I would block a guys shot and say . . . And if you come back again, well do it another time. So youll have to find something else to do.
Bill Russell
Its the early 1990s. Dikembe Mutombo is walking around Georgetown, where he once blocked 12 shots in a game, with Bill Russell. The retired Boston Celtics star tells Mutombo that he could become a great shot-blocker in the NBA, even better than he was.
Mutombo considers Russell the best ever, and watches every tape he can find of him. He listens to Russells tips, about timing, about studying opponents moves, but Mutombo wonders, How can he tell me I might end up being better than him?
Its 2012. The Clippers DeAndre Jordan, in his fourth season in the NBA, is leading the league with three blocks a game. Hes fine-tuning that technique too.
Im working on it now, like Bill Russell did, blocking [to keep the ball] inbounds or blocking to a teammate, says Jordan, 23.
About every element of a blocked shot can be traced back to Russell, the patriarch of every swat, denial and rejection, who won 11 championships in 13 seasons with Boston.
He changed the entire history of basketball. Bill Russell controlled the entire sport and he never even had the ball, says fellow Hall of Fame member Bill Walton.
Yet, the blocked shot remains a high-risk, high-reward gamble of a play that coaches and players say has an impact far beyond the stat sheets.
A good shot-blocker will deny the other team within 10 feet of the basket, even if he doesnt block a shot because of intimidation, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose 3,189 blocks rank No. 3 in NBA history.
Abdul-Jabbar says he learned about blocked shots in high school in New York by watching Russell play against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
The NBA didnt even begin recording blocked shots until 1973-74, five seasons after Russell retired. But he made the play an art and a science.
I call it action, because its not a reaction, Russell once said. When you block a shot on reaction, then youre lucky. In other words, its just jumping ability. Theres more to it than that.
Length and height help, says Jordan, whos 6 feet 11 with a 7-6 wingspan. His size really helped in high school when he could easily block 10 shots a game.
But in the NBA, hes learning that a successful block often depends on timing. I didnt realize until later that I could jump after people released a shot, he says.
Because of his height and wingspan, Jordan might still block a shot even if he doesnt time his jump just right.
But thats not true for a player like Ben Wallace.
Listed at 6-9, Wallace, of the Detroit Pistons, is the shortest NBA player ever to record 2,000 blocks (he had 2,100 before Monday, 16th all time). He credits timing, but also selectivity knowing which shots to go after. Wallaces relative lack of height might have helped too.
During games bigger players figured they had a mismatch against him, Wallace says. Theyd say things like, Theres a mouse in the house, [meaning] Ive got a little guy on me and Im going to score.