Great video. I wish Mashburn played in the modern NBA because he's be the perfect stretch four for what the league is now. He fell victim of playing in an era when his NBA coaches tried to force him to play the small forward position.
Kevin Garnett reminisces about how good Jamal Mashburn was in his prime.
- Thread starter Son_Of_Saul
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As amazing as Mash was here he was even tougher in the league. Hovering around top-5 scoring out of the gate and would have gone up from there if not for his injuries.
Yep…Mash averaged 24.1ppg his second year in the league. He was on his way to a really good career. Got injured and took some years to get going again, then averaged over 20ppg each of his last 4 years before having to retire due to injuries.
Sucks injuries derailed him.
Best hybrid forward I’ve ever watched play in college. Dude was so versatile, it was insane. Inside, outside, take you off the bounce, shoot the 3 in your face, post you up, excellent passer, etc. Dude was absolutely ****ing elite!
Even I am guilty of forgetting just how good he was. Probably the best UK player ever
I think you take junior-year Mashburn over freshman-year Davis 10/10 times if you're building a college roster.
Mashburn was a matchup nightmare, and an absolutely elite passer for his size.
It's remarkable what he did in 1993 for UK without a true #2 scorer. Travis Ford was wonderful, but he was built to be a #3 guy on a title team.
Makes me wonder not "if" UK wins it all if Jason Kidd chooses UK over California (UK was his second choice), but by "how many" points they beat Michigan and UNC by if he does. Probably would have been +10 in both games.
Mashburn was a matchup nightmare, and an absolutely elite passer for his size.
It's remarkable what he did in 1993 for UK without a true #2 scorer. Travis Ford was wonderful, but he was built to be a #3 guy on a title team.
Makes me wonder not "if" UK wins it all if Jason Kidd chooses UK over California (UK was his second choice), but by "how many" points they beat Michigan and UNC by if he does. Probably would have been +10 in both games.
Proud to say, I watched Mashburn's last game at Rupp Arena.
I remember him showing up to Pitino's camp following the draft. Fila had purchased him a Ferrari as a signing bonus gift. They all joked about him trading it in for a Mercedes bc he couldn't drive a stick shift.
I remember him showing up to Pitino's camp following the draft. Fila had purchased him a Ferrari as a signing bonus gift. They all joked about him trading it in for a Mercedes bc he couldn't drive a stick shift.
Remember watching him do shooting drills by himself in Seaton Center. Was an absolute machine. Looked like a superhero close up.
I've wondered how good those Mavs teams would have been if they had traded Jim Jackson (circa 1995) to a team like Milwaukee for their future 1996 draft pick.
Jackson was too redundant offensively with what Mashburn could do. The Mavs needed a lethal sniper to be in that trio with Kidd and Mashburn.
If they had Ray Allen (who killed Mashburn's Hornets in the early 2000s playoff series), and you'd have three pieces that likely stay together in Dallas for years to come.
Kidd, Allen and Mashburn would have been wild to watch.
It's amazing how detrimental NBA GM's can be in trying to put together viable roster pieces that fit.
IMO Mash is the best "SMALL" Forward all-time at UK
Issel at PF
Bill Spivey at Center
Ralph Beard at lead guard
Louie Dampier at SG
Mashburn dated a girl that lived next door to me at Greg Paige back in the day. She was a sweetheart and he was suprisingly extrememly approachable and laid back. Might have helped she lived with some friends, but just hard to explain how lrge he was. Not tall and skinny 6'8", but muscular filled out man lol
I wonder if she kicks herself now for not marrying him, considering he's a great family man and is worth around $120 million due to all of his businesses.
He's 6th in career scoring while only playing 3 seasons, everyone ahead of him besides Issel played 4 seasons. He holds 2 of the top 10 positions for single-season scoring in UK history, the only other player to appear on the list twice is Issel. I can remember as far back as the '87-'88 team and he is the best player I have ever saw at Kentucky (Davis is close in my opinion) and is easily a top 5 Wildcat of all time, a good argument could be made for 2nd best ever.
They didn’t nickname him the monster mash by mistake. He was my favorite Pitino player and his most important on getting KY back.
I think he could handle playing SF very well on offense. May have struggled on D but the bigger issue seems to me that the injuries got to be too much.
People forget just how huge his commitment was to UK . We were in deep trouble at the time and he really helped get UK out of the grave we had dug.
My 2 years in Grad school at UK (undergrad was WKU) were Mash’s Soph and Jr years. He was truly amazing. And anyone who say Davis was better is simply too young to have seen Monster Mash play.
I think AD would take issue with that. If you take the 2012 team and trade Mash for AD, would we have won? Good chance we would not have. That 2012 team was built around AD's defense and rebounding. Mash was good at both, but AD was and probably still is among the 2 or 3 best shot blockers of all time. Add Jones and Kid-Gilchrist to that front line and the defense was awesome. We were a very good offensive team that year, but not nearly as good ass we were on defense.
We had a dollar general version of Mash on that 2012 team in Terrence Jones. AD was special, he could score only 2 points in a game and still be the x factor with his shot blocking, rebounding and attention opposing defenses gave him
I dunno you take Davis off the 12 team and insert a junior Mash I say they still cut the nets down. Now take Mash off the 93 team and insert AD o think we beat UM with Webber and Howard then AD had UNC’s number in the title game. We should have beat Mich if Dale Brown didn’t get hurt and what Mash fouled out with several minutes on the clock.
No. AD on any team in any era of Kentucky basketball is the most talented and game-changing player.
Trust me I love me some mash. But AD could completely change the game without scoring. Mashburn was not a defensive presence (didn’t need to be) but was an elite offensive threat.
I’ll go ahead and say let’s take them both.
