[小胖] BYE-BYE BARON
原文出自nola.com
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1109314650261010.xml
BYE-BYE BARON
One of the NBA's top point guards gets his wish to be traded
after a tenure in New Orleans marked by distractions and injuries
Friday, February 25, 2005
By John Reid
Staff writer
Hornets forward P.J. Brown wasn't surprised to hear that
point guard Baron Davis had been traded to the Golden
State Warriors just before the NBA's Thursday trade
deadline.
He almost expected something would happen after Davis
told ESPN.com he felt unwanted by the Hornets.
"That might have been the final nail in the coffin,"
Brown said. "I think everybody can voice their opinion,
but not through the media like he did. There's an open
channel to the owner, general manager and coach.
"I think Baron is young and is still in the growing
process. Maybe this move will help him speed up the
process. But I think he's going to grow from this."
After his final practice with the team Thursday, Davis
said he didn't regret any decision he's made in his 5-1/2
seasons with the team, but thought it was probably time
to part ways.
In August, Davis said through his agent that he wanted
to be traded because he didn't think the Hornets had made
enough offseason moves to improve the team.
"I don't regret what I said, but maybe I should have went
directly to Mr. (George) Shinn or management," said Davis,
who has missed 34 games this season because of injuries.
"But, at the time, I was upset, and I spoke out because,
at that point, that's what I felt.
"I felt we weren't going in the direction that I could be
the best player I wanted to be. But you can never go back
in time. So what I said, I meant it."
Davis also spoke out during training camp, voicing his
displeasure at a new team policy that banned personal
trainers at the practice facility. He protested the policy
by one day having his trainer stretch him on the sidewalk
outside the Alario Center.
In the latest source of friction between him and the team,
he told ESPN.com this week that he felt unwanted by the
Hornets after Coach Byron Scott expressed frustration over
Davis' slow recovery from a bruised Achilles tendon.
Davis caused several other distractions last season, such
as when he showed up late for a breakfast meeting on a game
day against the Toronto Raptors, and former coach Tim Floyd
refused to start him.
Davis and Hornets forward Jamal Mashburn also were frequently
at odds, rarely speaking to each other during the team's
inaugural season in New Orleans in 2002-03.
"I'm just ready to move on. I put a lot of stuff that I was
feeling behind me, and I'm ready to just go on with basketball,
" Davis said. "Some things happened off the court, the Mashburn
thing, and all of that just really affected the team and the
relationship with the coaching staff (under Floyd). It kind
of brought us down. This year, it was just an injury-plagued
year for me."
But some of the Hornets said it's going to be a major
adjustment to no longer have Davis, a two-time All-Star.
"We go way back," forward Lee Nailon said. "I wished he would
have stayed here. He's a great player, and he made players
around him better. I think Golden State is going to be a lot
better and tougher, and hopefully the guys we got from them
will help us out."
Guard J.R. Smith said Davis made an impact on him last summer
when he showed up at the news conference called to announce
Smith's signing.
"He was a funny dude to be around with," Smith said. "Most
of the top-rated players in the league are real arrogant.
You expect the guy like him to be a handful, but he wasn't.
He was great to me."
. . . . . . .
John Reid can be reached at jreid@timespicayune.com
or at (504) 826-3405.
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