Multiple times during the final minutes of last night’s intense game, Dwight Howard was shown smiling while on the court. If I were a Magic fan, I’d much rather see a scowl on his face. I do not want my superstar player smiling and fooling around during crunch time. I also don’t want my porn-star-look-a-like coach to be a panic attack waiting to happen, or my best offensive player (Vince Carter) to be a complete pussy, or my highest paid player (Rashard Lewis, owed $66 million over the next 3 seasons) to have a total of 11 points in 84 minutes played in the series… but that’s another story.
Keep smiling, Dwight. You don’t see Pierce, KG, Ray Ray, or any Celtic for that matter, smiling when the game is on the line and the series hangs in the balance. That’s why the Celtics will be playing for their 18th championship banner in the very near future, and Dwight Howard will have an extra couple of weeks to goof around in the offseason.
Normally, who cares about a game between Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge, right? That's until you see this dunk from Wednesday night. Introducing CSF's Gerard Anderson. The kid has thrown down some vicious jams throughout his career, but this is by far his best. Anderson decides to go all Vince Carter on Northridge's Vinnie McGhee, completely ignoring the fact that he was even standing there. (Editor's note: Reference to Vince Carter before he turned into a jump-shooting pussy). Hopefully, Anderson's got the talent to go pro. Maybe he can spice up the lackluster dunk contest some day.
Check out some of his other work here. And here. Kid's a beast.
Vince Carter and Dwight Howard are messing around with trick shots after practice, and Vince nails a 86 foot shot while sitting down and sets a new world record.
Was this a case of Vince trying to get 1 up on Howard? HMMMMM
OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Sunday there are/were 16 days left.
So I had this idea. For day 16 on our countdown 'til the NBA season, the day claimed by Carmelo Anthony, I would write about how said 'Melo has been a bit of a forgotten child since he got to the league. Such a thought reminded me of a David Bowie song, which then took me to the following nursery rhyme.
I love, by the by, that Wikipedia (copy and past does wonders nowadays) feels the need to Wiktionary-link to 'woe' for us, as if we've forgotten what the word means in this new and glittering age! The Bowie song entitled Thursday's Child takes the nursery rhyme to mean that a child born of a Thursday will forever be behind the ball, perhaps in relative obscurity, that such a child will have a harder time of it than say one born on Monday or Tuesday or, heaven bless them, on Sunday. I thought, maybe Carmelo falls under that umbrella, and I proceeded to investigate the matter. Whilst examining other NBA star's birth dates, I became engrossed. Thus, a day passed, rain fell, and no NBA Top 50 post went up for Sunday.
Now I know all of you are now wallowing in disarray due to your lack of countdown-y goodness. You may even be wandering in a land where the undead rule the day. Have no fear, however, for your Monday will be fair of face, and two f's in a descriptor can only be described as second to none but the storied 'double tap.'
In other words, ye heathens, you're gettin' two today because I got caught up in looking up these guys's birth-days and trying to come up with some significant conclusions. Obviously, the sample size isn't big enough for reliable statistical results, but the determining factors are qualitative in nature anyway. The real hump to get over for this study was the temptation to go astrological. That's been done and dead; it's the grounds for newspapers, not edgy blogs on the crepuscular outskirts. That's a good thing, Holmes. Anyway, we get some of that because it's inevitable that some guys born under the same sign (read: month) are similar. But we'll get to that. To begin.
The first and most salient point to this study is 'Melo. Dude's not a Thursday. He's a Tuesday. What does this mean? The rhyme says Tuesday's children are "full of grace." Sounds great, but how does it translate? Other Tuesday guys: Deron Williams, Amare Stoudemire, Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom. In my searches, I started with top players, meaning all-nba teams, overwhelming personalities, and the guys who have recently come or will soon be coming on this list. Of these initial players, these four joined Carmelo on the list of Tuesday children. Deron is the apt comparison. Williams and Anthony share a common thread of being looked over. Williams will seemingly never live down the comparisons to Chris Paul--though in head to head match-ups he generally comes out on top--and 'Melo has the LeBron comparisons to deal with. Tuesday's children have pretty steady careers, when all is said and done, but their "grace" is actually a euphemism for silently taking second shrift. These guys can't seem to shake off the shadows.
