Parrish ragging on roy

[MCIGuy]

Does he have a crystal ball that would tell him Roy would have gone ninth? If he had gone earlier (or a few spots later) then there goes that theory. To me it appears the original fan writing in with the question simply cared about his beloved Bulls getting the best possible draft pick available and Hibbert's decision, in his mind, tok away that opportunity. Parish, on the other hand, siezed the moment to rant about the foolishness of tunring down (or delaying) NBA millions because it was a move he could not grasp. Therefore Hibbert should be punished by his stock falling the next year because that would teach him and others who may consider such a move themselves a valuable lesson, right?

[MacHoya]

To suggest that someone should make a decision to go or stay based on the supposition that you might go 9th to a "good" organization versus 8th or 10th to a "bad" organization is just silly. With the exception of the first two slots, the draft was still a crap shoot on the 18th when Roy would have had to make his final decision. If you accept the argument that it is always better to be drafted 9th (better team) rather than 1st to 3rd (worst teams), then why not just tank your performance - again a silly thought.

[Gold Hoya]

One other key point: it probably didn't occurred to Roy that he'd be a lottery pick after his junior year until he had a few great weeks in the postseason. How many times during the season did we hear Roy say he intended to stay four years while Jeff said he intended to graduate?

This was Roy's plan all along and he didn't hear enough to convince himself to alter the plan. And he'll have a better professional career down the line as a result.

[AvantGuardHoya]

And another: to say that every team that picks high in the draft is a "bad organization" is simply not necessarily true. Sometimes decent organizations find themselves in circumstances which result in a terrible season or two and they end up getting high lottery picks and thereby manage to right their ship. For example, the Bulls, the team touted as a "good organization" in this discussion were bottom feeders for a half dozen years following their reign as the latest greatest. It took 'em a while, but now they seem to have it together. And through their fleecing of the Knicks they had another lottery pick this year. Obviously shrewd wheeling and dealing can also put a team in position to pluck an ace.

[TBird41]

avantguardhoya said:

And another: to say that every team that picks high in the draft is a "bad organization" is simply not necessarily true. Sometimes decent organizations find themselves in circumstances which result in a terrible season or two and they end up getting high lottery picks and thereby manage to right their ship. For example, the Bulls, the team touted as a "good organization" in this discussion were bottom feeders for a half dozen years following their reign as the latest greatest. It took 'em a while, but now they seem to have it together. And through their fleecing of the Knicks they had another lottery pick this year. Obviously shrewd wheeling and dealing can also put a team in position to pluck an ace.

I think Tim Duncan can tell you that even the top pick doesn't always go to a bad organization

[lichoya68]

OKK THATS BULL ROY WORKS VERY VERY HARD AND WILL IMPROVE AGAIN THIS YEAR AND YOU KNOW WHAT WINNING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIOINSHIP WILL HELP HIS STOCKAND HIS TEAM PICK YUP THATS IT SHOW EM ROY GO HOYAS WIN WIN WIN ITS ALMOST FEBRUARY WELL OCT NOV JAN WHATEVER

[DudeSlade]

goldhoya said:

One other key point: it probably didn't occurred to Roy that he'd be a lottery pick after his junior year until he had a few great weeks in the postseason. How many times during the season did we hear Roy say he intended to stay four years while Jeff said he intended to graduate?

This was Roy's plan all along and he didn't hear enough to convince himself to alter the plan. And he'll have a better professional career down the line as a result.

This is an excellent point. As early as their freshmen year, my sister had heard from Roy directly that he wanted to stay all four years and from Jeff that he wanted to go to the NBA after his Junior year. This was why I wasn't worried last year about Jeff or about Roy this year. I know plans change, but as gold hoya said, they hadn't thought about it earlier and when you have plans for a while and then someone throws a wrench in them by saying why don't you go earlier, you're more likely to question the prudence of it and stick with your original plan, knowing you'll end up in the NBA anyway.

