Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
89-69 -- sounds ugly right? Well...yes. But there was some great defense being played if you like to watch that, and the game was all kinds of chippy, inspiring an iimpromptu theme change to: NBA Enforcers
Artest ( C ) -- in the latter stages of the first quarter took over after the rest of the offense was completely moribund. A lot of it was forced, ugly, but at least he put up desperately needed points. In the second quarter however, even that source of offense went away, and as play got increasingly chippy Ron lost his cool and at one point even had to be restrained as he marched toward the Celtics bench with some sort of bad intentions. Started fumbling balls in the third, including one wide open rebound where everybody else was already headed up court and Ron just let it dribble off his hands out of bounds. After the Celtics adjusted, and with his threes not falling, Ron's offense just collapsed. He had one last hit to open the 4th and briefly draw us close, then went away.
Rick Mahorn -- (and no, Ron himself does not qualify because he only rarely smacks anybody oncourt). One of the baddest of the Bad Boys (who are all over this list), started out with Jeff Ruland in Washington to form the "Bruise Brothers" and later moved on to team with Barkley in the "Bump n' Thump" frontline in Philly, not only was he a nickname master, but he earned this classic scouting report in 1986: "Enforcer of the first degree... Pistons wanted him to hit the boards as well as opponents, but he averaged only 5.2 rpg... Prince off the court and the devil personified on it, where he asks no quarter and gives none...". Perhaps not surprisingly, coming out of high school he was more prized as a football prospect than basketball prospect -- in any case he always seemed to get gleeful enjoyment out of splatting people.
Moore ( B- ) -- was quickly gone in the first quarter with 2 early fouls, and that was a major major problem at the time because he had half of our points...as in 2. Despite that awe inspiring number, pretty much sucked in the first half. Looked overmatched, unable to deal with the wall of bodies and flying hands deployed all over the court by the league's #1 defensive team, and redveloped his fumblethumbs issue. In the third though began to do the Mikki stuff as we struggled back into it -- the Celtics defense had lost some of its oomph and Mikki was able to head to the hoop for layups and dunks off of passes and follows. Delivered a hard foul on Rondo on a drive to the hoop in the late going. Bit cheap with the arm low in the gut, but I did not mind it at all on the send a message scale. Did happen late enough that it was more petulant poor loser than intimdating set the tone for the game stuff though.
Jerry Sloan -- a man so mean he's still the toughest man on his team, and he's a 65 year old coach now. Sloan was a lowly guard -- about the last place you expect to find an enforcer. But he was legendary even during his day. He was scared of nobody and nothing and made All Defensive Teams just on pure tenacity (he also uunfortunately was one of the very first practicioner's of the flop in the NBA -- he and his fellow bruise brothers in Chicago became famous for falling over in the slightest breeze). And he carried that attitude with right into coaching, which has caused him considerable trouble at times. He got canned from his first coaching job with the Bulls (the very team where he coached Reggie) after calling out his players in the lockerrom for complaining to the media about him being a hardass, and when one of them stood up to admit it, Sloan chucked a chair at him so hard it shattered on the wall behind him (Reggie himself seemed to have absorbed ratehr too much of this Sloan to start this season before his mea culpa and fortuunate change of course).
Miller ( C- ) -- grabbed some rebounds inside, but the swarming Celtics' defense was clearly furstrarting and confusing him, and he was dropping balls, forcing things, didn't know what the hell to do, Shot was thrown way way off too, and aside from a very brief spurt as we made our thrid quarter charge, just did not look good out there. Because he rebounded when noone else did, will keep this grade above the D level, but there was no other part of his gam that looked comfortable at all, and the shooting obviously came crashing back to Earth.
Wendell Ladner -- who? you are probably asking. Well, Wendell Ladner of course. And the fact that this guy make an NBA Enforcer list (actually ABA) with a name like "Wendell" says a lot. As does the fact that he made it depsite appearing in a beefcake calendar given out to the female fans of the Kentucky Colonels when he played there. But this guy was tough. Notice that pad on his forearm int eh above picture? In football we called that a "ripper", since when you play on the interior line and explode out of your stance you use them to rip upward and deliver a blow. Some guys thought it was more macho not to wear one (because slamming your bare arm up into a metal facemask hurts), but I always wore them (black of course for intimidation) because it meant you could hit the guy a helluva lot harder and try to rip his head off. In any case, great sign of enforcerhood to see a basketball player with one. And the stories about this guy are nuts -- he was famous for flying around the court recklessly slamming into anything and everything in pursuit of the ball. He once dove out of bounds and ploughed over a glass water cooler next to the bench which shattered when it hit the ground, + then tried to hop up and return to the game with blood gushing down his arm. They dragged him to the lockerroom for half an hour where he got over 100 stitches, before sprinting back out onto the court and trying to check himself back in. Known for his looks as well as his left hook, Jim O'Brien said of him in '73 "his second wife turns a lot of heads...but you're advised not to look." Speaking of which (you're welcome guys -- maybe Brad should do one of these?):
Artest ( C ) -- in the latter stages of the first quarter took over after the rest of the offense was completely moribund. A lot of it was forced, ugly, but at least he put up desperately needed points. In the second quarter however, even that source of offense went away, and as play got increasingly chippy Ron lost his cool and at one point even had to be restrained as he marched toward the Celtics bench with some sort of bad intentions. Started fumbling balls in the third, including one wide open rebound where everybody else was already headed up court and Ron just let it dribble off his hands out of bounds. After the Celtics adjusted, and with his threes not falling, Ron's offense just collapsed. He had one last hit to open the 4th and briefly draw us close, then went away.
