The interview that David Thrope did on the True hoop podcast is still making the rounds today, specifically where Thorpe talks about not seeing the joy for the game from Scottie. I think it’s important to note that this is primarily based on the contrast between watching Scottie play in a handful of pickup games in August, to watching him hug his (Thorpe’s) son.
**From the interview**
> There was a period of time in Scottie Barnes’ life, from what I’m told, and then what I’ve witnessed a little bit as a pro, where he was the loudest guy in the gym playing or not.
This is, for the most part, not a first hand account of who Scottie is as a player or a person. In the interview he also mentions, beyond the three pickup games, what he saw of Scottie last year. [By his own admission, when appearing on the Raptors Show last year to clarify his comments about the Raptors needing to fire nurse, he said that he can’t watch Raptors games because of poor shot selection, and even asked Will Lou if it was still happening.](https://www.reddit.com/r/torontoraptors/comments/112dpbn/coach_david_thorpe_on_the_raptors_show_today/)
[He was not watching Raptor’s basketball last year.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBll66FZcnQ&ab_channel=HoopsRegion)
David Thorpe is and never has been Scottie’s trainer, his coach, his agent, and has only ever met him briefly a few times. He has no idea how Scottie feels about the game of basketball, and talking about hoping he regains his joy of the game is pure speculation on his part. Not only does he have zero first hand account of Scottie “always being the loudest guy in the gym,” he based his comments in that interview on conjecture.
Coming out the draft Thorpe positioned himself as somewhat of a Scottie whisperer, almost inexplicably. The only real connection is that his son played with Scottie, [but Thorpe wasn’t even able to go watch Scottie and his Son play in person at Florida State because of covid.](https://youtu.be/x4jNHC_n2YU?t=54) It’s important to take what he says with a grain of salt.
by catch22milo
7 Comments
In spite of all of Thorpe’s bona fides, he knows that any time he talks about the Raptors or Scottie Barnes he gets invited to talk about it with local media, and given the relatively small size of his social media imprint, you gotta believe he knows exactly what he’s doing.
I don’t blame him this team was yuck and still is
I feel like this is you putting Thorpe in a box, I like his content and don’t treat him like the Scottie whisperer. He’s a really smart guy with a great track record who happens to have a kid who went to school with Scottie. He’s always been open about how he doesn’t watch the raptors when they played bad basketball.
I don’t really understand why this was posted, is this supposed to be a critique?
Bruh stop it, first few games of the last season Nurse was talking about the of enthusiasm from Barnes.
He’s not wrong. Having watched the Raptors steadily for over a decade now you could feel the lack of joy on last years’ squad.
He’s right though…
talk about scottie = engagement from raptors fans
I’m over Thorpe. This is the most nebulous critique I’ve seen. “scottie seemed sad, probably the organization has destroyed his will to live”. gmab
Anyway, whatever he thinks he’s hinting at, Masai has come out and said it publicly months ago, and coach was fired as a result with a replacement staff heavily focused on player development and good vibes.