[AustinHoya03]

williambraskyiii said:

Is there a chance that Roy is an unstoppable beast this season? I mean seriously - given his ridiculous improvements over the first two offseasons, could Roy really be a "once he gets the ball within 8 feet" automatic type? if he adds the 15-18 footer geezus - i fear for the hasheem thabeets of the world.

Yeah, I think so. Any 7'+ player with decent skills and three years of significant NCAA experience SHOULD be a beast their senior year given the lack of serious competition (big men don't stay four years at the NCAA level anymore). Look at Herbert Hill for PC last year, for example.

Roy still needed to work on a few things this summer (keeping the ball up, for example), but last year we started to see moves in the paint that, if perfected, will make Roy unstoppable. If the big fella puts in the work this summer -- and it sounds as if he is -- I think we will see the best BE big man since Emeka Okafor in 07-08. There's been a lot of worry on this board about who will replace Jeff and star in the Princeton offense, but Roy is going to be the man on next year's team, IMO.

[Hoya50]

this is a typical parrish article - strong on opinion, light on substance.

besides the money factor, the nba lifestyle completely contrasts with the college lifestyle. 82 games, celebrity, travel, etc. maybe roy just isn't ready to live that lifestyle yet. he's a kid - no one should begrudge him for wanting to enjoy this time in his life on his terms. better that than going into the draft, not being mentally prepared to handle the nba lifestyle and bombing because of it (sweetney).

[RDF]

I saw Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports/Scout had Roy at #4 in his early '08 projection for the Draft--and that was behind Michael Beasley who I think will drop like a rock once teams interview him--he's just too unstable to select that high--and his game is too inconsistent--but then again--it's the NBA and Derrick Coleman went #1 and he never gave an entire season's worth of effort, so who knows? But Roy at #4 is a far cry from what Parrish is saying and Goodman actually applauded Roy for returning to school.

[ExcitableBoy]

I don't understand how sports writers can possibly take an angle like Parrish. Roy coming back is unquestionably great for the Hoyas and the college game as a whole. People who fanatically follow college basketball forget that it's virtually impossible for a very casual fan to follow a bevy of new players each and every year--with each year's hype seeming to exceed the last.

College basketball is successful in spite of this fact, and now that Roy (who is apparently is the only lotto-lock to have withdrawn his name from the draft) has returned, why would an objective source try to claim that he has made a bad decision? Your story was there for the taking, Parrish! You could have written scores of stories about the various reasons Roy came back, about Roy's dedication to himself/his team/the school/whatever. You could have written the story about how maybe this will mark the beginning of a positive trend of stars staying in school. Instead, you write that because some mock drafts had him going to a great Chicago team at 9 (omitting, of course, the mock drafts that had him at 15 or those that had him going higher than 9 to the storied Wolves/Bobcats of the world), he made a bad decision. Instead, he's got his one story about Roy and nothing left to fall back on (kinda like nba busts who fall victim to Parrish's short-sighted, narrow-minded thinking)

[mapei]

The NBA's millions are going to be there for him after graduation. He can never get his senior year at Georgetown with his friends and teammates back, not to mention a degree from a classy university. Case closed.

[youngjeezy]

About the bad team selecting in the lottery argument: I guess no one remembers that Phoenix was one bad break away from getting Atlanta's pick - I'd say the team that arguably played the future-champions hardest in the playoffs is a legit team, and had their luck not betrayed them, they would have picked fourth. Also, think about Seattle trading up into the top 5 with Boston - there's no guarantee a great team won't be wowed by Roy next year and trade up.

Or the big guy can just go to Seattle...

