Too long, didn’t remember: NBA stars that time (and the internet) forgot

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Mark Price, right, of the Cleveland Cavaliers dribbles the ball while defended by Muggsy Bogues of the Washington Bullets during a 1987 game.Photograph: Focus On Sport/Getty Images

Have you ever opened up a social media page with a clear intention of what you’re doing and then instantly become distracted? You end up fiddling around and then closing the page and realizing you didn’t even do what you’d originally logged on for? Yes, the internet is a place full of distractions. TikTok, Instagram, whatever Twitter (X) is? It’s hard to remember what you had for breakfast some days. The same, of course, goes for NBA history.

If you go online today to read about basketball, it can seem like the league or the sport itself was created in the 21st century. That anything before Kobe Bryant never actually existed. As a result, fans sometimes need a history lesson. And that’s exactly what we wanted to do today. To examine the careers of seven former NBA stars who contributed a great deal to the league but whose stories also risk being lost to time thanks to our modern attention spans.

Jack Sikma (1978-1991)

Talk to any basketball fan in Seattle for more than five minutes and the name Jack Sikma will inevitably come up. The blonde curly-haired big man helped lead the SuperSonics to the 1979 title – a fact that makes it all the more ridiculous that Seattle is without an NBA team now. Drafted in 1977 out of small Illinois Wesleyan University, Sikma became a seven-time All-Star thanks to his quirky catapult jump shot, which started far back behind his head and usually ended with a swish in the net. Over his first nine years in Seattle, Sikma notched 16.8 points and 10.8 boards per game to go along with that ’79 championship trophy. He finished his career with five more years in Milwaukee, battling the likes of Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. (Highlights)

Tiny Archibald (1971-1984)

The 6ft 1in Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald boasts a lot of hardware. But perhaps his biggest distinction is that in 1972-73, he was the league’s scoring and assist champion. Not only that, he’s the only person ever to achieve that feat….

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/too-long-didn-t-remember-090001582.html

Author : The Guardian

Publish date : 2025-02-18 09:00:00

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