AD was great and his defense and rebounding and rim protection were clearly a key for sure. But Mash was a far better offensive threat than AD in college and a great rebounder himself. So it's an interesting trade off. We may have had enough other offensive weapons on that team where we needed AD's rim protection more than Mash's offense so good discussion.
But just comparing both in college as overall players themselves, Mash has the edge there.
As a player i would say Mashburn was better because we never got see a finished product Davis at UK. But Davis definitely had the greatest UK season of all time winning every conceivable POY award.
Mash was an NBA HOF’er if he stayed healthy. No doubt in my mind.
Is this team 40-0
Pg- Wall 6’4” 195
Sg- Delk 6’1” 193
Sf- Mashburn 6’8” 240
Pf- Issel 6’8” 240
C- Davis 6’10” 220
JK
Pg- Wall 6’4” 195
Sg- Delk 6’1” 193
Sf- Mashburn 6’8” 240
Pf- Issel 6’8” 240
C- Davis 6’10” 220
JK
Junior Mash traded for freshman AD and we easily win the 2012 Title, but only if we trade Pitino for Cal as well.
The way Cal puckered up and made every game a grind means he needed an AD level defender to bail him out. Pitino would have blitzed through the tournament with a Mash/TJ/MKG/Lamb/Teague lineup.
This.
Mashburn went 30-4 as a junior with two raw, undeveloped freshmen named Rodrick Rhodes and Tony Delk; one future 2nd round pick in Rodney Dent; a 5'8" point guard; and no other NBA players. He was the only player drafted off of the that 1993 team in 1993. A year before, Mashburn had zero NBA players playing with him and they almost took down the glorified 1992 Duke team. That's how good he was.
Meanwhile he almost took down the Fab Five with that group.
People need to wise up to the fact that the Fab Five would have given 2012 UK and Davis everything they wanted as well.
Here's an easier way to look at it. Could Davis have translated as easily to the 1993 team as well as Mashburn could have to the 2012 team? There's no way! 1993 with Davis (and minus Mashburn) probably peaks in the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight somewhere. Meanwhile, 2012 with Mashburn still wins it all.
Again, I'm taking a junior-year Mashburn if I had one player to begin to construct a UK roster with.
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It’s a different conundrum on those games
- in 93 does AD score 26 like Mash did on UM
- in 93 does CWebb get 27 and 13 with AD checking him
- in 12 does Mash go for 18 14 and 6 against the dirty birds
- in 12 does Mash go for 6 16 and 5 against KU
Answer is probably not but
- AD probably holds CWebb in check
- AD probably doesn’t foul out in a critical game time
- Mash probably does get 30 boards and 11 blocks but doubles AD scoring and gets his normal 8 rebounds and 4 assists both games
I still say we cut the nets down in 12 with a JR Mash and 93 with Davis
- in 93 does AD score 26 like Mash did on UM
- in 93 does CWebb get 27 and 13 with AD checking him
- in 12 does Mash go for 18 14 and 6 against the dirty birds
- in 12 does Mash go for 6 16 and 5 against KU
Answer is probably not but
- AD probably holds CWebb in check
- AD probably doesn’t foul out in a critical game time
- Mash probably does get 30 boards and 11 blocks but doubles AD scoring and gets his normal 8 rebounds and 4 assists both games
I still say we cut the nets down in 12 with a JR Mash and 93 with Davis
Anthony Davis on the 1993 instead of Mashburn leaves a huge deficit in scoring. Mashburn was regular for 20 to 22 each game, was a brilliant passer, and was a matchup nightmare. Meanwhile, while Davis getting blocks and elite defense was great, what happens when he goes 1-10 from the field in a game where Rose takes Ford out of the game, and in a game where Rhodes was utterly useless, scoring 1 mere point?
Frankly, where's your scoring coming from in that game with no Mashburn and Ford shut down? On the other end, I do think that the way Michigan played favored Davis' style because Michigan was not a good three-point shooting team. So that allows Davis to patrol the lane effectively. But he's still got Howard and Webber to contend with, and if Davis is defending Webber, that means Prickett is once again out of his league guarding Howard.
And Davis holding #1 pick Chris Webber in check is great theoretically, but practically speaking, Webber's 27/13 probably looks closer to 20/9 with Davis defending him, which is a pretty significant swing. On the other end, UK is down Mashburn's 26 points, which Davis would be fortunate to get half of.
Respectfully, UK with Davis instead of Mashburn in 1993 is probably not getting past the Fab Five. They took Ford out of the game, and even with the downgrade from Webber offensively, you've still got Howard to deal with. Howard was busting his butt all game trying to guard Mashburn, which hurt his offense a bit on the other end. With no Mashburn to contend with, he'd be more free to focus on the offensive side of the floor. He was good for 15, 7, and 2 as a sophomore, playing in the shadow of Webber and Rose.
If I remember correctly I think the biggest factors in the 93 game with the fab 5 we lost by 3 in OT were Brown who was having a great game hurt his shoulder could not come back and Mash fouling out in the 2nd half and to a lesser degree Pricket guarding Howard fouled out also. I don’t see AD fouling out but I also don’t see him scoring 26 like Mash did. What I do think would happen is CWebb would obviously have his hands full with AD and possibly AD making it hell on Howard when he helped Pricket who possibly wouldn’t foul out. Either way Brown going down hurt our outside game a lot and gave the fab 5 just enough to escape. AD holds CWebb to JUST 20/9 UK wins by 4 and we’re in the title game.
Put FR Davis on the 92 or 93 teams, and they don’t make the E8 or F4 respectively.
Just substituting is a bad way to compare, because it doesn’t take into account the team needs/chemistry. The 12 team didn’t need another scorer, it needed a rim protector. The 92 & 93 teams needed Mash’s scoring.
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