Happy Birthday young Alex. I don't exactly remember what we did for your birthday, but I think I might recall a birthday dinner made by Mrs. Wakeman, of tacos or burritos at your house. Mike or Alex, clarification please.
On a completely different note, I was looking over the season stats on espn.com and I couldn't help but notice that Josh Smith from the Hawks was in the Top 5 for both blocks and steals. That seemed a little odd to me. You usually see a Top 5 of guards for steals, and bigs for blocks, but this SF had managed to top both of the lists. I also noticed that he was able to contribute on the glass and dish out his fair share of passes.
Which leads me to my visit to basketball-reference.com. I was wondering, how many players have put together a type of season like this, one where they load up the stat sheets with blocks, steals, assists and rebounds (he also averages 17.7ppg). The site has a cool little device that allowed me to put in the conditions for the type of year I wanted to see. Mine were: Find players that have had > 270 assists, > 660 rebounds, >225 blocks and > 120 steals in one NBA season. It searched through NBA history and found only 5 seasons where only 3 different players have ever racked up this range of stats in those large of amounts. These 3 players are Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, AND Josh Smith. Here are the results if you are interested.
His season was of the caliber that gets you into the Hall of Fame. I watched a couple of Josh's high school games, and knew that I was seeing something special athletically. I just didn't realize he also had the NBA mind to back it up. It takes a lot of angle reading, timing, and athleticism to put yourself in good position to rack up a fair share of blocks and steals, and Josh can do it with the best of them. The thing that makes Josh more intriguing from the other two players on this list is that he is a SF. With Hakeem and David, they were thrown in the middle of the paint near the basket and asked to swat everything away. The steals they accumulated came mostly from bad entry passes to big men. Not an incredibly athletic feat. Josh comes from help position to get a majority of his blocks, and steals. His timing must be impeccable, and his athleticism, world class.
What impresses me just as much, is that he did it at the age of 22. He hasn't even come close to reaching the peak of his NBA career (assuming he stays away from major injuries). To top everything else off, he rebounds, and he hands out assists. This spectrum of statistical dominance has never been seen before from any position other than centers. And when it was seen by centers Hakeem and David, they just happened to end up in the Hall of Fame. So I guess what I am trying to say is that Josh Smith is a one of a kind player, something this league has never seen before in its history. He combines the brains with the brawn, and puts it to work on the defensive side of the floor. This summer, with Josh as an unrestricted free agent, look for him to get PAID.
Here are the 10 blocks he had against Dallas in one game. Notice how he comes from help side defense for a majority of them...
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wow... nice post. That mavericks footage is unreal. i wish it was better quality but i have never seen such a shitting-on as that clip. i read somewhere that josh smith is a "retarded lebron" with his talent being so high but unable to take over like lebron. but you said it, he isn't much of a scorer but he fills the other statistics and his defense is absolutely awesome... hope he gets traded or elevates next year for the hawks, i just don't care for that team much at all... childress and salim piss me off
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