I'm gonna guess he was sipping on lean (promethazine with codeine). Crazy how he blew his chances of potentially getting a $40 million payday with all the ridiculous contracts going around. He's essentially banned since no one's gonna want a 31 year old who was kicked out of the league for doing drugs multiple times.
I never meant to compare their personalities, just their games. They're slightly undersized SGs without top shelf athleticism that could struggle to get their shots off.
yeah, but what really held oj back, imo, was between his ears. with his skill set, he should have been better, even given the size/athleticism issues. hield has no issues between his ears.
I'm not saying he does, but to be fair I don't remember a ton of horrible character issues surfacing with OJ at this stage either. I remember reading he was going to be amazing.
i don't remember any glowing reports on his character like those for buddy. i'm sure there were the mandatory puff pieces--hell, upshaw had those--but it seems to me that folks would stake their reputation on buddy's character. not so with oj. that said, oj was a better ballhandler coming out, and was clearly better at the same age. but he never really improved. hield improved all four years. i like betting on him. i would have had a hard time taking him over dunn, too, but i think he could be really good. can't underestimate heart and work ethic. we hope guys develop it (*cough*russell*cough*), but he has it. anyway, oj being on drugs would explain a lot.
Oh I'm not comparing them now and I'm in the Buddy camp. I like him. I just said that coming into the NBA as a smallish SG without top shelf speed or quickness is a tall order. I said coming in he can be Reddick or he can be Mayo. I think now and always thought he would be Reddick.
Man. Dude would have gotten close to 10 million this offseason the way money is flowing. Addiction is a sad, sad thing. People look at addiction and think it's stupid and people should just stop doing drugs like it's some sort of choice. The fact that it's strong enough for someone to take a chance on losing out on 30 million dollars proves just how crippling it is.
I'll always remember the Kobe story with him where Kobe told him to turn up at 4 and OJ thinks its 4pm not 4am.