'Melo and Deron play nice with the rep, as they're fairly normal, well-adjusted NBA stars. See, most NBA players are born either in the December to January and sometimes February period or else in the May to July months. It's actually kind of striking, how regular this is. All the stars I looked at, unless otherwise stated, are born in these months. You have the stray Duncan in April (Taurus, fittingly) or Shaq in March (hello, Pisces)--if, by the way, you don't know your astrology, it's not hard to look up--for the most part, though, NBA stars tend towards those two periods of the year. Stoudemire, Artest, and Odom, however, are the odd November babies, and they're Tuesday boys too. Anyway, it explains the obvious difference between the Scorpios and Williams and Anthony. Still, the five of them share the shadow of more prominent personalities/talents, whether it's a rival on another team or Steve Nash.
So what about those over-shadowers? Being born on Sunday, of course, is the big prize. The rhyme even devotes two lines and four adjectives to the day. So what kind of players does Sunday produce? Try this list on for size: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and the burgeoning Devin Harris. Oh, a certain recent Hall of Fame inductee not named David or John is a Sunday baby too. Bonny, blithe, good, and gay? I'd say so.
Monday is just about as good a day to be born on as Sunday. Fair of face? These guys are the stars who are a little more under the radar. They don't exactly get overshadowed, but they don't stick out and accumulate the accolades like the bonny Sabbath boys. Monday births amongst NBA stars include Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Tony Parker, Joe Johnson, and, incidentally, John Stockton. Shaq is also a Monday, but guys just don't fit any molds. The Pisces thing might be right on. Ah, I don't want to get into it.
Wednesday is supposed to be filled with woe. The incredible research tool of Wikipedia states that older interpretations have Wednesday and Friday switched. The wives' tales that these kinds of rhymes stem from were very concerned with the seasons, the way the world turned and how the stars aligned. If the days were switched, it must've been for good reason, because using NBA stars as our barometer sure makes a convincing case for Wednesday births leading to lives, if not exactly woe-filled, that are not bereft of hardship. And the Wednesday ballers bear the marks of this burden. They are: Kobe Bryant (Denver), Kevin Garnett (the first round), Gilbert Arenas (knee problems...zaniness...), Vince Carter (Dickensian expectations), Danny Granger (the Pacers...Granger's another quiet April man). Another Wednesday's child of note? Carter's landmark victim Frédéric Weis. Talk about woe.
Thursday's children, the kids who started all this for me, don't fare much better than Wednesday's. Remember, a Thursday birth supposedly means bad news bears. The star representatives make this case a pointed one. Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, and Paul Pierce all have faced major challenges to their careers. It's not to say they haven't done well for themselves, but it hasn't been exactly easy. Steve Nash, despite not missing a whole lot of games, has had a history of back problems, and he was perpetually slept on until he went the 'far way to go' and signed with Phoenix. Let's hope the rhyme can be taken literally for Kevin Durant, as he's just getting started. Hopefully his 'far way to go' is always a measure of potential, and we continue to see the possibility for growth for years and years to come. Durant is a September dude, which we'll talk about when we get to Saturday. Darko Milicic is another Thursday's child. Y'know, the guy Detroit took second in '03 over Carmelo? Six years in, he's still got a ways to go.
Friday presented an interesting wrinkle to my examination of birth days for NBA players. There were no active NBA stars born on a Friday. I looked at over thirty of them, and none of them fell on a Friday. It's not to say that my investigation is by any means comprehensive, but you'd think there'd be at least one in thirty. Therefore, I decided to go back and see if the same held true for different eras. Thus, we came to the MJ is a Sunday and Stockton's a Monday factoids. I also found that fellow recent inductee David Robinson, along with legends Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Does that mean that the present-day NBA is less loving and giving? In an age where players are increasingly image consciousness, we might conclude as much. However, because I'm biased (and this study is so objective), let's keep caution out of the wind. Since there are so few Friday-born NBA stars, it makes more sense that superlative talents and personalities like Bird and Magic would provide the exception to the rule. Robinson works for this explanation as well. I will say that it must be hard being as loving or giving when your fame puts you under public scrutiny so often.
