This morning on my once a week bus ride in to work I was listening to one of the AM news stations here in LA. During the sports segment of the program, they played an audio clip from my arch nemesis, who was commenting on facing Ray Allen for the first time since Allen's (rightly) critical remarks about the Arrogant One's attitude and leadership skills.
Needless to say, the Arrogant One proceeded, much to my delight, to put his foot in his mouth once again. ""When you say something like that, it's not only directed toward me, but it's directed toward our team as well, saying that we don't have a good enough team to step up to the plate (and) we don't have enough good players around here to give me the support I need."
Hmmm...
So the Arrogant One is now trying to deflect Allen's comments—directed squarely at no one but himself—onto his teammates...
So he is thin-skinned to the point where any criticism becomes a personal insult on the same magnitude of saying something untoward about one's mother. But at the same time is so spineless as to also try to shift said criticism onto the undeserving shoulders of his own teammates—teammates on a team that he has built. This is a team of nary a single other star—there are a couple of former All-Stars, but no one who is going to make that squad out here in the modern Western Conference. No, this is the team the Arrogant One built: one superstar and 10 "complimentary" players. This is exactly how he has wanted it. He is the self-appointed leader of this squad, but you cannot be narcissistic, paranoid, and spineless and be an effective leader.
The next 3 seasons cannot happen quickly enough for me. Because I think after 3 seasons without even a sniff of a title the Arrogant One will demand a trade from the team he made and I can have my Lakers back.
Needless to say, the Arrogant One proceeded, much to my delight, to put his foot in his mouth once again. ""When you say something like that, it's not only directed toward me, but it's directed toward our team as well, saying that we don't have a good enough team to step up to the plate (and) we don't have enough good players around here to give me the support I need."
Hmmm...
So the Arrogant One is now trying to deflect Allen's comments—directed squarely at no one but himself—onto his teammates...
So he is thin-skinned to the point where any criticism becomes a personal insult on the same magnitude of saying something untoward about one's mother. But at the same time is so spineless as to also try to shift said criticism onto the undeserving shoulders of his own teammates—teammates on a team that he has built. This is a team of nary a single other star—there are a couple of former All-Stars, but no one who is going to make that squad out here in the modern Western Conference. No, this is the team the Arrogant One built: one superstar and 10 "complimentary" players. This is exactly how he has wanted it. He is the self-appointed leader of this squad, but you cannot be narcissistic, paranoid, and spineless and be an effective leader.
The next 3 seasons cannot happen quickly enough for me. Because I think after 3 seasons without even a sniff of a title the Arrogant One will demand a trade from the team he made and I can have my Lakers back.
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