[AwardedBallerParticipant]

All you kids who need to do Summer Reading could write this thread down as one of their books they read.

I take lots of pride of being a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and I mean hugeeeeeeeeeeee fan of Shabazz Muhammad, I own many autographed Shabazz Muhammad posters and I also own two signed Shabazz Muhammad jerseys. I have many of his hoopmixtapes, scouting and ballislife video and highlight mixes of phone, he’s my phone background (I sound creepy I know, but I’m just trying to show how big of a fan of Shabazz Muhammad I am). I’ve gone out my way to defend Shabazz Muhammad on numerous websites, when he is being bashed. I’ve been blocked and reported as spam on Twitter numerous times for attacking someone who attacked Shabazz and even once had my account suspended for accumulation of reports. But, I am seriously at this point losing all faith and hope in Shabazz Muhammad.

In the beginning of the college basketball season I was crazy excited, and was so sad when I heard Shabazz Muhammad had sprained his ankle before UCLA’s basketball trip to China. But I had seen in the past Bazz’ work effort was ridiculous so I made nothing of the injury. A few weeks later, I hear that Kyle Anderson had been cleared by the NCAA to play but Bazz had still been on the fence, being completely honest I knew Shabazz was most likely going to miss the first few games because his dad is a little too excited about Bazz’ skill in basketball. Let me tell a funny story about a personal account I had with Shabazz’s dad. At the 2010 City Of Palms the gym was slightly empty when Bishop Gorman played Riverside Academy in the 5th place game. The gym was very quiet but you could hear Ron Holmes (Shabazz’s dad) screaming at Refs, opposing coaches and Shabazz himself from the stands. It became such a problem the school security had to tell his dad just to calm down a little. But getting back on topic, I knew Shabazz would be ineligible for the first few games. When Shabazz came back to play, I was so disappointed by his fitness level, he looked so fat it wasn’t even funny. Bazz scored 15 points in his return while he was visibly overweight and I thought that was ok so I never made anything of it.

During the season on a Friday when UCLA played Missouri, I canceled a date with a girl I liked and some friends just to watch Shabazz play against a top 10 team. I was so impressed by a Fat Shabazz’s 27 points and two clutch overtime shots that I did not have a care in world I just canceled a date with a girl to watch an overweight basketball player win. This happiness I had would last only about one more week after I noticed this site and the ‘other’ site continued to drop Bazz. UCLA went on to be inconsistent and drama then continued to surround Bazz. Silly petty drama such as him wearing a $2000 gucci bag, which in my opinion was a bad idea. Although I believe the media exaggerated it, why would you wear a bag of that stature when you know everyone ****rides you? Second was the age thing, the Shabazz being a year older than stated made me so sad, I remember that night perfectly. My mom offered to take us to Taco Bell but I had been so upset Shabazz is a year older than he claimed (or his dad claimed) that I refused to eat one of my favorite meals a Locos taco. I had felt cheated, confused, lied to, I pretty much felt like every Lakers fan who expected the Lakers to make it past the first round.

Around this time, Shabazz had gone from a consensus number 1 draft pick, to a consensus top 5 pick (Rise of McLemore), to an overweight chucker who created his shot as well as EuroBaller creates scouting reports on anorexic Greek prospects.

At the end of the college and high school season, I was at an open gym at my high school and my team had just lost a game, I was looking around watching other teams play and I thought to myself “How bad would Andrew Wiggins dominate these players?” He would dominate easily. “How bad would Jabari Parker dominate these players” He would crush these players. “How bad would Shabazz dominate them?” The answer is obvious.. HE WOULDN’T. 20 year old freshmen has ball-handling skills worse than Hooters employees in a bedroom and cannot create his own shot. He used to be a defensive maestro in high school but in college he decided that defense is not important. Basketball sites now call a game with the stat line of over 10 points, 0 rebounds, and 0 assist a ‘Shabazz’. The man has gone from a heralded high school prospect to a walking punchline.

NBA Draft time is near, Shabazz he visibly lost lots of weight. I see many pictures of shirtless pictures of Bazz where he has a six pack and has a body looking right (No Hibbert, wow really no hibbert, I like females trust me) combines comes, I start feeling duped again, he was 9% body fat. On top of that he sounded cocky in interviews. Draft night I skipped one of my workouts just to see a less overweight but still overweight basketball player get drafted. 14th pick, I popped bottles….. Kool-Aid of course, I’m still underaged, but I was very excited he was still technically a lottery pick. That excitement was short-lived due to the fact Bazz wanted to put himself in headlines for the wrong reasons. Although I didn’t believe what Shabazz said was that serious, he said something very stupid (yet again) saying “I want to wear 0, no one wears Zero so I want to wear it” NO SHABAZZ, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING SHABAZZ? He was chastised and insulted for that one quote alone. That quote ultimately led to my suspension on twitter because I was ducking punches and hitting haymakers on anyone who attacked Shabazz, because when you attack Shabazz, you’re attacking me. (No Hibbert yet again, please bear with me) Shortly after that, he uploads a picture on both Instagram and Twitter saying he will make his haters have something to hate on…. BAZZ MAKING HIS FANS MORE UPSET THAN HIS HATERS. He’s yet to score 10 points in a summer league game and he changed his number back to 15…. Why? Like you made such a dumb a quote for no reason? Like I’ve put up with Bazz, but he better come up big this season, or I might have to quit on my babe.. (No Hibbert.)