People born on Saturdays are supposed to be hard workers. Saturday held a bit of a different meaning when Sunday was your sole day of rest/prayer, and Saturday had to be that much busier in preparation. We see Saturday's prediction borne out in the NBA stars revealed to have been born on this day: Shane Battier and Chauncey Billups, both of whom were also born in September. An odd month for NBA players, and odder still that two of the three I came across would also fall under the Saturday category. If anything, it means the hard workers don't stand out as much. Remember, the thirty or so players I chose from at first were players who made all-nba teams, or who were in the higher reaches of my own ranking. It's not like it's at random. Still, perhaps I and those who vote for such accolades don't notice the guys who tend to be born on Saturday.
With this in mind, I set about looking for NBA players who weren't as heralded. I looked for teams that were strictly middle of the pack. It wasn't an easy distinction to seek out; you want to have guys you can talk about, y'know? I settled on looking at a role player on the 15th and 16th best teams in the league, according to standing. These ended up being east coast teams, so I also looked at similar west coast teams. The records were a bit disparate, but consider it an adjustment. In this manner, I chose to look at Kirk Hinrich of the Bulls, Donyell Marshall of the Sixers, Carl Landry of the Rockets, and Erick Dampier of the Mavs. I thought it was a nice cross section of talents/skills/dispositions. Turns out, according to the rhyme, not so much. Landry and Dampier were Mondays. Hinrich and Marshall were Fridays. Turns out Fridays aren't so rare. There's a problem, though. Whereas the stars seemed to fit the rhymes descriptors, these role players don't seem to. Marshall and Hinrich both seem like generous and lovable guys, but wouldn't Hinrich be better suited as a hard-working Saturday? Marshall seems more like a Tuesday, while we're at it: never the hero, though he's saved quite a few days for his teams. Landry looks like a Tuesday too, and it occured to me that all role players might seem to be overshadowed from the distance of fan-hood. Still, I couldn't let it go. Dampier, a fair face? Something just didn't add up.
So I looked up Tim Thomas birth day of the week. Saturday. And that does it. There's no way this rhyme can be an accurate predictor if Tim Thomas is supposdly a hard worker. Still, a lot of the stars seemed uncannily suited to their birth days. Of course it doesn't determine your fate, but perhaps it does determine to what pitch whatever fate you eke out will be played. Perhaps Tim Thomas works hard at scamming teams out of millions of dollars. I looked into the rhyme's portents further, but none of it makes sense after Tim Thomas. If you care: Brian Cook is a Thursday's child; Devean George is a Monday; Cedric Simmons is a Friday; and Kareem Rush is a Thursday.
But wasn't I supposed to be talking about something else? Oh yeah! 'Melo's number 16, and I wonder if I'm discounting him at all with that ranking. Am I letting him be Tuesday's child, despite the game that says he's fair of face, or even bonny and gay? Not sure. What I do know is that he's still the most important player on a very, very good Denver team. His numbers may be down, but they bely his greater commitment to rebounding and defense. Last season, he didn't rebound quite as much per game as he did in 07-08, but his rate was a bit better. In other words, he's not taking backward steps. Furthermore, he missed a bunch of games this past season. If he can keep consistent this season, he'll probably be even more dangerous. He gets it for ineffably having no questions heading into the offseason of 2010. Maybe it feels a bit like even Chris Bosh leapfrogged him in terms of importance for that reason, but it's a safe bet that impending free agency will be at least a small distraction for Bosh, Wade, and King James. Anthony has no such distraction, and therefore boosts his stock for 09-10. I think I've said enough.
OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Wednesday there are/were 27 days left.
Ah! Ah! There are fifteen minutes left in the day, Eastern Standard Time! Can I get it in? I haven't missed a day yet! Of course, there are six more hours plus aforementioned change in Hawaiian Standard Time, but that's beside the point, isn't Ye Olde New Bri'ish Folke?
So, let's get right to it. Who's better than the lanky jester of the NBA's internet savvy community? That's right, the guy who, for a few years there in the middle of the aughts became something of a joke. Half-man/Half-amazing? Prone to a lot of half-and-half jokes for awhile there. Of late, Vinsanity has been lauded as quite the team mate, a great pick up for the Magic (even if SVG is already on his tail for not defending! "But coach! They're my team mates!"), and shocker-of-shockers half-sane. As in not Vinsanity but Vince Sanity. Still, VC is the guy who was entirely nonplussed at the acquisition of Bosh in 2003. Was he right? Right enough to get the go ahead for the spot above CB4.
