Layups: 5 Bizarre Facebook Groups Devoted to Random 80s Players
Posted by Neil Paine on April 18, 2010
My buddy Brent sent me this link today, and I had to share it with the world: from Frumpzilla, 5 bizarre Facebook groups you, as a fan of trivial NBA history, should join just for the hell of it... In other words, Facebook "appreciation societies" devoted to Greg Kite, Larry Krystkowiak, Kevin Duckworth, Kurt Rambis, and Joe Wolf. And believe it or not, but according to the article there's actually a turf war brewing between Kite and Krystkowiak's groups! (That's right, backup big men from 25 years ago can still stir up deep emotions in their respective fan bases.)
Of course, those 5 aren't the only journeymen who deserve "preservation status" on a site like Facebook. Brent asked, "What groups would you propose be amended to this list? Those that you personally know of or would like to create?" Bill Wennington came to mind (the Greg Kite of his era?), but I think I'm going to open this one up to the readers... For which historical bench players would you create a social media group whose membership numbers are completely disproportionate to the player's talent level?
April 18th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
TR Dunn, without question.
But I have to check - maybe he started some.
April 18th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Mark Madsen immediately comes to mind. Brian Scalabrine obviously has a sort of cult following (he was even popular in NJ). Damon Jones became quite well known (even though he had one good season of starting in MIL).
April 18th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Chuck Nevitt. I remember him getting an article in Sports Illustrated.
April 18th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Luther Rackley.
Not only an Original Cavalier, he was in The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh AND The Last Dinosaur PLUS he has a great name.
April 18th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Will Perdue or Chris Gatling.
April 18th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Never mind, they both probably started too much.
April 18th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Adonal Foyle
Chris Dudley
Cherokee Parks, was on a sportscenter commercial back in the day - http://www.youtube.com/user/ESPN#p/u/125/Gn5Sqt5joQk
April 18th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Dave Corzine, Paul Mokeski and/or Randy Breuer and Popeye Jones
April 18th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Great stuff! In fact, I think Simmons extoled the virtues of Mokeski in the Book of Basketball; I had a Mokeski card from the amazing Hoops '89 series, and it was always good for a laugh, with the goofy balding perm haircut & short shorts:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/3690028611_38a49eb730.jpg
Love Mokeski. Keep 'em coming, guys...
April 18th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Dwayne Schintzius, but he may be too recent?
I never forgot a comment someone made when at the end of his rather short career he signed a contract for a mil or two and they said "it makes you angry with your parents for not being taller"
April 18th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
A more recent pick for me would be Eric Snow.
He doesn't quite fit the profile of some of these other guys - Snow was kind of useful. But it seemed that any time he became the subject during a national game, the announcers gushed about was a professional, hardworking, no-nonsense guy he was, that humanity's very existence was justified because Eric Snow was a part of it.
Tom Copa
Earl Cureton
Chris Dudley, sort of
Brad Lohaus
Tim McCormick
David Wood
I was going to say Jack Haley, but once he became somewhat famous for being one of those guys, he jumped the shark.
And I checked - TR Dunn started a ton of games as it turned out. Bad memory on my part. Then again, I was 14 when the 80's were over so it's not like I was super aware at the time.
April 18th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Glad to see people are finding some enjoyment and inspiration from the article. Perhaps it's time to start some new "Preservation/Appreciation" societies on Facebook!
Thanks for referencing Frumpzilla. Considering the amount of time I've spent on the [sport]-reference family of sites, not to mention the immeasurable amount of enjoyment and utility I've gleaned from them, I consider this an honor. Many thanks again for reading.
April 19th, 2010 at 1:49 am
I gotta go with Ed Nealy. The man was built like a bomb shelter and had no discernible basketball skills aside from setting really vicious moving screens, yet he played for a decade on a few really good teams.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Nice. If I'm remembering The Jordan Rules correctly, Nealy was one of the only players on the 1990 Bulls that Jordan didn't despise... He hated Cartwright and Will "Vanderbilt", but he liked Ed Nealy because of those vicious screens.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:58 am
Scott Hastings came to mind right away when I read this.
Tree Rollins
Mark West
James Donaldson (although he was a one time all star, so was Duckworth twice)
Jon Koncak
Manute Bol
April 19th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Just thought of a few more:
Anthony Bowie (Called a timeout in the last minute of a blowout to get a triple double)
Corie Blount
Mario Elie
Carl Herrera
Wayne Cooper
George Lynch
James "Buddha" Edwards
Zan Tabak
Willie Burton
April 19th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Uwe. Blab.
/discussion
April 19th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Three kings of the ten day contract.
Charles Jones
Chucky Brown (although he did start 1995-96 season with Houston)
Bob McCann
April 19th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
EDDIE LEE WILKINS.
game over.
