"If (the talk) is not within the organization, then I don't (listen). "No, I still don't (listen to it) I still don't," he said. Ten months later, he said that's still the case. Once you've gone into a situation, you have to find different ways for you to be effective."īut what of the outside noise, the dialogue around him that's more than loud enough to creep into any athlete's psyche? When I last chatted with Gay, he swore it didn't bother him. It should make you more confident, because obviously this is a team that wants me and wants me to be a part of the team.
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"Being traded shouldn't hurt your confidence. "One thing about me is that nothing is going to hurt my confidence," Gay, who is expected to debut with the Kings in Phoenix on Friday night, told USA TODAY Sports after his first practice with his new team. And Gay, who shot at least 45.3% overall in five of his first six seasons before the disastrous downturn, made it clear that the confidence that he'll need to turn it around has certainly survived all this scrutiny. He was the one whose production last season in Memphis and Toronto (41.6% shooting overall and 32.3% from three-point range while averaging 18.2 points, 16.7 shots, 2.7 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 2.6 turnovers) fell so far short of matching the expectations tied to his massive contract that is paying him $17.8 million this season and $19.3 million next season if he picks up his player option.īut the question about whether this is officially his new norm, and whether Rudy Gay as we once knew him is gone for good, hasn't been answered just yet. He was the one whose decision to have box scores removed from the Raptors' postgame locker room scene this season only strengthened his reputation as someone who eschewed all statistical evidence of his own shortcomings, even as he explained that it was merely a way for the team to focus on winning rather than individual numbers. 11 when he missed 26 of his 37 shots in a double-overtime loss to the Houston Rockets and the outrage over his style was re-sparked yet again. He was the one who set the NBA Twitter world afire on Nov. He was the one who hit 50% or more of his shots in a single game just once in 18 tries this season. His recent production, or lack thereof, is the root of all this evil.īefore the seven-player trade happened Sunday in which the Kings gave up four players who weren't considered part of their future for one who may be (while also getting Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray), he was the one who was shooting 38.8% overall and averaging 19.4 points, 18.6 shots, just 2.2 assists, 7.4 rebounds, a career-high 3.3 turnovers a game. Yet as Gay, 27, is well aware, there's nothing he can do to change the past.
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View Gallery: Final 2013-14 NBA MVP, rookie of the year rankings The league-wide landscape came into play on the perception front too: LeBron James and his all-around game continued to evolve in truly remarkable ways, thereby setting the small forward bar so remarkably high that less-versatile talents such as Gay and the New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony seemed more subpar with every passing year. Yet it began long before that.Įver since he missed Memphis' last two months of the regular season and the 2010-11 postseason because of a shoulder injury and the Grizzlies reached the second round without him, people have wondered aloud whether he made his teams better. Gay and his play have become one of basketball's biggest debates, a water cooler item that was discussed so fervently last season when the Memphis Grizzlies traded him to Toronto in late January and one that never truly stopped when he struggled so mightily with the Raptors.
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While the endless analysis of Gay's game is warranted, all this focus on the fact that his season with the Toronto Raptors through 18 games was on the brink of being historically inefficient and was the continuation of his personal decline, the sheer din of all the dissecting has grown so loud that you wonder if some of the scribes who are tearing him to pieces believe deep down that they could beat him in a game of one-on-one. And no, even with the ultra-negative narrative that surrounds him, he's not ready to crumble amid all this criticism just yet. He took shots with his Sacramento Kings teammates, making some and missing others but always firing away with a smooth stroke befitting someone who does this for a living. SACRAMENTO - Rudy Gay bounced a basketball inside his new team's practice facility on Thursday - hundreds of times, in fact, and without dribbling off of his foot even once.