The Skinny: Vince hasn't averaged less than 20 points a game since his rookie season. He says he's ready, and if "deferring" to Devin Harris last season was any indication (can it really be deferring if Carter took more shots? I guess this could be called the Shaq-method of deferral acting, which ain't exactly bad for Florida team looking for a title...), Vince should be a solid addition to the Magic. What more can I say than 20.8 points, 5.1 pulls, and 4.7 dimes a contest? Oh, and he can still throw it down with more authority than anyone ever to hail from Chapel Hill. That's right, MJ. Wanna fight about it? Or play Bryon Russell one on one for it? Didn't think so.
Why VC is #27: Let's go back to basics. What are the four factors I laid out at the outset of this list? Irreplaceability, Not Salaries, Age, and the Ineffables. I also, of course, have been talking about talent, skill, and effort (or talent maximization). If you could approximate Carter and Bosh's value to their teams while adjusting for any number of variables including pace and position, who would be more valuable? Okay, PER says Bosh, but PER has always skewed towards the big guys. My thing is, the big guys always struggle if their points and wings can't get them the ball well. The wing guys have no such restriction on their effect on the court. Filling in for new Raptor Hedo Turkoglu, Vince Sanity looks to be a big part of SVG's distribution plan. That means, he's a big part of what will go on on a major contender. I'm sorry for those of you who think play should be evaluated as if in a vacuum and good players are good even on bad teams, but that's important.
Age, yeah Bosh wins out. But y'know what, this is how far outside the boxscore we are. Not even advanced stats that you can't get from your father's sports page fully whet our whistle here. Thus, a fairly big but also apologetic (in)eff you to anyone who doesn't like my wild card factor to this whole thing. You might write me off as lazy, and I might have to concede that point, but show me first where you lay your pen. Vince Carter positively beats out any of the guys below him on this list on sure thing ineffables coming in to this season. He's going to the Magic, where he's always longed to play, and he's not going to be a bit player. Put it this way, he's not going to be Gary Payton on the 2003-2004 Lakers, he'll be more like Karl Malone. Malone got hurt that year after a long ironman-like career. Carter is seven years younger and hasn't really been brittle since that one year before Bosh even got to the league, though VC carried that label for far too long after that season. Let's hope this year doesn't see Carter take a turn for the geriatric. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Okay, I'll get you some more content at some other point, but for now: Is Nagamatsu a Mexican name? No, it's Japa-Hawaiia-Kore-Chi-Spani-Portu-Filipino-Irish-Chamorro-English-ese! Dig?
We at OTB have been all over this summer's NBA free agency season. What with the major pieces falling in to place, it's time to take a step back and look at what really it all means for next season. To begin with, a little recap. San Antonio started it all off by trading for Richard Jefferson. Cleveland announced the trade for Shaq shortly afterwards. The Magic quickly made this series of acquisitions into an arms race by going off and trading for Vince Carter (oh, and by the way, who wins in an arms race but the profiteers?), effectively showing Hedo Turkoglu the door. Then, late Friday, Ron Artest announced his desire and reciprocated intention to sign with the Lakers. The Celtics, meanwhile, worked to get in on the fun by sending a handful of reps to persuade Rasheed Wallace to play for them, though Carter has been outspoken about wanting Rasheed to make Orlando into the new San Antonio Spurs and the original land of the aging free agents has also come calling.
In all the furor over the Artest signing and the courtship of Rasheed (interesting how they're both landing coastal/major-market since Detroit-Indiana), I think there still remains a player out there who could affect this whole scene. His name is Lamar Odom. Not only do the Lakers NEED to re-sign him now that Ariza is gone and Odom-pal Artest is in the fold, the Lakers need to sign him because he is their emotional core. If he departs, the chemistry in Lala-land looks a lot less hunky-dory. I could talk specific player dynamics and interaction, or I could give you one eye opening macrophenomenal reason Odom is so important right now.
First, let's look at the other teams. Who are the emotional leaders there? Lebron, obviously, in Cleveland. Garnett in Boston. Chauncey Billups on the conspicuously quiet Nuggets. Duncan and Pop in SA. Dwight How...well, we'll get to the Magic in a second. And those are your honest to goodness contenders for next season. And none of them stack up well against the Lakers if Lamar Odom re-signs. Here's why.