April 19th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Oops, I didn't mean to bite your style, Ian. I got so excited about Eddie Lee I glossed right over your comment.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
+1 on Uwe Blab.
kampfy,
If we're going with the kings [pardon the sacramento/kansas city pun] of the 10 day contract, chucky brown definitely belongs, I'd also include in that list:
Chucky Atkins [although he started all 82 games for 04-05 lakers..]
Tony Massenburg (sp)
Anthony Johnson
Mike Wilks
Mike 'the other' james
PS - Do I earn bonus if I knew off the top of my head that Eddie Lee Wilkins went to Gardner-webb ?
PS2- Is it just me, or do teams use less 10 day contracts less than they used to [in the mid-late 1990s]?
April 20th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Mr. Twisto, Uwe Blab would like you to know that his career 0.009 WS/48 minutes (including 2 of his 5 seasons earning negative win shares) laughs Eddie Lee Wilkins' 0.032 WS/48 minutes right out the door. RIGHT OUT THE DOOR!
Neil, I too, get a laugh out of Paul Mokeski's 89 Hoops card. 89 Hoops cards were my first ever basketball cards, and I kind of worship them to this day. I still remember getting 3 packs of 15 random cards and just praying that Adrian Dantley would be one of them, and he was! That card stayed in my wallet unprotected for some 10 years before it basically disintegrated.
April 20th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Absolutely, positively Felton Spencer. And Travis Knight's long hair.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Jim Jackson
1. moved around an insane amount of time
2. random 25ppg season
3. last guy to have 24 in LA prior to Kobe
4. Relationship with Toni Braxton, all time underrated hot female singer, caused 3J to break up.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Mike Smrek
the immortal Slavko Vranes
and the wannabe . . .Frederic Weis
+1 on Blab too
April 20th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Anthony "Pig" Miller
Jack Haley (Rodman's mental stabilizer and the Bulls' human victory cigar)
April 20th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Chris Dudley, Greg Ostertag, Brian Shaw, Samaki Walker, Todd Fuller
April 21st, 2010 at 1:00 am
Neil, it would be great if you came up with a hypothetical season for a team consisting of these all-time greats!
April 21st, 2010 at 10:57 am
Zan Tabak!
April 21st, 2010 at 11:20 am
All y'all are forgetting the master.
Master Chef that is.
Steve 'The Chef' Schefler.
Over-enthusiastic cheerer from the sidelines, and a massive fan of protective padding on elbows and knees.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:16 pm
It seems like we have a real glut of big men right now (which is understandable -- the "Original 5" were all PFs or Cs)... Give me more perimeter players, and I'll create a whole fictional league consisting of nothing but these players, and use SPM or WS or something to simulate the results!
April 21st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Shout out to a couple of forgotten Sonics- Jim McIllvein and Robert Swift.
Also, Matt Geiger.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I thought more on how the league should be set up: Each of the Original 5 players is the captain of his own team, with Mokeski being the 6th captain to even out the # of teams (Why? Because he's Mokeski, he doesn't need a reason). They fill out their roster according to the order in which players were mentioned in the comments -- so Mark Madsen would be the #1 overall pick, then Scalabrine, Damon Jones, etc. Draft order is according to a random draw. The draft ends when every team has 12 players: 2 point guards, 4 wings, 4 big men, and 2 "wild cards". Team strengths are determined by career WS/48. Each team plays a 30-game schedule (thanks to Home Teams Online for the scheduler: http://www.hometeamsonline.com/sportswebsites/default.asp?scheduler)...
April 21st, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Oh, and to be draft-eligible, players had to start less than half of their career games.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Ken "The Animal" Bannister. "He had... things on his face" indeed.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Jim Loscutoff was a, uh, "winner"
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:07 am
OK, here's the draft so far:
Every team has totally exhausted their quota of big men, so now we need point guards and wingmen to fill out the rosters!
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:27 am
Wouldn't you know that Uwe Blab was so awesome that he even failed to make the roster here!
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:47 am
That's why I'm naming the league BLAB: Basketball League for Amazing Benchwarmers...
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 pm
The BLAB league is terrifyingly real:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=5559
April 25th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Willie Burton. 50 points in one game.
May 30th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Duckworth was WAY better than Kite, Krystko, Rambis, and Wolf. He started on a finals team, and scored in double digits. He actually had some offensive skills, not just size and strength like those dudes. Rambis was also a step above Kite, Krystko, and Wolf, since he was a major role player on a great team.
June 13th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Acouple of these guys could play alittle.Paul mokeski looked weird but he could shoot the rock,and scalibrine could play alittle.Rambis had marginal skills but made big plays diving for loose balls and hustling.Boston had a strange looking guy who could surprisingly play pretty well for years named hank finkal,he had a nice outside shot.Some horrible players were john hummer,doc rivers, walt hazzard,mel davis, and pervious ellison.Hummer has got to be the worst player in nba history.