Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 3:49 pm  |  72 responses

Links: NBA Superstars

Who cares about the Draft? We’ve got The Warrior…

by Lang Whitaker

The other night as I was putting together The Slammys, I hopped on YouTube to find the video of that Nuggets/Knicks brawl. And as often happens on YouTube, I ended up watching about 200 videos, of nearly everything but that brawl. I have a friend who doesn’t have TV, so they sit around watching YouTube all night. This post should make their evening.

When I was a kid, my friend Mike had a copy of the NBA Superstars videotape (on VHS, no less). I think his dad bought it somewhere. We spent hours watching that tape over and over and over. We knew every song, every dunk, every edit.

But I forgot most of it. Until the other night. I watched every NBA Superstars video I could find, and they were just as great now as they ever were then. I hope the person at ESPN responsible for their highlights sees this post, because at some point highlights need to go back to just best simply edited, without Photoshop filters and artificial jump cuts and all the crap they use now. The Superstars videos are simply edited, with maybe an occasional flourish in time to a song or something. I wish the NBA would do a retro series of videos now. Or maybe I’m getting old.

Anyway, let’s check ‘em out…

Charles Barkley, set to Scandal ft. Patty Smyth’s “The Warrior”
Bang! Bang! In my mind, the greatest NBA highlight film every made. The spirit of the song perfectly matches the way Barkley played, at leaast before he went to Phoenix and started cracking jokes all the time.
FAVORITE PLAY: The tomahawk over Ewing is pretty sweet. Just remember while watching Barkley bull people around that he was just 6-4.

Michael Jordan, set to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away”
This is an obvious play on the Top Gun hysteria that was sweeping the nation at the time (the song was actually in Top Gun). Interesting that they chose a slow jam for MJ, but it works and it works well.
FAVORITE PLAY: The play where MJ goes past Mike McGee and then splits Tree Rollins and Kevin Willis for the reverse is ridiculous, as is pretty much every highlight on here. But one of my faovrite plays of all-time is on here: Jordan holds on the left wing, ballfakes toward the baseline which makes Cliff Levingston FALL DOWN, then Jordan goes past him and dunks on Tree Rollins. Lots of Hawks getting used on this highlight. Not fun for me as a kid.

Dominique Wilkins, set to Yanni’s “Looking Glass”
This remains the only Yanni song I’ve ever willingly listened to. It works OK on here, but it takes well over a minute to get to the actual highlights. Not my favorite Nique video of all time, because they try to edit this to make seem like a more complete player than he ever was — blocking shots, making crazy passes. Still, some great highlights.
FAVORITE PLAY: Probably the double-pump in traffic against the Clips. There’s also a nice tomahawk over Larry Bird.

Akeem Olajuwon, set to Kool Moe Dee’s “How Ya Like Me Now?”
Akeem before he added the H. Pretty hilarious to see the NBA try to embrace hip-hop back then — they mostly just flash words on the screen (The Dream!).
FAVORITE PLAY: If you’ve never seen a proper turnaround jumper, watch this video. Personally, I love the play where Akeem strips Bill Walton and takes it coast to coast for the dunk. You’ve got to control the ball, Bill! Send it in, Big Fella!

Isiah Thomas, set to Vanessa Williams’ “The Right Stuff”
He’s Mr. Right, alright. It’s funny to watch this video now, when all we think of is Isiah as a bumbling businessman. Don’t forget that he one of the greatest, fastest point guards to ever play.
FAVORITE PLAY: The one where he’s triple-teamed by the Blazers but dribbles out of it and pulls up for the 15-footer. How many point guards in the NBA today can make that play? And yes, I know he hits two buzzer-beaters against the Hawks on here. I’m thinking about Yi Jianlian.

Larry Bird, set to John Mellancamp’s “Small Town”
I understand the music choice here, playing up Bird’s working-man roots. And the video is remarkable, with a lot of gritty, crafty plays. But I always remember Bird more as a guy who nailed clutch shots and made the big baskets, and that gets underplayed here. One of the few flaws on this tape.
FAVORITE PLAY: Where Bird misses the jumper, runs down the rebound and switches hands in midair to hit the runner.

Magic Johnson, set to Janet Jackson’s “Control”
When I was 17, I did what people told me. Great video. Similar to Isiah, in that Magic’s still so active now you kind of forget how ridiculously good Magic was.
FAVORITE PLAY: Nearly every pass on here is a no-look. I can’t pick a winner. Watching this video the other night is kind of what inspired this entire post.

Julius Erving, set to Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love Of All”
This was near the end of Dr. J’s career, so the NBA goes straight for the sentimental tip. If this video was SLAM, this would be the Old School feature.
FAVORITE PLAY: The layup against the Lakers. You know which one. Also, the cuffed dunk right on Michael Cooper’s head. Shoot, just check out the picture below on the frozen video.

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  • RV

    Holiday, might as well call it the “popcorn popper” because Calvin Murphy use to say he was putting’em in the popcorn machine everytime Dream did it..

