Borges: Shabazz Napier Aiming to Be Better at Everything Next Season

[tcf15]

http://borgesblognhr.blogspot.com/2013/07/shabazz-napier-aiming-to-be-better-at.html

Shabazzle Dazzle. Love this kid.

 

[Kitaman]

Thanks, good article. I would just love to see him stay healthy and not wait until the 2nd half to take over. He's the best player on the court, but him deferring so much drove me crazy last season.

 

[HobokenHusky]

Wow. Reading that interview back-to-back with the Boatright one, it's like night and day. Boat should take a few notes from Bazz. You can be a confident guy without talking about how good and ready for the NBA you are at every chance you get. Amazing that they are able to co-exist in the same back-court.

 

[BearJWS]

Nice read. You can really see how he's been maturing over the past 3 years. Graduating after the fall semester is impressive even for non athletes, especially after all his camps in the summer the past 2 years. He represents UConn wonderfully! I'm sure his Mom is proud!

 

[Gurleyman]

If we wanted to cherry pick or misrepresent Bazz quotes like we did for Boat, we could accomplish the same thing. Watch:

When it came to himself, Bazz showed lots of passion: "I want to work hard to be as good as I can possibly be to achieve my goals." Me me me.

When it came to the team, he was totally indifferent: "maybe we'll lose our edge, but that's the coaches problem."

That's not a fair portrayal of that Bazz interview at all, of course. Just comparable to what some folks did to Boat.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Wow. Reading that interview back-to-back with the Boatright one, it's like night and day. Boat should take a few notes from Bazz. You can be a confident guy without talking about how good and ready for the NBA you are at every chance you get. Amazing that they are able to co-exist in the same back-court.

[Face palm.]

 

[BoatShow]

If we wanted to cherry pick or misrepresent Bazz quotes like we did for Boat, we could accomplish the same thing. Watch:

When it came to himself, Bazz showed lots of passion: "I want to work hard to be as good as I can possibly be to achieve my goals." Me me me.

When it came to the team, he was totally indifferent: "maybe we'll lose our edge, but that's the coaches problem."

That's not a fair portrayal of that Bazz interview at all, of course. Just comparable to what some folks did to Boat.

That's like super duper twisting his words.

 

[art4life]

Nice article.
My hope is Bazz can remain healthy & just flat-out dominate this upcoming season.
The team will go as far as he can take them...

 

[BoatShow]

http://borgesblognhr.blogspot.com/2013/07/shabazz-napier-aiming-to-be-better-at.html

Shabazzle Dazzle. Love this kid.

I like that. I prefer Shabazzkets though.

 

[HobokenHusky]

[Face palm.]

Right. What did I say in my post that untrue or insulting?

It must be a hard job being the self-proclaimed smartest guy on the Boneyard.

 

[Gurleyman]

That's like super duper twisting his words.

Not really - those were his words, maybe with minor paraphrasing since I did it off the top of my head after reading the story and didn't cut and paste. But they were deliberately taken way out of context to distort the overall impression of what he was trying to say.

Similarly, when Borges asks Boat who got the better of the matchup when he went head-to-head with Bazz, and Boat said "Well of course I'm going to say me (laughs). No, seriously. It was a good battle. We both had moments where we got the better of each other." And then someone posts on the Yard that Boat just answered "of course I'm going to say me" as the entire quote as an indication of his ego and selfishness, that's distorting what Boat said.

Of all the things in the Boat article to me the only thing that is a minor bother is that he talks about playing in the NBA as if it was a foregone conclusion, which is just setting himself up for a slap in the face if he doesn't make it. But in the context of what he was saying, he admitted that he has to get better at point guard play and decision making to prepare himself for the NBA, so it was only half bad. You could also quibble that he said "my backcourt" and not "our backcourt", so I suppose we could call him for a pronoun foul there.

 

[BoatShow]

Not really - those were his words, maybe with minor paraphrasing since I did it off the top of my head after reading the story and didn't cut and paste. But they were deliberately taken way out of context to distort the overall impression of what he was trying to say.

Similarly, when Borges asks Boat who got the better of the matchup when he went head-to-head with Bazz, and Boat said "Well of course I'm going to say me (laughs). No, seriously. It was a good battle. We both had moments where we got the better of each other." And then someone posts on the Yard that Boat just answered "of course I'm going to say me" as the entire quote as an indication of his ego and selfishness, that's distorting what Boat said.

