Quagmire
Years ago

The reality for athletic NBA PGs

Can't take credit for this, friend alerted me to the glut of athletic PG's in the league right now, and how 'athletic'is a curse for the longevity of any point guard in the NBA.

Francis, Iverson, Marbury, Robert Pack (????!!!)

All 'athletic' and all had carrers OVER by 30.

Stockton, Kidd, Billups and Nash all playing into their late 30's and relevent while doing so.

Rose, Westbrook and Wall....the writing is on the....well....wall. (sorry)

My source basically said, these guys have only a set amount of jumps in those legs...the amount is getting less every day...

Williams, Paul, Rubio, will all be playing long after the athletic types are G.O.N.E.

Should longevity come into play when paying a player? or does it matter when most players spend their prime 5-8 yrs at a club before being traded?

Add Rondo to that list, when his athleticism goes, he will be the least productive point in the L.

Topic #28063 | Report this topic


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

Iverson, Marbury, Francis, Kenny Anderson, Damon Stoudamire, Jason Williams etc etc

You can throw in some Forwards in the McDyess category as well, 1 injury away from being average. Altho, i actually like how McDyess changed his play. But it's rare that happens.

Reply #358160 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Jordan changed his gamestyle as his athleticism went too and could be argued that he became a better, smarter player?

I think players like Rose and Wall will make the adjustment cos they have good basketball brains but players like Westbrook might struggle once their atheltic abilities decline.

Reply #358161 | Report this post


Quagmire  
Years ago

Yeah, they have 'good' basketball minds, but 'good' aint getting it done the NBA surely!?

Reply #358166 | Report this post


athlete  
Years ago

Rondo is a PG i see lasting the longest out of all of them, his IQ is ridiculously high, teams are always going to have a spot for him as their quarterback.

Reply #358183 | Report this post


MikefromtheK  
Years ago

Allen Iverson doesn't deserve to have his name up there imo. Not because he lacks athleticism it's because his NBA career got ended due to his image rather than his basketball. Fact of the matter is there was a legit plan to downplay his talent and he was aware of it.

How exactly does a guy go from averaging 26 PPG on a 50 win team to being told to either be a 6th Man on a borderline Playoff team or go home within 10 months?

How exactly does a guy go from averaging 26 PPG on a 50 win team to being unable to get a contract outside of a partial MLE from a Lottery team within 15 months?

How exactly does a guy go from averaging 26 PPG on a 50 win team to being used as a "fill-in" for Lou fukkin Williams within 18 months?

Seriously he was 33 and putting up 26 PPG 7 APG in 42 MPG.

When exactly was he supposed to "decline" unless he blew out his knee or something?

Everybody knows he was a ball dominant volume scorer, but so is Kobe.

Yet Kobe's still in the NBA and has an organization that views him as a #1 option.

You see, the perception of Iverson was that he was a ballhogging chucker who could not co-exist with another star. But when he went to denver, he and carmelo immediately became the highest scoring duo in the league and led denver to 50 wins (top 4 ppg team in the league) their FIRST year together, and second, in the LOADED west. With a paperthin 7-8 man rotation at that. Melo statistically had his best years with Iverson, shooting at a 50% clip and 35% from 3. While AI averaged 26/7 (35% from 3)on his lowest FG attempts in years.

But guess what...they could only barely get the 8th seed and had the unfortunate luck of meeting the spurs and the lakers (the year they won the chip) in the first round.

The perception of him being a team cancer was ultimately drilled home when AI was traded for billups to detroit. Little did AI know detroit's new coach planned on tanking the team and giving younger players burn, while benching rip hamilton and iverson. After an enfuriated rip, sheed, hamilton, turned their back on the coach mid season, detroit ultimately disbanded and the coach curry was fired that same off-season. Meanwhile...billups and melo had made it to the WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS. So low and behold, theres your PROOF!

IVERSON IS A CANCER!




