Hardwood Paroxysm: Basketball’s Multi-Sport Athletes

Dennis Schröder Would Make a Great Cornerback

By Robby Kalland (@RKalland)

Being a cornerback in the NFL requires speed, spatial awareness, and lateral quickness, all skills that Dennis Schröder possesses. Schröder has huge hands, a long wingspan, and good timing getting in passing lanes. Along with great size and build for a corner, he has the movement skills needed at the position.

Watching Schröder defend the pick-and-roll, You can see the smoothness of his backpedal and how fluidly he flips his hips to change direction when Schröder defends the pick-and-roll and it’s reminiscent of a corner’s movements. Dennis has an incredible natural ability to open his hips quickly without losing speed in his backpedal. The way he defends a crossover dribble reminds me of a good corner against a double move. He doesn’t get turned around, instead just instinctively flipping his hips to stay in position. Schröder could be like a young Champ Bailey, he just doesn’t know it — or even who Champ is.

Kevin Love Would Make a Great Caber Tosser

By Kris Fenrich (@dancingwithnoah)

Way back in the ‘80s, there was a Nintendo game called World Games where you could play a variety of games/sports from around the world. There was Mexican cliff diving, Canadian log rolling, Japanese Sumo wrestling, and of course, the caber toss from Scotland. There’s no other way I could possibly know or comprehend the caber toss if Nintendo hadn’t broadened my then-narrow horizons and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kevin Love is also blind to the caber toss’ existence. So what is a caber and why would Kevin Love be good at tossing it?

A caber is pretty much a 20-foot-tall, 175 lb telephone pole that caber tossers (mostly Scots) balance vertically with the rounded end resting in cupped hands. With the pole/caber leaning on a shoulder, they do a little run up followed by an end-over-end toss. The toss takes strength, balance and technique — all of which Love specializes in. There are stronger players in the NBA, but none possess his outlet pass technique — neither in accuracy or power. The sturdy foundation and upper body and wrist strength that make him such a great rebounder and outlet passer would also make him the ideal caber tosser.