Opening Of The Flood Gates, Part IV

For Part I of 2009/10 Upper Deck Greats of the Game pack opening, click here.

Ahh the good old days when NBA players didn't go to the same ten schools. Southern University and A&M sounds like a made up school. It is a historically black college in Louisiana with 7300 students, and most definitely not a made up school. Thanks to Avery Johnson, I will always remember Southern University and A&M.

Iconic Nicknames: Dr. Dunkenstein, The Golden Griff. Smooth and effortless dunker. He was one of those rare players who could make announcers excitable in anticipation of what he would do on the fast break. In 1980 this wasn't easy to do. Here's Darrell embarrassing the 1985 Bulls. "In Yo Face, Mama!"

Poor Mateen. I know this set is meant to highlight the collegiate "Greats of the Game," but Cleaves is the only player of the ten to make no impact at the pro level.

I love that (H)Akeem smoothly transitioned from the Houston Cougars to the Houston Rockets. The two teams even wear the same colors. You're set for a stable career when the most significant change you undergo from college to pro is a name change.

The two best Grateful Dead albums -- Workingman's Dead and American Beauty -- were released within five months of each other. That was just unfair to every musician. Almost as unfair as UCLA losing Lou Alcindor and landing Bill Walton two years later.

Throw It Down, Big Man!

Here is a list of the Top 10 things I miss the most about the NBA:

1. Michael Jordan
2. The NBA on NBC theme song
3. Bill Walton (The Commentator)
4. High Top Fades
5. Broken Backboard Dunks
6. Lil' Penny Commercials
7. The Washington Bullets Logo
8. Detlef Schrempf
9. The Charlotte Hornets
10. The 2000-01 Sacramento Kings (RIP Sacramento, by the way)

In all seriousness, the Top 5 are very dear to me. Their loss has been a little easier to cope with because every few years, one of the Top 5 threatens to make a comeback. Jordan already came back once and is practicing with the Bobcats again. Bill Walton occasionally calls Celtics and Kings games. Brandon Jennings reintroduced the NBA to the high top fade for a short time last year. The NBA on NBC is never coming back, but the NBA on ESPN/ABC theme song is flying under the radar. It's no NBC, but pretty good nonetheless. The current group of youngsters will look back fondly on the ESPN/ABC theme like we do the NBC.
The age of broken backboards however, isn't coming back. I suppose that's a good thing. Raining glass can be pretty dangerous. The NBA also saves time and money -- two of the League's biggest assets at this point.
We all know that the rims and backboards are made sturdier nowadays, but how exactly do they work? Arthur Ehrat is credited with the invention of the breakaway rim as we know it today. Not a fan of basketball himself, Ehrat was contacted by his nephew, an assistant basketball coach at St. Louis University in 1975, about creating a rim that could withstand forceful slams. After a couple failed attempts, Ehrat struck gold -- in the form of a John Deere cultivator. He found that the spring was strong enough to not only withstand missed shots, but dunks as well.
Ehrat's new rim debuted in the 1978 Final Four. Dunking had been illegal since 1967 in the college game, but recently reinstated in 1976, due in large part to the popularity of Dr. J and the rest of the ABA's high-risers.
The NBA followed suit, introducing the breakaway rim in 1979 as a response to Darryl Dawkins, who shattered two backboards that year. While the new rim proved to be more successful than its predecessor, players were still bringing backboards down.
That changed in the early 1990s. NBA rims are now attached directly to the arm extending beyond the backboard. The arm, coupled with the springs on the breakaway rim absorb the force that the glass backboard used to. The video below contains a nice visual of this process, in addition to a disheartening experiment for those still hoping to see another broken NBA backboard in their lifetime. 



In 1992, Shaq became the last player to shatter a backboard in an NBA game. The once famous trend lasted for 46 years but will never be seen again, at least in the NBA anyway. In memoriam, I conclude with this: