Erick Dampier has played really well for two stretches in his career. Both of them came when his contract was about to run out.
It's not a coincidence. I mean, just look at this. Which two years jump out? He was a free agent the following year both times.
Historically a low percentage scorer, Dampier has improved mightily in this category by finally accepting that he shouldn't take any shots. His offense now consists of putbacks, gimmes, and dunks off of guards penetrating and dropping the ball off to him. That's probably for the best, as Erick was never Mr Post Move.
Dampier is a good rebounder and decent shot blocker, with a wee bit of a foul problem. He also once proclaimed himself to be the second best center in the NBA, thereby bringing joy to the masses. He did this at the height of his powers (2004), during the midst of his second and most successful big contract push. It wasn't true even then, and having subsequently regressed back to his old mediocre self, Dampier now looks a bit of a fool. Still, good fun.
Then again, Dampier always looks a bit of a fool. For if you look, you'll notice that he has an alarmingly, disproportionally, lockjawingly small head. It bugs the hell out of me every time I see him play. It's weird and indeed ironic that the man renouned for his aforementioned display of egotism can have such a small head, but he sure does. It's irksome.
Fun Erick Dampier fact: The "K" on the end of his surname is the result of a lost bet with his former teammate, Duane Ferrell. Dampier bet Ferrell that he couldn't fit his hole body through a tennis racket. But Duane managed it, and Dampier bears the scars to this very day.
- 5th March, 2009.
Anagram: "Dreamier pick,", Damp's advice for what anyone thinking of drafting him in a fantasy league should look for instead.
Agent: Dan Fegan/Paul Nadel (Blue Entertainment Sports Television)
Note: As you can probably tell,
some of the nicknames were made up. Many are genuine, though, and they
are only made up in the instances where a real one couldn't be traced.
Many given nicknames are of common usage, but some are also sourced
from lesser known sources - these sources are not often cited, not because
I hate the people involved, but because there's too many to do so. For
argument's sake, just assume that the unfunny ones are mine.
In the event where more than one agent is listed, this is because the
player has more than one agent. Simple, really. This is rather commonplace
- a lot of times, a player will sign with a big agency, and they will
have both primary and secondary agents from within that agency to handle
their affairs. (Where that happens, the primary agent is listed first.)
Also, foreign players tend to have both American and domestic agents.
Where the details of such are known, they are listed. It's essentially
like a fun multiple choice game, except without the "fun", "multiple
choice" and "game" elements.
Additionally - don't sue. We're only having a laugh. There's no slander
here. Just very bad jokes.
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is copyrighted to the website's owner, including (but not limited to)
the really stupid ones that I wish I'd never written.
