BIg Al’s Neighborhood

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It’s rare in any sport that you get the chance to get multiple sit down interviews with an All-Star caliber NBA player at 2 very crucial parts of the season but that’s the exact opportunity I had with Al Jefferson this season. I spoke to the Prentis, Mississippi native on two separate occasions. Once on media day and the other in the midst of the Charlotte Bobcats making their 2nd playoff appearance in franchise history. Obviously I’m not a beat writer so I’m not around the team every single day but I will say that both visits I payed the Bobcats were the same. The team was very loose, confident and genuinely invested in each others success. That 3rd trait is rare in this league and I feel like Al Jefferson has a lot to do with that success.

Prior to this season started the so called “experts” of the basketball world wrote off the Al Jefferson signing pretty much saying that he would get his numbers but that it wouldn’t do much to change the fortunes of the Bobcats. The Bobcats front office invested 3-years/$41 million into bringing Al Jefferson to the Queen City. Many were quick to write off the signing and directly went onto criticizing his atrocious pick and roll defense. For all the positives Jefferson brought to the table the experts seemingly found 2 to 3 negatives to cancel any positivity that Big Al would bring to the team.

Before the season started I had a chance to sit down with Al Jefferson at the very last Charlotte Bobcats media day. He was very calm, cool and country. His demeanor is very similar to Gerald Wallace who is also from the Southern part of the country like Jefferson. “I see these young guys here with a lot of talent and with the mix of veterans I think we can be special” was the first thing I heard Jefferson say to me on September 30th of 2013 when I asked him about the group of guys on the Bobcats roster. I immediately thought then and there that he was here for more than just money and the purchase of a 23,000 dollar king sized bed, he was here to bring winning back to Charlotte. “You’re only 20-years old” is how I begun my 2nd question, Al raised his eye brows and asked “20”? I caught myself and said 28-years old and the flattered Jefferson said “Thank you brotha, I wish I was 20” as if I really had mistaken him for a guy that was 20-years old. I didn’t realize it then but its suddle things like Al’s sense of humor that could really bring a calming effect to the locker room as the leader of a team. “I’m in the prime of my career now” said Jefferson when I asked him if he feels he has some upside left in his career. He was confident in his ability to elevate his game but more importantly the defensive minded coaching staff of guys like Steve Clifford and Patrick Ewing to turn him into arguably the best big man in the entire NBA.

Guys with the talent of Al Jefferson usually would shy away from playing in a place like Charlotte, It’s a small market with a team that was 28-120 over the last 2 seasons coming into this season. Al comes from a small town of 2500 people in Mississippi and never forgot where he came from in the first place. “I look at Charlotte as the best of both worlds. It s southern and its a nice city, so to me every one looks at it as a small growing city but me I’m from a town of 2500 people in Mississippi so Charlotte to me is like New York compared to where I’m from” Said Al Jefferson when I asked him about what he thought about his new home. That quote right there was Al embracing Charlotte and little did Al know Charlotte would embrace him right back and it brought out the most inspired basketball of his entire career.

It took him awhile after missing 9 games of the season but when Al Jefferson got back he would go on to have the most impactful season of his NBA career. With averages of 21.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 blocks and a player efficiency rating of 22.75 Al Jefferson displayed All-NBA type production. He was arguably the best big man in the game this year and the numbers don’t lie. This season he was the only player in the entire NBA who was top 5 in both defensive rebounds (8.66-4th In the NBA) and field goals made (9.55-5th in the NBA). That means he was exercising a level of excellence among the elites in this league. He would rebound the basketball just as good as the Kevin Love’s and Deandre Jordan’s of the league but then turnaround and put the ball in the basket with at nearly the same level as the Carmelo Anthony’s and Lebron’s of the world. There is something to be said about the multifaceted greatness that Al Jefferson displayed this year and I don’t think the experts really grasp the impact he has had on this once hopeless franchise.

