I have been fairly harsh on Hawkins, but man it is so disappointing to see him at his best, not often, and then see him at his worst.
The kid is only 21 yrs old, has the most ILLINI experience and yet is the most fragile of ego's of them all it seems.
Hawkins "could" be a 1st round player, he has the skill set, he just doesn't turn the switch often enough, can't turn it?
As early as this season is, he has worked himself effectively out of the NBA draft, and off and on our of the ILLINI regular solid minutes due to his play but mostly his attitude towards the team/refs/coaches?
In just the 3 games I have watched, hand waving, shrugging, arguing calls, emphatic gestures, shaking the head at a ref at EVERY call, debating/arguing with coaches, mostly what I saw against Oakland was EVERY other player at different times looked as if they were consoling him over the plays. It was if, the entire team knew he could explode at any given moment.
The most telling thing though was that I witnessed the Alpha himself TSJ try to talk to him in the handshake line, and it seemed as if TSJ was getting shrugged off, as if Hawkins was almost saying I don't want to hear it???
Reading to much into Hawkins play/actions this early? I don't think so, I really think this kid either is going to a psychiatrist or needs to start. If this continues, I could actually see Hawkins leaving the team. He doesn't seem to have any fun, he seems to think the world is against him when he is playing, he doesn't seem to want to listen to teammates and most importantly coaches.
Hawkins is giving off some serious warning signs as a player, none are good, I have followed college hoops/high school hoops for nearly 50 years and I cannot remember ever seeing another player EVER act in the way that he does for the amount of time that he does ALL the Time....I hope the kid can figure things out on the court, but if not, at least off of it?
Maybe he just doesn't like playing basketball anymore?
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