The “Al Jefferson” type of center has fallen totally out of favor in the modern NBA, and that makes me a little sad. Like, people are dissing Jahlil Okafor hard right now, saying he’s nothing but another Al Jefferson, the implication being that he’s garbage and worthless and awful, and I’m like “guys Big All is still in the league don’t hurt his feelings!”.
The NBA goes in cycles, I understand that. Big dudes posting up other big dudes, planting their pivot foot, and spinning in all sorts of circles is not the preferred style of play right now. It was in the past, and it will be again, but right now, if you can’t shoot threes then GTFO.
I should have made an Al Jefferson post-move-ilation when I had the chance. That’s what I should’ve done, to chronicle his fancy moves for future generations to ponder. This video offers a little bit of what we used to see night-in, night-out. The up-and-unders. The faceup jumpers. The layups. No dunks. He’s scored 40 points doing only those things, and this is half that, so I’d say it’s a pretty good performance considering how flabby he looks.