Patty Mills will occasionally be approached by one of his lifelong fans at one of the camps he runs for children in his native Australia with a request: Can you think of me?
For most NBA players, it will be a breeze. He will clear a path, measure his steps and drive the ball through the edge with authority. He would land, and his admirers would celebrate, because they just saw something unfathomably cool.
Illustration by Davide Barco
Unfathomable is also the right word for it, because there is a problem with this scenario: Patty Mills is not dipping. Of all the choices he could make with the ball, it’s not even an afterthought, he says. “I want to say it’s at the bottom of the list, but to be honest, it’s probably not even on the list,” Mills said. Because I could not show off to the kids: ‘It’s a little moment when I’ve like,’ Oh, I do not think I can get there now, mate, ” Mills said. ” But I will keep working on it. ”
Mills is one of a handful of players in a select club: those with successful NBA careers who for some reason have never been stuck. Since the 1996–97 season (the earliest data available at Basketball-Reference.com), 1,801 different players had a total of 210,21042 regular season players, and 1,259 out of 1,367 players (or 92%) who played at least 1,000 minutes . immersed at least once.
This allows 108 constant contributors over 25 seasons without there being a delicate two-stroke slam, of which 11 are playing this season. The list ranges from MVPs (Steve Nash) to regular veterans (JJ Redick, TJ McConnell) to travel companions (Troy Daniels). Others, such as Fred VanVleet, Ricky Rubio and DJ Augustin, played long enough to become league competitors. Members of this World Cup club largely fall into two groups: the vertically challenged and the perimeter players told to stay out of the paint. The 6 ‘1 “Mills, now in his twelfth season, sits fourth on the standings for most games played among active players without a dunk, is a member of both contingents and has withdrawn from a career without one . ‘ It’s a big part of the game and it’s what engages the fans and makes basketball basketball, “says Mills.” When I hit a ball through a hoop, I tried it for a long time. I feel the more I wait. “The less chance I have.”
Steve Novak was not sure what to do when he received the call. That was in early 2012, near the height of Linsanity in New York, and his agent got word that the NBA wanted him to participate in the dunk game. Jeremy Lin was sleeping on his bankmate Landry Fields’ couch at the time, and, as Novak remembers, the plan was for Fields to sit over a futon-bound Lin. When Fields had to withdraw due to injury, JR Smith was used to take over. When Smith withdrew due to a poor ankle, the offer went to the next player on the list.
The NBA was eager to capitalize on the excitement surrounding Linsanity, and the addition of Novak, who has never immersed himself in five seasons as a professional, was just another twist for the theater. For a role player with a few million dollars in career earnings, the cash incentive ($ 20,000 just for participation only) was not insignificant, and the potential spotlight could do wonders for the Knicks forward. He worked in the league to join the three-point header, but preferred Kevin Durant. At 6 ’10 “, no player has appeared in so many games as long as Novak without dipping. And he did not intend to become a meme during the All-Star weekend.
In theory, distinguish those who are blessed by the Basketball Gods and our ordinary people tied to the earth. The average person can take 10,000 jumpers each week and eventually develop a decent stroke. And all you need to become a solid defender in your weekend is the willingness to pay attention to your opponent and play hard. But most people can try from now until the day of death to lift their frame to the beams and never get close to the immersion.
Novak quickly sets the record: He can dip. Or at least he can at some point. There is a proof somewhere on the internet if you know where to look: excerpts flashy jams from college and routine slams of practice and in the foreplay. He even remembers his first dunk in the game. He was in the eighth grade, and towering over his fellow twins on a huge 6 ‘5 “. After seeing Novak put it down in practice, a coach approached him with an incentive. As the big friendly giant could dive into a match, he’d be rewarded with a $ 20 gift card to a local ice cream shop. “If I had not previously been motivated,” Novak recalls, “I want ‘it should happen’ .
Illustration by Davide Barco
‘The dunk was a one-handed affair of a steal on the quick break. In his words, it was venomous. What he did not know then was that it would be one of his last.
Novak’s story is surprisingly common in a league that idolizes the slam. Mills, McConnell and Daniels are one of the countless players with stories about immersion on lowland fields in driveways and in backyards growing up, mimicking the high kites they saw on television. Dunking was one of the things that made them fall in love with the game. It just never happened to them in the benefits.
As is the case with Novak, video evidence of Mills dunk-ing exists, and not just from the early years of his career. Before a home game against the Cavaliers in March 2017, Mills caught an alley he delivered with one hand before shouting out for TNT’s microphones: “Oh man, I should have saved it for the game!”
A quick YouTube search will show videos of McConnell winning the 76ers’ preseason dunk game (a competition he was forced to compete in) in 2016 and Daniels winning the Play of the Game honor during a period with the then D League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2014 for a two-handed stroke of a cut. Why then could no one immerse themselves in an NBA game?
