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It's a good story and he's one of the classier guys in the NBA..I hope he can win a ring one day..
Spurs' McDyess returns to scene of high-flying days
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.
It's a good story and he's one of the classier guys in the NBA..I hope he can win a ring one day..
Very good piece
McDyess' improvement in recent weeks is one of the better developments this season.
Yes it is. I think an even better development his seeing Finley play the PF spot the other night. Great job coach 2 seven footers on the bench.
That's easily one of McDonald's better efforts.
Makes me sad. I wish he woulda never had these injuries happen to him, even if it meant the Spurs would never get him.
good piece . rare coming from mcdonald.
dyess is playing well lately. i hope he keeps it up.
That's the best McDonald article I've ever read. I wonder who wrote it?
Dice did a remarkable job of reinventing himself. Nobody punished a rim like he did. Those of you not old enough to get to see him play should go check out his highlights. Amazing stuff.
Dice is that dude twice, I got love for him. IF RJ without no major INJURIES had half his heart we would be a top 3 team right now, book it!
Pop only prefers this gravity-challenged edition of Dice. Pop would NEVER have allowed such a high-wire act on his squad.
2001 Dice was an absolute terror. If he kept improving his jumpshot to the level it is now without getting injured, he would of been unstoppable offensively and he has always been a pretty good defensive player.
Those that never saw him, think Amare but with defense and rebounding.
McDyess has been bringing it lately.
I felt he was one of the only players out there Tuesday against the Lakers that competed.
Too bad he spent the majority of the second half on the bench in favor of midget ball.
Very nice article. I remember wanting the Spurs to almost trade away most of their players at the time to try and land this guy. Prior to his injury I had never seen a big man play with so much explosiveness and speed in both offense and defense. He was going to be a one man nba highlight reel almost every game.
What a testiment to his mental for ude and determination.
The pixel allways above the rim is his head:
And just for further trade-speculation-excitement
One of the comments says: "mcdyess beat at his own old game.."
Come June and next season, we will remain very thankful that Dice is on this team.
I went to a few Spurs vs Nuggets games in those days and I remember being thinking "Damn that dude has hops". I went with a buddy that had been watching McDyess since his college days and he would always say how bad ass he is and that he would be a HOFer
Very true. It's a shame the Spurs weren't able to land him earlier in his career.
This guy has had a fairly significant injury history and for him to still be playing is nothing short of miraculous. It sure sounds like his injury situation was possibly mishandled by either the medical staffs of the Nuggets. While it's not clear, it sounds like perhaps he came back too soon following that first injury. Who knows how that may have played into the more severe knee injury he sustained?
Too many of the Spurs players and coaches are living in the past. It is an ominous sign when the articles of good play are about what they have done and not about what they are doing.
Nice article by Jeff
Props to McDonald, finest article of the season so far...
Back in the days before NBA League Pass I used to stay up at night waiting on a 30 minute NBA recap hosted by David Aldridge if I remember correctly. I was wanting to see any McDyess highlights. If they had a game, he was almost always in the top 10 dunks or blocks of the night.
I wish I could go back and watch all the games from those earlier seasons.
Not gonna happen if he keeps screwing Spurs and Spurs keeps sucking.
He had like a 42 inch vertical coming out of college. Dude was an absolute freak. I really hope he can hang em up with a ring.
Do you think it helps Dice to play with Blair? They're both freaks of nature in a way, playing beyond what people thought they'd be able to do, playing on damaged bodies, but able to play well despite that.
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