NBA Finals brings Back Marquee College Players- Sort of
In 2006, JJ Reddick and Adam Morrison were the two leading scorers in the nation. Now, the two players will each have opportunity to get a ring but in much smaller roles. Reddick's playing has diminished as Courtney Lee has returned from a broken nose. Michael Pietrus has also essentialy relegated Reddick to the bench with his superb bench play; he alone outscored Cleveland's bench in the Eastern Conference finals.
At least Reddick has played in 12 games and has started in 8 of those games. Morrison, a number 3 pick, is not even on the LA Lakers active roster. Shannon Brown, what was thought to be a throw in in the Radmonovic for Morrison deal with the Bobcats has been a pleasant surprise to the LA Lakers and has really helped their depth in the point guard position. Brown's dunk over the Chris "Birdman" Anderson catapulted a comeback
Morrison's biggest mark on the team has been in practive but not in a positive way. Morrison fought with fellow teammated Sasha Vujajic in practice as described in the story below.
Vujacic and Morrison were guarding each other in the Lakers’ 4-on-4 halfcourt practice, and Morrison loudly and angrily told Vujacic that he was sick of Vujacic’s grabs and elbows. Vujacic argued that Morrison was the one who initiated the problem by wrongly using his knee. The two argued for several minutes despite teammates and coaches trying to intervene, and when play resumed the two continued to go at each other with Morrison grabbing Vujacic’s jersey and the arguments sparking anew several times later.
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Sitting on the baseline, Kobe Bryant was smiling. “I wasn’t even going to move,” he said later. “A lot of meowing going on out there. The claws coming out.”
Morrison had a reputation for being soft even when he came into the NBA. He famously started to cry when his team was eliminated in 2006 NCAA tournament. Here is how NBA Live chose to market him when Morrison was a rookie.
'And when I get to the NBA, more people will cry'
It will be interesting to see which former college super star can luck out and piggy-back on his team success and get that NBA ring.
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