  • jk_light

    Great post!
    On another Superstar video, there is another Barkley-Mix to the song “born to be wild” which i even like more than that. Absolutely crazy what he did with his size.
    @holiday
    about the olympics and Barkley. I didn’t know that Angola is in Europe

  • Dean

    best video ever “NBA JAM SESSION”

    Yeah the born to be wild mix was better i thought as well.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Laaaaaaang! Fantastic clips, good golly. Akeem (yes, i still use my Nigerian brother’s given name) pump faking fools out of their kicks was awesome. Thank you so much for these clips. First one of you slammers (Mutoni??) posted the MJ Game highlights now these, now that’s how you keep a website running during a slow offseason. Nice job guys, give em a raise Dennis Page!! By the way, i know he played in a LOT of games, but watching those highlights, i don’t think i’ve ever appreciated how “en fuego” MJ used to be. Holy crap, greatest ever indeed.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Just watched my favorite OG Dreamteam (Barcelona ’92) highlights on my creaking vhs tape again. Barkley’s no look, over the head alley oop to Scottie, who punched it in with one handed????? Scientifically impossible.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Ahhh, MJ palming the ball, holding it over his head, while a defender is scrambling to get a steal or something… a thing of beauty, such arrogance, such confidence, such Michael Jordan.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Lang, thank you for keeping the Site interesting while everyone else is on some KG/KB24 – gate. Dennis Paige, give these men (and women?) a significant raise ASAP. Forgot how much of a monster Charles was, think no one got from the floor to dunk height faster than Chuck. Well ok, maybe the reignman. Round mound of rebound indeed.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Akeem Olajuwon. Let that marinate for a second. The reason i didn’t chose soccer as my passion. The reason i, a nigerian myself, got hooked on the drug called “hoops”. The reason i twisted fingers, ankles, ruptured tendons, overextended elbows, and fingers and still couldn’t put the orange ball down. That man was all that and more for me. When i met him up close, 1994 in london, i stammered rubbish at the legend. Michael Jordan made me a B-Ball freak, but seeing Akeem gallop across the court, and use perfect body control to do ANYTHING he wanted on offense, never mind you could hardly score on him, well that made me love the game. Still do. Just miss the joy of the late 80′s, and 90′s those players obviously had playing in the Nba.

  • http://www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Umm, sorry for posting so often, but after seeing the Magic Clip, i must concur with Sir Ryan Jones of Slam: Earvin Magich MOFO Johnson. Indeed

  • north fulton

    lang – you are truly old school. brought back memories.

  • Tom

    You know I never had any of those superstar videos when I was a kid up here in Canada cause they were like $20 a piece back then and hard to find….I had to settle for Inside stuff Jam session and Rewind. And the Dr. J dunk on cooper is just sooooo nasty. There weren’t too many players that smooth and powerful at the same time, i mean dude started to cradle the ball at the 3pt line!!!

  • Tom

    too see exactly what Dream did to the admiral, please click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW4uXlRGAF0, it comes complete with thoughts from Pete Chilcutt, and others.

  • Tom

    Oh Lord, this post got me on a Youtube highlight hunt, Slam’s gonna get me fired. It’s worth it though, cause I found this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwWhIjtOUU, a Kareem mix set to the Roots “What they do” complete with Game of Death Highlights and for some reason, Kurt Rambis getting clotheslined by the Celts, which is always fun.

  • http://espn.com Reggie Evans

    At least it seems most of you played basketball at some point in your lives. Even some of the bloggers seem like that (I said MOST, Chukaz). You don’t have to be a superstar, but it would just throw all credibility out the window for me if I knew the person writing about basketball was the same guy on the court with no coordination, NO handles, and shoots a two-handed screwball/knuckleball. Is that you, Ryan Jones? I’m just playin. Must be the money!

  • Allenp

    Holiday and the name calling is just funny. Anyway, you said Magic wasn’t a better pure point than Stockton, you’re argument was that he was too tall and too good a scorer to be a true point. Your argument made no sense. No matter what, Magic was better than STockton as a player and a pure point. Good day sir.

  • Tom

    no way was stockton a better point than magic, sure he might have more assists, but magic ran that whole showtime offense to perfection. there were at least 4 guys on those teams who were 20+ scorers, and magic made sure they all got theirs, no disrespect to stockton though

  • Pablo

    terrific post Lang. that´s the reason we love ´ya

  • Julian

    that was terrific. i realized that i’ve never really experienced charles barkley outside the TNT studio before. until a couple of weeks ago i didnt even know that he was a mere 6’4. that’s insane; i mean to do what he was doing as a power forward with an inherent handicap in height…spectacular. so explosive too. i’d love to see some of his vintage performances on Classic if they showed any. it occurred to me that he was sort of the antithesis of Magic in that he excelled at a position for which he was undersized.
    great stuff on Akeem. he’s another guy to which i regrettably haven’t been exposed. and that MJ montage was nasty. definitely one of the best collections of jordan highlights i’ve ever seen. i’d never even seen those atlanta hawk assaults!! i mean…those were straight up genocidal!

  • Holiday

    Okay AllenP, your putting words in my mouth now! Just because somebody use’s simple advantages another player had, dosen’t automatically make that there whole argument, it’s mearly a supporting factor!

  • Holiday

    And the name calling, well that’s just my way of expressing how I feel about your argument! Now why don’t you go and write about all the player’s the expert’s talk about cause obviously that’s all you know about basketball, something somebody else tell’s you! some of us are real fan’s!

  • Holiday

    @jk_light, my bad I really didn’t care were the h*ll there team was from, they sure weren’t USA! I really wrote the comment to be about Barkley checking some punk, but thank’s for wasting your time to find that out, cause it was so so so important and all!

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