Ramona Shelburne weighs into Parker-Auriemma

[trb123]

Between UConn's 90- and 111-game win streaks, the Lynx's three titles in five years and the United States' Olympic teams that are so good that coach Geno Auriemma could afford to snub one of the best players in the world (Candace Parker) over what appear to be ancient grievances dating back to his rivalry with Pat Summitt and anything Tennessee, women's hoops has spent way too many of its best moments justifying its best players and teams.

It is buried in her article on Lynx-Sparks rivalry

 

[JS]

Ms. Shelburne takes a gratuitous, unsubstantiated shot at Geno.

Insinuations:

1. It was his call (never mind what Committee or potential teammates thought);

2. He did it irrationally, to the implied detriment of the team; and

3. He did it out of ancient history malice.

And she drags this stinky little comment out of left field, to mix sports metaphors.

Yech.

 

[Bayareahusky]

I wish the outcry about the "travesty of justice" with Candace Parker would go away.... but of course it will not..... I really like Candace... and I like her game ... I really do. But it is absolutely NOT her birthright to get passage onto the Olympic team..... (assuming this mention is all about her not being named to the team)..... From all the feedback and blowback I have seen and heard about this perceived injustice, the argument is that it was an easy call to name her to the team..... after all she IS one of the best players in the country.... and that should pay her freight onto the team.

But as an uber talented graduating jobseeker wunderkind must be a good fit for his/her prospective employer, a basketball player must be a good fit for her team. This includes raw talent, ability and attitude to be a good team player, chemistry with teammates and coaches, etc.... and the list goes beyond that. The annals of recent basketball history are littered with examples of teams NOT taking the best players as judged by just talent. There was a recent men's olympic team, i believe, in the 90s.... which was made up of different combinations of players who were used to playing ball with each other..... coupling all star forwards with their NBA team's point guard. Bobby Knight was famous for not only taking his own Indiana players to international competition (who were not commensurate talent wise with others who were better) but actually "snubbing" (to use the same term used here) Charles Barkley in the 1984 olympic trials and leaving him off the team..... when he by all accounts was THE dominant forward at the trials and was the best at that position. Knight chose for the team instead a little known forward from Vanderbilt (Jeff Somebody... i forget).... who never played a minute in the NBA.....

Coach K has done the same thing with favoring his Duke players ... on the women's side, Pat Summit herself chose 2 of her own Tennessee players for the 84 olympics..... there were not any other NCAA teams who had more players named to Pat's olympic team than that..... and this is 1984, 3 years before the Lady Vols won their first NCAA title.... in 84 La Tech was big.... USC had just won back to back championships.... Tennessee had not gotten to the top yet, but there they were represented with 16 percent of the olympic roster.....

The point is.... when choosing a team, you do not necessarily choose the 12 best players..... the 12 best athletes.... there are many factors which go into the selection process,,,, and although i understand the controversy at a fan level, I honestly do not understand why Geno is being vilified over Candace's omission. It was the decision of the board, and NOT Geno's decision .... that of player personnel. And, IF you believe that that is nonsense ... that HE chooses the players, then why can't he choose the team members he wants as opposed to what others say he must do.

I would no more second guess the olympic committee (or Geno if it was him) for choosing the team they chose than I would second guessing Coach K, Bobby Knight, or Pat Summit in building their rosters with those with whom they felt most comfortable.

 

[triaddukefan]

n forward from Vanderbilt (Jeff Somebody... i forget).... who never played a minute in the NBA.....

Coach K has done the same thing with favoring his Duke players ... on the women's side, Pat Summit herself chose 2 of her own Tennessee players for the 84 olympics..... there were not any other NCAA teams who had more players named to Pat's olympic team than that..... and this is 1984, 3 years before the Lady Vols won their first NCAA title.... in 84 La Tech was big.... USC had just won back to back championships.... Tennessee had not gotten to the top yet, but there they were represented with 16 percent of the olympic roster.....


