No, Lindsey Hunter Was Not Trying to Say He Hates Rasheed Wallace

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

As you can see, Stephen A. Smith talked with Lindsey Hunter yesterday. The whole interview is pretty interesting, but what lit up the local sports talk radio phone boards today was his story (last 30 seconds of the video) about how he and Rip Hamilton complained to Rasheed Wallace about Wallace being too nice to Kevin Garnett.

Several Detroit talk radio hosts (whom, I should add, are rarely actually in the locker room) tried to insinuate from Hunter's story there was some serious discord in the locker room. From the sounds of some of the callers, it set off a mini-panic among fans, or at least those fans who didn't see the clip for themselves and understand the lighthearted context in which Hunter's comments were made.

In his pre-game press conference, Flip Saunders addressed the non-story. "Yeah, it was kind of more in jest and joking than anything else," he said. "I think they're saying, you know, you can maybe hug a little bit, but let's make sure you don't forget about ... getting in the post and hitting and doing those things. But that's the way the team is as far as being able to talk to guys about those situations."

Saunders continued, "What's happened so much is so many of these guys [grow] up now playing in AAU basketball, they play on the same team, they become so close, that that's kind of how it's become. In the old days, you never acknowledged the other team at all."

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-30-2008 @ 10:35PM

frank said...

That is weird the kissing cousins;
I remember Magic and Isiah doing the same in the finals ????
What the heck is that 2 grown men kissing each other from opposite teams ?? Go figure.

5-30-2008 @ 10:51PM

Dee said...

The NBA is talking about fining players for flopping, they should consider fining referees for obviously blatant calls like the ones they made against Paul Pierece with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Obviously, the refs where in the tank this game. For the game to get real respect, the NBA should fine refs for these type of calls.

5-31-2008 @ 4:02AM

tanning lotion said...

It would be real easy to hate him.

6-02-2008 @ 9:21AM

gigoglo said...

Am I the ONLY person in the Detroit Metropolitan area who thinks Flip Saunders is a HORRIBLE coach? He failed miserably with Minnesota when he had Kevin Garnett and now he has twice done it with Detroit! When will Joe Dumars and the Pistons cut their losses and get rid of this man. He doesn't have the respect of his players or the fans here in Detroit. He really is a bad coach with a very non-chalant coaching style that I ahbor. Get rid of him....PLEAAASSEEE

6-02-2008 @ 9:29AM

In regard to Lindsay Hunter being misquoted by the local press; it is typical of the press here in Michigan, especially the sports writers. For the most part, they are arm-chair, week-end, rec-league has-been athletes who didn't even make the JV team on their high school teams who think they know something about athletics. They for the most part are not attentive to detail when reporting and "flub the dub" quite a bit. If they were in the lockerroom and were paying attention they would have understood the context and tongue-in-cheek manner in which Mr. Hunter made his comments. But per the norm, they wanted to stir a pot that just wasn't there. I appreciate the cohesiveness of the players in the lockerroom of the Detroit and say to the press...GROW THE HECK UP!!!