Of all the things in the Boat article to me the only thing that is a minor bother is that he talks about playing in the NBA as if it was a foregone conclusion, which is just setting himself up for a slap in the face if he doesn't make it. But in the context of what he was saying, he admitted that he has to get better at point guard play and decision making to prepare himself for the NBA, so it was only half bad. You could also quibble that he said "my backcourt" and not "our backcourt", so I suppose we could call him for a pronoun foul there.

I think Boat came off as confident but maturing. Shabazz's quote "It's possible we may lose that edge," Napier admitted. "But hopefully, the guys will have the same mindset. If not ... that's what coaches are for." To me it sounds like he's showing faith in the coaching staff

 

[BearJWS]

I like that. I prefer Shabazzkets though.

I like saying "you've been Shabazzed" when he hits every clutch shot!

 

[HobokenHusky]

Not really - those were his words, maybe with minor paraphrasing since I did it off the top of my head after reading the story and didn't cut and paste. But they were deliberately taken way out of context to distort the overall impression of what he was trying to say.

Similarly, when Borges asks Boat who got the better of the matchup when he went head-to-head with Bazz, and Boat said "Well of course I'm going to say me (laughs). No, seriously. It was a good battle. We both had moments where we got the better of each other." And then someone posts on the Yard that Boat just answered "of course I'm going to say me" as the entire quote as an indication of his ego and selfishness, that's distorting what Boat said.

Of all the things in the Boat article to me the only thing that is a minor bother is that he talks about playing in the NBA as if it was a foregone conclusion, which is just setting himself up for a slap in the face if he doesn't make it. But in the context of what he was saying, he admitted that he has to get better at point guard play and decision making to prepare himself for the NBA, so it was only half bad. You could also quibble that he said "my backcourt" and not "our backcourt", so I suppose we could call him for a pronoun foul there.

I think we have heard enough quotes from both Boat and Bazz over the years to know that there was not much spin here. The only things I disliked from Boat was the NBA comment (which has been a common theme for him), and also the Terrance Samuel comment basically saying Terrance will have the privilege of learning from Bazz and himself. There is nothing wrong with being confident to slightly cocky. But when he says things as common fact that 99% of the world knows are not true, then he might be a bit delusional, and that can cause issues. I love Boat as a player, but if he really thinks he is ready for the NBA right now, then IMO he's delusional, not confident.

 

[Gurleyman]

I think Boat came off as confident but maturing. Shabazz's quote "It's possible we may lose that edge," Napier admitted. "But hopefully, the guys will have the same mindset. If not ... that's what coaches are for." To me it sounds like he's showing faith in the coaching staff

Yeah - we're on the same page. There was nothing wrong with anything Bazz said. I was distorting it to make him look bad by cherry picking fragments of the points he was making.

Bazz is definitely a better spokesperson than Boat (but he has had to improve - he said some things his sophomore year that sent this place into a tizzy). Boat has a little more unrefined brashness to him. His "Syracuse is leaving with a bad taste of UConn in their mouths" line wouldn't have come from Bazz or Emeka. But then again, Bazz or Emeka might not have said "Duke has to worry about matching up with us. We're going to shock the world" 10 minutes before tipoff, either. Khalid, Rashad, Adrien, and Kemba all brought some of that brashness to teams that maybe needed it. We'll see if Boat channels it positively this year the way those other guys did, but it isn't worth pearl-clutching if he seems irrationally confident in a July interview.

 

[Gurleyman]

I think we have heard enough quotes from both Boat and Bazz over the years to know that there was not much spin here. The only things I disliked from Boat was the NBA comment (which has been a common theme for him), and also the Terrance Samuel comment basically saying Terrance will have the privilege of learning from Bazz and himself. There is nothing wrong with being confident to slightly cocky. But when he says things as common fact that 99% of the world knows are not true, then he might be a bit delusional, and that can cause issues. I love Boat as a player, but if he really thinks he is ready for the NBA right now, then IMO he's delusional, not confident.

An incoming freshman learning from a junior and senior seems like a normal thing, no? I'd hope that a) Samuel would want to learn from guys with seven years experience and that b) the veterans would want to take him under their wing and help the transition process.

His NBA quote was irrationally confident and raised my eyebrows. I'll grant that. In the context of him saying he has to improve part of his game in order to be successful at that level, I'll put an asterisk by the eyebrow though. Ultimately, if his motivation for improvement is something external, good for us and good for him. Maybe he makes it, but he does seem like he could be setting himself up for a rude wake-up someday. But he's got a head coach he can turn to for personal stories of perseverance if he wants some advice.

