duncan228
02-11-2010, 02:01 AM
Spurs' McDyess returns to scene of high-flying days (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/Spurs_McDyess_returns_to_scene_of_high-flying_days.html)
Jeff McDonald
DENVER Spurs center Antonio McDyess is aware of the existence of this thing called YouTube. He understands that, with the appropriate combination of keystrokes, he can call up video of a younger version of himself, flying through the light Denver air, slashing and dunking, punishing NBA rims as if they were misbehaving children.
McDyess has never been tempted to take that digital trip back in time. Not once.
I hate looking at that stuff, McDyess said.
A catastrophic knee injury suffered in October 2002 not only robbed McDyess of the tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound leaping ability that made him one of the most feared forwards in the league. It nearly chased him from the game.
McDyess has since recast himself as a steady, 35-year-old jump shooter, content with his station in life and with no good reason to reminisce about what he once was. To him, watching old video of his slam-dunking self would be like a newly blinded man being described the colors of a rainbow.
When I look back, I'm thinking to myself what I could have been if I hadn't gotten hurt, McDyess said. I don't want to look at it that way.
Tonight, the Spurs close the western leg of their rodeo road trip in Denver, where many still remember the nightly flying circus that was McDyess, circa 1999.
He spent his best and most explosive seasons here, building the bedrock of a career some believe might have eventually ended at the doorstep of the hall of fame.
If.
When I was with him in Denver, he was the man I mean, the man, said Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups, who played with the 6-foot-9 McDyess on both sides of the injury chasm. He was probably one of the top three or four forwards in the league. He's still the most explosive player I've ever played with.
In his 14th NBA season, McDyess has been a reliable role player for the Spurs, averaging 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds.
He was a one-man wrecking crew during those early seasons in Denver. From 1999 to 2001, McDyess averaged 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds. In 2000-01, his last full season before injuries struck, McDyess averaged 21 and 12.
He was a highwire-walking, alley oop-finishing, highlight-reel machine, a man made for YouTube even if the technology hadn't been invented yet.
He could jump with the best of them, said Dallas' Jason Kidd, who spent the 1997-98 season tossing lobs to McDyess in Phoenix. You could throw it up above the square, and he could get it. He was that gifted.
Then, Mother Nature issued a recall on those gifts.
Finished at 29?
During training camp in 2001, McDyess suffered a partial tear of the patella tendon in his left knee. He rested it a few weeks and was declared fit to play.
Ten games into the season, he tore the tendon again. This time, it would require season-ending surgery. Later that year, Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe traded McDyess to New York.
Disaster hit in the Big Apple. With 1:55 left in a meaningless 2002 preseason game, McDyess went up for an uncontested dunk and came down in a heap.
Diagnosis: fractured kneecap.
I thought somebody had hit me in the knee, McDyess said. I'm looking at the ref like, 'Why didn't you call a foul?' When I came down, I realized there was nobody there.
Months later, McDyess was on a plane for the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, his season in tatters and his career hanging by a tendon. Doctors took bone from his right hip to repair his left knee.
For all intents and purposes, they might as well have removed the springs in McDyess' legs. He had lost the thing that had made him a star and faced the unsettling probability of being finished at age 29.
I pretty much thought he was done, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. You thought there's no way he's ever going to be Antonio McDyess again.
In a fit of depression, McDyess called his agent, Andy Miller, and told him to have the Knicks cut him loose.
I was so frustrated, I just wanted to quit, McDyess said. Let them buy me out. Let me go home. I didn't want to think about basketball. I didn't want to see a basketball.
Career resurrection
Once the numbness in his head and the pain in his knee subsided, McDyess decided he wanted to remain an NBA player. To do that, he would have to reinvent himself.
He had been playing one way his entire life: outrun everybody to the ball, out-jump everybody to the rim.
Just think if somebody said, 'Hey, you can't play like this no more,' McDyess said. It's like restarting your whole career.
John Lucas, the former Spurs coach who by then was running in the same circles with McDyess in Houston, helped him press the reset button. Together, they began to find him a jump shot.
The Knicks traded McDyess to Phoenix during the 2003-04 season, and he played well enough in 24 games with the Suns to earn a contract and new life in Detroit, where he spent five seasons before signing with the Spurs in July.
It is somewhat of an NBA miracle he is still playing at all.
Tonight, McDyess will take the floor in the town that knew him at his best. It is safe to say he will attempt far more soft 20-footers than rim-rattling jams.
These days, McDyess tries hard not to think about what could have been, only to be grateful for what still is.
