Slamadamonth, SLAM #76: Baron Davis

Originally published in SLAM 76

Insult? Meet injury.

See that girl in the Ben Wallace jersey right underneath the sequence? The one who looks like she was in The Ring? Yeah, the one whose handwritten “Pistons” sign is partially obscured by the gutter (which is probably exactly where it ended up 10 minutes after this photo was taken). She knows.

And the woman in the lower left-hand corner, anger on her face, balloon wielded like a sword? Or the kid in the white Ben Wallace jersey behind the net, the one instinctively raising his arm to cover his eyes? Or the girl two rows down from him, reaching up to either cover her head or pull her hair out? A question for all of you: Can you imagine how Bobby Sura felt?

Bad enough that B. Diddy beats his man off the dribble and you have to make the switch. You get beat, too—no shame in that. Happens all the time. But on the last play of the game? At home? By someone a couple inches shorter? And he dunks on you? With both hands? For the win? Yikes.

Now, Bobby’s been in the League a long time, and he is definitely not new to this. Matter of fact, in SLAM 18, he was right on these pages getting crushed on by MJ himself. But you know what? In SLAM 22, he was back, getting his, with apologies to Stacey Augmon.

So keep it together, people. Bobby will (although we wouldn’t have wanted to be him on the team bus after this game). And look for him back here around, oh, SLAM 80. On the other end of things.

Russ Bengtson