When you look at a team's chemistry, their emotional make-up and composure, you don't always look to the most emotional or talented player for that. You look slightly to the left. Okay, in Cleveland, Lebron makes his own way, but perhaps that's cause for concern. In Boston, it's not KG that leads the team in huddles and pre-game chants, it's Paul Pierce. Though 'Melo is the most talented player in Denver and Chris "Birdman" Anderson is the most fiery, it took Chauncey to make them into the contender they now are. San Antonio is so professional it doesn't need an emotional nexus, and I can probably get away with saying that because they take after their coach.
And what about Orlando? Where do they get their emotional center? It's not from their big, affable superstar of a center. No, he was too busy trying to figure out a post move or else bashing his coach for trying to hide his struggles. I honestly think Dwight will get there, but he's not there yet. He's still on call out, folks. Where else could the Magic turn for their emotional core? Not Rashard Lewis. He's too busy trying not to make mistakes, because he thinks that justifies his huge contract. (Please drive more next season, Rashard. Show us that brashness that put you in the green room even though it turned out so horribly.) Jameer Nelson is only three years older than D-Ho and only now coming in to his own as a player. AND coming off of injury. Maybe, someday, he too will be able to team with D-Ho in leadership, but for now the Magic are struggling in that department.
Don't look for Vinsanity to step into that void, either. He played second fiddle to Devin Harris (and there are very few emotions, channel-able ones at least, on a team that lost as much as New Jersey did last year) and has been shrinking from leadership for years now. But let's look at all that player movement. Turkoglu, probably moving North of the border next year, was the closest thing to an emotional leader the Magic had on their run to the finals. What about the solid six? Denver's not making any substantial moves, and San Antonio's not going anywhere. Cleveland and Boston, however, have committed incredibly risky nexus faux pas in their free agent acquisitions.
Lebron has been the established leader in everything for that team since he got there, which reminds me a little of a queen bee and how the rest of her hive are simply extensions of her will. Didn't you kind of get that feeling watching him orchestrate those pre-game antics last year? Now, the Big Jester is coming to town, and though you suspect Steve Nash or Ama're Stoudamire should have been more of a focal point for that Phoenix team's personality, Shaq totally dominated the way that team functioned, to the point of mimicking Lebron's movements. I have no doubt the two will get along in 09-10, and the rest of the Cavs will probably love Shaq, but what I'd be concerned with if I was Danny Ferry, Mike Brown, and the King, is whether or not Shaq will become the attitudinal core of that team to the point of making Lebron's championship aspirations slightly marginalized.
The Celtics, in bringing in Rasheed, also bring in a personality who's used to be being the nucleus of his team's composition. Oftentimes Rasheed doesn't get the respect he deserves for being an emotional leader, but he's always been that. Sure, he goes off on refs and shatters records for technical fouls, but he's also the guy who cares deeply for the other players, who doesn't care how many touches he gets as long as his team's feng shui is satisfied. Actually, I think Lamar Odom is better at accurately sensing his team's needs and metamorphosing to meet them. So, I kinda tongued my cheek at the Palace Brawl earlier, and I want to bring in one salient fact. Rasheed did not get suspended because of the tussle. Smart maybe--you don't need a team mate to be as gung-ho loyal as Stephen Jackson was--but even Reggie Miller got a one game suspension. I think Lamar would be there for his team mates, and Rasheed is a little bit too chilled out.
In many ways, Lamar and Rasheed are the most similar players in this free agent class. Here's the one telling piece of evidence you need to see: both Lamar and Rasheed lead their teams in pre-game rituals. That's right. It wasn't Kobe or Derek Fisher or Phil Jackson in the middle of that 1-2-3-ring! circle the Lakers ran last season; it was Lamar. In the same fashion, Rasheed led the Pistons in pre-game fervor-stirring (this dance has more energy than the one above, that's just a better shot video). Despite the similarities, Lamar's signing will be more important than Rasheed's. Why? Because no team should have more than one emotional firebrand. The Magic have none. The Cavs and Celts now have two.
Ron Artest, despite the wake of soundbytes he creates, will not disrupt this balance for the Lakers. On the Rockets, Ron-Ron allowed Shane Battier to be the man leading the chants. He sacrificed in the wrong ways, speaking to the media and having the loudest on-court game but never fully developing as an emotional leader. On the Lakers, he will complement Lamar as Kobe already does. In my mind, I imagine a bi-pedal emotional structure, like the dinosaurs that eventually became birds. Artest and Bryant are the legs that can push off from the media baseline, and Fisher is the tail that provides balance. Odom is the body that will allow this team to grow and take to the sky.