The numbers don’t lie and we must remember the biggest knock on Al Jefferson was that he was a terrible defender, well he anchored the NBA’s 4th ranked defense that allowed only 97.1 points per game. For him to be a guy who played just north of 35 minutes a game and be part of a top 5 NBA defense speaks volumes to how far he’s come on that side of the floor. Nobody will ever mistake Al for Bill Russell but he is better now than his days in Utah where you couldn’t get him to slide his feet in pick and roll defense situations. A lot of Al’s success comes from the impact Patrick Ewing has had on him in regards to that side of the floor and it paid off.

Al finished 8th in league for double-doubles with 42 in 73 games played. His performance from start to finish warrants a few first-place MVP votes, I got him around the 5-6 range when it comes to that race not a lot of guys in the league played as well as Big AL. I think Detroit Pistons guard Will Byum summed it up best when he said “He’s an All-Star player, a matchup nightmare. It takes a total team effort to stop that guy”. Will “The Thrill” Byum is right, Al Jefferson is a matchup nightmare. He has arguably the best footwork and pivoting in the league, San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich even suggests that his pump fakes are the best in the entire league. For Christ sakes he’s been foolin and old schoolin the league with them for a decade and people still bite on his pump fakes. The whole league really took note of Big AL this year, go to to Big Al’s Paint (click here) to see what some of the leagues best players and personnel had to say about Jefferson.

When he talks he sounds like the great Barry White but when he backs you down in the post he punishes his opponents like Moses Malone. I got a chance to speak to Al Jefferson again on a business trip to the Orlando Magic game on March 28th. I walked into the Bobcats locker room and on the opposite side Al Jefferson was sitting in a chair at his locker with a cup of coffee in his hand. After exchanging some pleasantries with some Bobcats such as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bizmack Biyombo and Chris Douglas-Roberts I made my way over to Big Al and politely asked him if he wanted to do an interview. He agreed to it and said I have 5 minutes to ask whatever I want. “It was all about adjusting to my injury and it was a battle trying to get back” said Jefferson when asking about his adjustment to the new system this year. Jefferson states Moses Malone as a guy who influenced his game but when I asked him about other influences he states Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon as some of the many who played a role into who Al Jefferson became as a basketball player.

The Bobcats got to the NBA playoffs as the #7 seed and would face the defending champion Miami Heat. The world was about to find out about Al Jefferson’s greatness until he suffered a plantar faciatiis injury that limited him throughout the entire series and what we watched was a player who was a shell of himself. Al couldn’t pivot like he normally does and try to fight through the injury, he took shots to his foot but it wasn’t enough to get him to return to form. The result was a demise of the Bobcats season and 4-0 sweep out of the NBA playoffs but they had earned the respect of one of the NBA’s elite in LeBron James. “They gave all they had, they are a team on an uprising starting with Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson” Said LeBron. Wing scoring or lack thereof clearly was the Achilles heal for the Bobcats without having Big Al and many people are aware that they are just 1 really talented wing scorer away from being one of the top 4 teams in the East.

He played in Boston, Minnesota and Utah but no place in the league has embraced Al Jefferson like the city of Charlotte. In a recent letter to the city Al stated how the city embraced him. “I couldn’t be happier with my decision to come to Charlotte. This city has embraced me and our team I’ve never received MVP chants before” said Big Al. For the first time in his entire career Al has something he has never been in possession of- a home. A place that embraces him, inspires him and drives him to perform at a championship level. The Charlotte Hornets name makes its long-awaited return back to the city of Charlotten next season, but before that happens the front office has $20 million to play with in cap space along with a few assets. One could have never thought of this 2 years ago but with Al, Kemba, Steve Clifford and the Hornets name coming back things are falling into place. Charlotte is more of a destination then the Siberia of the NBA at this point and that’s a welcome sign. Last season Kemba Walker recruited Al Jefferson to come play in Charlotte and it worked . This time Al and Kemba can recruit free agents together and if last year is any indication then we are in for on very interesting offseason.This is Al’s home and he wants to win now. Better yet this is Big Al’s neighborhood and we are just living in it.