David West, my favourite Hornet and NBA Player

A white, clean jersey is cut with teal and gold at the side. A man standing over six feet and nine inches fills it and the hoop as he fades away. The announcer proclaims – “Daaaaavid West” with a hiss at the end.

This was my fondest memory of David West, my favourite NBA player.

The 2003 NBA Draft was headlined by some pretty big names. Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh all were headliners in the first round. However, the man from Xavier and one of the best college players, David West went unheralded largely because of physical attributes.

No one really wanted an undersized power-forward. How could he possibly matchup with the much taller power-forwards of today’s game?

This is what made him so special and it’s why the Hornets decided to go with him with the 18^th selection in the 2003 NBA draft. He had four things that both the organisation and I still admire to this day. His toughness, humbleness, work-ethic and desire to be the best at his profession all stood out as the traits that made him who he is.

Personally though, there’s something I hold much closer to me when it comes to David. He was somewhat of a role model for me the past 5 or so years. The reason has always been that I could see some of myself in him.

West was never the most athletic player on the court, but what he lacked in dunking ability, he made up with craftiness and toughness. I tried to live up to this through sporting endeavours or just the way I embraced challenges. His determination, the way he never backed down (like the Dirk Nowitzki face tap of death) were things I loved about David.

There was no way of breaking his spirit and drive, this stands true today.

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David now joins the Indiana Pacers, a small market team, with big ambitions. The New Orleans Hornets hope to one day be an organisation with those same ambitions.  Nobody can blame West for wanting to leave. For a long while now people have been resigned to the notion that he had booked his ticket out of town a long time ago.

But he never once checked out for the Hornets, he always gave it his all both on and off the court. If he didn’t the virtues he lives by would stand for nothing.

Rather than complain to his agents, do interviews with Chris Broussard, West kept his mouth shut and weighed up his options. His desire to return to New Orleans was tied into the Chris Paul situation. Without Paul, West could not compete for a championship.

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Now the Indiana Pacers get West, in what will be an exciting new Eastern Conference team. West joins familiar the face in Darren Collison as well as Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and Paul George. The Pacers now have a low post scorer who can give you eighteen points a game. Moreover West is the veteran they’ve been dying for who can calm any storm. If Indiana can add some shooting-guard’s then they will be poised to make a playoff run.

We’re all going to miss David. He won’t get his jersey retired in New Orleans, but he sure as hell will be remembered as one of the best to ever wear the creole blue. I’ll miss David and now wish him all the best for the end of his NBA career.

Chris Paul can be happy in places other than New York. (Photo Courtesy of The Basketball Jones - The Score.com)

Chris Broussard of the esteemed ESPN entertainment network posted an article on the Hornets starting point-guard and All-Star Chris Paul. In that article, Broussard belted out staggering claims that New York was the one and only destination for Chris Paul and that it was merely a matter of time before the Hornets had to waive goodbye to their idol and leader.

Before you think I’m some crazed, loner, Hornets fan (which in some ways I am, but I’m not too high and mighty to admit it), there are others out there that think Chris Broussard’s empty filled article is nothing but fun, water-cooler talk for most New Yorkers.

Take John Hollinger who wrote this in one of his articles, posted directly after Broussards:

No matter how you slice it, it seems somewhere between highly unlikely and virtually impossible for Paul to end up with Amare and Melo on the Knicks. He can’t force a trade there, he’d take a financial bath signing there as a free agent, and the Hornets aren’t going to sit idly by and lose him for nothing. The CP-to-New York talk to match Miami’s Big 3 makes for fun conversation for this winter, but the Knicks lost hope of this happening the day they made the Anthony trade.

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