Five players RealGM forgot

[Goudelock]

Alex English. I was going through Hoopla Sports Cards a few years ago, and happened upon an Alex English card mixed in with some Yugioh spell cards. I flip it over to see his stats, and my brain almost exploded. How does a player who scores like Carmelo Anthony not get mentioned more frequently?

[Quotatious]

Alex English. I was going through Hoopla Sports Cards a few years ago, and happened upon an Alex English card mixed in with some Yugioh spell cards. I flip it over to see his stats, and my brain almost exploded. How does a player who scores like Carmelo Anthony not get mentioned more frequently?

He finally seems to be getting his due right now, on this board. Look at the current top 100 list - he's ranked 54th, ahead of more famous wings like Iverson, Carter or his contemporary Wilkins. Way ahead of Carmelo, too.

An interesting fact is that English scored more points during the 80s than any other player, and he was also pretty efficient doing so.

English just always seemed to be in someone else's shadow during his career, and it's still mostly the case today. For example Dominique is much more famous than him, but I don't think he was really a better player than English (in particular, English was more versatile and usually played better in the playoffs).

His jumpshot may be the most difficult to contest, in NBA history, because of how high his release point was.

[ThunderDan9]

Larry Johnson is rarely mentioned... he was a beast in his Hornets days.

[Quotatious]

Purvis Short is another guy from the 80s who was pretty good, but almost totally forgotten. He had 4 straight seasons with 20+ PPG (including two 25+, peaking at 28 ppg in 1985).

Dude had such a nice jumpshot...Ball seemed to hang in the air for days, before falling to the basket.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxdV-LSntkc[/youtube]

Also, Sleepy Floyd

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D5x0Ve4pUk[/youtube]

[ThunderDan9]

Larry Johnson is rarely mentioned... he was a beast in his Hornets days.

And talking about LJ, how about this (forgotten) team?

Derrick Coleman
Joe Dumars
Kevin Johnson
Larry Johnson
Shawn Kemp
Dan Majerle
Reggie Miller
Alonzo Mourning
Shaquille O'Neal
Mark Price
Steve Smith
Dominique Wilkins

There are some (more or less) forgotten ones, right there.

[JeepCSC]

Larry Johnson is rarely mentioned... he was a beast in his Hornets days.

Somewhere there is a teenage Jeep clutching a LJ jersey reading in disbelief about the Hornets trading him. Dark days.

[Winsome Gerbil]

Chuck Person - One of the top perimeter shooters/scorers of his era. Great trash talker who had some battles against Bird. I think off the court issues, with his weight kept him from having longevity and receiving more notoriety.
Mookie Blaylock - Had some awesome years in Atlanta. One of the best defensive PGs of his era.
Derrick McKey - Versatile Point-Foward/defender - could guard 2s, 3s and 4s.
Rony Seikaly - Had some really good years for the Heat. Was overshadowed by all the great Centers of that era.
Dale Davis - one of the greatest offensive rebounders in NBA history. In the mold of a Buck WIlliams.

I like the Blaylock, McKey and Seikaly mentions.

Also Kevin Willis, Otis Thorpe, Buck Williams, Terry Porter, Walter Davis etc. Actually my favorite guy of that ilk was a guy named John Drew, who is almost completely forgotten, yet if you start running statistical searches on your favorite stats site his numbers will come popping up right alongside all the superstars.


20 years from now we can have tis same thread and the forgotten guys will be Rudy Gay and Goran Dragic and Mike Conley and Al Jefferson. All those guys who were maybe back half of the Top 10 at their positions, maybe sniffed around the All Star game a couple of times, but in the end never quite got the accolades and will drift back as time goes on.

[MrKnox]

Alex English. I was going through Hoopla Sports Cards a few years ago, and happened upon an Alex English card mixed in with some Yugioh spell cards. I flip it over to see his stats, and my brain almost exploded. How does a player who scores like Carmelo Anthony not get mentioned more frequently?

He finally seems to be getting his due right now, on this board. Look at the current top 100 list - he's ranked 54th, ahead of more famous wings like Iverson, Carter or his contemporary Wilkins. Way ahead of Carmelo, too.

An interesting fact is that English scored more points during the 80s than any other player, and he was also pretty efficient doing so.

English just always seemed to be in someone else's shadow during his career, and it's still mostly the case today. For example Dominique is much more famous than him, but I don't think he was really a better player than English (in particular, English was more versatile and usually played better in the playoffs).

His jumpshot may be the most difficult to contest, in NBA history, because of how high his release point was.

English gets overlooked for two reasons: First, he played in an era ruled with tons of high scoring small forwards such as Bird, Dominique, King, Dantley, Aguirre, Tripuka, Worthy etc and second, he was an ultra smooth scorer that kinda put you to sleep. He had a silky jumper and didn't really do anything explosive so you'd think he had 15-20 points by games end when he really had 30. Those are the reasons he's forgotten nowadays but everyone knew who he was in the '80's.

