will offer the following bulleted list of personal pros and cons over Jerry's years:
Pros:
• Brought the first professional sports franchise to Phoenix, but hasn’t stopped there. I don’t know if another non-elected person in Phoenix has done more for the city than he has. He’s brought numerous franchises (as you already mentioned), turned the Suns into a perennial contender, and fought valiantly to get Phoenix on the map from a national perspective. He’s brought All-Star games to the Valley and done more to revitalize downtown as a whole than many other professional sports executives in the nation have done for their home cities (i.e. I don’t think you would ever have seen Jerry threatening a move to Oklahoma City — in fact, when the team was rocked by a drug scandal in the 1980s and on the verge of bankruptcy, he bought the team outright in order to keep it in Phoenix)
Cons:
• Made some pretty dumb trades from time-to-time (Robey for DJ, Kidd for Marbury, Majerle for Hot Rod Williams)
• For plenty of years during the 90s, he forced key Suns games on to pay-per-view, which caused me to miss some incredible games live on TV, including the 1997 game against the Sonics when Rex Chapman hit the running 30-footer with 2 seconds left. As great as it was hearing Al McCoy exclaim on the radio when he hit that shot, it would have been even better to see it in person… my parents even took the cable box out of my room during the playoffs because they knew I would be too tempted to spend $40 of their money to watch the games.
That's about it for right now, but this Jerry bashing from fans who are as classless as their favorite teams is uncalled for.... especially Anthony Michael Hall.
His team has not even been in the Olympics yet. Check your facts.
The whole reason they put him in charge was to correct the 2004 fiasco.
lebron is a piece of
I'd agree with everything. I was far from perfect, as some of his trades and being leless would indicate, but he was a fantastic owner. I hated his trigger finger. No sooner was a Suns player big time and he was traded. Still, he had as many good trades as bad ones.
Trading DJ for Robey was corrected by trading Nance for KJ and the pick that turned into Majerle. The Kidd for Marbury trade was corrected when he traded Delk and Rodgers for Joe Johnson and a future 1st. Any other bad trade was corrected when he traded Jud Buechler for Bo Outlaw and the pick that ruend into Amare Stoudemire.
To be honest, having read your (JMJ and Ron Mexico) posts, I can definitely see why they would honor Colangelo with this induction ceremony. Yesterday, my anti-Suns ire may have been at its highest pitch since May. (I think you know the details.)
Anyway, I guess my real issue/question with the whole thing was why then? By this I mean: 1) Why not before now? Colangelo hasn't been the owner for a while now. 2) Why at halftime instead of pre-game? I think this was actually LeBron's point. Teams aren't really used to doing it that way.
Bottom Line: LBJ probably shouldn't have even mentioned it. Hindsight is 20/20.
so are feces.
Let me get this straight. A potential MVP winner this season is blaming a induction ceremony for why his team blew a 7 point lead to the Suns. It says alot about his team that the Suns did not shoot well that game and no Amare and Cleveland still lost the game.
and we have a winner!Great post JMark. Well thought out, lucid and with facts to back your up!
We've got to get more Suns fans like this dude
Great post!
Why not before now is addressed because I believe this is his first year apart from the Suns. He's no longer anything with them. He sold the team in 2004, but stayed on to act as president and chairman. I believe his tenure as such ended with last season's end.
As for why not before, I'd imagine players would get just as pissy doing it before hand as they would at halftime. Also, It really wasn't that long. Maybe 30 minutes, or 5/10 minutes longer than usual. The 30 minutes may be excessive as well. Also, they've always done these at halftime. I had the pleasure of going to Westphal's, Chamber's, and Majerle's and wish I could have gone to KJ's. Every single one of them was done at halftime.
When Jerry Colangelo sold the team in 2004, the agreement was that he would remain Chairman and CEO (I believe that's what it was) for 3 more years, until the sale was finalized (which happened at the end of June this year).
Now, Colangelo still has a (virtually ceremonial) "Chairman" le for the next 5 years, but he moved out of his office at US Airways Center in June and is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations. He is still available to consult for advice, though.
I guess Colangelo hasn't stepped away completely, hehe:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns...llstar-ON.html
Where did he blame the ceremony? Please show us where that is. In the meanwhile, work on your comprehension skills.
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 6, 2007 12:00 AM
Around the Ring
A few other observations from the weekend:
• Who should be next to go into the Ring? We heard a lot of support for former coach John MacLeod, who did not attend the ceremony because he is out of the country.
MacLeod coached the Suns for 13 1/2 seasons and won 579 games - far and away more than any coach in franchise history. His winning percentage was only .516, but he and Paul Westphal are the only coaches who have gotten the Suns to the NBA Finals.
• We were surprised that Danny Manning wasn't in the crowd of former players who attended. The Suns invited anybody who played three seasons or more, and more than 30 of those players accepted the invitation, according to Managing Partner Robert Sarver.
Manning is an assistant coach at Kansas, so he probably was busy and has a legitimate reason for not attending.
But you may recall that he agreed to a one-year, $1 million free-agent contract here in 1994 with nothing more than assurance that the Suns would treat him fairly in a new contract after that season.
Then he blew out his knee. Colangelo promised that he would do the right thing. And he did, signing Manning to a six-year, $39.6 million deal without knowing whether he would ever be the same player.
Manning did come back to be the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year a couple of years later.
But we figure there are very few, if any, other owners in professional sports who would have done what Colangelo did.
• The Cavaliers blamed their second-half "el foldo" in part on the Colangelo induction ceremony.
"It was definitely long and something that we weren't used to, and we didn't know, either," Cavaliers star LeBron James said. "We came out to warm up, and we had to wait another 20 minutes, so it was definitely tough on us."
He added that it wasn't an excuse, and that the Cavaliers have players who need a long time to warm up.
Coach Mike Brown said: "I've never experienced a halftime like that before. They have to do what they have to do. Colangelo has done some great things here, but I wish it wouldn't have happened to us."
The ceremony was expected to last 20 minutes. A video at Suns.com of the entire ceremony lasts about 23 minutes.
So it was almost exactly as scheduled, and if the Cavaliers didn't know about the ceremony, as James suggested, then it is Brown and his staff who dropped the ball.
• We're told that in the effort to track down all the former players who had spent at least three years with the club, the Suns learned that guard Art Harris recently had passed away.
Harris was with the team from 1969-72.
guess those poor ers were too busy being in awe of Jerry that they totally missed the practice court on there way out the tunnel. lebron and the rest of the leastern conference champs.
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