Apparently Nene plays a lot of old-school video games.
Last Saturday night the Brazilian center was in Chicago playing for his national team and finding it impossible to stop Anthony Davis, who had 20 points on one end of the court and four blocks at the other. Davis was the best player on the court, looking like a guy ready to break out at the World Cup.
So Nene, what was it like to play against Anthony Davis? (Asked by NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner):“He looked like Dhalsim,” Nene said.
Who?
“Dhalsim. The street fighter. Like a cartoon. With both hands. He was catching everything. Yeah.”
If you’ve played any of the Street Fighter series you remember Dhalsim, dressed like an Indian yogi (I guess) but could throw a punch where his arms extended to a few times his body length.
Anthony Davis, with his 7’5.5” wingspan (on a 6’11” body) can seen that way — the way he runs and plays using the freakish length of his arms to disrupt shots on defense or catch ridiculously high alley-oop passes, makes this a really good comparison. Odd, but really good.
(Hat tip to James Herbert of Eye on Basketball, who is really most like Ken Masters.)
