From time to time, at one of the camps she runs for children in her native Australia, Patty Mills will be approached by one of her lifelong fans with a request: Can you sink for me?
For most NBA players, it would be a breeze. He knew a way, measured his steps and led the ball through the rim with authority. He landed, and his admirers were celebrating, because they had just seen something unrestrained.
Illustration by Davide Barco
The right word for this is incomprehensible, because there is a problem with this scenario: Patty Mills does not look. Of all the choices he could make with the ball, diving, he says, is not even a later thought. “I mean, it’s at the bottom of the list, but to be honest, it’s probably not even on the list,” says Mills. When I can’t show up for the kids: “This is a time of deflation when I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t think I can get there right now, buddy,'” says Mills. “But I will continue to work on it.” ”
Mills is part of a handful of players from a select club: those with successful NBA careers who, for one reason or another, have never stuck. Since the 1996–97 season (first available data from Basketball-Reference.com) 1,801 different players have combined for 210,842 dunks in the regular season and 1,259 of 1,367 players (or 92%) who have played at least 1,000 for minutes they played immersed at least once.
This leaves 108 consistent collaborators over 25 seasons without a delicate two-handed slam – 11 of whom are playing this season. The list ranges from MVPs (Steve Nash) to solid veterans (JJ Redick, TJ McConnell) to travelers (Troy Daniels). Others, such as Fred VanVleet, Ricky Rubio and DJ Augustin, played long enough to become staples of the league. Mills 6 ‘1 “, now in its 12th season, ranks fourth in most games played without a ball, is a member of both contingents and has resigned. a career without one. ” It’s a massive part of the game and it’s what draws fans and makes basketball basketball, “says Mills.” Putting a ball – dropping it – through a circle, I haven’t tried this in a long time. I feel like the more I wait, the less chance I have. ”
Steve Novak wasn’t sure what to do when he got the call. It was early 2012, near the height of Linsanity in New York, and his agent found out that the NBA wants to participate in the dunk contest. Jeremy Lin was sleeping on his couch with teammate Landry Fields at the time, and as Novak remembers, the plan was for Fields to sink over a futon-bound Lin. When Fields had to retire due to an injury, JR Smith was used to take over. When Smith left due to an ankle, the offer went to the next player on the list.
The NBA was eager to capitalize on the enthusiasm surrounding Linsanity, and the addition of Novak, who never collapsed in five seasons as a professional, was just another wrinkle of the theater. For a player with several million career gains, the cash incentive ($ 20,000 for participation only) was not insignificant, and the reflective potential could have worked wonders for the Knicks before. He had lobbied for the league to let him get into the three-point shot, but they preferred Kevin Durant. At 6 ’10 “, no player as tall as Novak appeared in as many games without sinking. And he wasn’t about to risk becoming a meme on the All-Star weekend.
In theory, diving is what separates the blessed from the gods of basketball and from us ordinary people tied to the ground. An average person can take 10,000 jumpers every week and eventually develop a decent stroke. And all you need to become a solid defender in your weekend run is the desire to pay attention to your opponent and play hard. But most people could try to lift their frames to the rafters from now until the day they die, and yet they never get close to sinking.
Novak rushes to set the record: he may sink. Or at least he could at some point. There is evidence somewhere on the internet if you know where to look: fragments of brighter college jams and routine slams in practice and during the game. He even remembers his first goal of the game. He was in the eighth grade, rising above his classmates with a great height of 6 ‘5 “. After seeing Novak throwing him into practice, a coach approached him with an incentive. If the great friendly giant would could be immersed in a game, he ‘I’d be rewarded with a $ 20 gift card at a local ice cream. “If I had no motivation before,” Novak recalls, “I’m like’ this has to be it happens ”.
Illustration by Davide Barco
“Dunk was a one-handed business, from a theft from a quick break. In his words, it was vicious. What he couldn’t know then was that she would be one of his last.
Novak’s story is surprisingly common in a league that idolizes slam. Mills, McConnell and Daniels are among the countless players with stories about diving on rims down the alley and in the yard, growing up, imitating the butterflies they saw on TV. Dunking was one of the things that made him fall in love with the game. It just never happened to them in the pros.
As is the case with Novak, there is video evidence of Mills dunk-ing and not just from the early years of his career. Before a home game against the Knights in March 2017, Mills caught a street he handed over with one hand before exclaiming on TNT microphones: “Man, I should have kept it for the game!”
A quick search on YouTube will show videos of McConnell winning the 76-year-old dunk contest (a competition he says he was forced to participate in) in 2016 and Daniels winning Play of the Game honors during an internship with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers from League D since then in 2014 for a two-handed shot from a cut. So why didn’t any of them manage to dive into an NBA game?