In February, a trade sending Vince Carter to the Spurs was rumored. Instead, the Spurs traded for Richard Jefferson earlier this week. With today's trade to the Orlando Magic, Carter avoids becoming next on the long list of vets on their last legs brought in to help the Spurs. This list includes Michael Finley (the most successful), Brent Barry, Nick Van Exel, Robert Horry, Damon Stoudamire, Kurt Thomas, Austin Croshere, and even Drew Gooden (admittedly not on his last legs quite yet). Seriously San Anton, who's next? Allen Iverson? Rasheed Wallace? Do they get a pension with that retirement plan? Furthermore, Half-Man Half-Amazing also trumps Shaq's move to become the big name vet bettering his situation this summer, even if it is only a one year hire. You gotta think Vince to Orlando is more promising than Diesel to Cleveland. The only question is what happens to Hedo now? And what is Minny doing with all those point guards?
The lottery portion of the NBA draft is done, and here are some initial thoughts. It's shaping up to be a certifiably wacky draft. Phoenix is making some legit noise. Minny got Rubio and Flynn and may be trading the Spaniard. Brandon Jennings, afraid to be last in the green room, took his hand shake 4 picks late. Austin Daye and Jrue Holiday were the two guys invited not taken in the lottery. Tiger's team is even getting in on the draft day action, trading for Vince Carter. I don't know what this'll look like when the dust settles. What I do know so far is Gerald Henderson, Jr. was picked by the Charlotte Bobcats so he could help Michael Jordan with his short game. Henderson was a junior pro champ, and talked about the difficulty of choosing to pursue a career in basketball instead. Of course, he can also do this:
Remember this commercial? Kinda? Me too. From the fringes of your NBA memory, summon up the images of Jason Kidd surrounded by a plethora of high flyers and quick hitters. Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, and Vince Carter were the main culprits. Now, all but Carter are gone from the New Jersey Nets, but Jefferson and Carter seem fated to continue to wait in the same wings. In February, around the trade deadline, there were trade rumors going around that the Spurs were taking a long, hard look at Carter. Now, with the draft only days away, the Spurs are swinging for the fences (and perhaps missing), and getting the other ex-Net still playing in the Eastern Conference.
This commercial highlights the two players' athletic abilities and slam- dunk predispositions. What it doesn't show is Carter's progression into elderstatesman status, and Jeffors slow sink into mediocrity. Stories go that Carter was a calm influence on an up-and-coming Meadowlands team that featured Devin Harris' breakout season. Jefferson, on the other hand, underachieved in Milwaukee, and the Bucks were better off with him on the bench. So, with this trade all but completed, I'm left wondering: are the Spurs getting the wrong wing-man? Keep in mind, this kills their cap space for 2010.
Watching the NBA playoffs this weekend got me thinking about a player not actually in the Big Show this year. I grew up adoring Vince Carter; his was the first NBA jersey I bought and his shoes were the first (and only!) that I shelled out over $100 for. That was back in 2000, though, when VC was just hitting his prime. He killed in the dunk contest that year, putting together a performance that has yet to be equaled in the 9 years since. His ceiling was ostensibly infinite, until, of course, the walls came tumbling down on his incredible potential.
For years, he was branded as a lazy, money-hungry player who was nothing more than a cancer on whatever team was so unlucky to have him. Recently, though, I've felt a real re-emergence in the public's love for His Airness II. This year, he was the leader of a talented Nets squad, and played the role of experienced yet still-skilled veteran to up-and-comers Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. For the first time since coming to the Nets, after the departure of Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, he looked comfortable playing the role he was in. He's become a joy to watch again, and while I never lost my love for his incredible game, I finally felt justified in spending years and years of energy defending his actions. He may not have become the superstar we envisioned him turning out to be, but I'm ok with his legacy being that of an immensely talented player with one great claim to fame.
There have been alot of memorable moments in slam dunk contest history from Michael Jordan to Dominique Wilkins to Jason Richardson to Kobe Bryant to finally, Vince Carter.
However, the one slam dunk contest that everyone seems to forget is 1996. This was when a young Brent Barry who at the time played for the Los Angeles Clippers took home the trophy.
