{"id":284,"date":"2006-03-24T07:47:53","date_gmt":"2006-03-24T15:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songoose.com\/?p=129"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:37:58","slug":"more-riffing-on-morrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/?p=284","title":{"rendered":"More Riffing on Morrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have anything against Gonzaga, in fact I generally root for them. Some people don’t consider them to be a mid-major anymore, but the fact is that they will always be an underdog while they play in the WCC — that conference schedule simply does not compare them for the big dance. Therefore, like so many other sports fans<\/a>, I’ll continue to pull for them as they remain the underdog.<\/p>\n

That being said, there was something very satisfying about watching Adam Morrison cry like a little chienne alone in the middle of the court last night after the ‘Zags pulled an ’04 Yankees in the last few minutes of that game. Frankly, I just don’t like Morrison’s game and I don’t understand the hubub around him. (Ok, I understand it, but I don’t think it is warranted.) As you might expect from a Celts fan, I tend to get quite defensive when people throw around Larry Bird comparisons, but in this case the comparison is truly absurd. Bird was a phenomenal all-around player who made everyone on the court better. Morrison is a me-first gunner who does little else. The only times Morrison makes a good pass is when he doesn’t have any sort of shot, and even then it is a stretch. Take the last shot he took in the game last night — a fadeaway 18 footer with the game on the line? That’s the best you can come up with? Don’t get me wrong, being a top scorer and also finding the open man consistently is one of the toughest things to do in basketball (and I suppose I’ve been called a gunner a time or two in my day), but that’s what made Bird so special, and what makes Morrison not. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And what’s with the crying before the game is even finished? Seriously, that is absurd. The game was far from over when the Bruins scored that last hoop. So, instead of trying to win, which was still quite possible with 8 seconds left down 1, this supposed player of the year is weeping? When the Zags had the ball under their own basket with just under 2 seconds left, Morrison was in the BACKCOURT! How are you going to get a good shot in the backcourt with 2 seconds left??? He should have been down by the OTHER foul line, because as good as Batista has been, you don’t want your center taking a 17 footer for the game (unless he’s a hick from the Appalachian Mtns). If Morrison gets that clean of a look, we might not even be having this conversation. (Of course, the tears in his eyes may have blocked his view of the hoop.)<\/p>\n

The one last point I’ll make about Morrison is that he always seems to be on his own out there. When he celebrates, gets mad or spazzes out like a 3 year old, he seems to be doing it by himself. Even when he cried at the end of the game, it was quite appropriate that he was all alone at the center of the court, and I didn’t see any teammates rushing to pick him up. In fact, the UCLA guys did it before anyone from Gonzaga. The other Zags may say<\/em> he’s the best player they’ve played with, but I’m not buying it. He’s clearly a me-first guy doing it for himself by himself (which should, of course, allow him to fit in well at the next level). I don’t expect to see him hoisting any gold trophies in the bigs.<\/p>\n

…and Bird NEVER would have lost that game to UCLA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t have anything against Gonzaga, in fact I generally root for them. Some people don’t consider them to be a mid-major anymore, but the fact is that they will always be an underdog while they play in the WCC — that conference schedule simply does not compare them for the big dance. Therefore, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}