Before we get into how great it is that Elie Okobo (a second-round Euro rookie) put up 18 and 7 this early in his career, I want to apologize for two things.
Thing numero uno: the Suns commentators are still apparently doing that “proud to own the three point zone” thing that Fulton Homes (who I’ve never heard of outside of this context) apparently pays them tons of money to say. It’s going to ruin highlights of Okobo, and all Suns players except Deandre Ayton, for the entire year. My form of protest is to include the phrase in full so that maybe someone who works for the Suns hears it, realizes how annoying it is to be advertised to in that fashion, and gets rid of it.
Thing numero two: the atrocious camera angle switch at 1:08 of the video. The broadcast people were so convinced that Ayton was going to dominate some fool in the post that they cut to the “intense” baseline angle, just in time for him to kick it out to Okobo for three. God damn it. You can’t even see him shooting it really, and for someone whose corpus of made NBA baskets is so minimal, this is inexcusable.
Note that both those things are out of my control so I shouldn’t be the one apologizing. However, an apology from the Suns organization seems unlikely at this point. This will have to suffice.
On to Okobo. He’s a beast. I thought 12 points was good from him last game, and I thought maybe that was the most we’d see from him for a while. Well, now I look like an idiot because he comes right back the next night and scores 18. 18 is way, WAY better than 12. 18 is almost 20, which is a fully legitimate amount of points. Add in the 7 (or 8, I think they took the last one away from him but I showed it anyway) assists and you have a complete game from… the Finaglin’ Frenchie.
Yeah, I’ll work on a better nickname for him. Don’t worry. And if you’re thinking “Okobe”, remember that Josh Okogie has already taken that one. Sucks, because he’s not really using it yet, but he got first dibs.