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Assaf Peretz

Who is the toughest person on your NBA team?

Latest Post: March 8, 2011 at 2:55 AM

8 followers

Who is the toughest person on your NBA team?

I remember Charles Barkley saying about the Phoenix Suns (I think it was the Suns, it was several years ago) that when your toughest player is your smallest (Steve Nash) you have a problem.

Watching the end of the Boston Celtics’ latest game I think the toughest player on the Boston squad is also their smallest – Rajon Rondo. Boston is tough team, everyone there is tough and certainly their big 4 are tough, but here is my case for Rondo.

It’s 5 seconds to the end of the game, Boston is leading by 10 and has the ball, someone is just dribbling away the seconds as they always do, and then Rondo comes running, takes the ball, and goes for a 3 – he gets fouled and hits 2 of 3 free throws.

The game was chippy, a few seconds to the end Garnett got a technical, and Rondo was annoyed at the yapping of the Suns (as he saw it). That’s how he responds. No barking, no yelling, but he always responds. A few games ago he all of a sudden goes and guards LeBron James (who’s much bigger than him) in what caused a change of tide in that game. It’s these strange plays which you don’t expect that make his attitude so noticeable.

Boston recently traded away their center, Kendrick Perkins. Kenny Smith at the time gave a great description that when going to play Boston there used to be a sign on the door, “Beware of dog,” and that because of the trade there isn’t anymore. Perkins and Rondo are great friends, and I think Rondo will take that role. It’s a smaller dog, but a tough one.

Who is the toughest person on your NBA team? What makes a person tough? It's not only competitiveness that makes them tough.

Reply to:

John Stevenson

March 7, 2011 at 5:02 AM

21 followers

For The Chicago Bulls I would say it's Derrick Rose. Both him and Noah are just as competitive but there is an edge to Rose, especially at the end of games. He's still young and needs to learn how to finish games as for now he is taking it all on himself. Like that he's very predictable, but he still makes them more often than not.

In Miami, no one.

What is toughness? Casement quoted Hemingway saying that courage is "grace under pressure." I think courage and grace under pressure is certainly a requirement, though not sufficient. It's a controlled standing strong, not just pushing players as some in the NBA try to do when they feel they need to prove they are tough. That is, it's also a way of saying, Don't mess with me, but again, by standing strong.

Reply to: or

Dana Samuel

In response to John Stevenson

March 7, 2011 at 10:48 PM

16 followers

Hi John, just wandering why you don't consider Lebron James in Miami as the tough one?

Reply to: or

John Stevenson

In response to Dana Samuel

March 8, 2011 at 2:55 AM

21 followers

Small shot Lebron as he's starting to be called? No way. It's rare to see players of his caliber and ability be so emotionally weak. The Miami heat has made only one shot out of 18 attempts at last second shots to tie or win the game - the lowest percentage in the league - and he's missed about half of them. Some of it definitely has to do with expectations as I would definitely expect Wade to make last second shots. Lebron has been known to miss those or not want to take them his entire career.
Some famous cases with Lebron was the Lebron-Nike case where he asked security to confiscate cameras filming him being dunked on by a college player. Another is him not willing to shake hands with the winners when he was defeated in the conference finals.
Yesterday his coach was saying how the team was crying in the locker room after they lost a game. Hilarious.
Lebron is quite the drama queen, or as he likes to refer to himself as the King, a drama king. He's still an amazing player on the physical side of things, but emotionally he's like jello.

I like Wade a lot but this year has been hard on him. He needs to leave there as playing with James is bad for him, even if they will win championships.

The only player on the Heat team which can be considered tough is Udonis Haslem, but he's injured and probably won't return this year.