In case you may have forgotten, Jerry Stackhouse is still an active member of the NBA. He’s spent this season cloaked in obscurity on the Atlanta Hawks’ bench. Stack isn’t an integral member of the Hawks. Hell, he’s hardly gotten playing time this year. But he’s still a member of the Hawks, no less. You’d think he’d keep that in mind when he made playoff predictions on his website Thursday. Let’s just say Stackhouse was a little too honest:
I am clearly planning for Atlanta to be in the Finals — if I put on my analyst hat, however, if we are looking at the personnel and everything that’s going on during these playoffs, I have to take Miami to win it all. Miami is the favorite to come out of the East, and I’m not counting out the Lakers in the West the way Ramon Sessions and Kobe Bryant are playing.
I don’t know about you, but that’s not the way I would be planning for my team to be in the finals. The honesty is nice, but where’s the loyalty? If you were to ask JaVale McGee… actually never mind — bad example. If you were to ask Dirk Nowitzki, whose Mavs look to have no chance coming back in their series against the Thunder, at this point who he thinks would make the finals, he’d probably say something along the lines of, “We hope it’s us. But we understand we have our work cut out for us, and we’re going to keep fighting and trying to play on the level that defending champs should play on.” It’s a politically correct, dull answer. But it’s the right answer. That’s what you’d expect from most guys. Not, “The Heat are the best team on paper. Of course I think they’re going to go all the way.”
I’m not trying to attack Stackhouse. Just a questionable move on his part. But props to him on what looks to be a promising career as an analyst.
H/T Pro Basketball Talk via The Basketball Jones, I am a GM
Photo credit: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE
