MIAMI — While some NBA players carry around a chip on their shoulder, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside packs a pile of cinder blocks on his.
And his third-place finish in the Defensive Player of the Year voting—behind repeat winner Kawhi Leonard and runner-up Draymond Green—just added to the stack.
"I guess I'm thankful. I'm happy I'm there, I guess," Whiteside said after Monday's practice. "I don't know. I'm not really."
In his mind, there's nothing worth celebrating. He made this award an open pursuit, then promptly put forth some mind-boggling numbers. His 269 blocks were almost 100 more than anyone else recorded (DeAndre Jordan was second with 177.) Whiteside is the only qualified player in Basketball-Reference.com's database to have a nine-plus block percentage and a defensive rebound percentage of at least 32.
"I came out there, and I put up stats y'all ain't seen in a decade," he said. "Ain't nothing to talk about."
Obviously, the voters didn't see it the same way. Frankly, neither did we. But that's not the issue.
The 7-foot shot-swatting machin ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Zach Buckley
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April 19th, 2016 by Zach Buckley Leave a reply »
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