This is a ridiculous post.
You can disagree with Lebron’s politics all you want, but he’s one of the most accomplished professional athletes of all time. He’s never had a single scandal off the court and is by all accounts a perfectly decent human being. He’s clearly an intelligent person. You don’t become a billionaire athlete if you’re stupid. Come off it, Herby.
People don’t like Lebron because he’s opinionated about world events, just like Kareem was. Athletes like Brady and Jordan made it a point to never make a public stand about anything, because it could hurt their bottom line. “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Remember that?
I don’t agree with all of Lebron’s political/social takes, but I respect him for being a top two basketball player ever - full stop - and carrying himself with class and without scandal, which is nearly impossible in the era of social media.
Also, Mahomes has already made quite a few public political statements. So did Drew Brees.
Edit: Also, Kobe Bryant f***ing raped a girl. But I’m glad to see his lack of public political opinions has elevated your opinion of him.
Ease up bud, I never said he was a bad person or that he wasn't an all-time great athlete. He is a good family man who has done a lot of good in his community, but he has also said some hypocritical and false things as well. And how does being a world class athlete make you not stupid? Derrick Rose was the MVP of the NBA and probably well on his way to an all-time great career before the injuries and he was illiterate.
I just don’t get why Lebron is asked these things outside of sports so often when others aren’t. Why did ESPN have Lebron call in the day of the Boston marathon bombing? He had no connection to the city of Boston or the event. Why is Lebron who has a HS education and is clearly ignorant of the geo-political situation in Hong Kong telling a person with a graduate degree from MIT that they aren’t educated on the situation when they clearly are? He does business in China, that is fine, most people do, but it was very his own financial investment that made him make that ridiculously stupid comment towards Morey. And yes it is a bit hypocritical talking about supposed oppression in once place when he benefits financially from an oppressive regime in another place. If he wants to talk about those things he opens himself up to people pointing out his hypocrisy and the things he is wrong about, he can't just say ignorant things and expect no response.
The Kobe thing is funny, two weeks ago on this very forum I was accused of being a Kobe hater for asking why he got a free pass and Bobby Hull didn't, now I have an elevated opinion of him. Guess I can't win.
@Herby and I have not seen eye-to-eye on Turcotte's latent abilities to say the least but its' absolutely not hindsight, he has been 100% consistently strong with his opinions and feedback from near after draft day.
I don't hate the player, I hate the capital used to invest in him. I'd love to have an In-N-Out cheeseburger right now, but I wouldn't want to pay the same price I pay for a piece of prime rib, doesn't mean the cheeseburger isn't good, but you have to pay the right price for it. I still think today what I thought 3 years ago, if he can stay healthy and reach his potential that he has the chance to be an Andrew Copp kind of player. But that is just tough to get out of a #5 OA pick where you are looking to come away with elite players with picks that high. And now with the injuries who knows if he can even reach that.
As far as a disappointing season or not, maybe my expectations were to high, but for a #5OA I think you are expecting that player to be a pretty dominant offensive player. Turcotte scored 1 goal and 8 assists in 21 Big Ten Games. Just for comparison, fellow B10 high picks in intra-conference games as freshman.
Beniers - 5/13/18 in 22 games (draft eligible)
Fantilli - 10/19/29 in 17 games (draft eligible)
Cooley - 11/20/31 in 21 games
K Johnson - 8/14/22 in 22 games (draft eligible)
Caufield - 11/13/24 in 26 games
Larkin - 12/23/35 in 23 games
Snuggerud - 14/20/34 in 22 games
Lucius - 5/7/12 in 14 games
Holloway - 7/5/12 in 27 games (draft eligible)
Brindley -8/9/17 in 22 games (draft eligible)
Mittlestadt - 9/11/20 in 26 games
K Connor - 27/26/53 in 27 games
I know people will do the usual "stat-watching" stuff, but the reality is, when you are drafting a forward that high there has to be expectation that the player is going to produce enough offensively to at the very least be a very good 2nd line player with a very realistic chance of being a 1st liner, if not a star player. It was painfully obvious from the very start that Turcotte was not going to be that kind of offensive player.
@Herby since you’re our resident UM hockey guy, what do you think of Portillo? Does he look like he’ll be an nhl goalie? Pronman said today in his article that he believes he’s in the “get nhl games but not upper echelon tier”.
Portillo has taken a step back this year. I think some of it has to do with UM playing a much more run and gun style this season, but he has also allowed a lot of goals this season that he just should not have allowed, including a couple this past weekend in the outdoor game in Cleveland. Last season UM had two defenseman who immediately stepped right into the NHL (Power and Blankenburg), another who would probably be in the NHL had he turned pro (Hughes) as well as Beniers who was one of the best defensive forwards in all of college hockey. They made his life a lot easier than it's been this season.
I think the Kings should try and sign him and see if Bill Ranford can work his magic, the kid is huge and a decent enough athlete where maybe with a couple of years in Ontario he could be something, but I don't think its a slam dunk or anything. But with the Kings lack of goaltending throughout the organization it would be a worthy gamble.
Depends on how long you think the leash is on any given prospect.....and each prospect is different.....
If you think after Kopitar retires, QB fills his spot, then you have QB, Danault, Turcotte down the middle....that's not a bad mix...but how far are you projecting.....you make it seem like Blake is only projecting a month at at time...(hyperbole all mine) but you want him projecting 6 years down the road (once again, hyperbole all mine) reality is, it has to be both....
If the Kings plan was to make the playoffs last season and contend this season it would have made sense to move on from a buried asset to try and address other areas that may prevent the team from contending. There is no way when you took a kid #5 OA that the plan was for him to not break into the NHL until Kopitar left after 2024 (and that assumes Kopi is even leaving, he continues to play at a high level and IMO its likely he signs another contract with the Kings). Especially when at the time of the ridiculous pull from college the quotes from the player and team were "this will help get him to the NHL quicker" The Kings called an audible a year later and brought in Danault (I think largely due to Turcotte's struggles and Vilardi not being able to play C) which is fine, they made the move to contend quicker than keep adding, I disagree but I understand it. But if you are going to bury an asset for 3-4 more years with no realistic shot for him to be in the lineup, why not just move him?