Why is it so wrong for pro athletes to speak their mind?

[wstcoastgotti]

. then Baron Davis made him eat his words...
I think it was against the Pistons... when they were down 3-1

 

[CP1708]

I don't mind when people speak their mind as long as they back it up and don't back down. That's the key.

How many times you see someone say something, get blasted by the media or whoever, then follow up with, "it was taken outta context". I hate that. You say something, say it, don't do a 360 cuz nobody like what you said.

But there is a fine line they walk. I recently got tired of listening to Gilbert say things about other players in his blog. My point then was he was sittinon his a@#. If he playin 80 games a season and wants to talk about other players, fine, but not when you sittin out doin nothing. So in a sense, I'mpicking and choosing what I don't mind hearing, and what bothers me. Comes with the turf I guess.

Anyone remember when Winslow was getting railed on hard core for his "I'ma soldier" rant? Here in Oregon, the local guys on the radio were goingbalistic. They were calling him a punk, they were saying he disrepects the true soldiers in the world, football is not a war, shut your mouth Winslow and onand on and on. They had a whole 4 hour show bashing the kid. I'm a cane guy so I'm sittin there knowing what he said was not a smart idea, but heyhe's young, he was in the heat of the moment. Finally I got tired of the locals and decided to call. It was real simple what I said and it pretty muchended the show. I told them they were upset and bashing this kid for saying soldier and it's not right and disrespectful and all that, but hey guys,"what do you call the Oregon/Oregon St game?" "That's right, the civil war." They hung up on me in less then a second.

Come back from a commercial and went onto another topic. They got on theirsoapbox, talked some %%! and then when they got it right back on them, they ran and hid. What Winslow said may not have been the brightest thing to say, buthe was upset about a loss and all across the country people railed him for it. If I'm an athlete, why subject myself to that?

 

[answer iv dmx]

I don't have anything against T-Mac saying that cause he speaks the truth.

On the other hand, Noah is just talking out his his left cheek in saying what he did. He damn well knows the Bulls are not a better team that the Pistons. They better hope they don't make a run for the playoffs and end up the seven seed. Detroit will punish this years Bulls team in four.

 

[koolbarbone]

Both of those statements can make those players come off as being cocky or arrogant, but I see nothing wrong with them.
IMO, if you DON'T feel that way then why even play the game....and I don't buy that argument about giving the opponents extra motivation because that talk doesn't really make that much of a difference.

If winning isn't enough motivation then the game isn't for you..


Tell that to Michael Jordan.

I'm a firm believer that athletes will use anything to push them to the next level. Winning is enough but sometimes extra motivation boasts them upanother octave.

With that said, I appreciate athletes speaking their mind, as long as they aren't giving bulletin board material.

 

[icrashdemboardz]

Im fine with anyone stating their mind other than Gilbert Arenas

 

[gko2408]

Because blowhards want professional athletes to be vanilla and sanitized.

 

[grittyman20]

Tell that to Michael Jordan.
That's one player who dominated his sport for so long he had to look for things such as interview comments to motivate him...not too mentionthat's only one person out of thousands of athletes

Noah is just talking out his his left cheek in saying what he did. He damn well knows the Bulls are not a better team that the Pistons.
The Bulls are absolutely not a better team than Detroit, but what's wrong with Noah having that confidence in his crew and actually believingin the abilities of his team.

Like DoubleJ's said, if you don't believe in your team why even get off the bus to play the game? I'm sure many athletes feel that way, I don'tsee anything wrong with him saying it

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Originally Posted by CP1708

I don't mind when people speak their mind as long as they back it up and don't back down. That's the key.

How many times you see someone say something, get blasted by the media or whoever, then follow up with, "it was taken outta context". I hate that. You say something, say it, don't do a 360 cuz nobody like what you said.

But there is a fine line they walk. I recently got tired of listening to Gilbert say things about other players in his blog. My point then was he was sittin on his a@#. If he playin 80 games a season and wants to talk about other players, fine, but not when you sittin out doin nothing. So in a sense, I'm picking and choosing what I don't mind hearing, and what bothers me. Comes with the turf I guess.

Anyone remember when Winslow was getting railed on hard core for his "I'ma soldier" rant? Here in Oregon, the local guys on the radio were going balistic. They were calling him a punk, they were saying he disrepects the true soldiers in the world, football is not a war, shut your mouth Winslow and on and on and on. They had a whole 4 hour show bashing the kid. I'm a cane guy so I'm sittin there knowing what he said was not a smart idea, but hey he's young, he was in the heat of the moment. Finally I got tired of the locals and decided to call. It was real simple what I said and it pretty much ended the show. I told them they were upset and bashing this kid for saying soldier and it's not right and disrespectful and all that, but hey guys, "what do you call the Oregon/Oregon St game?" "That's right, the civil war." They hung up on me in less then a second.

Come back from a commercial and went onto another topic. They got on their soapbox, talked some %%! and then when they got it right back on them, they ran and hid. What Winslow said may not have been the brightest thing to say, but he was upset about a loss and all across the country people railed him for it. If I'm an athlete, why subject myself to that?

I don't particularly like K2....

And I used to poke fun at him for his solider rant....

But he was dead on in what he was saying...

_'s was out there trying to kill that dude....

 

[answer iv dmx]

The Bulls are absolutely not a better team than Detroit, but what's wrong with Noah having that confidence in his crew and actually believing in the abilities of his team.

Like DoubleJ's said, if you don't believe in your team why even get off the bus to play the game? I'm sure many athletes feel that way, I don't see anything wrong with him saying it
I think there is a difference between knowing that you can go out on any given night and straight up saying a group of 12 players under the age of30 (w/ almost the entire roster w/ less than 5 years pro) is better than a veteran savy team that has consistently been one of the top teams for like 5 yearsnow.

Like someone said, you can speak your mind but it can't be ridiculous.