Nikkos Kazantzakis once said, “Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” Winston Churchill gave it to us like this, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Then George Bernard Shaw put it where the goats can get it when he spit, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Well playas…the Indiana Pacers have changed their minds and their look bruh! On Monday they held their annual Media Day and boyz are excited!! New coach! New point guard! New power forward! New attitude! Oh did I mention that they’ve got a boy in the locker room wearin’ an Olympic Gold medal too?
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! I wasn’t happy about Frank Vogel gettin’ treated like ole Eddie Kane Jr. after the season was over last season. Because I thought Frank had done an excellent job with what he had to work with. Larry Bird had been buyin’ the groceries for years and Frank had to cook with what a boy brought to the crib.
For years the Pacers front office did an excellent job of tryin’ to get away from the Jamal Tinsley, Steven Jackson and Ron Artest era. They spent every wakin’ hour tryin’ to fill the roster with duns that wouldn’t create a PR nightmare in the streets! However, they went overboard and filled the roster with too many nice guys that could hoop but not enough cats with edge enough to fight a boy for his sneakers and jewelry when necessary. You can’t show up to a gang fight with some firecrackers and a banana and expect to walk out alive.
The only Alpha Male in the buildin’ last year was Monta Ellis!! However, Monta is to some degree on the last leg of his career! So there were times when he’d get frustrated and seemed not to care enough to fight for everybody when he’d look at the rest of these duns givin’ up! Prime example of a group of nice guys gettin’ pushed into a corner and gettin’ their sneakers takin’ off of them was when they went up to Toronto all knotted up 2-2 in the playoffs and up 90-77 at the start of the fourth quarter and they wet the freakin’ bed to go down 3-2 and nobody seemed to care. The ENTIRE team crawled up in the bed and wet in it when they had the other team beggin’ for mercy. Nice guys bruh!
So Frank took it on the chin and here we are today! I’m not upset about it anymore because I’m confident that Nate McMillan has the tools and the roster to take these boyz to another level. Why? Because Larry bought groceries that will allow him to cook the gumbo boyz are ready to eat! New point guard!! Jeff Teague is in the buildin’! They finally have a legitimate dun runnin’ the point! George Hill wasn’t a point bruh! He was at best a shootin’ guard that wouldn’t shoot! So now Monta can concentrate on bein’ a shootin’ guard and not helpin’ a dun run the point!
Thaddeus Young is in the buildin’ with an attitude! I don’t know too many boyz that will walk up and take his sneakers without gettin’ punished! Myles Turner is in the buildin’! Did you see that dun play like a grown man as a freakin’ 19 year old last year bruh? Oh, he’s ready! Then PG walks in with an Olympic Gold Medal and more confidence than he’s ever had!! He’s experience on that stage will be huge for this team.
Now on some real talk, he’s still not an Alpha Male but he’s got crazy attitude now. Either you’re and Alpha or you’re not! He can hoop but he’s not a natural leader! So who’s gonna be the Alpha Male that will keep boyz focused on fightin’ when it get’s thick out here in these streets. Will Monta do what he’s naturally been blessed to do or will it be Jeff Teague? We shall see but I’m excited to see how this new vibe, new look and new attitude will play out.
The one thing that I heard from Nate on Monday was “We will commit to a faster pace and be consistent with establishing that tempo.” If that’s what boyz are committed to doin’ then EVERYBODY’S gotta be willin’ to fight for their sneakers and jewlry EVERY night! Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Spit: verb – to say
2) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
3) Put it where the goats can get it: verb phrase – to make it as elementary as possible. To put it at ground level so everyone can understand it.