But wait a second, what was different about denver that year? Well, after deepening the tiny bench and acquiring key defensive role players like Birdman chris anderson and their key big man Nene coming back from injury healthy after 2 years.

And their record? With only 53 wins(3 more than with iverson)....Denver secured 3RD PLACE IN THE WESTERN PLAYOFF standings. As opposed to the 8th seed a year earlier...only 3 less wins in the regular season.

Jewbag Stern ran with this....told his little ESPN buddies, and thats all she wrote. Iverson somehow went from 26/7 on a 50-win team to a washed up ballhogging chucker who lost a step in less than a YEAR

You see, that just goes to show you the power of the media. The theme that iverson had "lost a step" was so repeatedly forced that people began to believe it. And with that, in less than a year iverson was beginning to be told he had slowed down...without actually being given the chance to slow down. As soon as he got to detroit, media outlets began repeatedly sprending the idea that Iverson needed to come off the bench.

Reply #358216 | Report this post


MikefromtheK  
Years ago

Isn't it funny how the only negative stories and feedback from Iverson has come from the media. The boldest personalities of the NBA have been well-documented by testimony and stories from players over the years etc etc...Jordan's ego for example.


But I challenge you to find one quote or shred of evidence from ANY of iverson's past teamates about him being a bad lockerroom character, a bad teamate...a lockerroom cancer. All testimonies from player's about ai over the years have overwhelmingly been positive with tons claiming they dont understand how he gets such a bad rep.

Compare him to the rodman's and artest's of the league. Its a joke.

Not many people know, but during the lockout Kobe personally asked for Iverson to get a shot at the lakers due to their drought at the PG spot. Why do you think they were about to give an injured arenas a shot a couple of weeks ago...when a healthy, 2 year rested Iverson can't even get a tryout.

If anything, these 2 years off have done Iverson GOOD considering his reckless style of play over years from his younger days. Hes played in lockout games, crossing up and scoring on rookies like jeff teague without breaking a sweat.


THIS is a joke. Period. The fact is...financially the NBA went 70s- DR jay, 80s - magic/bird, 90s - jordan 00s - Iverson. Period. At a time when everyone feared who would take up the NBA image, ai swept in. No one was buying shaq jerseys or kobe's sneakers. The NBA owes iverson much more respect than this, but sterns ironfist control will never let it happen. Lebron was forced into the spotlight, bludgeoning the fans repeatedly over the head with this new clean-cut image of the NBA...anything to forget the "hood streetball era" of the NBA.

The NBA doesn't want Iverson due to the image he brought to the league, and the mission to cleanup the NBA image started atleast as early as halfway through the 00' decade....when he was NOT invited to tryout for the olympic team in 2006 over the likes of LUKE RIDNOUR and GILBERT ARENAS. That year was the best statistical year of Iverson's career...averaging 33/7.5 a game.

So yeh politics strikes again!

Reply #358217 | Report this post


But work  
Years ago

That is the best conspiracy theory post I have ever read on hoops.

Reply #358223 | Report this post


Snappello  
Years ago

MikefromtheK that is a brilliant read and has its merits too.

Reply #358286 | Report this post


birdman  
Years ago

mikefromthek, please write more in all other threads...... that was a really well written summary! i would read your blogs!!

Reply #358302 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"Jewbag Stern"? Mel Gibson much?

Reply #358424 | Report this post




You need to be a registered user to post from this location. Register here.



Close ads
Serio: Tourism photography and videography
Little Streaks - The fun and interactive good-habits app designed especially for kids.

Advertise on Hoops to a very focused, local and sports-keen audience. Email for rates and options.

Recent Posts



.


An Australian basketball forum covering NBL, WNBL, ABL, Juniors plus NBA, WNBA, NZ, Europe, etc | Forum time is: 1:08 pm, Fri 29 Mar 2024 | Posts: 968,026 | Last 7 days: 754