The new acquisitions of Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson are generating the most buzz when it comes to three-point shooters extraordinaire, but there’s one guy that’s been Harden’s buddy for three years in Houston that’s not getting as much love: Trevor Ariza. He’s not a threat to hit ten threes in a game like those other guys (except for the time when he actually did), but he’s been a consistently decent to good three-point shooter for his time in Houston.
I’ve spent a lot of time ragging on Ariza in the past for playing well in a contract year and then reverting back to career norms when the bus dropped him off in Texas. I still believe that’s true, but now I can see the real reason I was annoyed at Ariza: for the past two seasons he would always be scoring between eighteen and twenty-two points and every time he did that I would feel obligated to make yet another lame highlight video for him. I saw so much of him that I grew to hate him, not only as a player (which is normal for me), but as a person as well. I even sent him mean fanmail anonymously. He probably didn’t even realize who it was even when I said in my letter “I’m so tired of making highlight videos of you and your stupid face.”
It’s too late to un-send those letters, but I promise to Trevor that I won’t send him any more mean things like that. At worst I’ll say mean things about him in my video descriptions.