For starters, nondunkeri are on the floor to do other things. Like Novak, who scored 43.0% of his three-point attempts, Mills (39.1%) and Daniels (39.5%) are sharp shots from beyond the arc, and McConnell – who has an average of eight assists 36 minutes of play – has a penchant for nifty passes. The contributions they can make by identifying or finding an open teammate go beyond the appeal of a sound.
Another answer is fear. Novak remembers two real chances to record his first NBA dunk. The first came early in his career with the Clippers, when he “came with a wide tire” and resorted to a finger movement. The other took place when he played for the Knicks against the Bucks and was alone in the fast break. He rested and decided this was his time.
“I just took too long to get to the edge, and Larry Sanders, who was at the Bucks at the time, was following me like a bat from hell,” says Novak. “And I was a little scared, so I hurried and, instead of taking my steps correctly, I threw a finger at him.”
The threat of being embarrassed at the rim weighs on McConnell, now with the Pacers. “Being 6 ‘1,” there are a lot of players who look like rim protectors, “says McConnell.” If I see someone – no matter who they are – at a striking distance, I’m not trying to sink. “
Beyond that, diving poses health risks. Daniels, who is currently unsigned after seven seasons with as many teams, says that despite having a 6 ‘4 “jumping ability and high chances of being injured in a dunk are what pushes him If he lands awkwardly and turns an ankle, his career could be in jeopardy.
“I rarely sink when I work,” says Daniels. “It seems to me second nature to try to draw a plan or a float. Obviously, the boys are much older in the NBA – much stronger. Your chances of getting that dunk are slim to zero, and your chances of getting hurt are very high. . . . I don’t want to try to do something I’m not very familiar with and end up hurting myself. ”
Gone are the days when coaches told Novak that taking a three, rather than fighting inside, was “the solution.” But Novak is an asset even in this group: not only has he never tried to sleep in his 11-year career, he has only tried 16 layups. He was stretching four before most of the stretching beds were used properly, and 78% of his career attempts came from beyond the arch.
At first, the coaches couldn’t unblock it. He was a tall, tall man who was not too much to beat in paint and was unlikely to ever become a glass eater. It wasn’t until Rick Adelman was hired to lead the Rockets before Novak’s second season that things began to take off. Later, when he played for Mike D’Antoni in New York, his shooting skills became a feature of Knicks’ offense.
“He was telling me, ‘Hey, Steve, I know the guy you’re guarding could sign you up. I’m fine with that. I’m not good if he scores more than you “, says Novak. “And it’s like, Whoa. That makes so much sense to me. If I make three, and he makes two, we’re good here. ”
Just because some players choose to play under the rim doesn’t mean they don’t watch in amazement when teammates or opponents rise above it. McConnell remembers being amazed at his former 76ers teammates Richaun Holmes and Nerlens Noel, throwing him in Philadelphia. Daniels quotes Vince Carter and Derrick Jones Jr., who – despite having calves that Daniels says “looks like [pencils]”- won the dunk 2020 contest, as his favorites. Mills also played alongside a lot of tall fliers, but appreciates dunkers from every streak. At the end of Manu Ginóbili’s career, the Argentine wing and some Spurs teammates organized a competition. Ginóbili, Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter fought to see who will end each year with the most dunks. After hearing about the friendly bet, Mills made sure he was involved.
“I would never get one, but I ended up being a referee and deciding what qualifies as gloomy for the other boys,” says Mills. “It was the end of all three careers. A dive for them at all times was like a big dive. “
Splitter, who weighs 6 ’11 “and weighed 245 pounds during his career, has won every year, but at various points each season, Diaw and Ginóbili have taken the lead. The only sure thing was Mills and his goose egg. at a distant cry from his first grave as a teenager, when he posterized an opponent so violent that he was shocked while his cousin – a teammate – screamed and jumped around him.The moment was rare, even then. as if he had missed anything but maybe some street credit among his younger fans.
McConnell has not fully counted his chances of bathing before retirement, although he does not seem to think so. He prefers to be on the other side of an alley-oop pass. “Maybe once before my career is over, if I get a quick break, maybe I’ll take Myles. [Turner] to get up and choke. You know, when I’m 33 or 34, “says McConnell. “There should be no one to cross the field and not make an effort from the other team to be able to do anything.”
Illustration by Davide Barco
As for Novak, he has no regrets that he ended his career without a beating or did not turn down the invitation to the drunken contest. He still looks every year and laughs at the thought that he was once asked to participate. “I think, Holy One, I made the right decision,” says Novak. “I should have somehow found a way to get the nine-legged circle and a mini couch.”
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