Hardwood Paroxysm: Basketball’s Multi-Sport Athletes

Nikola Pekovic, The Devourer of Food

By Jordan White (@JordanSWhite)

Players can often let us down when it comes to their personality. The way they play on the court isn’t always how they carry themselves outside of it. This is sometimes our own fault for setting unreasonable and uninformed expectations for these players, but that doesn’t mitigate the disappointment that washes over when the player that’s just so much fun to watch is kind of a jerk in “real life.”

Pekovic, happily, does not disappoint. From his terrifying tattoo to his love of food, Pek is basically exactly what you expect of him.

Someone once asked Pek what his favorite food is. His response could not have been more perfect.

Then, in a commercial, Pek was asked to name his perfect holiday meal.

This makes too much sense, so much so that it’s a wonder why Pek even bothers with basketball. That’s not to say he’s a bad player, because he clearly isn’t, but think of how dominant he’d be as a competitive eater. Hot dogs? Feh, these are potato chips to the mighty Pek. Wings? Mere, unsatisfying morsels to one such as he. Bacon? Pek would simply take the entire plate, unhinge his jaw, and dump it into his gaping maw of a mouth. Yes, even the plate. And when he downs it with a single swallow (chewing he reserves for true adversaries) he would daintily wipe his mouth, barely touching each corner of his lip, then signal for more.

You don’t challenge Pek to an eating competition. You stare in awe. If Pek lined up next to Joey Chestnutt, he’d eat Chestnutt’s hot dogs while eating his own at the same time. He wouldn’t do it out of malice — he’d simply want his meat. Because Pek loves meat. And Pek shall have his meat.

Anthony Davis Would Make a Great Volleyball Player

by Matt Cianfrone (@Matt_Cianfrone)

It isn’t uncommon for basketball players to dabble in volleyball. Chase Budinger and Josh Childress both played the game in high school and were both considered great at the sport before transitioning over full-time to basketball and a greater financial future.

While not everything would come easily to an NBA player moving to volleyball, the skills of an outside hitter would seemingly be something they could pick up easily. While there are a lot of guys that could probably pick up the position none seems as scary to me as an imaginary opponent as Anthony Davis.

Davis already has impeccable timing and instincts about when to leave his feet, as he shows off by blocking so many jumpers, so imagine that combining with limbs that extend forever to launch spikes wherever on the court he wants. It also is easy to see Davis moving inside a bit and into a blockers roll where he would use his incredible wingspan to make life on the opposing team miserable as it would be nearly impossible to escape the wrath of Davis’s arms. There were other sports that popped into my mind for Davis — soccer goalie seems possible as well — but it was hard to get the image of the Brow spiking balls so hard and from so high that opponents start cowering in fear out of my mind.