DeJuan Blair vs Hasheem Thabeet

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Growing up in Pittsburgh as a sports fan, we had the Pirates, Penguins, Steelers, and Panthers, and for brief periods of time, the USFL’s Maulers, arena football’s Gladiators, indoor soccer’s Spirit and the Pittsburgh Bulls indoor lacrosse team (featuring #66 Butch Marino). As you can tell, none of these are NBA teams. Without a local team in the pre-internet (how did we live without internet casinos?) and pre-SportsCenter era (there probably was SportsCenter but I don’t remember watching it until later), my friends and I never followed the NBA and naturally were not big NBA fans. Sure we watched the Lakers and Celtics championships, but otherwise, I don’t even remember the NBA being on television.

These days, I check the box scores of nearly every NBA game played by the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets to see how former Pitt players DeJuan Blair, Sam Young and Aaron Gray are doing. All three are currently starting on their respective teams, though DeJuan Blair is the player of this group who really stands out. Although Blair benefits from playing on team with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, Bill Simmons included him at #50 in his NBA trade value column since he puts up double-doubles regularly. Anyone who watched him at Pitt knew what a great player he was, though there was a question about how his size (6’7”) would translate in the NBA. Of course, some doubts may have been alleviated from his match-up with 7’3” Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut. Let’s go back to February 16, 2009, shall we.





While the videos illustrate that Blair dominated Thabeet in this game, the box score shows it even more.

Blair: 22 points; 23 rebounds; 2 assists and 1 block.
Thabeet: 5 points; 4 rebounds; 2 steals and 2 blocks (fouled out).

So here's what I don't understand about the NBA. Although Blair dominated Thabeet, the UConn center was drafted 2nd overall and earned a very nice payday. Meanwhile, Blair wasn't drafted until the 2nd round at 37th overall. I understand that you can't look at the one aforementioned game in a vacuum, but it turned out to be accurate.

Not including last night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, Blair is averaging 8.6 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game in only 22+ minutes per game. Meanwhile, Thabeet plays only about 8 minutes per game and averages 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds. If you’re 7’3” how don’t you get at least 2 rebounds a game just by standing under the basket? Thabeet was listed as a DNP (did not play): Coach's Decision in Memphis' last two games. Therefore, Thabeet had the same impact on these games as if he was sitting home playing video poker online.

This post isn't to discredit Thabeet. Enough people in hindsight criticize Thabeet and Memphis for drafting him 2nd overall. It seems to me that NBA teams are scared to pass on what they feel might be a dominant center since this is rare to find. This post is just to point out that I don't understand how so many teams passed on DeJuan Blair, and to show appreciation for how well he is doing in the NBA.

Plus, I like seeing the video of Blair slamming Thabeet again!