The Only Thing That Can Hold Hassan Whiteside Back

An Insider’s Perspective

Like a bad infomercial, “But wait! There’s more!”

According to Lieser, ESPN Insider and former NBA executive Amin Elhassan shed some light on Whiteside’s personality on ESPN Radio a few weeks ago. As I’m sure you’d imagine, he had some choice words about why it took him so long to break through:

"“If you’re a jackass, rubbing away that reputation is very hard. It’s very easy to ruin your reputation and very hard to rebuild it. Hassan Whiteside, for lack of a better word, was a jackass when he came out of college. He was delusional and would say things that were not commensurate with how great he was as a player. “It turned a lot of people off. His work ethic wasn’t very good. He had to hit rock bottom and figure out that, ‘Oh, my gosh, my approach in life has not gotten me where I want to go,’ and credit to him that he did that.”"

The on-court results back up Elhassan’s point that Whiteside has finally realized he has to work hard to make it in this league. But what happens when everyone starts singing the praises he’s been silently humming to himself this whole time? What happens when some team throws max money at him and he’s got it made again?

Lieser also notes that in a story Elhassan wrote about Whiteside, when asked by an NBA head coach before the draft what he needed to improve to become a great player, Whiteside responded with, “Nothing.”

That’s the kind of work ethic I’d be tentative about adding to my team’s locker room (especially the age of 25), regardless of his double-double potential.

Next: Reasons For Optimism