New Orleans Pelicans All-Time Franchise Team: Backup Small Forward
Sep 30, 2013; Metairie, LA, USA; A detail of a New Orleans Pelicans logo poses for a portrait at Pelicans Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Charles (@CLaRoccaJR): Jamal Mashburn
The small forward is probably the thinnest of positions when evaluating the ghost of New Orleans past.
There have been a number of castoffs from Julian Wright, to washed up vets (looking at you James Posey). The names run thin but one man that sticks out among them is the Monster Mash, Jamal Mashburn.
Mashburn is largely forgotten these days but he was a really, really, really good basketball player. Mashburn struggled mightily with injuries throughout his career which halted how good he actually could’ve been.
The perfect example of how good Mashburn could have been is that one 2002-2003 where he played all 82 games for the only time in his career. That season Mash averaged 21 points a game to go along with five assists and six rebounds.
That year he was one of the best players in all of the NBA and probably the biggest reason for the Hornets success. In a bit of a telling thing, I have so many Baron Davis memories from my youth but very few Mashburn memories. That who Mash was, he was a quiet composed player who always got the job done. He really had a complete inside out game, he can operate as a small ball four in the low post and have range extended all the way to three-point line.
He could handle the ball with a 6’8 240 frame, and for one magical season in New Orleans he put all this together and put together one of the best individual seasons in New Orleans basketball history. The Mash was rewarded with his lone All-Star appearance that year and even made it to the All-NBA third team. For a guy who accomplished such a feat in such a thin position in franchise history, the thing that holds him back from being number one is longevity. Other than this one euphoric year Mashburn only played one more year in New Orleans before he was hit with the injury bug yet again and forced to retire at age 31.
Still the Monster Mash should be revered in the hearts of New Orleans basketball fans for giving us such a grand debut to New Orleans basketball.
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