Dion Waiters Says He Was Held Back With Cavaliers

[Big Boss]

After being traded from the Cavaliers to the Thunder, Dion Waiters selected jersey No. 23 – which some saw as a possible message to LeBron James.

Waiters in a Q&A with the media, as transcribed by Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman:

Why you wearing 23?
They didn’t have any numbers. I wanted 3, I wanted 1. They didn’t have that. So I said, OK, I’m gonna take 13 because I wanted 1, they didn’t have 1. Then 13, they didn’t want me to wear 13. 23, I didn’t want to wear 23. My favorite number is 3. They just gave me 23.

You remember who wore 13?
Yeah, James (Harden). So they didn’t want me to wear 13. Guess they wanted me to have my own identity. We gonna make 23 look good though


In Cleveland and at Syracuse, Waiters wore No. 3, which Perry Jones has in Oklahoma City. The franchise also retired No. 1 for former Seattle SuperSonic Gus Williams.

Harden’s No. 13 obviously isn’t retired, but you can see why the Thunder wouldn’t want Waiters to wear it. You can see why they wouldn’t want any reminders of Harden.

Trading Harden to the Rockets rather than offering him a max contract extension is Sam Presti’s biggest
mistake. Harden has turned into an MVP candidate in Houston, and “What if?” questions plague Oklahoma City.

Waiters stylistically follows Harden as the Thunder’s bench scorer, but Waiters won’t come close to matching Harden’s production.

Along those lines, Waiters also spoke about more substantive issues. Via Slater:

Have they seen you, really get to see you do what you could do?
Nah, I’ve always been like held back a little bit from really reaching and showing what I can do. I think last year I got a chance to do that when guys went down and I was able to show what I can do in that time.


http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/07/dion-waiters-says-he-was-held-back-with-cavaliers/

 

[King Sun]

 

[James Worthy]

 

[Damnshow]

who the fukk is that cocksucker anyway

he is being held by his walnut size brains, muthafukka thinks he is on some kyrie irving shyt, I give you 10 games before they will lose their minds in okc. May Allah guide the whole okc team to islam. Look at this mofo, he is evil, he has no face, he has like no facial features, this man is evil, fukk him.

 

[Dayco23]

Dion is delusional. Until he realizes that there are players that are better than him in the NBA, hes gonna have issues.

 

[Newzz]

And then he went out and shot 1-9 from the field in 22 minutes and finishes with 4 points in his OKC debut

 

[FS4LFE]

He's one of those guys who you love if he isn't on your team.

They have that 1 vs 1 I'm the best mentality and some nights the shyt works, but most nights they end up shooting 3-16.

Kinda like Nick Young.

 

[L&HH]

This guy did what again with Cleveland last year? the only star player on the team was Kyrie and he felt he was being held back? So when he gotta play behind Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Reggie Jackson how held back will he feel now?

 

[Dayco23]

This guy did what again with Cleveland last year? the only star player on the team was Kyrie and he felt he was being held back? So when he gotta play behind Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Reggie Jackson how held back will he feel now?

Last year when Kyrie went down, he played the point guard role and the team went .500 in the 10 or so games he started. He was averaging 20 ppg but they weren't playing against any great teams. He had a game winning shot against Detroit. That stretch only boosted his ego and now he thinks hes on Kyrie's level, which he never was.

The guy is a good 1v1 player, but he ignores the offensive system and the flow of the sets for his own personal ISO opportunities. Blatt essentially told him that if he was gonna start for the Cavs this season he was gonna be a spot up shooter. When he was starting in the first few games, every time the ball would come to him he would stop the movement of the ball. He was way too hesitant to give the ball up for fear that he might not get it back. That's when he was relegated to the bench.

He thinks he was being held back because he truly believes that Kyrie is not better than him. He believes he should have had the same opportunities to score on the floor as Ky. What he doesn't get is that hes a much worse finisher around the rim (even though he can get there fairly easily), he's not as good at shooting off the dribble, and he's not nearly the ball handler that Ky is.

When he's on the bench watching all the terrible shots that Westbrook and Durant jack up, he's going to want equal opportunity to do the same. Or, Brooks will humble him and he will start to realize hes not as good as he thinks he is (which is doubtful).

 

[We Ready]

 

[Morethan1]

Lol at David Blatt face

 

[boskey]

"Harden’s No. 13 obviously isn’t retired, but you can see why the Thunder wouldn’t want Waiters to wear it."

No I can't see that. What type of weak shyt is that?? Just give the nikka the number he asked for.

 

[NoMorePie]

He was held back in Cleveland...

What makes him think he wont be held back in OKC with Westbrook/Durant on the floor

 

[polokuo]

"Harden’s No. 13 obviously isn’t retired, but you can see why the Thunder wouldn’t want Waiters to wear it."

No I can't see that. What type of weak shyt is that?? Just give the nikka the number he asked for.

Exactly, what type of simp shyttt is this?? You withhold the numbers of franchise players who you revere. If you DON'T want to be reminded of a player then you give his number to the first scrub nikka that comes along to erase that memory.

SMH....Presti is the Brennan Clay of NBA GM's....

 

[boskey]

SMH....Presti is the Brennan Clay of NBA GM's....

Lost a lot of respect for this organization after reading that