Praising the Hustle

Over at Hoops Addict, P&T friend Ryan McNeill is running the first-ever Floor Burn Tournament. It's a field of the NBA's bench warriors, glue guys, and hustlers. My initial submission for the Knicks was Renaldo Balkman- a guy who committed to defense, never gave less than his all, and did so with an entire Komondor on his head. That's not easy, folks. But Balkman has since be traded, so I was forced to go with Plan B. That couldn't be anybody other than P&T favorite David Lee. On a roster lacking the necessary energy and determination, Lee's game of glass-pounding putbacks and thunderous dunks is the closest we come to maximum effort. Sure, he doesn't play any defense, but we are talking about the Knicks, after all. Anyway, he's already got a big lead over 3QC's submission, Jameer Nelson, but every vote counts. So head over, vote for your favorites, and when you get there, tell Ryan "the eagle is in the nest" for me. He'll know what it means.

Note: Wanna know who my least favorite professional basketball player is? This guy. Renaldo Major. He's the guy who played a little for the Warriors in '06-'07 and is still in the SB Nation database of taggable players, meaning every time I type in "Renaldo", both he and the one I'm actually looking for come up. I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore since the real Renaldo's gone west now. I guess I'll have to actually tag the fake Renaldo in this post, too.