O'Bryant Anecdote

Sounds good to me. Most of the comments I’ve seen on this blog have been extremely dismissive of O’Bryant; as if people wanted to be among the first to call him a stiff. Being something of a contrarian, I’ll be pulling for the guy.

Give him some time working with Clifford Ray and wait for KG’s insanity to rub off on him a little. Make Perk his workout buddy… and we’ll see how he looks mid-season.

Expectations couldn’t be lower for this guy here. Sounds pretty good to me.

pob looks like he needs more time in the oven- just like perk needed.we don’t need kg spending a lot of time guarding centers. good old clifford ray is desperately needed to school this young’un.

Nellie was jocking… I’m not sure if the blogger understood that.

Don Nelson always played big guys that were good, even if they didn’t fit his style. Then he’d trade them. See Weber.

I wouldn’t put much blame on Nellie for O’Bryant’s lack of development. Biedrins is a 7-footer who can’t shoot the 3 as well (not even the 2), he’s the same age of O’Bryant, and Nellie has been playing him a lot. And the truth is that O’Bryant looked really bad every time he stepped on the floor (at least every time I watched).

I recall a man by the name of Robert Parish who was labelled a slacker before he came to Boston. Anybody recall his rep?

Great, now you’re going to get Roy Hobbs fired up again.

Yes, I remember now that Robert Parish was a stiff before he came to Boston…I learned that just a couple weeks ago in a thread on this very blog, but I can’t quite remember the name of it…Robert Parish was something something a stiff…eh, it’ll come to me.

Obryant looks like he is in better shape from the press conference than what i’d seen from youtube and his baby pictures. At least he is trying. Danny must of saw something in him to sign him.

He has no fire?? well he needs to start getting mad, he has to put nellie’s pic in this locker and do well.

an icing on the cake situation for him would be to have a great year and really hurt GS when we meet them

O Bryant needs to learn how to defend the post before he’s capable of being on the court.

To call Parish a stiff before he came to Boston and then to compare him to O’Bryant is like comparing Scal to ______ (fill in the blank yourself)!

In my defense, I did not call Chief a stiff. A slacker, maybe, but I’m hoping someone could set the record straight as I don’t remember the circumstances.

The people who say Parish was a stiff at GS never actually saw him play, and just want to build some sort of myth.

READ THIS CAREFULLY:

His last 2 years in GS, he average 17 point and 11.5 boards.

In today’s NBA, that’s an all-star.

Parish was no stiff, ever. He was a solid, developing center. Now give the comparisons to O’Bryant a rest for good.

Nellie sorta meant it … Nellie likes playing big men if they are multiskilled. Biedrins is one of the best centers in the league and Nellie doesn’t play him enough. He starts him usually and plays him 25-30 minutes a game, but Biedrins is crazy productive. Nellie still prefers to play Harrington at center.

The fact is O’Bryant was expected to be a more traditional big, and Nellie has never done that.

He is a flyer, but a sensible one.

Po, as the founder of the “O’Blount is a stiff” club, you made me spit soda all over my laptop.

Nicely played, sir.

Leon will beat up O’Bryant in practice also. We need to give O’Bryant a chance. He’s going to be surrounded by the right kind of teammates and he’ll get the coaching he probably needs. O’Bryant will have to earn his chance, by showing things in practice and then will need to take advantage of opportunities when presented. Either he makes it or he doesn’t, but he deserves the benefit of the doubt right now. With that said, we still will need a veteran big before the season is over regardless of how O’Bryant does.

It should be added the O’Bryant is the player that Ainge’s coaches said they wanted and lobbied for. He wasn’t foisted on them. They’re now invested in him, and they’re going to work that much harder to see that he succeeds.

Conversely, Don Nelson had nothing invested in O’Bryant. In fact, if Nelson started bad-mouthing him early on, it was in his interest that O’Bryant didn’t do particularly well. Sometimes, that’s all the difference it takes.

I thought that Don Nelson also derided Tony Battie with the quip “El Busto” and Battie proved to be quite serviceable.

that was dan issel i thought.

The comparisons to Blount and Kandy man are apt in some respects, but a major difference is this kid is just 22 years old. He may not already be all he will become, in fact, that is almost a certainty given his age. Whether he helps the C’s this coming year is yet to be seen, but 22 yr old athletic, skilled 7 footers don’t exactly grow on trees, definitely a chance worth taking. His length on D should definitely be a help versus Powe and BBD who fight hard, but just aren’t the presence in the paint like a 7 footer, a la PJ last year even though his stats were meager. If the guy can catch and dunk, then he should be OK on offense, how many slams off inside feeds did Kendrick ever have prior to KG?

  I wonder how many peeps here actually saw Parish play for the Celts? My whole family watched most of the games, both home and away and we unanimously referred to Parish as “the hands of stone”. We also unamimously said “Oh No” when he back way up on the base line and fired off him almost certain missing fadeaway. With Bird almost always doubleteamed and Mchale a lot doubleteamed, Parish was alone under the basket alot – ALONE! And who better then Bird to hit an open man with a pass and yes, like Perk, Parish (if he didnt drop the ball) could dunk. As far as rebounds go, Parish got the cheapies. The ones where an opponent missed a foul shot and the ones where all other members of both teams ran back to the other end of the court. For those that know, Bird was a GREAT, GREAT rebounder and he never got any of the cheapies, he was back on defense.