The NBA Comparison Series: DeVon Hardin

NBADraft.net is a great Web site. They do a ton of really detailed scouting, compile all the best NBA news and prospect reports and are generally the best resource for the NBA Draft. But there is a catch. Those NBA Comparisons given for each prospect. Some of them are completely ridiculous. I've spent a lot of time reviewing them, not to learn more about potential draftees, but to laugh hysterically for hours and hours. By my count, the greatest comparison ever is Josh McRoberts, whose NBA Comparison is...

Chris Webber (less athletic)... yes, less athletic than Chris Webber. Last time I checked Josh was not in a wheelchair.

Anyway, I loathe comparing players to each other when it comes to style of play. I'd like to think basketball, in all its glory, is a free-moving game where in the infinite combinations of movement, athletic ability and skill sets that the sport allows to be expressed, no two players can be all that similar. Like snowflakes... or some crap. There are too many factors in this game and too much freedom to define a player by anything but his own unique ability. Ken Pomeroy wrote a great piece on this over at Basketball Prospectus, mocking the way most people only compare white players to other white players, or lefties to other lefties or how any factor unrelated to style of play seems to creep into most people's assessment of a player. So allow me to introduce a new series here at SSS where I handpick some of the more ridiculous comparisons over there and offer some thrilling analysis. Enjoy!

Previously: Roy Hibbert (Joel Pryzbilla); Brook Lopez (Rasho Nesterovic)

Today: DeVon Hardin, California

Strengths: Athletic, good body for a pro 4, good shot blocker, patient in the paint, destroying his own bones.

Weaknesses: Outside shot, unpolished post game, average passer out of post, calcium.

NBA Comparison: Darryl Dawkins

Continue...

Why would I profile a player that few people get to see and was injured for most of last season? Because he is, for some completely inexplicable reason, being compared to Chocolate Thunder himself, the alien from Lovetron, expert in interplanetary funkmanship, Darryl freaking Dawkins. Dawkins' entire legacy was based on the fact that he not only defied comparison to any other player, but any other human, except maybe George Clinton or Darren Daulton. So why is this low-profile, seemingly non-crazy (4.0 GPA in high school, major in social welfare) player, Hardin, compared to him? Well, I doubt the young scouting prodigies at NBADraft.net have even seen Dawkins play (he retired in 1984, neither have I) and while they say Hardin "Loves to dunk the ball over guys," I'm not sure what footage they have been watching. So I can only assume it's to amuse me. I mean, look at this animal.



As far as I know, Hardin has not shattered any backboards and if he has, he certainly didn't name the damn thing the "Chocolate Thunder Flying, Robinzine Crying, Teeth Shaking, Glass Breaking, Rump Roasting, Bun Toasting, Wham, Bam, Glass Breaker I Am Jam." Although I've heard Hardin does use that exact line to pick up some of the more promiscuous campus co-eds. But don't we all? According to Wikipedia, Dawkins also named dunks: Rim Wrecker, Go-Rilla, Look Out Below, In-Your-Face Disgrace, Cover Your Head, Yo-Mama, and Spine-Chiller Supreme, all of which are also the titles of 70s porn films.

Upon even further review, the comparison makes even less sense. Dawkins entered the draft as a raw high school player, albeit one of the most dominating ever by some accounts and is recognized as a guy who never reached his potential. Hardin is a tested senior who will take little time to reach his potential. Dawkins was the 5th pick, Hardin is slated at No. 21 by NBADraft.net. Dawkins claimed to have a space girlfriend named Juicy Lucy. Alas, Hardin can only manage Sandy Mandy.

More Appropriate Comparison, If Such Things Were Productive: Hilton Armstrong

Less Appropriate Comparison, Because Such Things Are Humorous: Mr. Glass