Kevin Durant’s Summer “Vacation”
From China to the Philippines, Rucker to D.C., Kevin Durant spent his long Summer stepping into the firmament of NBA superstars. Arguably the league’s best scorer at the ripe old age of 22, the extra reps weren’t as important to Durant’s rising celebrity. It was the barnstorming.
Of course, Durant couldn’t be the NBA’s future poster boy without the skills, but he seems to be taking care of that quite nicely, I might say. It was hitting the streets, visiting the playgrounds, and playing in the small gyms that have taken the Oklahoma City forward from NBA All-Star to the People’s Champ.
Every single person lucky enough to see the long frame of Kevin Durant stride onto their home court, strapped with uniform of backpack and headphones, is now invested in his future. Fact is, I care about Durant more after watching him battle a heckler at the NIKE Pro-City game I attended. That was the point of his global basketball tour (which isn’t even over yet).
Now, Kevin’s approachable. Relatable. He’s not just the guy on television. You’ve seen him in your hometown. You’ve watched him play for nothing. You see his passion.
Make no mistake about it: whenever the NBA comes back, you’re going to tune in to see Kevin Durant, you’re going to check the Thunder’s record, and you’re going to hope to see his truly unique game in person.
If you were lucky enough to catch him this past Summer, you may well end up telling your children you saw one of the greatest to ever lace them up, play the game he loves, not in some gigantic arena with tens of thousands, but up close and personal.
That’s what happens when you’re The People’s Champ.
(photos: kevindurant35.com I Michael Stargill)
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Happy 21st birthday to Indiana Pacer Paul George!
Here’s a great mix of the best highlights of his rookie season. Watching a compilation of his plays from the 2010-11 season really excites me to see what he’ll bring to the Pacers next year, and for years to come.
Song:
“Written in the Stars” - Tinie Tempah
Josh McRoberts throws the sweet dime to Dahntay Jones for the huge dunk vs. the Boston Celtics in NBATV’s Assist of the Night.
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GetBangedOn Dunk of the Month - January: DeAndre Jordan dunks on Jon Brockman
You have voted and not surprisingly, DeAndre Jordan’s borderline man slaughter of Jon Brockman was the winner. Thanks again to everyone who voted.
I was a little surprised that Trevor Ariza’s smash over JaVale McGee was so poorly received but the winning slam was a pretty easy pick.
Not only did Brockman get annihilated on the dunk, he fell back and tried to pull Jordan with him. DeAndre landed and threw Brockman away from him. Everything about this dunk just screams total brutality. This is the kind of dunk that I personally love. It’s just straight up abuse.
Jon Brockman, you Got Banged On.
Video via @OutsidetheNBA
Also, this month @CardboardGerald, of Bobcats Baseline and Stacheketball fame, has put his illustrating talents to use and put this ridiculous slam down on paper for our enjoyment.
Check it out…
Click the image for a larger version.
Thanks to everyone who voted, and a special thanks to @CardboardGerald for the drawing. Make sure you check him out on Twitter and check out his stuff at Bobcats Baseline and Stacheketball.
Amateur player attempts 124 three-pointers in a single game
A European player attempted 124 three-point shots in a game, making only 24 of them. While he made less than one in five, that’s a True Shooting Percentage of nearly 30%! The real upset is not that this happened, but that it happened in Lithuania, and not the Oracle Arena in Oakland, or a Don Nelson fever dream.
Missing one hundred three-pointers in one game! By the fourth quarter, was he just throwing baseball passes at the rim from halfcourt? Even John Starks saw this box score and said, “Dude, pull it back a little.” Meanwhile, in Charlotte, Stephen Jackson resolved to spend at least one year in Kaunas after his NBA career is over.
Jim O’Brien would have given him 48 minutes, and continue to do so.
@King24George: "The pic says it all.. #TeamVogel!"
I think it’s great that our Indiana Pacers are not only spending time working out during the summer, but also spending downtime with other players and the prospective coach who’s due to return after some logistics are ironed out.
#TeamVogel!
Josh McRoberts fills the Indiana Pacers’ Top 10 Plays of the 2010-11 season.
Josh McRoberts shows us all how to throw down an open alley-oop with this slam against the Bobcats.
After the Pacers’ sad loss tonight to the Sacramento Kings, it’s good to see Carmel, Indiana native Josh McRoberts throw down one of the sickest oops of the year against the Charlotte Bobcats.
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If Anthony Randolph is a Pacer by the end of the day, I’m throwing a party. If he’s in a Pacers jersey by Saturday, I’ll throw a viewing party for the game vs. Portland, complete with some sort of Pacers Drinking Game.
We need some more passion for this team.
Not a Bad Decision
Re: Best/Worst Moves of all 30 teams in the NBA (or something) by Ross Coleman
Indiana Pacers
Best Move
Adding Darren Collison via trade was a fantastic move by the Pacers. Anytime you add a guy that was a key member of three straight Final Four teams, it is a good thing.Collison gives the Pacers a solid starting point guard that can manage a game.
Worst Move
Drafting Paul George has been disastrous. George was the 10th overall pick and he has done little to help the Pacers this year. He has played in just 16 games this season averaging just under six points per game.It is a bigger shame when you realize they could have had guys like Xavier Henry, Quincey Pondexter, Joe Crawford, or even Landry Fields. All of whom are better than George so far.
1. I realize that this “article” is mostly just the mostly-ignorant and quickly-scribed thoughts of a “web reporter” about a non-headline team. Regardless, what Ross Coleman basically did was select the best and worst newly- or re-acquired players from each team and explain how astonishingly productive or unproductive they’ve been. A pretty cheap job in my opinion. Especially since he said that Jordan Crawford was Joe Crawford (as highlighted), and he implied that Henry, Pondexter, Crawford, and Fields were all draft-worthy with the tenth pick, which is (a) completely irresponsible to mention when all “evidence” is only relevant in hindsight, and (b) doesn’t make sense as Pondexter and Crawford were late-firsts and Fields was a Rudy Fernandez/Glen Davis/DeJuan Blair-esque sleeper in the early second. No one would have picked any of those other guys at ten, and if they had, the fans would react like they did when we traded Jerryd Bayless for Brandon Rush (we’d be in a different situation if we had kept JB).
2. Is this what an outside viewpoint sounds like? Darren Collison is a savior and Paul George was another lottery mistake? This proves Coleman isn’t doing very deep research, if any at all. Paul George has one of the highest potentials in this draft class, but, due to the coach, George hasn’t been given the ultimate chance that some other rookies have already been given this season; Ekpe Udoh (198) is the only top-10 rookie who has been given less minutes than Paul (251), and Cole Aldrich (55) and Patrick Patterson (177) are the only other players in the top-15 with less.
3. I wouldn’t have posted this, but the last line was not justifiable. George’s ceiling is higher than Pondexter, to say the least, but to call his drafting “disastrous” doesn’t make sense. Given the time he’s received, George has shown out quite well on occasion (vs. the Wizards, Mavericks) and proven that he’s bound to be a huge star, when he’s given the ball. This doesn’t reflect in his per-game stats because (once again, for the cheap seats) the rotation and coaching isn’t designed around George, nor is it designed to accommodate him. As I stated, the research in this article had to have been minimal.
What say you, Ross Coleman?
