Mario West Seems To Be a Good Guy

by Hoopinion on Dec 1, 2008 12:51 PM EST Comment 9 comments

It's never bad time for a reminder that it's not all about what someone can or cannot do on a basketball court.

The Atlanta Hawks guard has a special relationship with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. Occasionally, he throws pizza parties for patients there, like he did last week. After autographing posters, handing out books and Hawks schedules and taking pictures with his young friends, he spoke to the AJC’s Darryl Maxie.

More gratifying — fan response at Philips Arena or children’s response here?

“It’s all the same to me. It’s unbelievable the amount of love and support you get. Sometimes somebody will come up and say, ‘You inspired me’ or ‘You motivated me.’ The feedback you get from fans and kids really humbles you.”

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West

Mario West is a great story and a great person. If any kid out there is looking for inspiration, then you couldn’t go wrong with looking at Mario West. A local kid that didn’t get recruited, was a walk-on at GaTech, and basically was a walk-on for the Hawks, West has busted to no end to make his own destiny having nothing handed to him. Add the above story to the picture and his personality and character just get better.

Some might argue that he doesn’t deserve a roster spot and in some cases that might be true, but he wasn’t the only one to show up for those try-outs and yet here he is. I would agree that outside of being somewhat of a defensive mosquito, only used to irritate and possibly throw an opponent off his game for a few minutes, West has little to offer with the exception of his energy and enthusiasm for his home team. Seriously, this kid is living his ultimate dream, having played for his hometown college team, and now for his hometown pro team. He is simply a fan doing what few other fans every get to do.

And to me, I’m cool with that. If for five minutes a game he adds a little pressure to the other team or gets our guys pumped up, then I say he has done the job asked of him, regardless of how simplistic or small that might be. Plus, I could argue that there are much less deserving people on our current roster, cough Flip cough.

-Jesse

by Jesse28 on Dec 1, 2008 2:29 PM EST reply actions

Or worse...

Speedy Claxton. Could there possibly be anyone less deserving of a roster spot than this scrub?

by Jesse28 on Dec 1, 2008 2:31 PM EST up reply actions

Five minutes a game?

I’d be interested in seeing that. It takes Woodson about 12 games to let Mario West accumulate five minutes of playing time.

by Hoopinion on Dec 1, 2008 4:54 PM EST up reply actions

Heck, two minutes a game

See if you can’t the word Mario removed the Basketbawful dictionary.

Perhaps not.

by Bronn on Dec 1, 2008 8:12 PM EST up reply actions

Bronn

English please. I have no clue what you are trying to say. I’m just guessing here, but it looks as though you are saying Mario West is an awful basketball player. If so, then in response to that I would counter that he is indeed not a great NBA player, which I hinted to in my orignial post above. Sure, he’s not going to put up a lot of stats, if any at all, but I don’t think that’s his purpose. Like I said before, if the guy gives our starters a breather and happens to irritate the opposition at the same time by maybe forcing a TO or a few bad shots, then I’m fine with that.

Now, if that psycho Woodson were to start West and/or play him anywhere over 10 minutes a game, then I would have a problem. But even then, it wouldn’t be with West, it would be with Woodson. And doesn’t that always seem to be the case, that when we have a problem with a player it always seems to end up leading back to Woodson. Maybe it’s just my unending hatred of the guy. Nawww….that couldn’t be it.

by Jesse28 on Dec 2, 2008 8:13 AM EST up reply actions

Bronn’s referring to this, which is a swipe at Woodson not West.

by Hoopinion on Dec 2, 2008 9:17 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah

Five minutes was more figurative than actual. And I am in total agreement with your statement on Woodson. I always thought Acie was a great pick, unfortunately for both of us, Woodson won’t let the kid on the court long enough to learn anything. Either way, I like West and I’m stickin to it.

by Jesse28 on Dec 2, 2008 8:05 AM EST up reply actions

As Bret already posted, I was making reference to another blog which coined the term “Mario” for an appearance lasting under one minute.

I’m actually one of Mario’s biggest fans, and love when he gets into the game. I went to high school with the man, even graduated in the same class. Great human being, very humble, and I feel like he’s a better basketball player than he was actually able to show at Georgia Tech.

I do sincerely doubt that Woodson’s usage patterns will make any kind of change. He insists on pairing Acie and Flip, which severely limits Acie’s opportunities to have an impactful floor presence, and he’s also never found any folly in removing a player with two fouls from the remainder (regardless of the length) of the first half.

by Bronn on Dec 2, 2008 4:48 PM EST up reply actions

Ah

My apologies then. I’m sure somewhere on one of our friendly networks (Hoopinion, Zaza’s, etc) I have made mention of my Tech-dom, so my opinion of most of those players may always be slightly biased, but West is indeed a great person regardless.

I agree with all other statements here in regards to Woodson. The guy sucks and he is letting valuable talent waste away.

by Jesse28 on Dec 2, 2008 10:16 PM EST up reply actions