Shoutout to MikeyV

[LA12Participant]

+1 for finding a way to mention EuroBaller

[LA12Participant]

+1 for finding a way to mention EuroBaller

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

I am actually a big fan of Shabazz as well, though have had to come to terms with his definite shortcomings as an all-around player. His Summer League performance on the whole has to be seen as underwhelming at the very least. Still, I think their is a lack of structure and that they have not really featured him.

Guess they won’t at the NBA level either, just guessing that life will be easier with Ricky Rubio as opposed to Kee Kee Clark, Lorenzo Brown and Demetri McCamey. Still think people put too much into Summer League at times, especially considering that Shabazz hasn’t been getting monster minutes and the T-Wolves have been looking at guys to fill out their roster more than feature their new draftees like some other teams.

Shabazz has a lot of work to do, just think that writing guys off on Summer League play does not always pay off. Summer League has been a very inconsistent gauge as far as NBA success, or lack their of.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

I am actually a big fan of Shabazz as well, though have had to come to terms with his definite shortcomings as an all-around player. His Summer League performance on the whole has to be seen as underwhelming at the very least. Still, I think their is a lack of structure and that they have not really featured him.

Guess they won’t at the NBA level either, just guessing that life will be easier with Ricky Rubio as opposed to Kee Kee Clark, Lorenzo Brown and Demetri McCamey. Still think people put too much into Summer League at times, especially considering that Shabazz hasn’t been getting monster minutes and the T-Wolves have been looking at guys to fill out their roster more than feature their new draftees like some other teams.

Shabazz has a lot of work to do, just think that writing guys off on Summer League play does not always pay off. Summer League has been a very inconsistent gauge as far as NBA success, or lack their of.

[LazarusMunozParticipant]

Absolutely one of my favorite posts of the year,borderline epic! Giving up booty and Taco Bell just to watch your favorite player and post about it… OP please use this thread to keep a running blog about how Shabaz is affecting your life personally life during the NBA season

[LazarusMunozParticipant]

Absolutely one of my favorite posts of the year,borderline epic! Giving up booty and Taco Bell just to watch your favorite player and post about it… OP please use this thread to keep a running blog about how Shabaz is affecting your life personally life during the NBA season

[BenchWarmerParticipant]

The first step is admitting your problem haha good read.

[BenchWarmerParticipant]

The first step is admitting your problem haha good read.

[RafterParticipant]

This is just flat-out fun insight loaded with comical nuggets.

[RafterParticipant]

This is just flat-out fun insight loaded with comical nuggets.

[breese227Participant]

And see this is a great point as to why some people say if scouts have a consensus on a player that they’re usually right..No they’re not.
I think people are just desperate to find The next Lebron, Durant, Kobe that they hype these guys up a lot.
The list of the last few years of “Can’t miss #1 picks”
Shabazz Muhammed compared to Kobe
Austin Rivers
Nerlens Noel
Andre Drummond(Who I would have taken #1 but regardless wasn’t)
Cody Zeller( a little different than the other players, because of College experience)
Not saying any of these players won’t pan out but people tried to attack me when I said Andrew Wiggins shouldn’t be a called a lock 1 pick because he’s not that much clearly better than the other 3 top prospects.
Lock 1 picks are players like Lebron, Duncan, Shaq, Olajuwon, Iverson, Howard.
This site always assumes that the top prep player will be the #1 pick in the draft and then they go to college and don’t have anymore hoopshype mixtapes and drop in the draft.

[breese227Participant]

And see this is a great point as to why some people say if scouts have a consensus on a player that they’re usually right..No they’re not.
I think people are just desperate to find The next Lebron, Durant, Kobe that they hype these guys up a lot.
The list of the last few years of “Can’t miss #1 picks”
Shabazz Muhammed compared to Kobe
Austin Rivers
Nerlens Noel
Andre Drummond(Who I would have taken #1 but regardless wasn’t)
Cody Zeller( a little different than the other players, because of College experience)
Not saying any of these players won’t pan out but people tried to attack me when I said Andrew Wiggins shouldn’t be a called a lock 1 pick because he’s not that much clearly better than the other 3 top prospects.
Lock 1 picks are players like Lebron, Duncan, Shaq, Olajuwon, Iverson, Howard.
This site always assumes that the top prep player will be the #1 pick in the draft and then they go to college and don’t have anymore hoopshype mixtapes and drop in the draft.

