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Re: Jason Collins (NBA Center) announces that he is gay, altering the landscape of sp
The guy stuck around because he was 7 ft. 250 pounds. There is a reason why no team kept him around. Look at his career numbers. They suck across the board. Now you can make a case that he is sooo much better than a bunch of guys not in the NBA, which is rediculous. Compare him and his performance to almost any other NBA center who played significant minutes every game. He is a ****ty player.
There are thousands of college and NBA ball players over the past 12 years who would probably have given anything to have such "garbage" themselves.
Twelve years in a league where there's a max of 450 is not a career one could reasonably call "garbage".
Let's take just the tournament teams, and unlike the NBA lets assume they have the least amount of people on the bench possible with 12. That's 768 basketball players every year that would LOVE to have even probably a fourth of that "garbage" career.
Is he LeBron James? Of course not. That's like saying someone making $250k a year doing something they enjoy has a "garbage" career compared to a CEO making multi-millions. In the scope of reality, his career isn't garbage.
Hell, look at the team he's on. You want to know who on the Wizards has a better chance of having what you'd call a "garbage career". Jan Vessely. A guy who will probably be lucky if he gets more than 4 years in the NBA. He may have better stats...but you go team by team of GMs and ask which player they'd want on their team all contract things being equal and I'd bet money Collins gets the nod every time (unless that GM was ernie grumsfeld...sigh).
Or looking around the NBA...how about Luke Jackson. In his six combined seasons he didn't play in a seasons worth of games. Collins has six SEASONS where he played in more games than Jackson did his entire career. Luke's minutes played per game average was less than 10, Collins is over 20. Their PPG were similar, but Collins brought you half a block per game and about 3 rebounds per game more.
Yes...I do think referencing the guys stats can be reasonable and realistic in the discussion. When part of the conversation after he came out was concerning his chances of getting hired next year they NEED to be brought up. And it's entirely reasonable, when talking about historical and long lasting impact, that the level of player he was could come into play. But one must be at least honest and realistic about it.
He was no superstar, but his career is not one that should be considered "garbage" and labeling it as such lends immedietely questioning to the motives of those making such a statement.
The guy stuck around because he was 7 ft. 250 pounds. There is a reason why no team kept him around. Look at his career numbers. They suck across the board. Now you can make a case that he is sooo much better than a bunch of guys not in the NBA, which is rediculous. Compare him and his performance to almost any other NBA center who played significant minutes every game. He is a ****ty player.