"I remember some Nets players that had heart, Kenyon Martin, Drazen Petrovic, Aaron Williams, and more." - altoloman, New Jersey Star-Ledger online comments.
I realized my good fortune the other night while sitting in my living room, rolling the dice on starting Kendall Gill in the 3rd quarter of my NBA Jam: Tournament Edition session. At least as a Charlotte Bobcats fan, we're not haunted by the "hustle" and elusive "heart" stats that other teams' past players seem to have in spades. Having a clean slate, wiped of players such as Gill, Larry Johnson, Mugsy Bogues, and Alonzo Mourning is truly a blessing -- where our current players don't have to live up to the relatively high level of play of former Hornets' players.
As a Bobcats fan, we have no expectations. Our most prolific players are moderate successes, at best. We drafted Adam Morrison and Sean May. We walked out a guy named Tamar Slay for 9-12 minutes a game in 2004-2005 -- a guy who's biggest claim to fames are having dead links on his Wikipedia page and being cut by multiple Italian teams. We have no Kenyon Martin, Drazen Petrovic, nor an Aaron Williams to look back on and say "God damn, they just had that heart."
But, "heart" and "hustle" do have their merits. Perhaps there is a common thread among those three players mentioned in altoloman's comment that explains the origin of these values.
HoopsHype writes: "Quite athletic... Works hard... Does all those little things... Rebounds, play D... An useful player... Chiseled body... Developed a decent mid-range shot... His best years are behind him."
What immediately stands out to me is "An useful player" and "Chiseled body." Apparently this guy is a fucking Roman statue -- a modern day Adonis. There's something magical about that, I'd like to think. The grammatical error just makes him that much sexier.
2. Drazen Petrovic:
Michael Jordan sums him up pretty well:
"It was a thrill to play against Drazen. Every time we competed, he competed with an aggressive attitude. He wasn't nervous; he came at me as hard as I came at him. So, we've had some great battles in the past and unfortunately, they were short battles."
They were short battles because Drazen Petrovic is dead -- not simply because Michael Jordan kicked his ass at every encounter.
Fortunately for Drazen, his legacy will live on in NBA Jam Arcade boxes which are rumored to be haunted by his ghost.
"Something weird was going on with the software, and to this day, if you have an original NBA Jam machine every once in a while it will just yell out "Petrovic!" It's wild." - NBA Jam Lead Designer Mark Turmell.
3. Kenyon Martin:
His nickname is "K-Mart." He called Mark Cuban a "faggot motherfucker." I could go on, but really, Kenyon Martin is the definition of a douchebag -- and it's really an interesting turn in this "hustle" and "heart" analysis.
The douchebag mystique is endearing as it, much like an explosive, driving point guard, draws the negative energy (i.e., defense in point guard's case) away from his teammates -- opening up an array of opportunities for them. K-Mart's douchebag persona is the ultimate "x-factor" in this 24-7 sporting news world. Perhaps some would simply see this as meta-gaming, but I see it as "heart."
What ties all three of these players together is their passion and fire, their chiseled biceps, and their filthy speech impediments (Martin stutters, Petrovic was Croatian, Aaron Williams is a statue).
The combined results of these three individual talents creates one, shining contemporary example -- Walter Herrmann.
You know what to do, front office.
*As noted by RealGM Bobcats' Forum Moderator FatLever, referring to the Bobcats' 79-68 win over the New Jersey Nets.
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