With Ron-Ron, Less is More
“You have to look within and find the evil that’s inside of you,” the Lakers defensive-minded wing player said. “I meant it when I said I’ll do whatever it takes for us to win.” In the case of this Lakers small forward, we didn’t have to blame it on the henny.
Things we can blame it on: the woeful Celtics teams of the 90’s, Whoopi Goldberg’s inability to make Greg Ostertag defer more to Terry Hastings in 1996’s round ball flick Eddie and everybody’s favorite scapegoat, Canada. Yes, Canada!
Along with his gift to sport a grizzly playoff beard, Rick Fox’s short upbringing in Canada was clearly apparent from his defensive tenacity, physical aggression and resemblance of a hockey enforcer on the hardwood. I truly believe if checking had been legal in basketball back then as it is in hockey, it would have resulted with ManBearFox sending Vlade, Doug Christie and his wife into the third row of Staples on more than one occasion. 
He never averaged more than 10 points per game during the Lakers four year run to the NBA Finals, yet was the second most consistent player on the roster next to Shaq. What about Kobe you ask? Sure Kobe had his great games but he had plenty of sub par shooting nights during that stretch where he was a human black hole on the floor. First you see the ball, and then you don’t. Keep in mind this was long before Kobe understood the nuances of creating opportunities for his teammates within the confines of the triangle offense.
Rick Fox was the perfect small forward at the time for a team full of superstars who commanded the ball. Without taking into account his ability to wear down a teams’ best perimeter player for the first three quarters, lets just take a look at his offensive skill set. Keep in mind none of these were reflected in the stat sheet. He passed over a significant amount of three point field goals from the wing, in order to feed the ball into the post more frequently and attempt to get a more high percentage look. Fox rotated the ball to the weak side incredibly well, allowing for the necessary spacing; he always made hard cuts to the basket and was the best option to feed the ball into the post amongst Phil’s rotation.
Add all these things up, and you get a consistent performance night in and night out. It’s very simple if you think about it. Take all the things that don’t appear on the stat sheet and focus on all those subtleties more than anyone on the floor.
[phpbay]Lakers, 6, “”, “”[/phpbay]
Comments