# Jason Richardson finally speaks



## bruindre

Article in a Bay Area publication: 

J-Rich emotionally spent
He’s angry, excited and sad five days after being dealt by the Warriors



> Jason Richardson is an emotional guy. It's his edge. It's what makes him the player he is, the person he is.
> 
> So you can imagine all the emotions that ran through him when he received the news that he was no longer a member of the Warriors, the only NBA franchise he's ever known, traded away to the Charlotte Bobcats on draft day Thursday.
> 
> Five days later, after the Warriors swapped him and the No. 36 overall pick for the No. 8 selection, North Carolina freshman forward Brandan Wright, the emotion is still present.
> 
> "I'm still shocked," Richardson said in a phone interview from the Bahamas, where his fiancee and two children are taking in a planned vacation. "It's hit me a couple of times. ... It was a shocker. That was home. I've been there for six years."
> 
> Richardson was angry.


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## Ruff Draft

> At first, he did not want to go to Charlotte. Seriously. After getting a taste of winning last season, he wanted to go to a contender. Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, San Antonio, Cleveland -- any playoff team that needed a shooting guard. I don't think Charlotte is that bad. They regularly have one of the worst records in the East, which is pretty bad. But they aren't that far off. They have some nice young pieces. Richardson's one gripe is that he didn't want to start over and try to take a young team into the playoffs. He wanted to help a veteran team get go deeper into the playoffs. But the one saving grace to him, he said, was that he has some guys whose going to play with him. One of Richardson's problems in the past was that some of his teammates didn't play hard. He doesn't expect to have that problem in Charlotte. "I play hard just like the rest of them on both ends of the floor. My thing is do whatever it takes to get this team to the playoffs. This team is just a piece away. It can happen fast. They were only five games outside of the playoffs. They’re young, but they have some guys who can play. All they need is some leadership and experience. I hope I can bring both."


Contra Costa Times


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## nutmeged3

Pretty much what I expected him to say it just took a lot longer for him to come out and say it publicly. Oh well, just get to Charlotte with your huge contract and put up good numbers


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## ChadWick

I had a feeling he wouldn't want to be in Charlotte. But, I didn't know he would be so deep about it


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## dnbman

It's not that he doesn't want to be in Charlotte. He was just hurt by the way he was traded. The anger wasn't, "To Charlotte!" The anger was, "you traded me!" 

From reading the whole interview, I feel pretty positive about what JRich wants to accomplish in Charlotte.


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## HKF

One thing you know for sure HE IS GOING TO PLAY HARD! Charlotte will rally around him and Gerald Wallace going balls to the wall IMO.


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## bootstrenf

HKF said:


> One thing you know for sure HE IS GOING TO PLAY HARD! Charlotte will rally around him and Gerald Wallace going balls to the wall IMO.



did they already resign wallace???


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## HKF

Not yet. They better.


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## bootstrenf

HKF said:


> Not yet. They better.



will they have the money to resign wallace after taking on j-rich's contract??? and don't they play the same position???

perhaps the j-rich trade was to replace wallace...


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## ss03

bootstrenf said:


> will they have the money to resign wallace after taking on j-rich's contract??? and don't they play the same position???
> 
> perhaps the j-rich trade was to replace wallace...


Natural position for J-Rich is Sg, whereas the natural position that Gerald Wallace plays is SF. Wallace slots into the 2 and 4 roles sometimes, because he has that versatility, but he's a 3, so they'd be able to play together without any "Lets draw straws to see who gets to play SG" situations.


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## Ruff Draft

HKF said:


> One thing you know for sure HE IS GOING TO PLAY HARD! Charlotte will rally around him and Gerald Wallace going balls to the wall IMO.


Bingo! J-Rich is a great guy. I met him once in Saginaw, and he's just an awesome dude.


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## bootstrenf

ss03 said:


> Natural position for J-Rich is Sg, whereas the natural position that Gerald Wallace plays is SF. Wallace slots into the 2 and 4 roles sometimes, because he has that versatility, but he's a 3, so they'd be able to play together without any "Lets draw straws to see who gets to play SG" situations.



thanks for the info...


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## bruindre

Man, the Bobcats are going to be fun to watch....assuming they keep Wallace. If they succeed in keeping him, you can add me as an uninvited guest on that bandwagon.


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## Yoyo

bruindre said:


> Man, the Bobcats are going to be fun to watch....assuming they keep Wallace. If they succeed in keeping him, you can add me as an uninvited guest on that bandwagon.


I think I'm already on the bandwagon to some extent...plan on watching some Bobcat games this season.


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## dnbman

Our bandwagon is "a good size." bring a friend.


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## ATLien

Great move for Charlotte, should be able to make a run at the playoffs


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## hollywood476

okay i've calmed down now, checked the roster, realized you were only 5 games out of the playoffs and with Jason Richardson and a possible Gerald Wallace on your team...it should be fun, maybe you guys would make the playoffs!


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## Damian Necronamous

So if Wallace comes back, they're looking at...

PG: Raymond Felton...Brevin Knight
SG: Jason Richardson...Matt Carroll
SF: Gerald Wallace...Adam Morrison
PF: Walter Hermann...Sean May...Othella Harrington
C: Emeka Okafor...Primoz Brezec...Jake Voskhul

That's not bad at all.


