I might pick him as the favorite, although with all the injuries in New Orleans I expect Davis to have some monster stat lines. He doesn't get to rest on D as Lillard can though.
Anyone else notice that National media,not just this article, is almost saying... "Now that LA is out of the way Lillard is primed to be a top player in the league"
I read it as the national media saying, "Nobody else in Portland is any good, so Lillard is going to be the only person in Portland who can score."
This is silly. Did Isaiah Thomas break down from his drives to the basket? Nope. He won 2 titles and is the only team to beat Bird, Jordan, Magic, and Drexler. Also, look at Rose's injuries. They have largely been non contact injuries.
You're right, I was just being emotional. Too many years of watching B-Roy sacrifice his body to no end.
Did Zeke crash to the floor after 50%+ of his drives to the basket? Honest question. I just don't recall little guys ending up on the floor back in those days the way they do now.
It was actually Zeke's teammates - The Bad Boys, that started the whole no easy baskets trend with The Jordan Rules. EVERYTIME Jordan entered the paint against the Pistons, someone knocked him on his ass. It was expected. It was a given. Of course, Jordan is taller than Lillard, but as a whole, the game was a LOT more physical back them. Remember this: An elbow to the face that required 40 stitches in the first quarter of a regular season game in early December. That was over the top even back then and led to a stiff fine ($10K) and severe one game suspension. BNM
I know it was a more physical game back then, but I just don't recall PGs ending up on the floor nearly every time they drove to the hoop. Now it's a near miracle for a PG/SG to stay on their feet! I don't think it's because they're getting pounded like back in the 80s/90s, but rather that they're going full-tilt with no expectation of landing on their feet. Also, while that hit was pretty huge I think it was a good basketball play. Malone was challenging the shot, not playing dirty - Zeke just happened to run into a brick wall.
It's because the players fall down now, partly because they try harder to get it to still fall by absorbing the contact with their body and flip the ball up. Back then they just wanted the foul.
A lot of what you see now is players "selling the contact" (aka: flopping) to try to draw a whistle. Do you honestly think the contact (or non-contact) really warrants James Harden ending up sprawled on the floor after every drive? Falling down is now a major part of many players' offensive arsenal. BNM
I agree with blue9. After years of hearing about that play (and Malone's later reputation for sharp elbows, just ask Brian Grant) and Isaiah's talk of Malone being a marked man in Chicago (?) as a result, this is the first time I've seen video of it. I can't make out any intent to lead with the elbow. It looked to be purely bad luck.
Did you watch the entire video? There are other angles later in the video, but it's still a crappy low res video. I remember seeing it real time on my nice big 32" CRT television and there was no doubt about the intent at the time. Zeke had whined about Stockton making the Dream Team over him, and to prove his point, lit up Stockton for 44 in their first meeting a month earlier. Malone wasn't going to let Zeke embarrass his teammate again and laid Zeke out 4 minutes into the rematch. BNM
Yeah, I watched the whole thing, and I think you hit on the key point there. Real time looked much, much worse than slow-mo. I imagine the refs didn't have the benefit of instant replay back then and were heavily influenced by the real time intensity of impact. I didn't see any angle in the video that looked like Malone led with his elbow. If it was intentional, it was a masterful job of disguising it.
I'm sure it was not intentional. Karl Malone using his elbows to give someone a gash requiring stitches? Karl was always a master of disguising his elbows. Every single time. and of course:
You didn't add anything I didn't already acknowledge in the first reply... Those first three videos won't load for me. The Brian Grant one doesn't appear to be the correct clip for the big, obvious elbow he took from Malone. I couldn't make it out in there, at any rate.
He had bad knees, his drives didn't damage his body. His final injury was near the 3 point line against Ron Artest or whoever that was on the Lakers. I do think he ignored his body and stupidly forced his way through injuries. Returning the Phoenix series in the playoffs 7 days after surgery. Who knows what other times at UW or in his earlier years he did similar. But it might have happened anyways with Roy; knees are just the worst body part for an NBA player to injure.
