The Dantley (thuh dant'-lee) noun. Describes those performances in which a player scores a significant number of points and more than half of those points come from the foul line.
Usage example: Kobe Bryant had a Dantley in Game 1 of the Lakers' second round playoff series against the Jazz: 38 points on 8 field goals and 21 (out of 23) freethrows.
Word history: Bob Ryan invented the term (as noted in David Halberstam's Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made) to describe how Adrian Dantley was able to ignite many of his famous scoring explosions from the foul line. Dantley scored 23177 over his 18-year ABA/NBA career, and 8351 of those points -- roughly 36 percent of them -- came from the charity stripe. He led the NBA in free throws four times (and was the league scoring champion during two of those seasons) and currently ranks sixth all-time in that category. He shares the record (with Wilt Chamberlain) for most free throws made in a regular-season NBA game (28). Dude straight up knew how to draw fouls. It helped that he could bulldoze his way to the basket with his giant ass (see below).
Unfortunately, basketball-reference.com doesn't provide box scores from A.D.'s heyday during the mid-80s, but even in the latter stages of his career, Dantley had some signature Dantleys left in him:
November 7, 1986: 24 points, 18 made FTs
December 10, 1986: 33 points, 17 made FTs
January 19, 1987: 27 points, 5 made FTs
March 6, 1987: 23 points, 17 made FTs
April 17, 1987: 28 points, 16 made FTs
December 15, 1987: 27 points, 19 made FTs
January 20, 1988: 28 points, 16 made FTs
December 2, 1988: 28 points, 18 made FTs
January 31, 1989: 20 points, 14 made FTs
March 20, 1989: 24 points, 14 made FTs
April 14, 1989: 34 points, 18 made FTs
Word trivia: I thought that the 2006 NBA Finals would be the perfect place to find examples of The Dantley. After all, Dwyane Wade lived at the freethrow line, right? But I was surprised to discover that he did not have a single Dantley in that series. Yes, he received a ginormous number of freethrows, but he scored more points on field goals in every game. Seriously, go check the box scores.
Fun fact: According to his NBA.com bio, "As a 6-4, 245-pound freshman at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, his prodigious posterior earned him the nickname 'Baby Huey.'" I'm going to go ahead and assume he preferred "A.D."
A word of thanks: To faithful reader Nick F. (Buck Nasty) for the suggestion.
Labels: Adrian Dantley, Dwyane Wade, fan submissions, free throws, Word of the Day
30 Comments:
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Second, I don't get, as in, I REALLY don't get, why the Bulls selected Rose over Beasley. I mean, yeah, they wanted the hometown kid with the potential to become a superstar, but the ONE thing they've been missing the last three seasons was an inside scorer. They had the other pieces. Now they have a glut of guards and (yet again) no inside presence. Maybe Rose will prove me wrong down the road, but the Bulls lost out in the short term.
Case-in-point was that "foul" by Dirk to win game 3 or 4- not sure which one it was.
I never watched Dantley play- were his foul calls legit? Dwade's were mostly just crappy calls, but most NBA calls are crappy anyway. I wonder if Dantley was totally hardcore and tough or just a referee's sweetheart.
Instead of jumping shoes, maybe you should be focusing on making your ass bigger.
Anybody else up for it?
NBA Live 09 or NBA 2K9?
Thanks!
It's a good word, too, especially with the complaints bad foul calls in today's game.
kneejerknba -- Ah, Mark Aguirre. Also known as "Buffet" by his teammates. I guess the gigantic butt can be effective...but I'm gonna go ahead and go another route.
anonymousnupe -- Sounds like a story you need to tell here, my friend.
supersonic -- Okay. I'll look into it this week. No promises, but I'll look into it.
chrish -- Agreed.
brad -- Hm. We'll have to invent a Giant Butt All-Star Team. Barkley would be on it...
baguete -- Well, I haven't played either one yet, but afte the travesty that was Live '08, I would never recommend a Live game again.
Brad: I don't know if their ass sizes are unusual, but Charles Barkley and (to a lesser extent) Mark Jackson had the most dominant posteriors in NBA history. The league had to make the five second rule to stop them.
So the Big Butt All-Stars include Dantley, Barkley, Jackson, Davis and Shaq. We need a bench...
Mike Sweetney
Shawn Kemp (of Cleveland)
Yes, there were some bad calls, but he deserved most of those free throws.
He used a disproportionate number of Heat possessions and played with his usual ridiculous aggressiveness. That's going to result in a lot of free throws in NBA basketball - bad officiating or not.
My instantaneous reaction when the Bulls logo wasn't in their envelope on lottery night was that they'd take Beasley or Lopez (depending on position). They so obviously needed a post scorer. Doing anything else didn't seem logical.
Thank god for Miami Pax screwed the pooch again. Rose has a lot of catching up to do given how well Beasley is scoring / boarding at age 19.
Oh, Dantley used to play in the area (D.C./Maryland) when he was home from the NBA. I've been on the court with him--but never on his team, unfortunately--on at least three occasions back in the day. Even drank from the same water fountain. He even played outdoors sometimes. Man, that dude's workout regimen was legendary 'round here. He was unstoppable. By many local accounts he's the second best baller to ever come out of D.C. area high schools, right after Elgin Baylor and just ahead of Dave Bing. At least that's what they say.
I would be interested to know how many of D-Wade's points were "and-1" free throws. Yeah he scored more from the field than from the line, but he was getting "and-1's" if somebody brushed his shorts on the way to an uncontested layup. That will skew the statistics.
Case-in-point was that "foul" by Dirk to win game 3 or 4- not sure which one it was.
I am so sick of everyone talking about the Dirk foul at the end of game 5. I was sitting about 8 feet away when that play happened (1st row to the left of the basket near the Mavs bench) and the only thing wrong with that call was that the foul was on Devin Harris. Here is the photo to prove it:
http://espn-att.starwave.com/photo/2006/0618/nba_g_wade2_412.jpg
C. Weatherspoon would fit your BigButt Bench imo, and maybe even could be secret weapon cause he was sort of underestimated all the time.
From the other news: did anyone notice Starburys last stat line? 0for3, 6 assists, 0 TO's in 20min. I mean...3 FGA only?! Very confusing. And he even had more fouls than that and i thought thats impossible under NBA rules..
I am also a newbie around here, but, hey, welcome!
Just wanted to say that
37 / 22ft
32 / 17ft
32 / 15ft
28 / 15ft
and
20 / 15ft
All that and he is suffering from manorexia poor kid is just skin and bones.
6'7 (250) from getting deep position.
The young M.J. was a lot like this. Then he started lifting weights and become the greatest post up guard in history