The new generation of "Bigs"

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a guard-driven league. The Golden State Warriors chase on the 1995’-96’ Chicago Bulls dominates NBA news. Television is all about what the fans enjoy. Little do they know, the average sports fan is not paying attention to the new generation of “bigs” in the league.

With Kevin Durant’s unicorn comment on Kristaps Porzingis,” He can shoot, he can defend, he is a 7-footer that can shoot all the way out to the 3-point line,” Durant said. “That is rare. Plus he can block shots – that is like a unicorn in this league.”

Journalists and broadcasters, especially within the New York area, ran away with Durant’s comments and now consider Porzingis to be the unicorn of the NBA. Looking at the younger “bigs” in the NBA, it seems like the emerging “bigs” are shaping out to be unicorns.

Since the NBA draft in 2010, these new special big men entered the league “tacitly” but were undervalued and overshadowed by the impact guards stamped on the hardwood.

2010 Round 1 Pick 5: Demarcus Cousins

2010 Round 2 Pick 33: Hassan Whiteside

2011 Round 1 Pick 16: Nikola Vucevic

2012 Round 1 Pick 1: Anthony Davis

2012 Round 1 Pick 9: Andre Drummond

2012 Round 2 Pick 33: Draymond Green

2015 Round 1 Pick 1: Karl Anthony Towns

2015 Round 1 Pick 3: Jahlil Okafor

2015 Round 1 Pick 4: Porzingis

Traditionally, this group of athletes does not fit the category of the typical big man that America is accustomed to seeing.

Upside wise, these guys could bring something new to the table (total package sense) that the league has yet to seen. Cousins and Davis highlights the list of emerging big men. Cousins is averaging 27 ppg and 11.3 ppg. Davis is averaging 24.3 ppg and 10.1 rpg.

Older basketball fans fascinated with the physical nature of the way the NBA was played in the 1980s/90s would contend that Cousins and Davis style/dominance of play compares to modern day Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Garnett.  

Shaq and Garnett were both drafted in the 1990s.

Since those comparisons create conversation, here is something to consider that will spark further discussions.

Whiteside (26-years-old) is our modern day Dikembe Mutombo.

Mutombo at age 26 (37 mpg) stats: 13.8 ppg, 4.1 bpg, and 13 rpg

Whiteside (28.5 mpg) stats: 12.6 ppg, 3.9 bpg, and 11.4 rpg

People on social media and basketball fans love comparisons and these “bigs” in modern day basketball adequately relates to NBA great bigs. Want to know the last time a big man won most valuable player during the regular season? Dirk Nowitzki in 2006-07. Prior to Nowitzki, it was Garnett, Duncan and Shaq.

Good company right? Since the past “bigs” won MVP, the way basketball is played changed the NBA by storm. But in a guard-driven league, the NBA never saw such a variety in “bigs” over the past few years. Cousins and Whiteside was the start of something new. The two of them improved year by year in FG%, points, rebounds, and etc. Cousins shaped the center position, precisely in the mid-range and 3-point shooting.

Shaq at age 25 stats: 28.3 ppg and 11.4 prg

Cousins and Shaq are averaging the same amount of points at the same age. An exception is that Cousins is scoring not only in the paint, but along the perimeter as well. When was the last time Shaq shot almost 75% from the free throw and 35% behind the arc? The answer to that question is NEVER.

In Davis career night against the Detroit Pistons this past Sunday, he scored 59 points with 20 rebounds. He showed his all-around talent (being on a roster depleted team) as the franchise player and earned his way with mentions of former NBA greats. Davis throughout his short and still going career, has shot the ball over 50%. That is something Garnett could not do at age 22 like Davis.

Garnett at age 25 stats: 20.8 ppg, 10.4 rpg, and 46 FG%

I enjoy watching Towns, Okafor, and Porzingis play. I see Towns with a Duncan ceiling, Okafor with a Hakeem Olajuwon ceiling in post-game alone, and Porzingis as a more aggressive Dirk. But of course, these young rookies have to choose whether they want to be great or not.