Rick Mahorn -- (and no, Ron himself does not qualify because he only rarely smacks anybody oncourt). One of the baddest of the Bad Boys (who are all over this list), started out with Jeff Ruland in Washington to form the "Bruise Brothers" and later moved on to team with Barkley in the "Bump n' Thump" frontline in Philly, not only was he a nickname master, but he earned this classic scouting report in 1986: "Enforcer of the first degree... Pistons wanted him to hit the boards as well as opponents, but he averaged only 5.2 rpg... Prince off the court and the devil personified on it, where he asks no quarter and gives none...". Perhaps not surprisingly, coming out of high school he was more prized as a football prospect than basketball prospect -- in any case he always seemed to get gleeful enjoyment out of splatting people.
Moore ( B- ) -- was quickly gone in the first quarter with 2 early fouls, and that was a major major problem at the time because he had half of our points...as in 2. Despite that awe inspiring number, pretty much sucked in the first half. Looked overmatched, unable to deal with the wall of bodies and flying hands deployed all over the court by the league's #1 defensive team, and redveloped his fumblethumbs issue. In the third though began to do the Mikki stuff as we struggled back into it -- the Celtics defense had lost some of its oomph and Mikki was able to head to the hoop for layups and dunks off of passes and follows. Delivered a hard foul on Rondo on a drive to the hoop in the late going. Bit cheap with the arm low in the gut, but I did not mind it at all on the send a message scale. Did happen late enough that it was more petulant poor loser than intimdating set the tone for the game stuff though.
Jerry Sloan -- a man so mean he's still the toughest man on his team, and he's a 65 year old coach now. Sloan was a lowly guard -- about the last place you expect to find an enforcer. But he was legendary even during his day. He was scared of nobody and nothing and made All Defensive Teams just on pure tenacity (he also uunfortunately was one of the very first practicioner's of the flop in the NBA -- he and his fellow bruise brothers in Chicago became famous for falling over in the slightest breeze). And he carried that attitude with right into coaching, which has caused him considerable trouble at times. He got canned from his first coaching job with the Bulls (the very team where he coached Reggie) after calling out his players in the lockerrom for complaining to the media about him being a hardass, and when one of them stood up to admit it, Sloan chucked a chair at him so hard it shattered on the wall behind him (Reggie himself seemed to have absorbed ratehr too much of this Sloan to start this season before his mea culpa and fortuunate change of course).
Miller ( C- ) -- grabbed some rebounds inside, but the swarming Celtics' defense was clearly furstrarting and confusing him, and he was dropping balls, forcing things, didn't know what the hell to do, Shot was thrown way way off too, and aside from a very brief spurt as we made our thrid quarter charge, just did not look good out there. Because he rebounded when noone else did, will keep this grade above the D level, but there was no other part of his gam that looked comfortable at all, and the shooting obviously came crashing back to Earth.
Wendell Ladner -- who? you are probably asking. Well, Wendell Ladner of course. And the fact that this guy make an NBA Enforcer list (actually ABA) with a name like "Wendell" says a lot. As does the fact that he made it depsite appearing in a beefcake calendar given out to the female fans of the Kentucky Colonels when he played there. But this guy was tough. Notice that pad on his forearm int eh above picture? In football we called that a "ripper", since when you play on the interior line and explode out of your stance you use them to rip upward and deliver a blow. Some guys thought it was more macho not to wear one (because slamming your bare arm up into a metal facemask hurts), but I always wore them (black of course for intimidation) because it meant you could hit the guy a helluva lot harder and try to rip his head off. In any case, great sign of enforcerhood to see a basketball player with one. And the stories about this guy are nuts -- he was famous for flying around the court recklessly slamming into anything and everything in pursuit of the ball. He once dove out of bounds and ploughed over a glass water cooler next to the bench which shattered when it hit the ground, + then tried to hop up and return to the game with blood gushing down his arm. They dragged him to the lockerroom for half an hour where he got over 100 stitches, before sprinting back out onto the court and trying to check himself back in. Known for his looks as well as his left hook, Jim O'Brien said of him in '73 "his second wife turns a lot of heads...but you're advised not to look." Speaking of which (you're welcome guys -- maybe Brad should do one of these?):
Last edited:
... I like Yankees 
