can't get over this pic. it's fucking amazing. look at these three. LOOK AT THEM.
My freshman year in college was Duncans rookie year, they used to come down and use our gym every year for a week long training camp to get out of the city and away from reporters/etc. Its one of the "make/cut" weeks for rookies as well, several of those guys coming onto the team were diving for every ball, literally playing their hearts out. If I recall correctly every single one of them got cut, and these were great players already.
Since they get our gym we got to scrimmage with them and watch every practice, Duncan made the biggest impression on me of anyone. People dont understand how good that dude is, he was fucking DESTROYING David Robinson every drill/scrimmage, fucking everything. Throwing his shots in the stands, dunking on him every possession, the dude was a monster. When we scrimmaged with them the teams were mixed so it wasnt all us vs them, but our all conference post who was 6'10 and long for his height as well looked like a little child trying to hold Duncan. The largest gap in us and them was in the post players by far, vinny del negro will pull up from half court and destroy you if dont hold him full court, avery is like a little ant on adderall that never stops, but our posts vs theirs was a laughing stock.
Other things that a lot of people dont know,
vinny del negro was dunking two handed backwards easy as fuck
sean elliot got in a fight with popovich every single day, he claimed he was hurt every day we were there so we didnt get to play against him only saw him in drills
I sat in david robinsons chair that he had taken in specially for him and my feet hung off like a little kid sitting on a couch, and im 6'2
The biggest difference in collegiate athletics and professional is that for every college player at 6'1 whose explosive, fast, and good at his position, there is a 6'8 dude with the same attributes in the league. With the posts the 6'9s turn into 7'1.
the 2nd string pg was named cory something and could fucking FLY. LIttle dude, killed avery on every play but couldnt run the team like avery. Dont think I ever saw him get any minutes in a game, in practice he looked like steve francis.
