New Orleans Pelicans Pixels: Quincy Pondexter is the brave sidekick

New Orleans Pelicans forward Quincy Pondexter’s hard working and admirable personality fits well with Yoshi, the popular fan favorite dinosaur from the Mario series.

It’s not all advanced stats and critiques of the front office here at Pelican Debrief. Nope. We can have fun, too. Pelicans Pixels is a series in which the writers at Pelican Debrief make a humorous comparison between a video character and a Pelicans players. Why did we do this? No particular reason; we’re just big kids at heart. We hope you enjoy reading Pelicans Pixels as much as we enjoyed writing the series.

Quincy Pondexter was one of the major cogs of the New Orleans Pelicans’ fantastic stretch of basketball to squeak out a playoff spot just a year ago.  He became the starting small forward and provided the perfect game to fit alongside Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday and the rest of the starters, when he’s been on the court. He’s reliable, tough minded and a balanced player that brings key contributions.

While he’s a great player on the court, his real plus has become his attitude and locker room presence off it. His relationship with superstar Anthony Davis has been key, including the two organizing voluntary workouts in the offseason. Even with an agonizing injury after the 2015 season, Pondexter’s hard work never quit.

Quincy Pondexter’s a low maintenance, strong willed and overall great guy. He’s liked by players and fans alike. Pondexter’s instagram page for his dog, Buckets Pondexter, has nearly 2,500 followers. Still, he’s the sidekick to Anthony Davis on the Pelicans. And yet his character and effort on the court make him an fan favorite. It’s why the video game character he resembles is one of the most popular in the world.

If you were to ask every single person to name a video game character, the #1 answer would more than likely be Mario. The famed plumber has become the cornerstone of video games. He’s spawned his own franchise that’s lasted decades. So he would be the most liked character, right? Nope. That honor goes to Mario’s sidekick in many of the games, Yoshi.

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Yoshi is a green dinosaur that aids Mario in his quest to save Princess Peach. His character design is meant to be adorable and easy to love. It’s helped him garnish the popularity among gamers of all kinds. However, Yoshi’s not just an adorable Dino. Throughout the many games he’s a part of, bravery and hard work are the two biggest traits he owns, just like Pondexter.

Throughout the games, Yoshi is willing to help anyone that needs it, no matter the challenges. He’s not afraid to fight monsters of any size and shape, including the ultimate bad guy Bowser. Yoshi works hard to put Mario in better position to save the princess all the time. While some may see him as just the cute dinosaur, many of his feats in the game can be similar to Quincy Pondexter’s.

Yoshi’s not afraid to get himself hurt. On certain occasions, Mario has to use Yoshi to get on a platform, knowing all well Yoshi can be thrown into a pit and never come back. Still, Yoshi has no problems going along with it, so long as it helps Mario’s cause to save Peach. It’s the same bravery Pondexter has used on plenty of loose balls and effort plays on the court.

Quincy Pondexter’s likability, due of his easy-to-get along with personality, also translates to Yoshi. Unlike the constant personalities Mario is given over plenty of games, Yoshi is a simple, yet easy to like character. The cute dinosaur even got his own spinoff game, Yoshi’s Island. While the game’s producers and the Pelicans might not have expected Yoshi and Quincy to be major players, they’ve both become quite popular in their own sense. Sidekicks to the main heroes. And for good reasons at that.

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Quincy Pondexter is never going to be a superstar like Anthony Davis in the same way Yoshi will never be the Goomba stomping hero like Mario. However, the contributions to their franchises have been massive since their introduction. Yoshi gave people an cute, yet brave dinosaur to root for alongside the overalls-wearing plumber. Quincy Pondexter has given the Pelicans a hard-working wing with an easy to like personality alongside their superstar talent. Though, for his sake, let’s stay away from putting Anthony Davis in overalls.