I was thinking about how Nick Young turned into a legit 3&D guy in his last year in LA and his year for Golden State, and how he will always be a meme, but ended his career as a legitimately useful role player.
Rajon Rondo's role in the Lakers title I think is overlooked, but he was also very good for the Kings and Pels. Shot above 40% from 3 for Lakers and Pels in the playoffs. Doesn't get talked about enough that Rondo got much better as a shooter in his late career. Obviously he was never Steph, but got reliable.
Ish Smith is a guy who if he hasn't played on your team you don't understand why he's still in the league, but everywhere he goes the fans of that team really appreciate him.
For my friend back in the day it was Biyombo for the Raptors.
I'm sure there are more egregious examples of players the general NBA fanbase doesn't appreciate but fans of the team they play for recognise play a vital part. Any examples?
In general I like to point out the absurdity of getting mad at someone else whilst watching them doing their job.
I am going to give a shout out to Ron the pandas friend mettaworldpeace Artest, though.
Imagine people paying hundreds of dollars to watch you do your job just so they can call you an idiot and demand you get fired every time you misspell a word in an email
You would think that these dudes had lost fans CC info with the vitriol, hah.
Hahaha. I vividly remember his last year in LA, his comeback during Kobe's farewell tour, him saying loudly 'I love basketball' during a free throw and thinking what a wholesome guy he turned into by the end. And there was a lot made of his attitude being a real positive to the young guys on the team at the time.
Unfortunately Lebron arrived and blew up the entire young core (Randle, D'Angelo, Clarkson, Ingram, Nance, Zubac) but he did win a chip so hey. But I'm a Brit and got into NBA by watching the Lakers be terrible but being excited by their young core, so Lebron trading the entire team ruined it for me. I realised as a Brit I can't support a team, I tend to support groups of players I really enjoy. Not that you asked, just a tangent.