Dan The Man

Hello world of blog readers! If you haven't noticed yet, here at 80 percentage of basketball, we love basketball, sweet '50's short shorts, mullet/mustache combos, hook shots, Coca-Cola, we hate LeBron James, we love rebounding, hustlin', and GTL. Actually, we don't hate LBJ. How can we? He likes South Beach, and has a beard. Like our home boy Rick Ross. Anyways, we also love dancing. So here's a little video on Adams State's own Dan the Man. He attends every home game, and wears ridiculous stuff. Today, I witnessed him change his clothes for every game of the high school 1a/2a district tourney. He wore the colors of the team he was going to root for in the game. Hilarious. So make sure to catch a game at Adams so you can enjoy his greatness as do I.

Top Five Favorite Players of the 1950's

        Hello there!  We're going to be sharing lists of our five favorite NBA players from each decade beginning with the 1950's (the actual NBA was formed in 1949).  Please take note that these are NOT the players we believe to be the best of the decades in which they played.  These are simply the players we like the most with brief explanations of why we think they are/were so darn cool.  Enjoy and thanks for reading.   

05. Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton

        Nat Clifton was the first black player to ever sign an NBA contract.  We think that's pretty darn cool.  However, the main reason why he's on this list is because of his radicle nickname.  Clifton was called "Sweetwater" because he loved Coca-Cola so much.  In the book "Tall Tales" by Terry Pluto, George Yardley recalls having Clifton over for dinner one night and because the Yardley's didn't have any soda, Nat went out and bought six cases of the stuff and asked Yardley, "You know why they call me Sweetwater, don't you?"  The guy LOVED Coca-Cola.  We LOVE Coca-Cola.  Ipso-facto, he's one of our favorites.  

04. Bob Cousy

        All you really need to do is watch Cousy's left-handed hook bank shot in this video to understand why he's on our list.

 03. Dolph Schayes

        Dolph Schayes is without question the all-time king of Jewish basketball players.  He had wicked range on his two-handed set shot and every time he connected from the field his fist would thrust into the air like a knee-jerk reaction.  We think the best Jewish player ever with an awesome set shot who raised his fist in the air after every basket he ever made should be on anyones list of favorite players from the 1950's.  

02. Bob Pettit
        It's no secret that we love great rebounders here at 80 Percent B-ball.  Well guess what?  Bob Pettit was a super great rebounder.  The 6-9, 205 pound Pettit yanked down a whopping 16.2 ballboards per game for his entire career (third highest rpg average all-time behind Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell (not bad company)).  Oh, he could put the biscuit in the basket too (26.4 ppg career average).  In game six of the 1958 NBA finals, Pettit laid the smackdown on the Celtics with a 50 point onslaught.  He also made the game winning and championship clinching tip-in in the same game.  It was the only year that the Hawks have ever won a title and it was one of only two years that a Russell-led Celtic team finished a season championshipless.  When you win a championship instead of Bill Russell, you know you're a super-duper mega star. 

             

01. Maurice Stokes 

           Check out Maurice Stokes' career stat line: 16.4 ppg, 17.3 rpg, 5.3 apg.  That is holy-crap good.  Unfortunately Stokes' career lasted only three seasons.  A few days after being knocked unconscious in a game, Stokes became very ill, went into a coma and was left permanently paralyzed.  But we're not here to talk about the amazingly uplifting story of Stokes' life post-accident or how Jack Twyman looked after him for many, many years (if you'd like to know about that story, and we hope you do, click here).  We're here to celebrate how amazing Stokes was on the court.  You already saw his awesomely versatile stat line.  At 6-7, Stokes rebounded like a center and handled/passed the ball like a guard.  In "Tall Tales", Twyman claimed, "He [Maurice] could legitimately play forward, guard or center."  Had Stokes' accident never happened, who knows how good he could have been?  Twyman also said, "I'm coming at this from a biased perspective, but I honestly believe that Maurice had a chance to be perhaps the greatest player of all time."  We sure as heck aren't going to argue with Mr. Twyman on that one.  

