Feed: Legends Of the NBA - AggScore: 76.5
Summary: Legends Of the NBA
On this blog you can find life stories and main facts about greatest players who made the NBA what is today.
Kevin McHale Interesting Facts and NBA Biography
By Jeff Sullivan
With astoundingly long arms tacked onto a awkward 6'10" frame, Kevin McHale was one of basketball's strangest physical specimens. Yet, it was this body that provided him with one of the most devastating low post games in NBA history.
While most front court players relied on brute
force, Kevin McHale's game was pure artistry. When he got the ball
near the basket, he could take it in for a layup or shoot over the
tallest men in the NBA. With his wide assortment of moves and
lightning quickness, McHale had endless options. It didn't matter
that his game looked funny, winning basketball games gave him the
last laugh.Winning meant everything to Kevin McHale. He once broke a bone in his foot in March of 1987. After missing five games, he came back but sprained both his ankles in the following weeks. Despite the excruciating pain, he played right through the playoffs, averaging 21.1 points per game. Former Celtics coach once said, "Winning meant more to McHale than getting credit for it."
Originally a sixth man off the Celtics bench, Kevin Mchale and his Celtic teammates Larry Bird and Robert Parish formed one of the most dominating front courts ever in the NBA. Kevin was one of the "fearsome threesome" that formed one of the most storied dynasty teams in basketball.
Read Kevin McHales biography Interesting facts about his career. Celtics Throwback Jerseys
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Date Published:
Hakeem The Dream - A Short Lifestory
The Greatest of All Time?
"Hakeem has to be ranked with the all-time greats," says Coach
Rudy Tomjanovich , nicknamed Rudy
T.
I agree. Although there
were and are so many great players in the NBA, there are always
the greater ones. Maybe a fifty players up to this moment. Among
them are for sure: Mikan , Russel , Chamberlain , West , Jordan , Magic , Ewing , Barkley.... and
Hakeem for sure.
"He blocks shots like Bill Russell, has the power of Wilt Chamberlain, runs like David Robinson, and can pass like Bill Walton. He is courageous and determined to win. To top it off he's a considerate and wonderful person who is a dream to coach", said Tomjanovich also.
Youtube gives us a chance to see every great game move,
dunk, assist or buzzer-beater shot. I love to compare NBA basketball then and
now. After hours and hours of watching and comparing centers, I
can conclude that twenty years ago there were more skilled
centers with a great clutch shot technique, dominant back-down
style and today are bodybuilder-like players who know just to
dunk the ball and nothing else. Too bad.
Hakeem is just perfect example of ideal center. He was so
unique in 80's and 90's ,and may I say, virtually unstoppable.
Just look at this videos and you will see!
Hakeem Olajuwon was born on January 21, 1963, in Lagos,
Nigeria. His parents, Salaam and Abike Olajuwon, owners of a
concrete business, raised Olajuwon along with his four brothers
and one sister in a one-story, three-bedroom red concrete house
in a neighborhood inhabited by Nigeria's relatively small middle
class. During his childhood, Olajuwon played soccer as a goalie
and excelled as a team handball player. He did not play
basketball until he was a high school senior at Moslem Teacher
College, after a Nigerian basketball coach spotted the
six-foot-nine-inch, 170-pound Olajuwon on the soccer field and
talked him into trying the game.
Although Olajuwon instantly loved basketball,
learning to play was difficult because basketball games were not
televised in Nigeria, and soccer dominated the nation's sports
news. Nonetheless, under the tutelage of coach Richard Mills,
17-year-old Olajuwon quickly became a leader on the Nigeria
national basketball team, which took third place in the
All-African tournament in 1979.
The following year Olajuwon traveled to the United States to
visit colleges. Disdaining the cold wind that greeted him when he
arrived in New York in October of 1980, Olajuwon enrolled in the
University of Houston, which offered him both a place on the
basketball team and a much more familiar climate.
Date Published: Jan 08, 2011 - 4:52 am
Jerry West "Mr Clutch"
Jerry West ,also known as
"Mr Clutch" was born in1938 and he is considered one of the best
shooting guards in NBA history. He excited fans during his
playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and later enjoyed
great success as an executive for the team.
He was an automatic scorer,
lethal on defense, and could pass, rebound-whatever his team
required.
West's NBA.com
biography noted that he was a small and shy boy, who did not make
any of his junior high sports teams. He began a regimen to
improve his basketball skills. West practiced in the rain, mud,
and snow. He would forget to go home to eat dinner, and would
practice shooting until his fingers bled. Eventually, West's hard
work paid off. He made the varsity team at East Bank High School,
and excelled in his senior year, becoming the first high school
player in state history to score 900 points in a season.
West then led his team to a state championship. In his book
Basketball Superstars-Three Great Pros, Les Etter added, "In his
honor, East Bank High School changed its name to West Bank for
one week."
Although recruited by many schools, West opted to attend and play basketball for West Virginia University. As a West Virginia Mountaineer, West was twice named an All-American. In 1959, he led his team to the NCAA basketball tournament championship game. Even though they lost, West was selected the MVP for the tournament. In 1960, as co-captain of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, he won a gold medal. Reflecting back, West shared with Scharpling: "Winning a gold medal was a watershed moment for me. None of the players today would understand, but to win the Olympics as an amateur was an incredible thrill."
Writing for Sports
Illustrated, Richard Hoffer noted that after West won an
Olympic gold medal, he "was astonished when the Lakers, just then
picking up to move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, drafted him
in the first round in 1960." West recalled, "I didn't think I was
good enough to play in the NBA." He signed a $15,000 contract
with the Lakers. However, West did not have an overly impressive
rookie season. In "The NBA at 50," a May 1996 interview for
NBA.com, West recalled, "I was like a fish out of
water."
West's second year went much
better. Scharpling noted, "West nearly doubled his scoring
output, pumping in 30.8 points per game (ppg), and
adding 7.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists a
game. West and Elgin Baylor became the Lakers' dynamic
duo." That season, West played in his first NBA finals. The
Lakers played the Celtics, but lost.
Not blessed with great
size, strength or dribbling ability, West made up for these
deficiencies with pure hustle and an apparent lack of regard for
his body. He broke his nose at least nine times."
biography, West called the loss "particularly heartbreaking."
West's strong ethic and dedication were legendary around the
league. Etter observed, "He was always the first player out to
practice and the last to leave." There is also stated, "Equally
legendary was West's tolerance
for pain.
Date Published: Jan 06, 2011 - 12:16 pm
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