I caught an LA feed of the game against the Clippers the other night and the Clips announcers discussed a topic that I haven't heard much about from the Portland area media.

In the second quarter when Roy was lighting it up, the announcers were praising him as a basketball player and team leader and then they launched into a pretty funny discussion of his mental health. The first announcer said (I'm paraphrasing, not directly quoting) "Brandon went to a sports psychologist this summer." The other announcer laughed and asked, "Was he depressed?" This seemed to piss off the first announcer and he snapped back, "NO, he just wanted to learn to be a better team leader."

They then talked about what Brandon discussed with the psychologist (without mentioning any sources) and the first announcer claimed that Brandon was asked by the psych what his goals were and he replied 'I want to win a championship.' Then, apparently, the psych asked him if his teammates knew that and Roy said 'they know I want to win.' According to the Clips announcers, the psych convinced Brandon that he had to be way more vocal with his teammates about his goals and desires so they would know, essentially, where their general is leading them.

This leads me to a couple interesting thoughts that I wanted to bring up for discussion:

First, is seeing a psychologist something fans should be concerned about? (obviously on one level, it's not really any of our business, but all fans analyze the personal lives of players all the time--oden, favre, lebron...)

What is the relationship between being incredibly physically talented and a hard worker on one hand, and being a team leader on the other? Along those lines, to what extent is it possible for someone who might be naturally quiet to become a vocal leader?

Also, this exchange left me rethinking Brandon's comments the other week about wanting the ball "a lot more" and his relationship with Dre. It seemed like a lot of people perceived these quotes as whiny, primadonna type behavior, but I wonder to what extent Brandon was simply trying to be more direct and actually lead the team rather than just being its' best player?

Thoughts?