[PDRHoya99]

rdf said:

What Parrish also fails to address and what I think is a major point in terms of supporting Roy's return to college-he's young for his class--he's going to be 20 when he graduates college. If you told most GM's they could take a starting Center on a Final Four caliber program that has played 4 years of CBB in the Big East and is a potential All American and he'll be 20 years old when he enters the Draft--they'd be drooling. So what's there to lose by returning? It's not as if Roy is some mercenary that was moving from Prep School to Prep School and was a 21 year College FR who needed to enter the Draft after his soph season due to being 23 years old.

That has to make him younger than Oden right?

[TBird41]

hoyagsb99 said:

rdf said:

What Parrish also fails to address and what I think is a major point in terms of supporting Roy's return to college-he's young for his class--he's going to be 20 when he graduates college. If you told most GM's they could take a starting Center on a Final Four caliber program that has played 4 years of CBB in the Big East and is a potential All American and he'll be 20 years old when he enters the Draft--they'd be drooling. So what's there to lose by returning? It's not as if Roy is some mercenary that was moving from Prep School to Prep School and was a 21 year College FR who needed to enter the Draft after his soph season due to being 23 years old.

That has to make him younger than Oden right?

Roy was born 12/11/1986, Oden was born 1/22/1988, so Roy's a little more than a year old.

[MCIGuy]

Here's a link to a column by Trevor Freeman. He may not work for SI, ESPN, Dime or any other well known sports website but he has an opinion just like everyone else.

www.sportscolumn.com/printpage/2007/5/27/19443/1973

Below is the part of the column devoted to Roy. I wanted to shake the man's hands after reading it.


"Let the record show that at the beginning of this season I wrote about Roy Hibbert getting lost in Greg Oden's hype and that Hibbert could become a star in his own right. I wrote that it is odd a guy with his hands, his size, his footwork and his post moves is just getting lost in the shuffle. Saturday night, the most undervalued 7'2" 280 pound center I have seen come through college in a long time will play Oden to a draw (if not win the matchup). Book it. Yes, Greg Oden may eventually become a dominant NBA center, but as of this moment right now...Hibbert is the more polished big man with more polished post moves. Do not sell on the fact that this is the first time in Oden's life there will be somebody looking down on him on every single possession."

Every now and then I look back on my archives and I cannot believe what I just wrote. However there are certain times when I crack a smile. Reading that I said Roy Hibbert might outplay Greg Oden before Roy Hibbert did outplay Greg Oden makes me smile.

For the last year all we heard from every NBA draft pundit who can talk is that Greg Oden is the baddest man on the planet. That he is the next Patrick Ewing. Meanwhile the guy that actually attends Georgetown and seems to have the more polished post game is a slow, clumsy oaf who will have problems playing in the NBA. Outside of Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco's reconciliation I have not heard anything more ludicrous than people openly questioning whether or not Roy Hibbert would be an effective NBA center.

The fact of the matter is Roy Hibbert outplayed Greg Oden in the Final Four and it was not a fluke. The drop step he put on Greg Oden in the second half was not a move that a scrub comes up with. When you take into account that Hibbert has a hook shot with both hands in his arsenal, possesses soft hands on the catch, has improved every season he has been in college and is 7'2" 280 pounds you have to wonder why more people do not talk about how lethal he can be. Toss in the fact that Roy Hibbert is probably the best passing big man from the free throw line to the basket since Arvydas Sabonis and you have a player who should never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever slip out of the top three of any NBA Draft.

Hibbert's decision to come back to school will prove dividends as Georgetown returns three other starters. The attention will be on the experienced Hoyas from the outset and I think them and their Princeton offense will do heavy damage from November through next March. Hopefully then everybody who discounted "Big Roy" will learn one thing. He's not an oaf.........he's just another dominant Georgetown center.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Great article. I like the story on becks too. Great article all around.

[PDRHoya99]

tbird41 said:

hoyagsb99 said:

That has to make him younger than Oden right?

Roy was born 12/11/1986, Oden was born 1/22/1988, so Roy's a little more than a year old.

I was kidding.

Perhaps the "Oden is really 45 years old" joke is officially done?