1.) Never played sober
We have heard guys like Gilbert Arenas, J.R. Smith, and Metta World Peace talk about drinking before games but did you know one player in the NBA that did not play a game sober?
This story by former Net Jayson Williams must be the craziest drinking-before-games story ever. In a Podcast interview for Vice Sports, Williams revealed Manute Bol drank Heineken every single day including game days and as a result, the 7-foot-7 Sudanese never played a game with his wits totally intact.
You can continue reading here for Williams’ curious tales about Manute Bol.
2.) Pop’s Underhanded Tactics
The San Antonio Spurs are one of the most successful franchises, not just in the NBA, but in all professional sports. They had five NBA championships, had the best winning percentage of any franchise in any major sports league over three decades, had 18 consecutive 50-win seasons, and currently had a 22-season streak for playoffs appearance.
As outstanding as they are, do you really believe they got to where they are without being a little crafty? Well, not if you believe about Gregg Popovich joking about the airconditioning incident in Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals.
Popovich, joking about last night: "I saw the air conditioning people in the hallway … i sent them home."
— Joseph Goodman, Sports Enthusiast 🎟🍺 (@JoeGoodmanJr) June 6, 2014
If that was true, well, maybe the basketball gods gave them one and abandoned them altogether. That was San Antonio’s last championship and if the NBA season resumes, chances are, they are not going to make it to the postseason for the first time in 23 years.
3.) Them Jail Blazers
Where do I begin? What about this independent account )and by independent, I mean, Bonzi Wells) about Zach Randolph knocking Chris Dudley out cold with a 5-lb plate that’s totally not meant for him. The missile was for Jeff McInnis.
However, the worst incident I can remember involved a respected vet. In 2002, some of us were in the gym before practice when Zach and Jeff McInnis got into a shouting match over hookers or something. This type of stuff happened like every other day so most of us just ignored it. Zach just lost it and fired a 5 lb. plate at Jeff. He missed way high and hit veteran center Chris Dudley in the back of the head. He had no idea what hit him. Zach actually felt pretty bad about it; Rasheed thought it was hysterical. Duds was out cold and we had no idea what to do. Antonio [Daniels], Arvydas, and Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje carried him to a massage table and laid him face down so anyone who saw him would just think he was waiting to get a massage. I had about 20 or 25 extra headbands in my locker so I just started wrapping those around Chris’ head to try to stop the bleeding. He woke up about 30 minutes later wondering what happened and why he was wearing 15 headbands. We just blamed it on Lubin’ Ruben. Duds was a real team player and didn’t want this to be a distraction so he just let it go.”
4.) Wilt Sleeping With 20,000 Women
It’s part of any celebrity’s life to have groupies but Wilt Chamberlain claimed he slept with about 20,000 women during his NBA days. However, someone did the math and it couldn’t have been true. That’s some legendary stat-padding there, big fella.
5.) Speaking of Wilt…
This one is straight out of a movie as told supposedly by Knicks announcer Cal Ramsey:
Chamberlain once recalled driving across Arizona or New Mexico and pulling his car momentarily to the side of the road, when he was attacked by a mountain lion. He said the mountain lion jumped on his shoulder, and he grabbed it by the tail and flung it into the bushes. ”Well, I wasn’t there,” Cal Ramsey, the former Knick announcer, once said, ”but Wilt says it happened, and I’m not about to say it didn’t. Besides, he showed me these huge scratch marks on one shoulder. I don’t know any other way he could have gotten them.”
Featured Image: (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
