STATEMENT FROM LUCCA STAIGER

What is so important in the next 2 months that he can't finish the season?
 
If you can't see the pattern under Gmac by this point, your not looking or blind. This is unbelievable. It is the coaches job to recruit players that will player here (all season long) for his program.

In reality it has only been in the last five years when coaches nationwide have had to worry about kids quitting mid-season. Let's chalk that up to the AAU circuit which has completely destroyed any sense of "team" in these young men. Coaches shouldn't have to worry about recruiting kids that will play the entire season...that should be expected.
 
From what I am hearing he was more fed up with McD than anything. When you have big money on the table, and your coach is giving you less and less of a reason to stick around, he just decided to take the money and run.

That's what happens when you aren't clearly better than the players around you and have to split minutes...
 
This tells me you have never played team sports, where you depend on your teammates and they depend on you. Quitting on them in the middle of the season is unforgiveable. Incredibly selfish.

Agreed - but this isn't WWII. No need to get too personal. He's had drama relating to pro ball in Europe since his arrival. It finally caught up with him.
 
From what I am hearing he was more fed up with McD than anything. When you have big money on the table, and your coach is giving you less and less of a reason to stick around, he just decided to take the money and run.

Why was he fed up with McDermott? Don't post ******** rumors unless you are willing to bring the "goods" to the table. This type of rumormill stuff should get people instantly banned in these types of situations.
 
Why was he fed up with McDermott? Don't post ******** rumors unless you are willing to bring the "goods" to the table. This type of rumormill stuff should get people instantly banned in these types of situations.

Wouldn't you be ****** if you went from starting your entire sophomore season and playing a ton of minutes to playing noticeably less your junior year?
 
It's selfish and he quit on his team. Period.

If he wanted to play ball in Europe, he needed to leave last summer. When he came back in the fall, he signed up to play for this whole season. The life decision he made previously was to play another season at Iowa State, a commitment he decided not to live up to.

Because we obviously know what's best for him. :jimlad:

You know what, it is selfish. He made a selfish decision that could result in him being better off down the road in a place where he has a shot at a professional career.

Your right, he should ignore that opportunity in order to appease us and his teammates who won't be around in a couple of years to see him either succeed or fail at any level. :jimlad:
 
Because we obviously know what's best for him. :jimlad:

You know what, it is selfish. He made a selfish decision that could result in him being better off down the road in a place where he has a shot at a professional career.

Your right, he should ignore that opportunity in order to appease us and his teammates who won't be around in a couple of years to see him either succeed or fail at any level. :jimlad:

I'm guessing you never played a "team sport." Diante, Craig and Boozer have gone through the wars with Lucca and each one of them have made sacrifices and stuck with the program. Lucca turned his back on his teammates today and you really can't sugarcoat that. The fact he didn't even have the courage to tell his teammates let's you know that he knew the decision was a selfish one.
 
This has probably already been posted, but if you want some free entertainment... go check out Lucca's facebook.
 
Why was he fed up with McDermott? Don't post ******** rumors unless you are willing to bring the "goods" to the table. This type of rumormill stuff should get people instantly banned in these types of situations.

I'm sorry I didn't have the time to set down and have a Barbara Walter's-esque interview with an acquantance that knows Lucca well. He didn't go into specifics, just apparently didn't like his role on the team, didn't get along with Mac real well, and had recieved 6 figure offers after his stint with the national team and decided that he would rather make a living in Germany then sticking things out in Ames.

Believe what you want to believe, I was pretty transparent with the fact that these are just things I have heard from someone I know that knows Lucca well. I never said I was stating fact, just something I heard from somoene who is in my opinion a good source. It's not like I am a member of the media reporting this stuff...so chill out.
 
Wouldn't you be ****** if you went from starting your entire sophomore season and playing a ton of minutes to playing noticeably less your junior year?

So essentially you don't have any first hand information and you just want to start the rumormill. He is playing less minutes because we are a better team.
 
We don't know that. Lucca didn't give any specifics about who he was playing for or any contact info.
And as Gmac speculated in his teleconference, Lucca must have been planning this for weeks, and his plane ticket bought some time ago. Yet he plays, practices, even celebrates wins, all the while knowing he's walking soon?
Is that how you would do it too? You're defending that?

Well, you don't know me but you made the assumption that I've never played team sports. So, lets just keep assuming we have a clue as to the particulars surrounding this decision.

No, I'm not defending what you said above because we don't know... just as you said. It's all speculation. No, I wouldn't handle things the way he did... if in fact it was handled the way Gmac says.

But, since we are speculating on speculation... What if Lucca got a call the just the other day from an agent in Europe who wants to sign him and he had to make a decision in a short amount of time? But we don't know that either do we?
 
Ok, I concede that I have become the person posting information from a source that I am vaguely connected to, but I have a friend who is friends with one of Lucca's roomates and this is what he had to say about the situation:

He helped him pack today and he hasn't been happy in a long time and finally had just had enough. He wanted a bigger role on the team, not just sitting in the corner. He had coach didn't get along very well and he has had 6 figure offers on the table since he started playing for the national team in Germany.

Take it for what its worth...

Bigger role, maybe he should have got open more and played some D. He had the green light to shot what else did he want?
 
I'm guessing you never played a "team sport." Diante, Craig and Boozer have gone through the wars with Lucca and each one of them have made sacrifices and stuck with the program. Lucca turned his back on his teammates today and you really can't sugarcoat that. The fact he didn't even have the courage to tell his teammates let's you know that he knew the decision was a selfish one.

Wow. Yet another baseless assumption by someone who doesn't know me. Based on the reactions in this thread upon the news of Lucca leaving I'm really not all that surprised.
 
Because we obviously know what's best for him. :jimlad:

You know what, it is selfish. He made a selfish decision that could result in him being better off down the road in a place where he has a shot at a professional career.

Your right, he should ignore that opportunity in order to appease us and his teammates who won't be around in a couple of years to see him either succeed or fail at any level. :jimlad:

Not us, just his teammates. He made a commitment to them when he decided not to go play pro ball last summer. I believe in honoring your commitments.

You and he obviously don't.
 
Sucks that he's leaving, but then if you read some of the responses its more like good riddance he sucked anyway.

I think its crappy timing. I hope he didn't have this orchestrated well in advance and didn't tell anyone. That would be a simply craptastic thing for him to do. I do think his leaving hurts our team.

I do hope he simply got an opportunity on short notice and made the decision that is best for him in the long run. If that is the case then I wish him well. Actually, I wish him well either way.

I'm certainly not going to hurl myself off a building while screaming "**** you Lucca" on the way down.
 
Puhhhhhhlease...I have a hard time believing some of you would not make a similar decision in advancing in your own careers. You have a pretty good job, but you get the feeling you are going nowhere and you realize a promotion within the company is not coming anytime soon. A different company offers you a significantly higher salary and a better chance for you to use your god-given abilities. I would imagine most of you would take the latter.
 
Not us, just his teammates. He made a commitment to them when he decided not to go play pro ball last summer. I believe in honoring your commitments.

You and he obviously don't.

No, you believe he should honor his commitment so you can feel better about yourself as a Cyclone fan. There's a good and thoughtless assumption for you. See? I can do it too. :yes:
 

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