Silent Killer: Michael Redd
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by user Josh Q. Public
Josh Q. Public: Oh my goodness, danger, trouble, dread. Oh my goodness, mayday, code red.
Public Service Announcement:
Ok, here we go! Quick. Who’s the leading scorer in the NBA? The Chosen One? No. The Mamba? No. The Answer? No. Clearly, by the title of this post, the answer is the Milwaukee Bucks’ Michael Redd. The NBA’s best kept secret. But word’s getting out. The cat’s out of the bag. 57 points in a game will do that. Breaking a Kareem record will do that. The cat should have been out of the bag a while ago. Too bad he toils in the city that made Schlitz famous. With all the accolades the Big O has accumulated, how much bigger would that cat have been if he were a Laker? A Celtic? A Knick? That cat would have been huge. Siberian tiger huge. Ernie Ladd huge. Michael Redd is emerging as that next huge thing.
Any talking about the NBA elite has to include this guy. Has to. That 57 was no fluke. Remember, it was Redd who carried the young Bucks last season. Remember, it was Redd who pushed the Bucks over the humpty-hump down the stretch to get them into the playoffs. Remember, he was ninth in scoring last year. Ahead of Vinsanity. Ahead of T-Mac. Remember, he lit up Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince in the play-offs. Remember, he was sixth in post-season scoring. Ahead of the Big Fundamental. Ahead of Disco Dirk. You’re not gonna see him nightly on Sports Center. You’re not gonna see him tomahawking, windmilling, rock-the-babying, three-hundred-sixty degree basketball dunking. You’re just not. He’s a pure shooter, pure and simple. Now that Glen Rice and Alan Houston have left the league, he is the best pure shooter this side of Ray Allen. Allen himself nicknamed Redd “the left-handed bandit” for all the schoolings he put on his teammates during practice.
In games, Redd is raining down jumpers and putting up numbers. His scoring average has increased each year he’s been in the league. He’s been going to the hizzy more than ever. He is lights-out from beyond the arc. Redd is clearly the most underrated pure scorers around. He has scored at least 30 points in four of seven games so far this season. Yet, until that 57, only real hoop heads had any real concept of this kid’s skills. Not only is this cat deadly accurate, his release is super quick. Dan Marino quick. Chris Jackson, er Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf quick. Don McLean quick. Dell Curry quick. James Tillis quick. The knock on Redd coming out of The Ohio State University was that he needed to work on his shot. Imagine that. George Karl said to him: “You can’t play unless you can shoot the basketball.” Well, he sure can shoot now. Like Redd always says: “I’m a shooter, I’m going to shoot.” And shoot he does. And shoot. And shoot. And shoot. In fact, in the game he went for 57, he didn’t get one assist. Not one. I’ll tell you what, I’m stroking it like that, I’m not giving up the rock either. If I could stroke it like that, I’d be a superstar too.
Side note: Redd’s a devout Christian. For his first purchase after his big contract, he bought his father a church. The church was newly named Philadelphia Deliverance Church of Christ built in his hometown of Columbus.
Side note: Bucks 2006-07 commercial features Redd shooting tres from so deep he needs a walkie-talkie to know if he hit. Looked everywhere for the clip. Couldn’t find it anymore. Classic.
Pece out homies. Six Two and Even! josh q. public