Since basketball has been considered a guard-driven league, guys like Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook are the face of the guard position leaving out the emergence of the bigs over the past few years. One may argue that the change of rules in the league benefits towards guards and forwards more than it does big men.

The NBA will continue to be a guard-driven league until a mass of new “bigs” draws excitement towards the fans. How will fans become excited to watch 7-footers? Simply winning. It is a reason that Duncan is one of the most respected guys in the NBA and also a 15x all-star.

The tail of the league and current trend is the 3-ball. Soon it will become a habit to see a good shooting NBA at all positions. Maybe not as great as Curry but the three point spot is becoming expected.

At the end of the day, the NBA’s new generation of “bigs” is in good hands. Glimpse of former legends in these young guys games into their own unique styles gives us not only unicorns, but dragons and thunderbirds.

College Students Take an Approach

South Carolina Court Clears 'Friendship Nine' Of Civil Rights Crimes in 1961.

They don’t want us to know all social issues, political issues, violence, government changes, and etc. that are happening in America.

The revolution is amongst us and is looking for power players. We won't be silenced because these are issues that people don't want us to talk about.

The gut feeling in me speaks that college kids are aware of the killings among police officers to black people. More specifically, white cop vs. black teenagers. The term “Black Lives Matter” was documented after George Zimmerman was let off the hook for a crime he committed on
17-year-old Trayvon Martin which is why these problems – 1960s civil-rights – never left.

Student activism, black students on American college campuses, has brushed the matter of ethnic stiffness from recent weeks, but perhaps not this fall semester. There are students in higher education, such as Sam Houston State University NAACP student Angelique Price, who understand that college is not only to educate students but to enlighten and align them in the role they will play in society. It’s never a problem until it happens to you….right? This is the problem in America and the University of Missouri is living a real life horror story right now. They are experiencing the civil rights movement at first hand.

“The president of the school made $20 million strictly off of his football team alone,” said Xavier Banks, a passionate Texas A&M University–Kingsville student. “Over ¾ of the athletes on scholarships are black, and once they rebelled against the president, the school caught amnesia and became known as “hometown heroes.”

Angelique also dropped knowledge on what is going on with college campuses.

“The issues that have been playing out for years under our little collegiate noses have come to a head like a bad pimple,” Price said. “We protest and we take stands but we won't be silenced because these are issues that people don't want us talking about. The revolution is amongst us and is looking for power players--activists to do the field work, and advocates taking the smart business side.”

The thing about college is that you find yourself and you go through things you never been through.

Que Wayne, founder of New Perspective Development community outreach organization, gave an opinion on the problem with college students protesting. “The point of college is to find your purpose of life,” Wayne said. “College is the prime of your life and you’re going to leach your way through or fight for it. College is a good platform for resources.”

Everybody has access to different technologies. In the real world, you can’t pick up a camera from the mass communications department and turn it in after you use it. Everything is given to the student in college.

“College is a chain reaction,” Wayne said. “When one college starts to protest, then more schools take the same stand. We approach or stand towards the issue. One half of the students are on the bandwagon side trying to leach and the other half is really upset about the reality of what’s going on.”

Fresh college students – from every race and class – are either followers or leaders. Either they take a stand on an issue and stand up against it or continue to seek higher education that their parents instilled in them since being in their school lives. The ones leaching their way through the protests and actions on campus could come from different backgrounds as the ones who are actually touched about the battles blacks are facing.

Students at Sam Houston State University protest in 2015.

Rev. Jesse Jackson wasn’t afraid to speak out on the recent issue on Laquan McDonald’s death. Don’t hold your tongue… close mouths don’t get fed!

Parents of these college students will always think their generation was better. But in reality, these college kids are smarter than what is being interpreted. From over 50 years, college students have been leading marches, voter-registration drives, and various protest movements. 

Pointing out the black students and showing them ways to attack disparities are the future of our generation.