Best player you ever defended ?

[tagged]

I know this is a collectors site and not truly basketball, but who was the best player you ever defended, not played with, and how did you go ?


The best player I ever defended was Cal Bruton. It was the late eight's and he was the best point in the NBL at that time. I was guarding him and he told me where he was going to shot it from, I stuck on him and he missed, woohoo.
Next time he got the ball he said he was shooting it from the same spot and that he never misses twice, well he did, woohoo.
He did the third time and said again he never misses three times and he didn't.
For the record Larry, Leroy and Cal destroyed us that night, but they kept the scores close. They were all top blokes, all three.
Cal was coaching me as we played. Don't do that, well done, that kind of stuff.
From memory, I think I averaged 4 points and 4 assists in state league. But only played pick up games for one year and another year about 5 years later.

 

[FabFiveFan]

I know this is a collectors site and not truly basketball, but who was the best player you ever defended, not played with, and how did you go ?


The best player I ever defended was Cal Bruton. It was the late eight's and he was the best point in the NBL at that time. I was guarding him and he told me where he was going to shot it from, I stuck on him and he missed, woohoo.
Next time he got the ball he said he was shooting it from the same spot and that he never misses twice, well he did, woohoo.
He did the third time and said again he never misses three times and he didn't.
For the record Larry, Leroy and Cal destroyed us that night, but they kept the scores close. They were all top blokes, all three.
Cal was coaching me as we played. Don't do that, well done, that kind of stuff.
From memory, I think I averaged 4 points and 4 assists in state league. But only played pick up games for one year and another year about 5 years later.

Great question, cant wait to see peoples responses.

In a twist of irony, one of the best players that I had the pleasure confused of guarding was Cal's son CJ, who I played against on a number of occasions in my younger days, and all but once had my a$$ handed to me big time. But then I see him doing that even to this day against Perth Wildcats in NBL Grand Final games, and I dont feel so bad. But yes on one sole occasion (and it was in front of Cal) I played a game where CJ came up to me afterwards and told me to "enjoy the moment, coz he would never let me do that to him again". That game included a number of buckets right in his face, along with two blocks, one of which drew the obligatory ooh's and aah's from all in the gym. Next time we played them, CJ never subbed out and ended up with over 40, in a non stop clock 40 minute game! And it felt like he let me know about every single one of his buckets too, like father like son ay?

Have also played against James Harvey and Marcus Timmons in a couple of pickup games, Harvey knows how to stick it to ya, thats all I'm sayin, which gives you a clue as to how well I did.

In later adulthood, played against Eric Watterson, an old timer from the Perth Wildcats. Glad to say I sent one of his shots sailing out of bounds after recovering from him faking me out on his 3 point shot. Having said that Watterson would have been around 40 at the time

 

[Jaames]

Nobody, never played a comp game in my life. Guess this means my opinion when it comes to Basketball is worthless?

 

[lukesicari]

Probs just a few massive freak kids in U14's domestic haha.

 

[tagged]

Nobody, never played a comp game in my life. Guess this means my opinion when it comes to Basketball is worthless?

No way, just because you never played doesn't mean a thing. Some guys that played a lot and played well are just bone heads.
I once recruited a state union player to the game, he was slow, short and over weight. But he just had unbelievable team communication and understanding of the team. He just set picks and boxed out.

 

[Sanctum]

Not defended, but I had to play against Scottie Pippen back in 92', there were 2 seconds left on the clock and I hit the game winning jumper..the crowd went wild

 

[Mico]

I scored 38, pulled 12 rebounds and dished out 5 nuggets against Jordan once. Then i got tired and turned off the Playstation.

 

[Sanctum]

I guess my joke either wasn't very funny or was taken as serious for some reason. I thought that was most peoples child hood dream scenario...?

 

[tagged]

I believed you, but I was wondering which game it was. Thinking that was the time when they had those world challenges. Like when Houston played Perth. So I was thinking you might have been an ex Wildcat.

 

[Sanctum]

I knew I should have added **Cue dreamy music, play montage**

Feel free to unlike.. haha

 

[skip20]

I remember playing 2 on 2 with some guy who was playing Div 1 NCAA and happened to be in Australia at the time - we lost 11-5 and 11-4 or something like that and all I can remember now was that he was the quickest guy with insane ball handling skills and a deadly jumpshot. Play loose and he'd nail a J, play up close and he'd blow by.... I remember getting frustrated with my 2 on 2 teammate too - lol

The other person was a professional female basketball player from Germany, played a 5 on 5 pick up game and she was driving to the hoop with reckless abandon - cannonballed me right in the guts - very cheeky, not like I could do the same back to her on a subsequent play without starting a riot! No ref, no foul!

 

[Sanctum]

cannonballed me right in the guts

Could've been worse

 

[brentus777]

Remember playing against Lauren jacksons brother in junior reps, he was playing for albury and a there's not much guarding you can do against a (what felt like) 7footer hitting 3 pointers like free throws

 

[taffster74]

Can't remember the guys name, but my first year playing in the CCBA (canberra Christian Basketball League) Men's Div II this guy was the league leading scorer with about 22ppg. First time i went up against him was a regular season game and was in the post. I cleared a rebound and bumped him coming down (he was behind me, so his problem) and he told me to watch the rough stuff. I turned around and told him if he didn't like it, he could get out of my key. Next time we played against them was the first round of the playoffs. the guy (stephen was his name), refused to come into the key when I was on the court and sat outside the three point line putting up threes while his team set a deep screen (Facing the basket, moving to block me from getting out to defend the play) - i ended up getting the s**t's and elbowing (discreetly) the screen player. More a shove which knocked him off his feet (wasn't called for the foul surprisingly). We won that game and played the same team again in the final. By this time you've figured I've made this Stephen my target player. With no screen player, i was able to get out to stephen before he could get the ball and get a hand in his face before he could put up the shot. His total score that game? 5 points in the 10 minutes when i wasn't on the court. needless to say we won that game.