 

[HobokenHusky]

An incoming freshman learning from a junior and senior seems like a normal thing, no? I'd hope that a) Samuel would want to learn from guys with seven years experience and that b) the veterans would want to take him under their wing and help the transition process.

His NBA quote was irrationally confident and raised my eyebrows. I'll grant that. In the context of him saying he has to improve part of his game in order to be successful at that level, I'll put an asterisk by the eyebrow though. Ultimately, if his motivation for improvement is something external, good for us and good for him. Maybe he makes it, but he does seem like he could be setting himself up for a rude wake-up someday. But he's got a head coach he can turn to for personal stories of perseverance if he wants some advice.

I gotcha. I agree that he's right that it's beneficial for terrance, but it's an odd thing I say about yourself. He could have easily deferred that to just Bazz or coach Ollie. I don't think it comes from a bad place, but if him and Bazz are good buddies then Bazz needs to maybe sit him down for a PR class haha

 

[Tenspro2002]

[Bazz] said some things his sophomore year that sent this place into a tizzy.

His comment that year about having to question his teammates' heart doesn't reflect that poorly on him -- I'm not sure anyone could have gotten that team to play smart and like they gave a d*mn.

 

[Clockshop]

here's the whole article...basically both blog posts into one:

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2013/07/11/sports/doc51df3e4e9a668863235379.txt

Samuel is expected to arrive at Storrs to start second session summer courses in another week or two. Kromah will likely be arriving around the same time.

 

[UConn990411]

I like that. I prefer Shabazzkets though.

His name is Shabazz. Does he really need a nickname?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

It must be a hard job being the self-proclaimed smartest guy on the Boneyard.

Nah, it's pretty easy. Consider the competition.

 

[champs99and04]

Yeah - we're on the same page. There was nothing wrong with anything Bazz said. I was distorting it to make him look bad by cherry picking fragments of the points he was making.

Bazz is definitely a better spokesperson than Boat (but he has had to improve - he said some things his sophomore year that sent this place into a tizzy). Boat has a little more unrefined brashness to him. His "Syracuse is leaving with a bad taste of UConn in their mouths" line wouldn't have come from Bazz or Emeka. But then again, Bazz or Emeka might not have said "Duke has to worry about matching up with us. We're going to shock the world" 10 minutes before tipoff, either. Khalid, Rashad, Adrien, and Kemba all brought some of that brashness to teams that maybe needed it. We'll see if Boat channels it positively this year the way those other guys did, but it isn't worth pearl-clutching if he seems irrationally confident in a July interview.

That's a good take - Shabazz is certainly better at giving losers like us on the boneyard a quote that we want to hear, while Boatright is clearly a bit less seasoned in that regard. The facts are, all our guards are inner-city kids who have come off as brash, cocky, and self-serving at times. This isn't surprising, specifically in the cases of Boatright and Napier, both of whom have used their bravado and confidence as means of overcoming some of their limitations at various points throughout their careers. Remember last off-season, when Napier called the transfers out? Paraphrasing, he said something along the lines of, "Some people run away from their problems. That's not the way I was brought up". Re-visit the boneyard archives sometimes - the reception he got from those comments wasn't what you'd expect in hindsight.

Shabazz is about a year and a half older than Boatright, which probably explains the polish in his interviews in comparison to Boatright. But the bottom line is neither of our three prominently featured guards is going to give you the politically correct answer every single time, and that's one of the things I love about them. Let's face it; we're not as talented as Kentucky, Duke, or probably even Syracuse. But we can be just as good as them and a big reason why is the refusal of our guards to take a backseat to anybody.

 

[selles]

His comment that year about having to question his teammates' heart doesn't reflect that poorly on him -- I'm not sure anyone could have gotten that team to play smart and like they gave a d*mn.

It reflected really poorly on him at the time because he went to the media with questions about his team's heart while proclaiming himself the team leader. Whether anyone could have fixed that team or not, what Bazz did was guaranteed to hurt.

But he recognized his mistakes and learned from them, and last year he was excellent in all respects. Which reflects very, very positively on him.

Coming off the example of Bazz's growth as a leader and a player, I can't understand why some folks are so anxious to slam Boat.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I just hope the kid stays healthy, because I think he's going to have a monster year.

 

[joober jones]

I like that. I prefer Shabazzkets though.

I know this has already been ran into the ground, but "The Reach Around Bandit" is still the greatest nickname in sports history.