It wasn't received well by his players, as Antawn Jamison kicked the ad banner near the Wizards bench and grabbed a seat at the end of the bench. Asked about the benching after the game, Jamison said, "I have no comment on that."
Michael Lee's account of Jamison's reaction to the mass benching of the starting unit. Pretty childish and unacceptable behavior from the supposed clubhouse leader of the team.
8 months ago
Mike Prada
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Him not commenting really wasn't that big of a deal to me
Seemed like he just wanted to move past what happened in the 3rd quarter.
Of course, him not really being in the huddle a couple times was “iffy”
The funny part from Lee’s Wizards Insider is about Jamison and Haywood fighting over rebounds … if I only would have seen the play in question. Craig from the Washington Examiner brought it up to Jamison. I must have missed it while briefly looking down at my computer.
Did anyone else see what happened?
Representing DC with Wizards & Stuff - Truth About It.net and Bullets Forever.
I did
I’m pretty sure it was after a free throw. It looked like Jamison could have grabbed the ball first, and then Haywood kinda took it away from him, but it’s probably something that happens a few times in any game. After it happened, though, Jamison slowly made his way up the court — it took at least five extra seconds for him to catch up with everyone.
I guess he wasn’t very happy about it, but whatever, the most important thing is to get the rebound.
I have always expected better of Jamison than this....
Maybe he really wants to get traded to Cleveland!
In any case, the Wizzies won a game that they absolutely, positively had to win. Flip took a hard line when he had to. And Gilbert is starting to play like a man with a $111 million contract.
To right the ship, they need to win the next 3 at a minimum, though.
Maybe he's just bitter about it right now and will be fine later
Hopefully he comments on it at some point, but that doesn’t seem like Jamison at all, does it?
By the way, McGuire was awesome last night. Great effort.
Antawn is a team guy,
he’s willing to make sacrifices…as long as those sacrifices don’t include a role or playing time change. But if you wanted him to give up chocolate for a month, he’d totally be able to sacrifice.
Not much of a team guy then.
Yeah did you see when the team was subbed out, the other 4 starters high fived the players coming in and Antawn when off to the side and straight to the bench like little girl.
well, as noted in mike lee's insider wrap-up
jamison’s reaction is what Flip WANTED to see. it should piss them off. it looks petty, sure, but at least he cares. whether he cares about his minutes/stats is a different question. but i think it will only serve as a reminder to him that if he wants to stay on the court, he has to produce.
i also think jamison is pretty beat up right now, and needs to play less minutes.
"how ironic - you came here with a mouse in a bottle, now YOU are the mouse in the bottle" - B.M. Smith
by little stevie colter on Dec 23, 2009 1:08 PM EST up reply actions
my bad - should have read all comments first
other made this point later on, and better.
"how ironic - you came here with a mouse in a bottle, now YOU are the mouse in the bottle" - B.M. Smith
by little stevie colter on Dec 23, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions
Why isn't this commonplace?
These starters have come out flat hundreds of times over the last few years. Often to start a game, to start the 3rd quarter, back-to-back, etc. Why is it so shocking and rare that the coach would have a hungry young 2nd unit ready to ignite the team in such cases? It seems like it should be commonplace.
Let's be clear
The second unit played fine, but ignited nothing. They were -3. It was the benching that got things going. You can’t use that play every game.
cut the guy some slack
Antawn has been a great leader for this team. He’s had some really high hopes for this team and so far they aren’t panning out. I like seeing him get a bit frustrated because to me it shows he at least cares.
Yeah he cares....
About getting his 20 + attempts up. The reason he was mad was he only took what 6 shots? Probably first time in his career he had 3 assists. Flips asking them to move the ball around and not take any quick shots, well Twan is the biggest culprit at that and there usually threes or long 2’s. I think Flip is in an indirect way calling him out, he’s one of the main culprits and Flip didn’t want to bench just him but benched all 5 to spare his feelings.
Maybe
Antawn was just upset at how the starters were playing and upset that it had to come to what it did. Theres nothing wrong with that. I think that should be considered before he gets written of as a bad leader or bad teamate for doing this.
You have to consider it in more ways than just your snap reaction.
I didn't write him off as anything, I'm saying it was a childish act
And it was. As to the “he was upset” angle: everyone was upset and yet nobody else kicked over a banner and sulked at the end of the bench while not participating in timeout huddles.
No eulogies on his “leadership” have been written here. That’s for you all to do if you wish (or if you don’t).
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
just an observation
from being at the game. Jamison did seem to loaf after he got back into the game. When the rest of the starters were rotated back in, they were doing the things that they hadn’t been doing all season, namely – getting back on defense, closing down passing lanes, ect. It was noticeable to the crowd that Jamison jogged back on several possessions.
I don’t want to draw any conclusions from that – but it was obvious.
Its always Roger Mason (Jr.) time!
I was a little more surprised during the 4th quarter
…..when Jamison seemed like he was still going through the motions when the rest of the team seemed to be playing with a lot of energy and heart. I can understand him being mad about the situation when he was benched, any competitor would be upset about that or the way his team was playing. But I specifically watched him during the fourth quarter because he was the angriest coming off the floor when benched and I expected him to be the one with the most fight out there. However, it seemed as though he was pouting for a lot of it.
But I do agree that we shouldn’t judge him yet on this situation, he gives it all every night. Maybe last night was just a fluke
by SkinsWizStangs on Dec 23, 2009 10:35 AM EST reply actions
yeah, i'd also cut him some slack
he’s playing through some tough injuries and is probably has a thin tolerance for frustration right now. his meter is already running high.
but if flip is trying to rein in the bad shots. good. if tawn is frustrated about that. too bad.
i think he had a history of beef in that regard back in the day at golden state. coaches didn’t like him launching the threes. he did it anyway. same old thing.
by DarrellWalkerFan on Dec 23, 2009 10:39 AM EST reply actions
Interesting that Jamison was the one who reacted this way
when, based on the past few games, you’d expect Butler or Arenas to get emotional.
I'd argue that Butler did get emotional
in the right way. After getting that key layup he went crazy with the full body fist pump and hop step. It was the most emotion I have seen all year. Maybe a good sign?
Also, I don’t know what happened, but after the benching, Caron stopped taking contested jumpers and started to go back to his 2008-09 fallaway and Gil started going to the basket everytime. It was nice to see.
Its always Roger Mason (Jr.) time!
We start getting nights like that more often than not
and we won’t be talking about trading members of the big three anymore. It’s going to be interesting to see them when Mike Miller comes back and spaces the floor out even more.
two insights that came to me
on the play where foye bounced the ball off haywood’s chest, which was the last straw before the mass benching, i believe AJ had his man sealed but foye wouldn’t throw him the ball. that might have contributed to AJ’s anger about the benching.
the other thing about the mass benching working well is that the second unit was playing their old nemesis, eddie jordan, which probably had those guys fired up – to show EJ up. good timing on that ploy by flip.
by DarrellWalkerFan on Dec 23, 2009 12:33 PM EST reply actions
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