Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five lineups that despite their fame, didn’t actually last long.
Just how good is your memory? I like to think that mine is pretty good when it comes to basketball and basketball video games, because those are things that I’m passionate about. However, I definitely don’t have infallible recall! Moreover, our perception of time can be a tricky thing. To that end, while I may remember players, teams, lineups, and other such roster trivia many years later, my recollection of their longevity (or lack thereof) can be skewed. After all, what may feel like a long time when we’re living it day-by-day can turn out to be a short period in the grand scheme of things!
Case in point: the lineups that I’m talking about today. It’s no surprise that they stick in my mind – and I’m sure the minds of many long-time basketball fans and gamers – because they were all memorable in their own way. However, their memorability can ironically make us forget how short-lived those lineups actually were; especially if they did have a significant impact on the league (and video games) while they lasted. Even if they weren’t particularly successful, or a Video Game Team, they may still benefit from an oddity, or simply media hype, that grants them more nostalgic fame – or infamy – than you’d expect. Here are five such lineups that come to mind for me.
Contrary to popular belief, the Seven-Seconds-Or-Less Phoenix Suns were not the first team to adopt a high-octane offense. They certainly did seek to be different at a time when the league was more defensive-oriented, and were fun to watch and play with in video games as a result, but they weren’t the originators of that approach. Still, it led to respectable success in the mid 2000s, including two 60-win seasons, a 50-win season, and two Western Conference Finals appearances. Their second round series with San Antonio in 2007 was labelled the season’s “true” NBA Finals, as it seemed that whichever team won would inevitably be crowned champion (as the Spurs were).
Believe it or not, that’s basically summed up the achievements of the Seven-Seconds-Or-Less Suns! That’s not intended to be a knock on them; they were only together for three seasons, so they didn’t have any further opportunities as a unit. It feels like they lasted longer, but Shawn Marion was traded for Shaquille O’Neal midway through the 2008 season, putting an end to the core trio. Of course, Amar’e Stoudemire missed most of the 2006 season recovering from microfracture surgery, and the Suns replaced Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson with Boris Diaw and Raja Bell that year, giving the Seven-Seconds-Or-Less era a couple of distinctive but fairly short-lived lineups.
The Dallas Mavericks were terrible during the 90s. After bowing out in the first round in 1990, they proceeded to miss the postseason for the rest of the decade; in fact, they didn’t escape the lottery until 2001! With multiple 50 and 60-loss seasons, and a year in which they went 11-71, it’s no wonder they were on the bottom rung of the ladder in NBA Jam and NBA Jam Tournament Edition! However, as the decade wore on, there was a glimmer of hope. Three consecutive lottery picks from 1992 to 1994 saw them draft Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn, and Jason Kidd. This promising young trio – nicknamed the Three Js – led Dallas to a 36-46 record in 1995, Kidd’s rookie year.
Unfortunately for Mavericks fans, the flash of brilliance was the peak of what the Three Js would achieve as a unit. Mashburn was injured for most of the 1996 season, and by February 1997, all three had been traded away. Jackson also missed 31 games in 1995, so in a little over two years together, they never really played a full season as a trio. Nevertheless, the Three Js are very memorable for 90s NBA fans. Beyond what could’ve been on the court, the eventual breakup was fraught with tension between the three. Infamously, it led to rumours of a dustup over Toni Braxton (which Jackson has denied). It made a short-lived trio on a bad team unusually noteworthy, decades later.
SLAM magazine infamously labelled the 1998 Nets as a team of the future. Not only that, but it boldly declared that they’d be champions by 2001 (“count on it”). Now, such headlines were basically the print version of clickbait, but it’s still a prediction that more than a couple of fans have since called them out on! Of course, the Nets lineup that was pictured on the cover of SLAM #25 didn’t even last until 2001. Only three of them were on the roster at that point: Keith Van Horn, Kendall Gill, and Kerry Kittles. The 2001 season was an injury-plagued one for all three though, as Van Horn played 49 games, Gill appeared in just 31, and Kittles missed the entire year.
As for the other two players that were pictured on the SLAM #25 cover, neither were Nets beyond 1999. Sam Cassell was traded early in the season in the three-team deal that brought Stephon Marbury to New Jersey, after sustaining an injury in the season opener. Just a few weeks later, Jayson Williams suffered a badly-broken leg on a freak collision with Marbury, an injury that ended his career (though these days, he’s often remembered for the controversy and legal issues that came soon afterwards). Mind you, while that team didn’t live up to the hype, the Nets traded for Jason Kidd in the 2001 offseason, leading to squads that made two straight trips to the NBA Finals.
Even though Jermaine O’Neal’s 2008 season had been a bust thanks to injuries, he was only a year removed from his sixth-consecutive All-Star appearance, and still under 30. As such, when the Toronto Raptors acquired him from the Indiana Pacers in the offseason, it was still seen as a big move. The deal gave Toronto a twin tower lineup, as O’Neal was expected to play alongside fellow All-Star big man, Chris Bosh. On top of the expectations in real life, it also made the Raptors an intriguing team to use in video games. Not only could star bigs dominate the paint at both ends of the virtual hardwood, but their youth opened up possibilities of a dynasty in franchise modes.
While the combination of O’Neal and Bosh no doubt made for some killer lineups in video games, in real life, it wasn’t successful to say the least. O’Neal was still battling injuries, and the Raptors stumbled into second-last place in the East by the All-Star break. And so, the Raptors traded O’Neal to the Heat for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks; funnily enough, they’d been traded to Miami for Shaquille O’Neal a season earlier! The deal put an end to what had been a tantalising twin tower duo after only half a season. It’s a pairing that has stuck in my mind in no small part thanks to the preview screenshots of NBA Live 09 that showed Jermaine O’Neal in his new jersey.
In another example of “older than you may think”, the 2007 Golden State Warriors actually borrowed the “We Believe” slogan from the Sacramento Kings, who had used it during their Playoff marketing in 2005. Obviously it’s a common phrase that predates either team using it, but the point is that the “We Believe” Warriors are remembered more than the “We Believe” Kings. It certainly helps that the Warriors went on a 16-5 run to qualify for the postseason, and then upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks, who had won 67 games that year. As they say, history is written by the winners…or in this case, the plucky underdog who scored a big first round victory.
That Cinderella run was always going to make the 2007 Warriors a memorable team, but the fact that it became a one-and-done affair adds to their legend. The 2008 squad won six more games to finish 48-34, but missed the postseason in a stacked Western Conference. Jason Richardson was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats for the draft rights to Brandan Wright, ending his six-year tenure with the team. Baron Davis left for the Clippers the next offseason, and other key players from the “We Believe” lineup also departed, changing the face of the team. The Warriors wouldn’t make the Playoffs again until 2013, but the 2007 team’s incredible run ultimately made them special.
Do you remember these short-lived lineups? What are some other short-lived lineups that are extremely memorable despite not being together for long? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.
The post The Friday Five: 5 Lineups That Didn’t Last Long appeared first on NLSC.
