Foresthill
EOG Addicted
From part of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Dave Matter's Q @ A interview with former Missouri player Derrick Chievous:
Q: Your game was unique. You only had the 3-point shot your final two years at Missouri but you scored from all over the floor. How would your skills in college translate to the modern game?
A: My game will always translate because I always play hard. And I always worked at my craft. The players today, I work with handicapped adults, and a lot of players today are handicapped. They can only go one way. They try to out-jump you. They don’t try to box out. I would basically stay in the film room and watched all their weaknesses and use them against them. It probably would have been easier (to play today). I watch the games today and it does nothing for me. You’ve got a lot of guys who are athletic with no skills. Most of these guys go to the NBA on potential. The question you have to ask yourself is you go to the NBA and you’re a first-round prospect, why would you go to the G League? That doesn’t make sense to me. Didn’t we draft you to play? They’re letting you know they drafted you on potential. A lot of these guys aren’t ready. They’re not ready because they don’t know the game. It’s all potential. No one studies the game any more. I can come and watch a game and I can tell you who’s ready to play and who’s not ready to play within the first five minutes.
Q: How much college basketball do you watch today?
A: None. I watch a lot of high school games because my son plays. I watch from the beginning. I tell people you have to come to Special Olympics events and watch one of my guys play and watch him do what he does and you’d swear he was getting paid $100,000. That’s the type of passion you’d want a quote-unquote regular player to have, to have the passion I see in these disabled athletes. It’s amazing. I tell them, ‘Man, dude, how much money are you getting paid to do this?’
The moxie and the fire they have, you don’t see it any more (in the college game). If you see it, name a team that does it. I don’t see it. If you even watch Duke, Duke doesn’t play like a Duke team any more. Remember when they used to slap the floor? Everything now is thrown up to the rim. It’s not really a fun game to watch. That’s just my opinion.
Q: Your game was unique. You only had the 3-point shot your final two years at Missouri but you scored from all over the floor. How would your skills in college translate to the modern game?
A: My game will always translate because I always play hard. And I always worked at my craft. The players today, I work with handicapped adults, and a lot of players today are handicapped. They can only go one way. They try to out-jump you. They don’t try to box out. I would basically stay in the film room and watched all their weaknesses and use them against them. It probably would have been easier (to play today). I watch the games today and it does nothing for me. You’ve got a lot of guys who are athletic with no skills. Most of these guys go to the NBA on potential. The question you have to ask yourself is you go to the NBA and you’re a first-round prospect, why would you go to the G League? That doesn’t make sense to me. Didn’t we draft you to play? They’re letting you know they drafted you on potential. A lot of these guys aren’t ready. They’re not ready because they don’t know the game. It’s all potential. No one studies the game any more. I can come and watch a game and I can tell you who’s ready to play and who’s not ready to play within the first five minutes.
Q: How much college basketball do you watch today?
A: None. I watch a lot of high school games because my son plays. I watch from the beginning. I tell people you have to come to Special Olympics events and watch one of my guys play and watch him do what he does and you’d swear he was getting paid $100,000. That’s the type of passion you’d want a quote-unquote regular player to have, to have the passion I see in these disabled athletes. It’s amazing. I tell them, ‘Man, dude, how much money are you getting paid to do this?’
The moxie and the fire they have, you don’t see it any more (in the college game). If you see it, name a team that does it. I don’t see it. If you even watch Duke, Duke doesn’t play like a Duke team any more. Remember when they used to slap the floor? Everything now is thrown up to the rim. It’s not really a fun game to watch. That’s just my opinion.
