Two men enter, which one leaves?
(Assume both are in their primes.)
v.
(Assume both are in their primes.)
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v.
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Did the Suns trade X?
75% of the posters on this board never saw X play
Not true.I went with X, even though his main claim to toughness is when he choked Wes Matthews who was about half his size.
Not true.
He was a nails tough guy with the Riley Knicks. Beat up Pippen in the Finals.Well, that's what he's best known for, choking a 6'1" point guard. I don't remember him ever trying to choke Ewing or Kareem.
The NBA used only two officials until 1988-89, and until then, aggressive players inside would simply wait until both weren't looking to inflict their will.
Lucas was notorious for the tactic, according to Sonics legend Xavier McDaniel.
"When the ref wasn't looking, he'd hit you in the chest to really piss you off," McDaniel said via cellphone from his home in South Carolina. "He'd grab you and try to frustrate you. You had to really be poised to play against Mo Lucas."
Not that McDaniel, dubbed the X-Man, was an angel on the court.
Plenty remember when McDaniel's fight with Oakley spilled eight rows into the stands.
"It's like Batman and Bruce Wayne," said McDaniel, a 1988 All-Star. "Off the court I'm nice, but a different animal starts to come out of me when I step on the court. I remembered one time Dennis Rodman punched me upside the head and then he punched my [groin]. I already told the ref and they didn't do anything, so I whopped his butt. They wouldn't let me out of the locker room after the game because I was going to get him."
Don't think the animosity has subsided, either.
McDaniel, who was suspended one game for the incident, said if he was enjoying his favorite meal at Carolina Wings in Columbia, S.C., today and Rodman walked through the door, the X-Man would leap from his seat like it was 1987.
"I'd punch him in the face," McDaniel said. "I owe him one anyway."
McDaniel's animosity is the crux of an enforcer. Enforcer is not a politically correct term for "thug," and McDaniel is not part of a different generation advocating violence. But being an enforcer meant having a deep-rooted desire to win that causes a player to become a territorial protector of his team and hater of everything outside that circle.
Go after Bill Russell and you'd have to deal with Jim Loscutoff.
Touch Isiah Thomas and Rick Mahorn would check you.
Talk crazy about Bill Walton and Lucas would sharpen his elbows.
"Today everybody knows each other through AAU and they all go to the rookie meetings together and carry that onto the court. It's more commercial," Lucas said. "Back in the day we weren't trying to be friends. If that elbow didn't bust your lips too bad and you could still eat, we can go to dinner after the game. Other than that, forget it."
Xavier McDaniel appears to have resumed where he left off last season; he has been leading with his elbows and forearms during the Celtics' exhibition games. Are fists next?
"I'm not going to back down from anyone," McDaniel said. "What would you do if someone was going to hit you? I'm going to fight back."
McDaniel tangled with Charles Barkley in Phoenix and Karl Malone in Salt Lake City, despite being at a 50-pound weight disadvantage. Among other things, the matchups raise the question of whether a 205-pounder such as McDaniel should be expected to compete with the elite power forwards of ...