I WANT THE TRUTH!  You can’t handle the truth.

Thanks Jack.  BigCat here, I was just mulling all this “Gerald Wallace calls out Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw, Tyson Chandler plays well and tells Gerald where to stick it” stuff.  I’m not impressed.  All I want to know is, who is showing up every night?  Who is going to make the plays to put this team ahead or bring this team up from behind and steal a victory.  Neither has happened of late.  One win against 6 losses in the last…..umm, carry the, seven games.

It’s frustration.  It’s anger.  It’s answering a question while you’re sitting in your locker trying to get dressed and go home or catch a flight right after you lost again.  This time at home, again.

I figure there are 2 ways of looking at most things: big picture and picking it apart down to the bare bones of it.  To pick this apart, I’d have to do a little play for you:

Charlotte, NC Saturday Dec 19 approx 9:45 PM

Random Reporter:  ”So Gerald, tough game tonight…what do you think the major issue was”

Gerald Wallace:  ”Well, down the stretch we couldn’t close the gap and whenever you’re getting 8 rebounds from your 4 and 5, you aren’t going to be successful.  However we all have our own crosses to bear, for example my 2 missed free throws in the final 3 minutes.”

(SCENE)

New York, NY Sunday Dec 20 approx 10 PM

Random Reporter:  ”So, Tyson, tough game tonight but you did have a season high in points and rebounds.  Did your improved play have anything to do with Gerald Wallace calling you out after last night’s loss?”

Tyson Chandler:  ”Thanks for noticing.  No, my high totals at the end of the game had a bit more to do with Gerald not being in tonight’s game and I wish him well in his recovery from a headache.   I think it’s bull personally.  You guys are making much to big a deal about this.”

Random Reporter:  ”Would you have any words for Gerald going into the next game?”

TC:  ”When you lose and play like we do, you can’t say that someone else is the problem. I don’t feel like we’re good enough to point fingers.”

ahhhhhh and (SCENE)

This is a bit of a trumped up fairy tale version that I happened to make up.  The larger point is Gerald and Tyson are not going toe to hurt toe in the locker room.  No one in the league can be that sensitive.  I’ve had people say “What Gerald had to say was true but you don’t go whining to the media about it.”  My answer is, if not him, if not something, who and what can they say?

Some people would say leave it up to the coach to say stuff like that.  That’s fine but a 6th year starter and the best player on the team and the captain can say what he wants about the other players.  Was he wrong?

I don’t like that this has become Gerald vs Tyson because the least troublesome to me is Tyson’s production.  Boris Diaw however bothers me immensely.  Boris is a player of promise and skill except when he doesn’t feel like it or he’s hurt or any of a million other things that we all let get in the way.  Boris let’s other things get in the way more than any player on the team.  I want to know when he will become consistent one way or another because you can do something about good or bad but you can’t do anything when you’re all of these at the same time.

My big picture is, no one is doing all they can, not even Gerald Wallace or Stephen Jackson.  I want to see leadership out of Stephen.  I want to see dedication and concentration out of Raymond Felton.  I want to see concentration and control out of Gerald Wallace.  I want more fight and tenacity out of all the “bigs” Tyson, Nazr and Ganna especially.

More than anything I want to know when?  I know what I want, I know how they can do it, if you don’t see the “why” then you wouldn’t be reading this, and we’re fully aware of the “who” but when?  When will these guys build on what they know and execute the way they know they can?  It wasn’t Saturday, it wasn’t Sunday and it certainly wasn’t when they were sitting there in their lockers getting dressed and answering questions about how other people are playing.

This is the year they have to do it.  They have to start really rolling after the Christmas break.  Larry, the coaches, all the players have to do what we all know they can do and have done on individual account and in the past.  The time is now and I don’t want to hear anything until they do.