“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster”
The words of a young Henry Hill. As far back as i can remember i just wanted to be tall, not Manute Bol tall, just above average height. I was always tiny as a kid, until a growth spurt at 14 took me up to a towering 5’8″ (meaning my mental state). Tall dudes seemingly don’t realise what an advantage they have over us shorties, be it in sports, nightclub situations, at fairgrounds, doing D.I.Y. These ceiling scraping Big & Tall frequenting mo-fo’s are living la vida but apparently that’s not enough.
NBA big men are moving out of the paint & want in on small man territory. Danny Devito, Gary Coleman, Muggsy Bogues & Earl Boykins can get to fuck, the big lads are here and are invading the NBA perimeter. Be it the Gasol brothers, DeMarcus Cousins, Nicola Vucevic, Brook Lopez or Karl-Anthony Towns NBA centres are launching the three point shot at an unprecedented rate. The game is changing on both ends of the floor as coaches look to the mismatch & switch more than ever. Going small is in vogue, being big but acting small “La moda”. Where this leads us to is anyones guess, the champs and wanna be champs are struggling, the also rans are hustling and the teams people wrote off are bubbling. It’s early days, sun tans are still fading, Lebron hasn’t chewed anyone out on twitter yet, the Knicks security haven’t attacked one of their own and Gerald Green is still in street clothes. Shirley this cannot continue?
Again, we aim to be your weekly guide for watching the NBA in the UK. Enjoy.