The big story in Detroit today wasn’t the anticipation of the Red Wings making a move during the trade deadline or the fact that they’ve re-signed their starting goaltender for another 2 years at a very reasonable price.
The big story in Detroit today was and continues to be the ongoing embarrassing saga surrounding the Detroit Pistons and the alleged mutiny over their head coach John Kuester.
But, today wasn’t like any other day, today John Kuester and probably the player most critical of the embattled head coach Rip Hamilton actually shared a conversation. Now not only did they share a conversation Kuester remained on the court with Hamilton after the teams scheduled shoot around to coach Rip on his shot.
“We met and we had a good conversation,” Kuester said. “The conversation went very well. He worked today and he did a good job. He just said, ‘Q, pass me the ball’. And I said, ‘OK.’ My passes were pretty good.”
According to Perry A. Farrell of the Detroit Free Press, neither Kuester or Rip would say when the meeting took place but both agreed that it was positive after two months of a very public feud between the two.
“It was a minute ago,” Hamilton said of the meeting. “It happened, and it was a minute ago. It happened awhile ago. It was a great conversation.”
Kuester tried to focus more on what today’s practice was all about…
“The whole key is getting guys to practice hard,” Kuester said. “What we talked to all the players about today was, ‘You know what? We’re starting this thing really fresh, and what I mean by that is being able to earn your minutes on the basketball court in practice and shootaround, in the games itself.” And one of the things that occurred was the energy was pretty much there today.
“Rip is an outstanding basketball player, and he has been a good player for this organization.”
Kuester also mentioned that Rip can very well play again this season, so long as he works hard in practice to earn his minutes. Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee however is still uncertain since Hamilton is still dealing with a lingering groin problem.
Now what about that player protest which got so much press this past Friday?
For Rip it was all a big misunderstanding that he tried to simply push under the rug…
“We were all laughing at the situation as it was being reported,” Hamilton said. “It was just a situation where guys didn’t make it to practice, and the first thing people said was there was a protest. I heard about it, and people were calling me.”
Finally, Rip answered questions on whether or not his relationship with Kuester has improved and why he supposedly nixed a trade that would have sent him to Cleveland who in turn would have bought out his contract making him a free agent…
“Q is the coach, and our relationship is better,” Hamilton said. “It has always been better. We talked, so like I said, I think everybody is making a big deal about everything. Don’t always believe what you read.
“There was a situation there, but it wasn’t as documented. It was a situation they came to me with. I never said what the situation was. I just looked at it as what was the best for me and my family, but it wasn’t as you read it.”
He laughed, nervously.
“It wasn’t like it was put out. It was an offer, but it wasn’t like it was reported.”
As the day’s go by, Hamilton sounds more like a politician then a basketball player. This situation clearly isn’t better and what we saw was simply a very week band-aide to get us through the rest of the season.
Source: Detroit Free Press