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## bruindre

Damian Necronamous said:


> So if Wallace comes back, they're looking at...
> 
> PG: Raymond Felton...*Brevin Knight*
> SG: Jason Richardson...Matt Carroll
> SF: Gerald Wallace...Adam Morrison
> PF: Walter Hermann...Sean May...Othella Harrington
> C: Emeka Okafor...Primoz Brezec...Jake Voskhul
> 
> That's not bad at all.


Didn't they just let Knight go?


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## Mateo

If you keep Wallace I think a playoff appearance is a near-lock. This is a perfect time to trade Morrison, too.


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## dnbman

Nah... I think the end of this season will be the perfect time to trade Morrison. 

While he may not be a blue chipper, I think he'll develop a lot this year as a secondary scorer with little pressure to be the man like he had last year. (He even said he let the pressure and criticism get to him.) I think he'll find his shot this season, making someone willing to pay more for him envisioning big things with starter's minutes.


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## nutmeged3

I think J-Rich will be able to help Morrison a lot but he just has no trade value right now. If he has another bad season then not picking up that option will be pretty tempting. I just couldn't see Johnson letting our most marketable player go for nothing though


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## Mateo

dnbman said:


> Nah... I think the end of this season will be the perfect time to trade Morrison.
> 
> While he may not be a blue chipper, I think he'll develop a lot this year as a secondary scorer with little pressure to be the man like he had last year. (He even said he let the pressure and criticism get to him.) I think he'll find his shot this season, making someone willing to pay more for him envisioning big things with starter's minutes.


Hmm... if he really does improve this year then why would you _want_ to trade him? And if he doesn't improve his trade value really will go to nothing. I think now is the perfect time because even though he had a disappointing rookie year there is still that untapped potential that many teams think they can pull out of him. Trade him to a rebuilding project and you can get a solid piece out of him now. And there really is no reason to keep him; the Bobcats are very good at the 2/3 spot.


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## step

Trade him to the Knicks for a pickswap!


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## dnbman

That's just it: I don't think we'd get much that we need back for him. However, if he turns into a pretty good scorer, we can trade him for another big or another c. The reason we'd want to trade him is that we're set at the wings.


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## bruindre

dnbman said:


> That's just it: I don't think we'd get much that we need back for him. However, if he turns into a pretty good scorer, we can trade him for another big or another c. The reason we'd want to trade him is that we're set at the wings.


How do you figure to be set at the wings? Last I saw Wallace was still unsigned & I wouldn't call Morrison as a player that would 'set' you at any position in the pros. 

I'll sound like a broken record here, but if the 'Cats can keep Wallace, this is going to be a very interesting team.


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## nutmeged3

If Gerald does come back we have him, Fabio, Morrison, and Dudley at SF. 4 deep sounds set to me.


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## Marcus13

XMATTHEWX said:


> Bingo! J-Rich is a great guy. I met him once in Saginaw, and he's just an awesome dude.


co-sign. I also met him in Saginaw


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## PFortyy

I can't wait to see what Jason Richardson can do with the bobcats.

I might watch a few of the bobcats games this upcoming season.


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## Zuca

So who will backup Felton now? Will Catz resign McInnis after all?


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## WhoDaBest23

Is J-Rich still on vacation or something? I want to see him get introduced.


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## nutmeged3

Zuca said:


> So who will backup Felton now? Will Catz resign McInnis after all?


Maybe we re-sign him to be our 3rd PG but were not going anywhere if McInnis is Felton's primary backup. Not really anything worth while available though, makes the BK thing even stupider



WHODABEST23 said:


> Is J-Rich still on vacation or something? I want to see him get introduced.


I think that's what it is. I know he stopped in NC while he was on his vacation just to take his physical and if he was in town he should have been introduced by now.


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## Diable

I very much doubt that McInnis is an option if the stories about him and Phil Ford's wife(ex-wife maybe I'd guess) are true.McInnis is at best a guy who is good for five or ten minutes.Preferably he'd never play a meaningful minute.Whether it's just gossip or not everyone knows that Ford hates McInnis' guts and this subject would be well known to the guys in our FO as well.


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## nutmeged3

Still no introduction, must be one long vacation. I don't think Gerald's new contract has been made official either


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## Zuca

What about John Lucas III? Is Othella Harrington still in your team plans? If not, you can send him to Houston for Justin Reed (young hardworker) and him. He is a serviceable backup (although I see him more as a third-stringer PG). But if your team not like him, Telfair is also avaliable! :biggrin:


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## Mateo

Justin Reed is awful. Lucas might be a good backup, but he wasn't last year, so I don't think going into a new season without having someone you can rely on is a good idea.


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## WarriorFan64

He sure will be missed but here is an introduction finally in charlotte. I sure will be watching bobcats I guess I have two teams now.

heres the shooting gallery:
http://www.nba.com/bobcats/gallery_richardson_070806.html

then the interview:
http://www.nba.com/bobcats/richardson_interview_070807.html


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## WhoDaBest23

WarriorFan64 said:


> He sure will be missed but here is an introduction finally in charlotte. I sure will be watching bobcats I guess I have two teams now.
> 
> heres the shooting gallery:
> http://www.nba.com/bobcats/gallery_richardson_070806.html
> 
> then the interview:
> http://www.nba.com/bobcats/richardson_interview_070807.html


Finally!


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