https://youtu.be/0XULKeApuoY
Another NBA season comes and goes with Boban Marjanovic being used completely incorrectly for basically the entire year. This game, which saw the Mavericks get eliminated by the Clippers, was Boban’s most productive game from a pure bucketage perspective; seven FGM eclipsed his previous season-high of six. It was also his third-highest scoring game of the season, behind two fifteen-point games. True Boban acolytes, a group which many (if not most) of my subscribers can credibly say they belong to, will know that this kind of performance is simply what you can expect from Boban if you give him the minutes he deserves.
So why does not coach ever give him those minutes? He’s played for a series of supposedly “good” coaches in his career: Popovich, Van Gundy, Rivers, and now Carlisle. But when it comes to giving minutes to their walking, talking matchup nightmare who has surprisingly good touch from most areas of the court and can dunk without jumping, they all inexplicably elect not to.
Do they not realize that Boban could squish their heads in his hands like an overripe grapefruit if he wanted to? Marjanovic actually means “crusher of skulls” in Serbian. I don’t know why Boban hasn’t made use of this skill yet.
Here’s the thing: Boban is getting old. He’ll be solidly 33 years old by the time next season rolls around. There’s not much time left for him to get the role he deserves before his big Serbian body starts to show signs of decline. In fact, he might already be declining! We just don’t know because we don’t see enough of him on the court. Coming to grips with the inevitability of Boban’s athletic decline is like coming to grips with my own mortality, except it’s 100x worse because my own life is relatively meaningless and thus relatively unaffected by things like the unfairness of the universe, while Boban’s life is basically being ruined by the unfairness with which his coaches treat him.
I only want two things in life. The first thing is my very own wallaby to keep as a pet. The second thing is for Boban to get 25 MPG per game for the course of an entire season. Time is running out. He simply MUST go to a team that will guarantee to use him properly. If next season is a repeat of this season (where he, criminally, appeared in only 33 god damn games), I might literally die of disappointment. And I think all of Serbia would die with me.