My career could have been over, easy, McDyess said. I'm blessed to still be here and still have an opportunity to play.
Jeff McDonald
DENVER Spurs center Antonio McDyess is aware of the existence of this thing called YouTube. He understands that, with the appropriate combination of keystrokes, he can call up video of a younger version of himself, flying through the light Denver air, slashing and dunking, punishing NBA rims as if they were misbehaving children.
McDyess has never been tempted to take that digital trip back in time. Not once.
I hate looking at that stuff, McDyess said.
A catastrophic knee injury suffered in October 2002 not only robbed McDyess of the tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound leaping ability that made him one of the most feared forwards in the league. It nearly chased him from the game.
McDyess has since recast himself as a steady, 35-year-old jump shooter, content with his station in life and with no good reason to reminisce about what he once was. To him, watching old video of his slam-dunking self would be like a newly blinded man being described the colors of a rainbow.
When I look back, I'm thinking to myself what I could have been if I hadn't gotten hurt, McDyess said. I don't want to look at it that way.
Tonight, the Spurs close the western leg of their rodeo road trip in Denver, where many still remember the nightly flying circus that was McDyess, circa 1999.
He spent his best and most explosive seasons here, building the bedrock of a career some believe might have eventually ended at the doorstep of the hall of fame.
If.
When I was with him in Denver, he was the man I mean, the man, said Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups, who played with the 6-foot-9 McDyess on both sides of the injury chasm. He was probably one of the top three or four forwards in the league. He's still the most explosive player I've ever played with.
In his 14th NBA season, McDyess has been a reliable role player for the Spurs, averaging 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds.
He was a one-man wrecking crew during those early seasons in Denver. From 1999 to 2001, McDyess averaged 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds. In 2000-01, his last full season before injuries struck, McDyess averaged 21 and 12.
He was a highwire-walking, alley oop-finishing, highlight-reel machine, a man made for YouTube even if the technology hadn't been invented yet.
He could jump with the best of them, said Dallas' Jason Kidd, who spent the 1997-98 season tossing lobs to McDyess in Phoenix. You could throw it up above the square, and he could get it. He was that gifted.
Then, Mother Nature issued a recall on those gifts.
Finished at 29?
During training camp in 2001, McDyess suffered a partial tear of the patella tendon in his left knee. He rested it a few weeks and was declared fit to play.
Ten games into the season, he tore the tendon again. This time, it would require season-ending surgery. Later that year, Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe traded McDyess to New York.
Disaster hit in the Big Apple. With 1:55 left in a meaningless 2002 preseason game, McDyess went up for an uncontested dunk and came down in a heap.
Diagnosis: fractured kneecap.
I thought somebody had hit me in the knee, McDyess said. I'm looking at the ref like, 'Why didn't you call a foul?' When I came down, I realized there was nobody there.
Months later, McDyess was on a plane for the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, his season in tatters and his career hanging by a tendon. Doctors took bone from his right hip to repair his left knee.
For all intents and purposes, they might as well have removed the springs in McDyess' legs. He had lost the thing that had made him a star and faced the unsettling probability of being finished at age 29.
I pretty much thought he was done, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. You thought there's no way he's ever going to be Antonio McDyess again.
In a fit of depression, McDyess called his agent, Andy Miller, and told him to have the Knicks cut him loose.
I was so frustrated, I just wanted to quit, McDyess said. Let them buy me out. Let me go home. I didn't want to think about basketball. I didn't want to see a basketball.
Career resurrection
Once the numbness in his head and the pain in his knee subsided, McDyess decided he wanted to remain an NBA player. To do that, he would have to reinvent himself.
He had been playing one way his entire life: outrun everybody to the ball, out-jump everybody to the rim.
Just think if somebody said, 'Hey, you can't play like this no more,' McDyess said. It's like restarting your whole career.
John Lucas, the former Spurs coach who by then was running in the same circles with McDyess in Houston, helped him press the reset button. Together, they began to find him a jump shot.
The Knicks traded McDyess to Phoenix during the 2003-04 season, and he played well enough in 24 games with the Suns to earn a contract and new life in Detroit, where he spent five seasons before signing with the Spurs in July.
It is somewhat of an NBA miracle he is still playing at all.
Tonight, McDyess will take the floor in the town that knew him at his best. It is safe to say he will attempt far more soft 20-footers than rim-rattling jams.
These days, McDyess tries hard not to think about what could have been, only to be grateful for what still is.
My career could have been over, easy, McDyess said. I'm blessed to still be here and still have an opportunity to play.