In listening to the audio over at Hornets.com (check it out), I heard an interesting remark. Jim Eichenhofer mentioned to Ryan Bowen that he had noticed the “Floor Burn Tournament” hosted over at Hoopsaddict.com, and was disappointed he wasn’t in that tourney. Hype fans will recall that we sponsored Julian Wright, who surprised the NBA-nation by making the semifinals before losing to the ultimate winner, Shane Battier. What not everyone knows, including Jim, who conducted this interview, is that we submitted Bowen’s name to Ryan McNeil over at Hoopsaddict.com, but added an insert on Julian because Bowen wasn’t signed at the time. Hoopsaddict.com went with Ju-Ju. But here’s what w had to say about RB:
Ryan Bowen: his theme song literally was “Do the Hustle.” Running around the floor with abandon, he always seemed to get the loose ball or rebound when he wasn’t even in the picture a moment earlier. That kind of energy proved infectious, always lifting the level of play from the other Hornets on the floor; Bowen was the quintessential “hustle” player.
Who knows how RB would have done in this tourney, but we wanted to let him and the rest of the world know that we definitely would have pushed for him had he been under contract at the time. So Mr. Bowen, don’t be surprised we love you. You rock.
That’s amazing, always great to hear NBA.com writers and players are checking out Hoops Addict and Hornets Hype.
I’m not sure if the players had read it, but it was mentioned in the interview!!
Ryan, this NBA.com writer is actually one of HornetsHype’s frequent visitors. Glad you set the record straight ticktock. I didn’t mean to stir up trouble or accuse anyone of dropping the ball by not picking Bowen. I think I might have seen the Floor Burns tournament on this site, as a matter of fact, and that’s how I knew about it. But I had no idea that there was a submission process or whatever you want to call it, or that you guys had say-so in which Hornet made it. Julian was a fine candidate as well and it sounds like he did very well in the tourney.
Well, we like them both!! We just wanted to clarify.
No offense taken, Jim. I think to the contrary, we felt personally guilty that our instant pick was Ryan Bowen, but that we weren’t sure if he was coming back, so put up Ju-Ju. I guess, really, we wanted Ryan to know his efforts weren’t overlooked.
The Floor Burn Tournament was a great idea of Hoops Addict (and I’ll stop using his name only because it gets confusing with too many Ryans!), and I think a lot of fans around the league had a fun time cheering for their hustle guys to get some props.
[...] * I’m not going to lie, it’s great to know NBA players and front office people check out Hoops Addict. [...]