1986 CELTICS

We all know the 1986 Celtics was a team for the ages. They won the title in a smooth 6 game Finals series against the Rockets and gave the franchise their 16th title, and the last until 22 years later (2008).  To commemorate this fantastic squad, we have compiled some interesting facts from that season.

1. Larry Bird rocked probably the best mullet/mustache duo of any professional athlete of all time.
2. Bill Walton played in an amazing 80 games that season. More than any other season of his career, including the 1977 Blazers (Won Title).
3.  Before game 6 of the finals, a random fan was found sleeping in the air vents in hopes that he would sneak in.
4.  300 security guards were hired to prevent the fans from storming the court in game 6 of the finals.  It  was a complete failure. However, the players playing significant minutes were escorted to the locker room before the game was even over.
5. Some jerk dunked it at the last second in game 6 of that same finals. Just let the clock go out man, you're down like 20.
6. Game 5 of the finals featured a nice brawl between Jerry Sichting and Ralph Sampson. Sichtinng:6'1" Sampson:7'4"
7. Celtics record: 67-15
8. The Celtics won an amazing 41 games in a row at home, including playoffs. (Extended to 48 in a row during the 86-87 season)
10. During the locker room celebration after winning the Finals, Kevin McHale is seen drinking a beer and Danny Ainge is seen drinking a good ol' Sunkist.
11. Larry Bird won League MVP as well as Finals MVP.
12. Bill Walton named 6th Man of The Year.
13. Larry Bird and Jerry Sichting played in all 82 games of the regular season.
14. Scott Wedman, remembered for: "Who the fuck is Scott Wedman?!"-Pat Riley, averaged (8.0 ppg) more than Walton (7.6ppg) during the season and only played in one less game.
15. Some people on the team that year: Sly Williams, David Thirdkill, Rick Carlisle (Mavs Coach).
16. The 1981 Celtics championship team was coached by Bill Fitch, who was Houston's coach during the 1986 season who they me the Celtics in the Finals.
17. In the clinching game 6, Larry Bird had a near triple double at the half. (16 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, numbers may be wrong).
18. The '86 Finals was the third straight year in which the Finals was ended in Boston.
19. The hydraulic backboard supports were sprayed with silicon before game 6 of the Finals and Larry Bird had to quit his pre-game shoot around because he was slipping all over the place.
(didn't stop him from busting a triple double)
20. Larry Bird's finals averages: 24ppg  9.7 rpg and 9.6apg.

DA-DA! DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!

Celtics

As you may already know, the Celtics are about 10 minutes away from laying another smack down on the Heat. Also, KG is insane. If you were in the NBA would you want to play this monster? JEEZERS

More highlights of Reggie Evans not groping Chris Kaman!

We can't get enough of this guy.  Who can though, right?  Right!?  Who's with us?  C'mon!

YESSSSSSSS!

The Detroit Pistons are retiring Dennis Rodman's number 10 jersey on April first.  All schools should be cancelled and everyone should get off of work for this spectacular occasion.  And if your boss/principle is all like, "We're not going to give you the day off just because Dennis Rodman is having his jersey retired." then you should consider changing jobs/schools because your boss/principle sounds like a total butt-hole.  Mark your calenders people!

Let's bring these Bad Boys back Nike

pretty much the best commercial ever made

Dude Love

80% Basketball 20% Star Wars and Wizards: Why not? It's FUN!

80% Basketball 20% Star Wars and Wizards: Why not? It's FUN!: "Basketball is so fun, it makes you want to dance! Who doesn't love dancing? If you don't like to dance, somethings wrong with you. Alright, ..."

Why not? It's FUN!

Basketball is so fun, it makes you want to dance! Who doesn't love dancing? If you don't like to dance, somethings wrong with you.

Alright, that was pretty good.