Room112" post=421928 said:
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time. Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon.
Out of curiosity, how come? Admittedly I was very early in my St. John's fanhood when Omar Cook was on the team. One of my earliest memroies was the nationally televised game against Duke in Feb. 2001. I was always in awe of hits stats though, espeically averaging 8.7 assists per game as a freshman.
I think that we all have our own personal reasons why we like/dislike players, why some become our favorites and some ... not so much. For me it isn't so much about the stats or even the results - it's how they play the game. The guys I love are the ones who leave it all on the floor, who maximize their ability (even if the ceiling isn't so high), who play the game with joy, who lift up the players around them. I think that most of us here have played basketball or still play, and IMO you can tell a lot about who somebody is as a person from the way they play the game.
So I was an early adopter of Donald Emmanuel, for instance. He was absolutely awful before he finally put it together in his senior year. But he gave you 100% effort, he was a good teammate, and you could see that he just *wanted* to help so much that his enthusiasm was counterproductive. It was very rewarding to see him finally climb the mountain and have some success in the end. Amar Alibegovic was much the same, though he never did get his moment in the sun here. I loved Charles Minlend and Anthony Glover - undersized centers who played their hearts out. More recently Sir Dom and Justin - guys who didn't care whether they got points or not, just came to play every game, were great teammates, and tried to do whatever they needed to do to help the team win, zero regard for stats (unsurprisingly I tend to like guys who care about defense).
I love guys who play with a smile. Marcus Hatten was not only a show all by himself who left it all on the floor every game, he exuded joy while he was doing it - you couldn't watch him play and not smile (fwiw Posh is headed in that same direction). Tariq Owens, same thing - you just have to love the joy and energy he brought to every game he played.
And then you get guys who have games you can respect, but attitudes you can't. Omar and Zendon both played the game angry all the time. I got no joy from watching either of them play (in Zendon's case it didn't help that once he got his hands on the ball it never went to a teammate after that). Reggie and his low blows and dirty play was a disgrace to St John's. He should have gone to Georgetown, he'd fit right in there.
Sometimes a guy changes my mind, though. DeAngelo Harrison was firmly in the Omar Cook category for the first part of his career. While I am by no means a Lavin fan, I give him all the credit in the world for turning DeAngelo around - and by the end he was far closer to the Anthony Glover end of the LMF scale than the Omar end.
Sorry for the long answer - wonder what others have to say about why they like/dislike certain players or kinds of players.