RW#30

Hand slapping

Hand slapping in-between and after missed free throws are the dumbest thing in sport. Tim Thomas just missed 2 crucial free throws and his team mates are slapping him all the way to the bench. Once at the bench the coaches and team mates congratulating him, maddens.

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"I want Greg Oden to tuck us in and read us bedtime stories about the "old days"

~Will Farrell 2008 ESPYs

HAWK23

I'm with you.. I started a thread about this a month or so ago in the NBA forum:

http://basketballboards.net/forum/sh...threadid=24818

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trifecta

I don't know.

It seems like you may be misinterpreting the hand slap in this situation.

If a teammate of mine made a crucial mistake or error, I feel like that's the time that's more important to pick him up. His teammates were probably just telling him not to worry about it.

Now the hand slap after every made freethrow is a different story. In that scenario, I totally agree with you.

MAS RipCity

His coaches and teammates where just trying to make him feel at ease and better with himself. You don't want to freaking yell or curse at hime,that would destroy a palyer mentally.

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PDX Fan Since '90

RW#30

I never said yell or curse. You just leave the guy alone. Also they are slapping between missed free throws. Plain s tupid thats all.

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"I want Greg Oden to tuck us in and read us bedtime stories about the "old days"

~Will Farrell 2008 ESPYs

Gym Rat

To me, this is plain and simple support for your teammate. Why not support them? Maybe it takes a little pressure off the guy before he shoots again and maybe when he went to the bench he was being "rewarded", if you will, for driving hard to the basket or executing a play intended to draw a foul...

I see nothing wrong with it.

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"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability."

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ABM

I think it's better than when they used to slap each other's butts all the time.

Gym Rat

Come on, ABM - admit it, you loved the butt slapping!

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"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability."

- John Wooden

ABM

Thtop it.

digital jello

I didn't get this at first, but yeah, that's hilarious.

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Speed

They're supporting each other. You need to stay positive and support each other no matter what or the team will fall apart. They are not "rewarding" him, but they are supporting each other as a team. You ever see a team playing really badly and the leader will start clapping his hands and cheering on his team. He's trying to say "come on, let's not be down on ourselves, let's hold our heads up like we're kicking butt, and then we'll actually start to kick butt."

ABM

Yeah, I remember watching the Celtics and (I think) the Nets last year in the Playoffs.

The Celts were down big, but Pierce did exactly that...well, actually he put the WHOLE team on HIS back and led them to a major come-from-behind victory.

To a lesser extent, he did the same thing the other night in Game 1 vs. the Pacers.

Speed

It's also a nice ritual to encourage team unity. Cuz you know, if you support one guy when he misses a big shot that he will support you when you miss a big shot. Otherwise, you have a lot of people quietly resenting each other for missing big shots. They all have to keep each other's chins up so that they don't fall apart mentally.

ABM

In that case, I just hope there's not a lot of Blazer supportin' going on tonight - if you catch my drift......