To begin with, nondunkers are on the floor doing other things. Like Novak, who made 43.0% of his three-point efforts, Mills (39.1%) and Daniels (39.5%) are outside-archer snipers, and McConnell – who averages eight assists per 36 minutes of play – has a penchant for handy passes. The contributions they can make by locating or finding an open teammate weigh the appeal of a highlight.
Another answer is fear. Novak recalls two real chances to score his first NBA dunk. The first came to the Clippers early in his career, when he ‘came up with a lath band’ and used a finger roll. The other one occurred when he was playing for the Knicks against the Bucks and was alone in the quick break. He steels himself and decides this is his moment.
“I just took a little too much time to get to the edge, and Larry Sanders, who was on the Bucks at the time, dragged me out of hell like a bat,” Novak says. “And it bothered me quite a bit, so I hurried it, and instead of getting my footsteps right, I rolled the one just as well.”
The threat of embarrassment on the sidelines also weighs on McConnell, now with the Pacers. “Because I’m ‘6’ 1 ‘, there are a lot of players who look like skin protectors to me,” McConnell says. “When I see someone – no matter who it is – within striking distance, I do not try a dunk.”
In addition, thinning poses health risks. Daniels, who has yet to sign with just as many teams after seven seasons, says that despite being 6 ‘4 “and having a decent jumping ability, the increased chance of him getting hurt on a dunk, that’s what drives him in the direction of layups.If he landed uncomfortably and a single turn, his career could be jeopardized.
“I rarely dip when I exercise,” Daniels says. ‘It’s second nature for me to try to shoot a layout or a driver. Clearly, guys are much bigger in the NBA – much stronger. Your chances of getting that dunk are slim, and your chances of getting hurt are very high. . . . I do not want to try to do something that I am not really familiar with and to end up hurting myself. ”
Gone are the days when coaches would tell Novak that a try rather than a fight inside was long gone. But Novak is even an outlier in this group: not only has he never tried a dunk in his 11-year career, but only tried 16 layups. He was a stretch four before most stretch fours were used correctly, and 78% of his field goal efforts were from outside the arc.
Initially, coaches could not unlock him. He was a tower that protruded forward, and that he would probably never become a glazier. Only when Rick Adelman was hired to lead the Rockets before Novak’s second season did things start to click. Later, when he played for Mike D’Antoni in New York, his skills as a shooter became a feature of the Knicks offense.
“He would say to me, ‘Hey, Steve, I know the guy you’re watching might be able to score on you.’ It is going well with me. ‘I’m not OK if he scores more than you,’ ‘Novak said. And it’s like, Whoa. It makes so much sense to me. If I make three, and he two, we’re fine out here. ”
Just because some players prefer to play below the edge, does not mean they should not watch in amazement when teammates or opponents soar above it. McConnell remembers being surprised when his former 76ers teammates Richaun Holmes and Nerlens Noel dropped it in Philadelphia. Daniels mentions Vince Carter and Derrick Jones Jr., though – despite calves what Daniels says’ looks like [pencils]”- won the 2020 dunk game as his favorite. Mills also played with very high kites, but he appreciates dunkers of every streak. Late in Manu Ginóbili’s career, the Argentine wing and some Spurs teammates held a competition. Ginóbili, Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter struggled to see who would finish with the most dunks each year. After hearing about the friendly bet, Mills made sure he was involved.
“I would never get one, but in the end I was the referee and I decided what qualifies as a dunk for the other guys,” Mills says. “It was at the end of all three of their careers. A dunk for them at any stage was like a big dunk. ‘
Splitter, who stood 6 ’11 “during his career and weighed 245 pounds, won every year, but at different points during each season, Diaw and Ginóbili took the lead. The only sure thing was Mills and his goose egg. The countless layups were very far from his first dunk as a teenager, when he outpaced an opponent so violently that he stood in shock while his cousin – a teammate – shouted and jumped around him.The moment felt rare, even then. missed something, apart from perhaps a street scene among his younger fans.
McConnell has not yet counted out his chances of disappearing before his retirement, though he apparently does not think so. He prefers to be on the other side of a sidewalk. ‘Maybe I’ll have Myles over once before my career is over, if I break fast [Turner] to lift me up and dunk. You know, if I’m like 33 or 34, ‘says McConnell. “It doesn’t have to be someone who’s halfway through and no effort from the other team-type deal, where I can possibly do something.”
Illustration by Davide Barco
As for Novak, he has no regrets about completing his career without a dunk or rejecting the invitation for the dunk game. He still watches every year and laughs at the thought that he was once asked to participate. “I think, holy, I made the right decision,” Novak says. “I somehow had to figure out a way to get the 9-foot ring and a mini-bench.”