As a basketball player, it's not a bad thing to have super self-confidence, but overconfidence or overestimating one's own strength can sometimes be a joke, and Ricky Davis's initial remarks about thinking that the Cavaliers chose James to support him have been a topic of ridicule among fans for years.
There used to be such a number one person in the league, who despised the existence of Yao Ming when he was a player, and boasted of being the No. 2 center in the West, he was Dampier, what achievements did he achieve in his career? Next, let's enter the story that belongs to Dampier.
Rapidly soaring potential inside line star
With Dampier's athletic body and athletic talent, Dampier quickly stood out from his peers and became a shining star in the basketball circle, with many of the interior players in his class "eating up" against him, and with Dampier's help, Lawrence County High School achieved two consecutive state championships in 1991 and 1992, which made Dampier attract more and more attention, and NBA scouts were often on the sidelines of open games.
A large number of basketball schools handed an olive branch to Dampier, but Dampier finally chose his hometown school, Mississippi State University, after getting Dampier, the strength of the Mississippi State University men's basketball team has improved a lot, and the team's record has been climbing for three consecutive years, Dampier helped the team reach the NCAA final four in his junior season, averaging 14.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game in a single season, and was selected for the best team in the Southeast Conference for the second consecutive year.
After the end of the junior season, Dampier chose to participate in the NBA draft, and in the star-studded 1996 draft, the Pacers picked Dampier with the No. 10 pick in the first round.
Become a "championship puzzle" level of fragrant and sweet center
In his rookie season with the Pacers, Dampier played behind a number of interior players, including Schmitz, and didn't get much playing time and didn't get much workout, but if you convert the data to every 36 minutes, he averaged 12.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.
But the Pacers didn't have much energy to develop Dampier and wait for him to grow up, and the 1996-97 playoff season and Reggie Miller's growing age made the Pacers want to get into the winning mode and they wanted to seize the prime of Reggie Miller's career to achieve something.
In 1997, the Pacers changed coaches, Bird picked up the Pacers coach, and with it came roster adjustments, as a "rookie" with only one year of NBA experience, Dampier was eventually sent to the Warriors in a trade to exchange for Chris Mullin. Dampier's second stop in his career was the Warriors, who were entering a chaotic period, but also gave the young players some opportunities to show what they are capable of.
After years of struggling with injuries, Dampier finally had another full season and regained his position as a stable starting center in the Warriors, and then averaged a career-high 32.5 minutes per game in the following year, handing over a report card of 12.3 points, 12 rebounds and 1.9 blocks.
Dampier in his contract year earned the attention of many teams with a good performance, entered the free market in the offseason, Dampier was considered one of the best free agents at that time, and there were star insiders such as Rasheed Wallace and Camby in the free market at that time, Dampier was still attractive. In the end, through a sign-and-trade, Dampier got a seven-year, $73 million fat contract and went to the Mavericks.
Don Nelson, the Mavericks' general manager at the time, said that our goals would have been difficult to achieve without Dampier, who was highly regarded in the team's locker room and in the management of the other 29 teams in the league.
said that he was "slapped in the face" on the field, missed the championship twice and exited gloomily
Dampir's arrival relieved Nowitzki's pressure on the defensive end, taking most of the rim protection tasks on himself, allowing Nowitzki to participate in the defensive rotation more flexibly, without often going to the opponent's strong center to expose his weaknesses, in addition, Dampier can still play a solid "covering wall", opening the way for teammates to break through, and at the same time improve the frontcourt rebounding problem that has plagued the Mavericks for a long time.
Dampier has a considerable movement rate, good confrontation ability, height and long arms, and can often do well to deal with strong centers in the league on the defensive end, but the mentality seems to be a little overinflated, and even said that O'Neal is the first center in the West and he is the second center, ignoring Yao Ming.
It is true that after joining the Mavericks, Dampier helped the team win at least 60 regular season games in a row in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, which is the only time in the history of the Mavericks that he has done this in two consecutive seasons, but in the opposite position with Yao Ming, he is often the one who becomes the "background board", and even has a moment when Yao Ming shot 13 of 14 in the playoffs, Dampier may be a good "puzzle" player, and there is still a big gap from the top center.
Dampier relied on aggressive rebounding and defense to help the Mavericks reach the Finals in the 2005-06 season, but was overturned by the Heat, who lost the series with a 2-0 overall lead, and the Heat won the championship that year. Until the 2009-10 season, his final year with the Mavericks, Dampier was an important interior member who helped the Mavericks achieve a regular season win rate of more than 60% for six consecutive years.
In 2010, the penultimate year before his contract expired, Dampier was traded by the Mavericks to the Hornets, and to some extent, Dampier also inspired the Mavericks' thinking around Nowitz's infrastructure team, a defensive center with outstanding athleticism is very crucial, and when Dampier was traded to the Hornets, the Mavericks traded for such a player - Tyson Chandler, who is younger and more talented than Dampier.
Dampier didn't play for the Hornets in the end, he started the 2010-11 season as a Heat player, this is the "Big Three" Heat with James, Wade, Bosh, Dampier seems to be very close to his first championship, but the embarrassing thing is that the team lost in the Finals, and the team that defeated the Heat was Dampier's old club Mavericks.
Dampier watched Chandler, who became the starting center of the Mavericks after him, assist Nowitzki to win the championship, achieving something he hadn't done for years, or taking revenge on the Heat.
At the end of the 2010-11 season, Dampier became a free agent, which was a very different situation from 2004, when he was a 35-year-old veteran with many injuries, and no team signed Dampier throughout the offseason, until almost halfway through the regular season of the new season, the Hawks signed Dampier on a short contract, and finally signed until the end of the season, and this became Dampier last time in the NBA as a player, averaging only 0.1 points and 1.7 rebounds per game throughout the season.
Dampier's NBA career came to an end in 2012 with a career salary of $109 million, enough to make Dampier retire as he paves the way for his son, who has shown great talent and could enter the NBA in 2028.