Very nice.

Mmm, sure does. Always such a shame to wash the triumph offa me after a game -- but, fuck it, basic hygiene must be observed.

Do you hear me, France? Me comprenez-vous?

The Stoat LIVES!!!

The Stoat DOMINATES!

Live by the 3, die by the 3

We stand between the darkness and the light, the candle and the star...

:)

Stoat is a hero! <3

Right on ;)

Nice pose. ^^ He's just like "YEAH WUT!"
(side note) He wears goggles, usually, tho', don't 'e?

He does. They're hard to see, but he has his goggles up over his headband. He has myopia, so he wears glasses in public and has a specially made pair of goggles during games.

My original idea for this picture was to have it during a game with Stoat wearing his goggles and not carrying the basketball-- thus the gesture he's making would be a celebration over another 3-pointer. Ms. Stein drew it differently, but without the goggles on his eyes, you absolutely get to appreciate the smug look she put on his face.

*looks* Well blow me down. He does. O.O

And, yes, you can see his expression much better.

So I know some of the artists here have done their own interpretations of how the players look.
Think the way his face is done here should be "canon"?
Cuz I can't imagine him any other way now.

Then it'd better be canon. I love the way he looks-- though his expression is a bit gentle. I figure that face can look different when he's screaming at reporters.

He who laughs last laughs loudest!

Yes! True! Hahahahaha!

But wait, Stoat plays for the Rapids-- and has never made the Playoffs.

Well-- that should change.

"Keep on clapping, you fat fuckers in the audience. If the only exercise you slobs are gonna see all week is smacking your grubby mitts together like a gang of baboons on crystal meth, I guess I'll have to do my part in unclogging your nation's arteries by giving you plenty to applaud, huh?"

Lovely, lovely work! My compliments to the arteeste :)

What a lovely comment to read on Thanksgiving!!

Finally, John Stout has a face! And it's a cute one! :)

I like the Seattle Sonics take on the jersey, with the little banner across the front.

And the "trifecta" sign he's making is a nice touch. ;)

Thanks! Yeah, had to give some love to poor Seattle and their lost team. Though I thought it was better to put RAPIDS across the jersey than SPOKANE.

And yeah, I'm a big fan of the trifecta gesture. I see Stoat as making that gesture a lot during games.

Think he was that self-assured from the outset?

Yeah, I think he came into the FBA very confident. He was questioned for being foreign-born and -trained, with many thinking he could never amount to anything stateside, but I think that just drove him to play harder. That ferocious ethic has been turning into bitterness, though, as it's become painfully clear his career has been held back by being stuck on such a dreadful team.

Stoat demands a championship. I think it eats at him that his fellow draft class picks B-Hop and Zip-Nut have been to the Finals while he's never made the Playoffs.

I get the impression the initial British ballers all got that. Guys like Dave New and Ben Rusk probably got it when *they* cam in, too.

Side note: maybe "Extraordinary Gentleman" was his *initial* nickname. You know, the pre-bitterness one. Heh.
Sounds like something a wiseacre teammate would come up with, IMO.

What wonderful characterization! I agree, he has plenty of chips on his shoulder. Not least of which the fact that a name like Julian Leslie Stoat-Fitzgerald hardly inspires terror on the court, though this is likely one of his lesser hang-ups since his older half-brother, from his mother's previous marriage to a hippy conservationist, is called Elrond Blessing-of-Gaia-Fitzgerald.

I like how you describe that his ferocious ethic has turned into bitterness; I see that very much. He's aware that an athletic career is time-sensitive and if he doesn't start making progress in the next few years he likely won't ever achieve anything of note despite his obvious skills. He can be a mite testy, and he has no problem venting that on unwary journalists.

One of his few redeeming qualities, though, is sportsmanship. Should he make any kind of progress into a championship, the opportunity alone will delight him and we're likely to see a slightly different side of the vicious Stoat. For all his bluster, he loves the game first and foremost, and while he's as competitive and self-assured as the next guy he'd rather lose fair and square to a better team than win a match due to the other team's misfortune.

Course, he'll be back with a righteous fury as soon as there's an opportunity :)

Wow, that's great! I love the idea of Stoat being an honorable athlete under the bristly surface. Sort of a John McEnroe character. And it certainly is fitting for a professional athlete. Biting personalities only succeed in pro sports when they're matched with exceptional discipline. And good sportsmanship is all about excellent discipline.

And I like the idea that he only vents his frustrations at reporters. During a lunch I had with  farallon not long ago, we had gotten to talking about ideas for the FBA, and one that came up was an FBA equivalent of NBA Cares, the NBA's outreach program to children. I made the point of how hilarious it would be for John Stoat to be roped into having to read to kids as part of the FBA's outreach program. Farallon pointed out how hilarious it would be if he was actually really wonderful with the kids! He clearly has a great voice for it.

That's such an adorable thought! Uncle John's Story Hour. On account of his half-brother's hearing impairment John speaks sign language, but he learned in the UK and deaf kids are often baffled by the nonsequiturs in his stories, a fact of which he's blithely oblivious :)

Damn. This is the best picture of any of the FBA roster I've ever seen. Jeeeeeeeeez, it's so bloody awesome!