[MrKnox]

Purvis Short is another guy from the 80s who was pretty good, but almost totally forgotten. He had 4 straight seasons with 20+ PPG (including two 25+, peaking at 28 ppg in 1985).

Dude had such a nice jumpshot...Ball seemed to hang in the air for days, before falling to the basket.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxdV-LSntkc[/youtube]

Also, Sleepy Floyd

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D5x0Ve4pUk[/youtube]

Purvis Short. Nice! He's the perfect example for this thread. Guy averaged 28 PPG like you mentioned above and 95% of the posters on this site are like "who?" Makes me wonder what active players are most likely to be Purvis Short's 30 years from now.

[SactoKingsFan]

Lou Hudson
Lenny Wilkens
Detlef Schrempf
Terry Porter
Marques Johnson

[MrKnox]

Chuck Person - One of the top perimeter shooters/scorers of his era. Great trash talker who had some battles against Bird. I think off the court issues, with his weight kept him from having longevity and receiving more notoriety.
Mookie Blaylock - Had some awesome years in Atlanta. One of the best defensive PGs of his era.
Derrick McKey - Versatile Point-Foward/defender - could guard 2s, 3s and 4s.
Rony Seikaly - Had some really good years for the Heat. Was overshadowed by all the great Centers of that era.
Dale Davis - one of the greatest offensive rebounders in NBA history. In the mold of a Buck WIlliams.

I like the Blaylock, McKey and Seikaly mentions.

Also Kevin Willis, Otis Thorpe, Buck Williams, Terry Porter, Walter Davis etc. Actually my favorite guy of that ilk was a guy named John Drew, who is almost completely forgotten, yet if you start running statistical searches on your favorite stats site his numbers will come popping up right alongside all the superstars.


20 years from now we can have tis same thread and the forgotten guys will be Rudy Gay and Goran Dragic and Mike Conley and Al Jefferson. All those guys who were maybe back half of the Top 10 at their positions, maybe sniffed around the All Star game a couple of times, but in the end never quite got the accolades and will drift back as time goes on.

Chuck Person is a great mention. Named after Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) he was the man at Auburn (not Barkley), made the '84 Olympic team (again, not Barkley) and beat out Ron Harper for ROTY in '86-'87. Also, was the leader of those early '90's Pacer's team (not Reggie) that went head to head with Bird's Celts in the playoffs. Good scorer and three point shooter. Had a game custom made for today's era.

[chrismikayla]

Michael Adams
Thurl Bailey
Detlef Schrempf
Joe Dumars
Kiki Vandeweghe

[SHAQ32]

Eric Murdock
Nick Anderson
Stacey Augmon
Clifford Robinson
PJ Brown

[SHAQ32]

Scott Skiles
Vernon Maxwell
Kendall Gill
Tyrone Hill
Rik Smits

[MrKnox]

Michael Adams
Thurl Bailey
Detlef Schrempf
Joe Dumars
Kiki Vandeweghe

Michael Adams. That little dude was jacking up three's back in the '80's like it was 2015.....way ahead of his time.

[MrKnox]

Scott Skiles
Vernon Maxwell
Kendall Gill
Tyrone Hill
Rik Smits

Rik Smits. The "Dunking Dutchman" as he was known. Great skill set for a player of his size. Forgotten because he played in the same era as Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson, Shaq, Mourning, Mutombo etc.

[SHAQ32]

Scott Skiles
Vernon Maxwell
Kendall Gill
Tyrone Hill
Rik Smits

Rik Smits. The "Dunking Dutchman" as he was known. Great skill set for a player of his size. Forgotten because he played in the same era as Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson, Shaq, Mourning, Mutombo etc.

Exactly. Yao is the only other center that comes to mind, that had the skillset, while also having a feathery touch, while being over 7'3'' tall. Maybe Ilgauskas or Sabonis.

Also those Pacers teams sure had high quality role players throughout the 90s. Rik Smits, Antonio Davis, Dale Davis, Derrick McKey, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Croshere. While they just had talent go in-and-out around Reggie Miller (Person, Schrempf, Jalen Rose) as well. Shame they never won a title.

[Joao Saraiva]

Jeff Hornacek. The perfect role player. Great floor spacer, great efficiency, ability to create his own shot, good playmaker... He was a lot fun to watch.

[garciathao]

alvin robertson
scott skiles
sam perkins
Rodney rogers

[MrKnox]

Jeff Hornacek. The perfect role player. Great floor spacer, great efficiency, ability to create his own shot, good playmaker... He was a lot fun to watch.

Horny, as he was known to Jazz fans, was a great shooter and a good scorer. Most people forget his time in Phoenix however. I'll never forget watching the late '90's Jazz/Lakers playoff battles. The Lakers looked absolutely terrifying with their All-Playground lineup of Shaq, Kobe, Van Exel, Fisher, Fox, Eddie Jones, Horry etc and everyone thought they would demolish the mostly white, unathletic looking Jazz team featuring Malone, Stockton, Horny, Russell and Ostertag. Watching the Jazz demolish the more talented Lakers squad was a thing of beauty if you appreciated team basketball. It was almost hysterical to watch.