I would no more second guess the olympic committee (or Geno if it was him) for choosing the team they chose than I would second guessing Coach K, Bobby Knight, or Pat Summit in building their rosters with those with whom they felt most comfortable.

Which ones?

 

[EricLA]

Particularly LOVED your #1 JS...

 

[Plebe]

Ramona Shelburne is IMO a sorry excuse for a sports journalist and knows about as much about basketball as my late grandmother (i.e., nothing). Her primary gig over the past several years at ESPN was to serve as Ronda Rousey's de facto PR agent and hagiographer, and now that Rousey appears to have retired, she's scraping around for new stories to ride the coattails of.

 

[tomcat]

Ramona Shelburne is IMO a sorry excuse for a sports journalist and knows about as much about basketball as my late grandmother (i.e., nothing). Her primary gig over the past several years at ESPN was to serve as Ronda Rousey's de facto PR agent and hagiographer, and now that Rousey appears to have retired, she's scraping around for new stories to ride the coattails of.

Thank you for explaining who Ramona Shelburne is. I'd never heard of her. If she was trying to become, say, the Howard Cosell of women's MMA, boy, did she get a surprise.

 

[oldude]

I do believe that Geno had a say on the 12-member Olympic team. If he really believed that he needed Parker on the team, she would have been on the team. Aside from that, everything else that Shelburne insinuates is nonsense.

As others have pointed out, Geno and the Selection Committee were putting together a team, blending veteran Olympic team members with talented newcomers like EDD, Griner & Stewie. Unfortunately for Parker and others, there is a wealth of talented WBB players in the U.S.

This is a one-sided argument perpetuated by Parker and her supporters. To Geno's credit, he's not participating.

 

[huskeynut]

Unfortunately this type of writing coupled with the "Parker Snub" will not go away. Ms. Shelburne has a fairly decent article going until she inserted the Parker snub. At that point, the article becomes trash.

Ms. Shelbourne is not a journalist. Too bad for a very good. competitive series is being given second place to a petty grievance.

 

[CocoHusky]

I wish the outcry about the "travesty of justice" with Candace Parker would go away.... but of course it will not..... I really like Candace... and I like her game ... I really do. But it is absolutely NOT her birthright to get passage onto the Olympic team..... (assuming this mention is all about her not being named to the team)..... From all the feedback and blowback I have seen and heard about this perceived injustice, the argument is that it was an easy call to name her to the team..... after all she IS one of the best players in the country.... and that should pay her freight onto the team.

But as an uber talented graduating jobseeker wunderkind must be a good fit for his/her prospective employer, a basketball player must be a good fit for her team. This includes raw talent, ability and attitude to be a good team player, chemistry with teammates and coaches, etc.... and the list goes beyond that. The annals of recent basketball history are littered with examples of teams NOT taking the best players as judged by just talent. There was a recent men's olympic team, i believe, in the 90s.... which was made up of different combinations of players who were used to playing ball with each other..... coupling all star forwards with their NBA team's point guard. Bobby Knight was famous for not only taking his own Indiana players to international competition (who were not commensurate talent wise with others who were better) but actually "snubbing" (to use the same term used here) Charles Barkley in the 1984 olympic trials and leaving him off the team..... when he by all accounts was THE dominant forward at the trials and was the best at that position. Knight chose for the team instead a little known forward from Vanderbilt (Jeff Somebody... i forget).... who never played a minute in the NBA.....

Coach K has done the same thing with favoring his Duke players ... on the women's side, Pat Summit herself chose 2 of her own Tennessee players for the 84 olympics..... there were not any other NCAA teams who had more players named to Pat's olympic team than that..... and this is 1984, 3 years before the Lady Vols won their first NCAA title.... in 84 La Tech was big.... USC had just won back to back championships.... Tennessee had not gotten to the top yet, but there they were represented with 16 percent of the olympic roster.....