[GlenTaylorSucksParticipant]

“20 year old freshmen has ball-handling skills worse than Hooters employees in a bedroom” ROFL. That automatically gets an upvote!

[GlenTaylorSucksParticipant]

“20 year old freshmen has ball-handling skills worse than Hooters employees in a bedroom” ROFL. That automatically gets an upvote!

[jwostrumParticipant]

@awardedballer im a huge shabazz fan as well, but don’t you think your post is a little much. he has only played 3 summer games, and you act like shabazz owes you the world. you choose to be a fan, he does not choose you to be his fan. I mean the whole thing about not being able to eat your taco because you found out shabazz is 20 and not 19, come on. go ahead and give me all the negs you want, but the whole post IS a little much.

[jwostrumParticipant]

@awardedballer im a huge shabazz fan as well, but don’t you think your post is a little much. he has only played 3 summer games, and you act like shabazz owes you the world. you choose to be a fan, he does not choose you to be his fan. I mean the whole thing about not being able to eat your taco because you found out shabazz is 20 and not 19, come on. go ahead and give me all the negs you want, but the whole post IS a little much.

[NickWayne87Participant]

is way low enough to have a six pack….you can have a six pack at 12 percent

[NickWayne87Participant]

is way low enough to have a six pack….you can have a six pack at 12 percent

[LindseyParticipant]

aww man push this on some sports sections in the ucla or minnesota areas. great read.

[LindseyParticipant]

aww man push this on some sports sections in the ucla or minnesota areas. great read.

[sheltwon3Participant]

AwardedBaller, you are amazing writer. I don’t know if you are already but journalism could be in your future.

[sheltwon3Participant]

AwardedBaller, you are amazing writer. I don’t know if you are already but journalism could be in your future.

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

This reminded me of my Journalism Camp threads, except yours was about basketball and no one hates you. Well done.

But I want to know what happened with the girl you canceled on…

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

This reminded me of my Journalism Camp threads, except yours was about basketball and no one hates you. Well done.

But I want to know what happened with the girl you canceled on…

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

LOL in a previous thread, you say you’re thirteen. So either you lied there, you lied about the date, or you’re just a straight-up playa at a very young age and a fantastic writer for a 13-year-old!

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

LOL in a previous thread, you say you’re thirteen. So either you lied there, you lied about the date, or you’re just a straight-up playa at a very young age and a fantastic writer for a 13-year-old!

[omphalosParticipant]

I agree that my confidence is wavering – especially after Minnesota signed players at his position – but damn it all if that Missouri game wasn’t something special.

[omphalosParticipant]

I agree that my confidence is wavering – especially after Minnesota signed players at his position – but damn it all if that Missouri game wasn’t something special.

[BrentSuriaga01Participant]

“Welcome to the club”

– Jason Collins

[BrentSuriaga01Participant]

“Welcome to the club”

– Jason Collins

[omphalosParticipant]

I wonder if Bazz read this thread before the game; had a very nice response and thoroughly outplayed McLemore. 17 points in 17 minutes today.

Also, bit of an aside but why isn’t anyone talking about the fact that McLemore hasn’t had a single assist all summer league?

It frustrates me that people hound Bazz for being a selfish player but because McLemore is a wallflower he slips under the radar.

[omphalosParticipant]

I wonder if Bazz read this thread before the game; had a very nice response and thoroughly outplayed McLemore. 17 points in 17 minutes today.

Also, bit of an aside but why isn’t anyone talking about the fact that McLemore hasn’t had a single assist all summer league?

It frustrates me that people hound Bazz for being a selfish player but because McLemore is a wallflower he slips under the radar.

[theballerwayParticipant]

not many original opinions in here. When SI or ESPN mention it they follow on. I wonder how many mins he’ll get in the seaon though. More than 15? gonna be interesting

[theballerwayParticipant]

not many original opinions in here. When SI or ESPN mention it they follow on. I wonder how many mins he’ll get in the seaon though. More than 15? gonna be interesting

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Omphalos,

Yes, a little concerning that McLemore has had the ball in his hands that much and no assist. But you know what is worse? Shabazz has played 85 minutes and has yet to record a block or steal. This is summer league. I understand you might make the right pass and your teammate fail to score, hence no assist. But with all the turnovers going on in summer league how do you not get credit for a steal over the course of what adds up to two complete games? You have to be singularly unaware and unresponsive on defense is my take on that.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Omphalos,

Yes, a little concerning that McLemore has had the ball in his hands that much and no assist. But you know what is worse? Shabazz has played 85 minutes and has yet to record a block or steal. This is summer league. I understand you might make the right pass and your teammate fail to score, hence no assist. But with all the turnovers going on in summer league how do you not get credit for a steal over the course of what adds up to two complete games? You have to be singularly unaware and unresponsive on defense is my take on that.

[Author]

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