Henry's Interview with Tyrus

T Maple — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:29:59 -0000

From here. It's very brief: bit about Tyrus' charity event today, how good he is w/ the kids, some props to his recent performance on the team, etc. Someone should send it to Sam Smith. Particularly liked the response to this Q:

One of the issues you have faced so far in your career has been uncertainty about minutes. Do you have a sense from the coaching staff of what you have to do get more reliable playing time? Is there something they want you to do that you're not doing?
[Shakes head, palms to the sky, which I take to mean he wishes he knew what the coaches wanted.]

On Booing Your Home Team

T Maple — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:25:43 -0000

Didn't see the Raptors game (good thing too, it looks like) but I wanted to raise a point about booing your home team. What's the purpose of this? I've never understood it frankly. During the early to mid 80s they used to boo Dave Corzine mercilessly, and even as a kid I felt bad for him. He tried, he played hard, he just wasn't very talented (really, his biggest sin was he wasn't Artis Gilmore--for which the fans never forgave him until Michael gave them something to cheer about). I can understand booing a team if they're not trying: if they're not getting back on defense, not hustling or working hard. But if they're taking shots and not making them? Boos may motivate a team to fix those other things, but I can't imagine boos improving a shooter's accuracy--in fact there are probably few basketball skills more hampered by that.

Again, I get that the team has disappointed so far, it deserves being called out a little, and fans need to vent frustration. Maybe they really want to boo Skiles for his rotations, or Pax for not finding a trade that will make it all better. But was anyone at the UC last night actually thinking, "If I boo, maybe Kirk [or Luol, Ben, whoever] will actually play better!" Surely that would only make players tighten up more and shoot worse? Or maybe at that point a fan is just too angry to care? Just wondering.

SB Nation User Blog: T Maple

Henry's Interview with Tyrus

On Booing Your Home Team