The point is.... when choosing a team, you do not necessarily choose the 12 best players..... the 12 best athletes.... there are many factors which go into the selection process,,,, and although i understand the controversy at a fan level, I honestly do not understand why Geno is being vilified over Candace's omission. It was the decision of the board, and NOT Geno's decision .... that of player personnel. And, IF you believe that that is nonsense ... that HE chooses the players, then why can't he choose the team members he wants as opposed to what others say he must do.

I would no more second guess the olympic committee (or Geno if it was him) for choosing the team they chose than I would second guessing Coach K, Bobby Knight, or Pat Summit in building their rosters with those with whom they felt most comfortable.

A few errors here:
1) 1984 Charles Barkley did not dominate the USA Trials. Sam Perkins, Wayman Tisdale & Joe Kline did at the forward position and were chosen for the team.
2) Jeff's last name is Turner and he played in the NBA for several years 1984-87 and 1989-96.
3) Coach K has had 2 Duke players make the team in the 3 Olympic he was head coach. Kyrie Irving (2016) and Carlos Boozer (2008 & 2012). Both were NBA All- Star in the year they made the Olympic team. In the case of Boozer he was also on the 2004 Olympic team coached by Larry Brown.
4) Bobby Knight coached the 1984 Olympic team and on that team was one of his players who was Steve Alford.

 

[msf22b]

Ms Shelbourne's jab will certainly appear gratuitous to fervent UCONN fans,
but this is no "petty grievance."

Her incendiary remarks may be off-base or flat untrue about coach, but some combination of so-called "experts" made one of the dumbest, irrational and mean-spirited calls of the century by leaving Candace off the team...period.

And she's been taking it to us (and them) and especially Minny ever since.

And to hear talk of "attitude to be a good team player, chemistry with teammates and coaches" and the like (as I predicted on a different thread)
just compounds the irrationality of the call.

UConn fans appear petty and small-minded to the rest of the country in trying to defend the indefensible.

Leave it be, don't rise to the bait...and not for the usually stated reason.

I really admire the inner fortitude of this woman for not letting it destroy her.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Yawn.

 

[jsloanjr]

Its yesterday's news..........Like TENN, Louisiana Tech, UT, Baylor............Their good teams were in the past and maybe in the future.. Lets look forward to the 2017/2018 season and what UCONN will do...........

 

[Fairfield Fan]

But you know what? There is no excuse for Parker's not being on the national team.

Way back when, on the TV show "Top Chef," some of the competing chefs got together and complained to the judges that one of the chefs had "disrespected the kitchen." For some reason they were aggrieved about his actions in the kitchen. Judge Tom Colicchio's response? "I don't care." He told them to go back and cook. He didn't care what went on behind the scenes, because all he wanted to see was excellence.

And that is all Team USA should care about as well. Candace Parker led her team to the WNBA championship last year, and has her team in the final game of the championship series this year. She is outstanding. And she is a team player, as evidenced by her team's tremendous success.

Did she tweak the noses of USA Basketball officials sometime in the past? I don't know, and as Tom Collicchio would say, and Team USA officials should say, "we don't care."

The longer Candace Parker is left off the national team, the more embarrassing it is for the national team.

Give her an invite. Send her a plane ticket. And put this snub in the past.

 

[CocoHusky]

But you know what? There is no excuse for Parker's not being on the national team.

Way back when, on the TV show "Top Chef," some of the competing chefs got together and complained to the judges that one of the chefs had "disrespected the kitchen." For some reason they were aggrieved about his actions in the kitchen. Judge Tom Colicchio's response? "I don't care." He told them to go back and cook. He didn't care what went on behind the scenes, because all he wanted to see was excellence.

And that is all Team USA should care about as well. Candace Parker led her team to the WNBA championship last year, and has her team in the final game of the championship series this year. She is outstanding. And she is a team player, as evidenced by her team's tremendous success.

Did she tweak the noses of USA Basketball officials sometime in the past? I don't know, and as Tom Collicchio would say, and Team USA officials should say, "we don't care."

The longer Candace Parker is left off the national team, the more embarrassing it is for the national team.

Give her an invite. Send her a plane ticket. And put this snub in the past.

