[h3]
The strange case of Adam Morrison[/h3]
I think there are way too many people these days who take satisfaction in others' troubles. I find that a little sick. But I do think there are lessons in why certain people fail, and certainly so in the case of Adam Morrison.
Morrison was waived by the Washington Wizards this week. That followed several years when his presence on the Los Angeles Lakers was due only to a sizeable guarantee.
Obviously the Bobcats made the original mistake of drafting him third overall, when Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay were still available. But to me, the turning point for Morrison happened after his rookie season and after he'd recovered from his knee injury.
It was that half-season playing for Larry Brown, when he seemed so scared to shoot. He was so hyper-conscious of the town's expectations that he played dramatically worse at home than on the road (not that he was playing well on the road). One night Brown put him in a game, and every time the ball hit Morrison's hands, he'd immediately pass it, like it was made of Plutonium.
After that game, Brown posed this question: How could he play Morrison -- a guy whose only real skill was as a scorer -- if he refused to shoot? Sometime around then, Brown asked Morrison how he couldn't have grasped the attention that being the No. 3 overall pick entails. Basically, Morrison wanted to collect that huge salary and never experience the expectations that went with it.
So then he goes to the Lakers in a trade and hardly ever plays. Granted, Phil Jackson had a lot of options at small forward, but wouldn't you think if Morrison was an NBA player, at least one of two Hall of Fame coaches would have figured out how to use him?
And then Morrison shows up in Washington, on an unguaranteed deal with a team needing a makeover, and gets cut before the regular season.
Adam just doesn't have the emotional makeup for this. He didn't compete and he didn't do nearly enough to work on his weaknesses. He's lucky he made a bunch of money before all that was confirmed, but his was one of the odder careers I've covered in the NBA.
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