Przybilla Rejects Knicks By Henry Abbott ESPN.com NEW YORK -- The game story is filled with tales of Brandon Roy's offense, Rudy Fernandez's 3-pointers, and Greg Oden's single bucket in his Madison Square Garden debut. But as an in-person witness, I'm here to tell you that the game was decided not by any of those things, but instead by a gutsy play by a big Polish-American kid from Minnesota. Blazer backup center Joel Przybilla not only got nearly every rebound that mattered with the game on the line (he finished with a game-high 14), but he also starred in what, to me, was clearly the play of the game. The Blazers had shot abysmally all night -- the offense was working correctly, but nobody could hit those open shots -- and it had seemed like the Knicks might just hang around long enough to win. They had several decent leads, even though everyone knew the Blazers were supposed to be the better team. A few minutes into the fourth quarter, the Blazers' shooting percentage had finally normalized somewhat after starting out in the 20s. Without doing anything brilliantly, the team had a meaningless one possession lead at 78-75. Al Harrington -- who has looked rejuvenated since joining Mike D'Antoni's squad -- took the ball hard to the hole. A make would mean a very close game, and an "and one" almost seemed like the most likely outcome. But Przybilla stuffed the layup attempt. Just blocked it beautifully. The Blazers recovered the ball, and a few seconds later Rudy Fernandez drained a three. Suddenly, what had been a scant fluke of a lead became a meaningful six-point advantage with 9:37 to play. New York called timeout, and never really competed again. Moments later, Knick fans were streaming for the exits. Przybilla is a no-frills player. He only attempts simple things. But he achieves nearly all of them. He has made nearly 84 percent (46 of 55) of his shots this season. The 13-6 Blazers have a lot of players sharing the spotlight as they return to NBA respectability: Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw, Greg Oden, Nicolas Batum ... but for my money, one of the most essential ingredients has been a big man who protects the rim, gets big rebounds, and doesn't make mistakes. A tip of the cap to Joel Przybilla.
Nope, I meant Joel. In some people's opinion, he sucks and doesn't deserve credit for what he's accomplished because "he's only doing what he's supposed to do". Ironically, with all the arguing for and against Joel's suckage, no one seemed to notice that that thread was a direct spoof of this thread. Of course, I was "all over Joel's nuts" two weeks ago. Now, it's suddenly fashionable for guys like Hollinger and Abbot to be praising him, too. BNM
Literally? Did he not call? Did he find someone else? I'm sorry. Take solace in the fact that you did a really good job of "praising" him.
In addition to continuing to have one of the highest rebound rates in the league (I believe after tonight's 14 REB in 26 MIN he will be neck-and-neck with Greg Oden for the league lead in RbR), and continuing to shoot over 80% from the field, has anyone noticed how many more shots Joel's been blocking lately? He's averaged over 2.6 BPG in his last 8 games in less than 24 MPG after averaging only 0.55 BPG in the same 24 MPG over the first 11 games. He's averaging a phenomenal 5.28 BLK/48 over the last 8 games. Once again, not too shabby for a guy who SUCKS! BNM
Please forgive the old guy. I'm not up to speed on the latest hip lingo all the crazy cool kids are using these days. Until I read it in this thread, I was not familiar with the term "on his nuts". However, based on the content of that thread, I have deduced that if you are "on someone's nuts" it means you are giving them credit for doing their job and doing it well. This is good to know in relation to your annual employee performance review. If your boss is "on your nuts" it's a good sign that you are in line for a big job promotion and a substantial pay raise. Rather than wait for this to happen, in order to ensure your best chance at getting such a raise and promotion, I suggest you take a proactive approach, march right into your boss' office and ask him point blank exactly what you need to do to get him "on your nuts". Good luck with that promotion. BNM
.. and the funny thing is ... Joel's great play is another side benefit of having Greg. He can go out and play hard every second he is on the court, without being tired or worried about foul trouble. Love it.
Joel has been playing great. Someone hand that man a $126 breakfast! http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2008/12/przybilla_swings_momentum_blaz.html
You are correct. In that context "On your nuts" is aka "sucking up" aka "brown-nosing" aka "ass-sucking" aka "giving props" aka "giving mad respect" "on your nuts" = Good thing "on your ass" = Bad thing And your boss analogy is a little off. It's more likely that the employee would be all over his boss' s nuts trying to get that promotion. Unless you are really lucky and you got a hot female boss, then it would be awesome to have her all over your nuts and handing out promotions. I gotta say I've only used the term "all over my nuts" when talking about a chick that was coming on to me. I've never used it in a sports sense so I guess it's all good if you use it that way but you've gotta say "no homo" afterwords if you are homophobic.
I'd never heard the term until another poster used it in reference to Wally Szczerbiak. I'm neither homophobic nor homosexual, just homo sapien. So, no need to specifiy yes/no homo. BNM
One other thing that rarely gets mentioned about Joel--for a guy who is 7 feet tall, he drops to the floor for loose balls faster than most guards. When you have a guy that big who is willing to do that, you are going to win a lot of scrums. "Saved possession" doesn't show up in any stat sheet, but it wins games.
You guys really want to keep this going? I thought it was over and done with. There are plenty of others who have funny things to say about Joel. Exhibit A: http://withleather.uproxx.com/?p=1559 I found this article hilarious. Exhibit B: http://www.blazersedge.com/story/2007/5/1/4147/02930 "My sister has snow globes less fragile than Przybilla." Exhibit C: [video=youtube;--VMLX7ID7w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--VMLX7ID7w[/video] OUCH! Now of course this is a silly post on my part, but if you guys want to act silly and keep bringing up the past, this ridiculous crap in the Blazer forum is never going to end. Get my point?