Candace was extended an invitation to this last camp and turned it down. That's on her.

 

[Orangutan]

Ramona Shelburne is IMO a sorry excuse for a sports journalist and knows about as much about basketball as my late grandmother (i.e., nothing). Her primary gig over the past several years at ESPN was to serve as Ronda Rousey's de facto PR agent and hagiographer, and now that Rousey appears to have retired, she's scraping around for new stories to ride the coattails of.

This is blatantly not true. Yes, she is close to Rousey but saying that reporting on Rousey is "her primary gig over the past several years" is totally false.

Her primary gig is being an NBA reporter and an award-winning NBA reporter at that.

 

[Orangutan]

Thank you for explaining who Ramona Shelburne is. I'd never heard of her. If she was trying to become, say, the Howard Cosell of women's MMA, boy, did she get a surprise.

Ramona Shelburne Is Beating Male Sportswriters at Their Own Game

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Candace was extended an invitation to this last camp and turned it down. That's on her.

She has always been a world class pouter.

 

[WiseOne]

Candace was extended an invitation to this last camp and turned it down. That's on her.

Thank you!!!!! Now can we dead this thread????!!?

 

[Willie E.Gold]

Catchings played for Tennessee and Parker played for Tennessee.Who chose Catchings,Coach or Committee?Shaq,Barkley and Isiah were left off Olympic Teams at one time.Who got the blame?I wonder who the Team would have voted for between Parker and Catch?

 

[meyers7]

Ms Shelbourne's jab will certainly appear gratuitous to fervent UCONN fans,
but this is no "petty grievance."

Her incendiary remarks may be off-base or flat untrue about coach, but some combination of so-called "experts" made one of the dumbest, irrational and mean-spirited calls of the century by leaving Candace off the team...period.

And she's been taking it to us (and them) and especially Minny ever since.

And to hear talk of "attitude to be a good team player, chemistry with teammates and coaches" and the like (as I predicted on a different thread)
just compounds the irrationality of the call.

UConn fans appear petty and small-minded to the rest of the country in trying to defend the indefensible.

Leave it be, don't rise to the bait...and not for the usually stated reason.

I really admire the inner fortitude of this woman for not letting it destroy her.

Yea, you're pretty out to lunch here maestro. Might want to put down the baton on this one.

 

[meyers7]

But you know what? There is no excuse for Parker's not being on the national team.

Way back when, on the TV show "Top Chef," some of the competing chefs got together and complained to the judges that one of the chefs had "disrespected the kitchen." For some reason they were aggrieved about his actions in the kitchen. Judge Tom Colicchio's response? "I don't care." He told them to go back and cook. He didn't care what went on behind the scenes, because all he wanted to see was excellence.

And that is all Team USA should care about as well. Candace Parker led her team to the WNBA championship last year, and has her team in the final game of the championship series this year. She is outstanding. And she is a team player, as evidenced by her team's tremendous success.

Did she tweak the noses of USA Basketball officials sometime in the past? I don't know, and as Tom Collicchio would say, and Team USA officials should say, "we don't care."

The longer Candace Parker is left off the national team, the more embarrassing it is for the national team.

Give her an invite. Send her a plane ticket. And put this snub in the past.

You obviously don't know much about women's teams.

 

[meyers7]

This is blatantly not true. Yes, she is close to Rousey but saying that reporting on Rousey is "her primary gig over the past several years" is totally false.

Her primary gig is being an NBA reporter and an award-winning NBA reporter at that.

View attachment 25223

So you're saying the reason she doesn't know what she's talking about is because she's spread herself too thin.

Could be.

 

[Orangutan]

So you're saying the reason she doesn't know what she's talking about is because she's spread herself too thin.

Could be.

It's possible! But saying that she doesn't know basketball or is just Rousey's mouthpiece is not true irrespective of the validity of the comments in questions.

 

[meyers7]

It's possible! But saying that she doesn't know basketball or is just Rousey's mouthpiece is not true irrespective of the validity of the comments in questions.

I'll give you that.