Thursday Throwback Posterization: The Admiral on Dennis Scott

This week's Throwback Posterizations features "The Admiral" David Robinson with a driving dunk over the Magic's Dennis Scott. The play occurs shortly before the 30 second mark, so you might want to skip ahead. According to the guy who uploaded the video, this play was from March 6, 1994 (Shaq's birthday) and the Spurs came back from a 15 point 4th quarter deficit for the win. Both the Magic and Spurs would go into the playoffs as the 4th seed, and lose in the first round to the Pacers and Jazz, respectively.

For some reason, the Magic decided to have Shaq guard Antoine Carr rather than David Robinson, which leads to Robinson burning Larry Krystkowiak off the dribble. Robinson then goes up strong on Dennis Scott for the dunk and 1. His momentum takes him to the floor and his leg swings towards Penny Hardaway, prompting him to swipe it away out of frustration.

While this is a pretty raw dunk, it's somewhat overshadowed by Dennis Rodman falling on top of Robinson and hugging him on the floor in celebration. It appears as though he even tries to kiss his head while wearing a protective mask. What a maniac. Robinson, always the reserved type, seems pretty uncomfortable with Rodman's passionate camaraderie.

Artest Pays Tribute to the NBA's Pioneer of Insanity

It's been a while since Ron Artest has done anything very crazy, but now he's back. For Sunday's game against the Magic, Ron Ron decided to pay tribute to an NBA legend who paved the way for him: Dennis Rodman. Recording artist Shin Shin, who is Ron's pal and business partner, suggested that he dye his hair Lakers' purple and gold. Of course, he thought it was a sweet idea and decided that he should use purple to write "Defense" in Japanese, Hebrew and Hindi.

To get the proper characters, Artest did what any American would do: consult Twitter.

Is there anyone in the NBA crazier than Artest?

As I read Teenage Mustache's most recent post mulling over potential NFL lunatics to replace the recently more sane Ochocinco, I began to wonder if I would have to find a replacement for Artest. Artest did mysteriously suffer a concussion after the Christmas day loss to Cleveland, and the story remains unclear. At first it was reported he tripped over a box and fell down some stairs, then instead of tripping over a box he was holding one, and then Artest claimed stairs had nothing to do with it and that it was "really the concrete." My guess is "the concrete" was an open hand slap from his wife. Apparently Artest said "I can't remember" fifteen times during a 10-minute halftime press conference regarding the concussion, so we'll probably never know what really went down. Other than this, Artest has been relatively subdued as of late. So I started to wonder who Artest's replacement might be if he continued to keep his nose clean throughout the season.

The first player that came to mind was Stephen Jackson AKA Captain Jack. Jackson was one of Artest's fellow Indiana Pacer teammates that joined him in the stands during the infamous brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, so he seemed a worthy candidate. In October of 2006, he continued to show signs of insanity as he fired several gunshots outside of a strip club in Indianapolis after having been punched and hit by a car.

Despite these promising signs of lunacy, Jackson hasn't made much noise since then. He did get this amazing tattoo of a pair of hands simultaneously praying and holding a handgun, which is pretty sweet. However, the meaning of the tattoo is that he prays his faith will keep him from ever having to fire a gun again... or something like that. So that doesn't really help me in finding a replacement for Artest.

This November, Jackson was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats where he seems to have found a new home. The Bobcats have been one of the better teams in 2010 with Jackson and first-time Charlotte Bobcat All-Star Gerald Wallace leading the team into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Long story short, Jackson just isn't quite crazy enough... at least not anymore. Despite his controversy in the past, he also has a reputation around the league as an extremely genuine person and great teammate. This also doesn't help my cause.

Rasheed Wallace was another that came to mind, but he plays for the Celtics now so I can't even fuck with that.

Just when I thought I may have run out of maniacs to cover in the NBA, I decided to give Artest another chance and checked his Twitter account. Although I was hoping for something a bit more insane, it seems that Artest has continued to indulge in his fetish of organizing photo shoots with scantily clad women. His most recent photo shoot is with model Kim Lee, who I believe is the asian one on the far right. So I guess I'm sticking with Artest. He's bound to do something crazy again, right? If only Dennis Rodman would come out of retirement.

Chris Paul sidelined 6-8 weeks for knee surgery

It's been a disappointing couple of seasons for the New Orleans Hornets after they had seemingly turned a corner in the 2008 playoffs. Unfortunately, things are probably about to get even more disappointing. The only consistent force on the team, Chris Paul, is likely to be out 6-8 weeks to undergo knee surgery (welcome to the Western Conference All-Stars, Chauncey Billups). Paul had twisted his left knee in a game against the Warriors and then reaggravated it after having to save an awful inbounds pass by David West in the waning moments of regulation in the Bulls game Friday night. Paul collided with a camera man after saving the ball, which led to a basket by the Bulls to tie the game and send it to OT. A hobbled CP3 attempted to play in OT before eventually sitting, and the Hornets would go on to lose the game, literally adding insult to injury. Paul was visually frustrated with his team's uneven play.

This injury has folks on the internet imploring that the NBA finally move cameramen back to create some more space behind the basket. This has always been a contentious debate, and maybe an injury to a true elite player will finally give them a reason to create more room to play the game. Fast breaks would be more exciting as players would be inclined to run the court with reckless abandon and there would be a lot more entertaining dives for loose balls headed out of bounds on the baseline.

I know Dennis Rodman would have appreciated it: