Andre Miller Says He’s No One’s Mentor, Wants Bigger Role

It’s quite normal for players as they come towards the end of their career, to mentor the younger guy on the team at their position. Well not so much for Andre Miller who makes no bones about saying he wants to start. Andre Miller who was traded to the Denver Nuggets last year spoke with FoxSports.com saying starting guard Ty Lawson doesn’t need his two cent.

“Ty, he’s worked hard. He’s had his mentor with Chauncey Billups.”Why would they need me to come in and put in my two cents? “At this point in my career, I don’t see myself as a backup. For 13 years, I wasn’t a backup before. This is a short season (due to the lockout), so I’ll deal with it. But I don’t see myself as a backup at this point in my career. I don’t see that.”

For his career Miller has averaged 14 points and 7 assist a game. Carmelo Anthony’s most productive years were spent when Miller was his point guard. Though he gets no love when talking about the top point guards in the league he’s been consistently good, even during his days in Cleveland playing alongside Ricky Davis and Darius Miles.

I can’t blame him for wanting to play, considering he’s a free agent at the end of the year. It’s the best way for him to display his talents for a championship caliber team that may need a point guard in the offseason. What works in his favor is, he’s never been known a bad guy, so these comments will probably just be a blip on the radar, and most will attribute this to frustration related to his reduced role. It also shouldn’t be assumed that just because you’re a veteran that you’re going to be ok with mentoring the guy that will have a strangle hold on your job for the foreseeable future. From Andres’ quotes, it doesn’t seem like they ran that idea past him.

Pressure & Performance

Could you imagine needing therapy for your job? Ok maybe bad analogy. Better yet, could you imagine needing therapy to perform the job you loved? How would you feel if the pressure to perform just became too much to handle and you had to step down? Well this is the very disorder that has caused Tom Durkin to step down from his job of announcing the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and Belmont Stakes for NBC. Durkin said he took medication and even tried therapy but nothing helped and that he would feel a wave of stress and nervousness during the three months of these events. Stress and anxiety is a problem many of us may face and not know it. According to anxietymatters.com around 13% of the population will suffer from some kind of anxiety. Though anxiety is what helps keep us aware of danger and allows us to feel trepidation when taking on certain tasks, it is still important to know how to manage your anxiety. Ricky Williams once suffered from anxiety so much that he at one point couldn’t talk to reporters without his helmet on. Tom Durkin will still announce horse races for the New York Racing Association three tracks Aqueduct, The Belmont Stakes, and Saratoga. However, he has no plans to do them on a national level, saying it’s more important to look out for your personal life more than your professional life. So for all of us let this be a reminder that nothing is more important than your health and that no one or anything is in more control of your mood than you. If you wish for more information of dealing with anxiety, below are a few links that deal with preventing anxiety and some self help steps to take to help deal with stress.

http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/preventing-anxiety

http://helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm