JaVale McGee had a pretty nice dunk on Josh Smith in Atlanta on Saturday. He also had a pretty nasty dunk on Spencer Hawes last night at home. Both dunks are very close in awesomeness. I have my ever-so-slight favorite, but you be the judge. Watch both and then vote in the poll below.
Man, the NBA rookies are having fun. But they deserve it. It’s basketball, basketball, basketball all day for them. And then all those obligations, which, pertaining to John Wall (the most extreme case this year), have been aptly depicted by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. Hard-work stuff, truly. So, they get paid millions and scrutinized by those who can’t do what they do. Pfftt … “reporters.”
Anyway … part of all this is why watching these guys have fun is so much, well, fun. So let’s take a look at some fun the rooks had while on their photo shoot Tuesday in New York.
First, we have John Wall messing around with his bro DeMarcus Cousins, playing some one-on-one:
I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it by now, JaVale McGee’s monster dunk over New Orleans’ Kyle Hines in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game. It was pretty damn insane … and definitely would have been nice to see. I was right there, mere feet away taking pictures from the baseline. And right there in my way was the referee. Thankfully in this day and age there is a YouTube, so let’s take another watch.
After the game McGee spoke about his dunk, saying, “I surprised myself to tell you the truth. I thought I was going to dunk it, but I ain’t think … I felt like the rim was at my waist.”
In the video below, McGee also credits the Hornets’ Sean Sonderlieter, depicted as “that white guy with the hair down to here,” as being the spark that ignited the Wizards’ third quarter where they outscored New Orleans 30-16. Evidently Sonderlieter said something to John Wall after he expressed his excitement over a Trevor Booker blocked shot. “Everybody just jumped on that guy’s back. We just all came as one and everybody just started going crazy. We all just started feeding off each other,” said McGee.
First, JaVale McGee swatted four shots last Saturday against the Kings to surpass 100 blocks for his career. Now this:
I’d say things are looking up for the kid. Now if he can further prove his worth in Flip Saunders’ zone defense, he just might get more burn on the court.
Relevant Stat: Wizards team blocks per 48 minutes goes up 5% when McGee is on the floor. [82games.com]
Video: JaVale McGee on achieving his 100th career block:
Lost amongst the mucky sounds and words regarding last night’s stinker versus the Hawks was this sweet ‘JaVale McGee block, Mike James recovery, pass to Nick Young who tips, gathers, and throws the ball off the glass for a McGee dunk’ combo [via Bethlehem Shoals at The Baseline].
Just watch …
Also, Comcast SportsNet has been doing a ‘My Life 365‘ series on Caron Butler.
We’ve seen the dunking prowess of the lengthy JaVale McGee …
But did you know that last year, in only 75 games and 1,143 minutes, McGee dunked more than an entire NBA Team?
JaVale McGee … 80
San Antonio Spurs … 73
42% of McGee’s FGs were dunks.
His 80 dunks were good enough for 29th in the NBA and 5th among rookies, after: Brook Lopez, Greg Oden, Jason Thompson, and Marreese Speights.
He finished 8th in the league in ‘Minutes Per Dunk’ – 14.65 – after: Shaquille O’Neal, Ryan Hollins, DeAndre Jordan, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Greg Oden, Dwight Howard, and Andrew Bynum.
JaVale, amongst playing a Transformer and Wolverine, has a staring role in his own movie short. What exactly it’s about is left for the viewer to interpret.
Yes, the dunk of Xavier’s Jordan Crawford on LeBron James, a video of which was confiscated by Nike officials, has seemingly caused more of an uproar than if it were posted on YouTube with a press conference held by the “Chosen One” himself,presenting the clip for all to see.
The worst part is that according to reports, it was actually LeBron who whispered into the ears of said officials right before they accosted various videographers around the gym.
There are a couple inevitable results from this occurrence:Read more »
Ok, so the Wizards ’08-09 season isn’t exactly going as planned. Hell, it’s been downright disastrous. So, us of Bullets/Wizards Nation must revert back to small victories, such as when we all rooted for Timmy “Legs” Legler in the ’96 All-Star Three-Point Shootout as the Bullets toiled into the all-star break with a 22-24 record (which looks tragically unattainable at this point).
In any case, the first “little victory” campaign is to get Nick Young into the 2009 All-Star Slam Dunk Contest. And what better way to represent than a t-shirt?
Below you will find a lovely blue “Monumental Air” t-shirt….the very style I ordered before heading out of town for the holidays and received in the mail upon my return.
The design was crafted by Jake The Snake and is sponsored by the good folks at Bullets Forever. Shirts come in blue or white, with a large or wide logo, and the text on the back of each is:
Dunk Contest ’09 The Nick Young Campaign www.bulletsforever.com
