Re: Celtics Barely Win: Celtics 100-Rockets 96

[opi@unesco.org]

ishbak wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, Sptguy33@aol.com wrote:
> > In a message dated 12/14/99 1:06:10 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> > ishbak@conknet.com writes:
>
> > Have you watched any of the games this year? You'd have your answer. Even Tom
> > Hamilton gave Pervis problems.
>
> Heh. Only one, the Chicago game. I was really only going by stats and past
> experience. How is Perv this year? There was a period early in the Pitino
> era(before he got hurt again) when Perv really contributed. Is Perv too slow
> now? Or has he lost his timing?
>         Also how was the hamburger? I haven't seen Ham play in ages. How much
> weight has he lost?
>
> Noah

I was a grad student in DC back when Pervis had his one All Star year for the
ex-Bullets and other colorful or otherwise relevant characters were around like Zo
Mourning, Dikimbe, the reconstructed Bernard King and the then rookie free agent
Doug Overton. Pervis still barely held  his "never nervous" tag back then, and it
wasn't entirely just because of the rhyme dating back to his Louisville NCAA
championship season.

In many ways, he was the Joe Smith of his decade, just as Ralph Sampson/Mel Turpin
(drafted ahead of Jordan) carried that rep in the 80s and LaRue Martin and later
Bill Walton carried that tag throughout much of the the 70s. He was a "no-brainer"
number one overall draft choice.

Pervis has or had great offensive tools for a player with such jumping-jack
defensive hops and awareness, but he lost his athleticism mostly through injuries
as well as natural weight gain in terms of body mass through aging. He is a shadow
of the player he was, and like many good-natured, stunningly thoughtful and
articulate former stud players, he somehow lost the nerve or the anger, or the
cockiness to showcase his talents.

It's maybe akin on a far more public scale to how many of us might feel after
dealing with one too many above-the-rim YMCA gymrats stuffing a shot right back in
our sorry, yuppie-ass faces. The NBA is "duh" an awesome league in terms of
athletes and athleticism, so I'd expect it must be traumatizing on the nerves of
even great but somewhat weak-spirited players (Antoine Walker doesn't at all  have
this specific problem).

In fact, the NBA is full of natural-born NCAA scoring machines  ("El Busto" Tony
Battie is one such player) who stiffen up and lose their confidence in the face of
a relentless onslaught of impressive, but not THAT impressive, NBA athleticism. You
stiffen up even 10%, and you become a totally different player in the NBA. You
become a joke of a player. Colgate's Adonal Foyle comes to mind. Lose that 10% of
cockiness/aggression, and you are pretty much a loser in the NBA.

*****