Welcome to Building The Perfect NBA Player Part IX: Intensity. This is the ninth installment of a 10-part series in which we’ll be building an NBA player from scratch, using 10 different categories to build our player. If you want to keep an eye out for the other parts, check out the “Building”homepage.
What’s Intensity Good For?
By definition, intensity means “exceptionally great concentration, power or force.” For a basketball player, those three traits are of great importance. Concentration is important because certain situations or external forces could rattle a lesser player. Imagine going to the free-throw line late in a game on the road. Being able to concentrate lessens the pressure that some would feel. Concentration also aids in focus, which is a large part of the mental side of basketball.
Power and force can be looked at in many different ways, but I see those traits as internal energies. It’s not the kind of power that allows a man to deadlift more than another, it’s the kind of power and energy that pumps up teammates. It’s the kind of intangible desire that oozes from a player’s existence. Think of how Michael Jordan used to routinely bring the level of his teammates up. It was in large part due to his legendary intensity. Let’s take a look at our candidates.
Kobe Bryant
Bryant isn’t a cheerleader by any means, but just like Jordan, Bryant demands the most out of his teammates and leads by example to get them there. His death stare knows no limits, as his teammates, opponents and coaches can attest. It’s that kind of internal fire and concentration that has allowed Bryant to become one of the greatest (and most intense) players in the NBA.
Kevin Garnett
Is there another player in the NBA that brings it every game, regardless of importance, as much as Garnett does? Garnett’s ability to get himself (and his team) fired up is legendary. As he’s aged, his intensity has somehow gone up a notch. Whether he’s talking to himself, his opponents or his teammates, you know Garnett is focused and is 100 percent concentrating on the task at hand. Garnett doesn’t accept losing and must be a real peach to be around after a loss.
Russell Westbrook
When I watch Westbrook play, it’s hard to ignore the massive chip on his shoulder that he carries around. He’s so tightly wound and aggressive on the court that it looks like he could implode at any time. He certainly doesn’t have the quiet kind of intensity that’s more popular with the suits. Instead, Westbrook is brash, angry and at full volume at all times. It can turn into a problem at times, when Westbrook is so intense that he loses sight of the task at hand and hurts his team with a bad play.
LeBron James
James shows that you don’t need to hate like Bryant, bark like Garnett or act out like Westbrook to be intense. In fact, James makes it look so easy that he can be mistaken for not caring very much. If we could put the 2013 NBA Finals Game 6 and 7 LeBron into a bottle and use those examples for this list, there would be no contest. In reality, very few players in the league want it more than James and few are harder on themselves when they fail.
Rajon Rondo
Is Rondo introverted? Yes. Will he be quite the curmudgeon when he turns 50? Yes. Is he so intensely focused on winning that it looks like he doesn’t enjoy it? Yes. Still, isn’t that the kind of player we want to see? He isn’t very marketable and not terribly fun that way, but he’s exactly the kind of player that finds himself on the winning side of things more often than most.
Building The Perfect NBA Player Part IX: Intensity winner is…
Kevin Garnett
One of the most emotional players in the league now has additional reasons to be. Photo Credit: TheMikeLee, Flickr.com