Before he became a solid NBA rotation piece, Atlanta Hawks wing Kent Bazemore gained internet fame thanks to his wonderful bench celebrations. As someone who was signed after going undrafted out of Old Dominion, Bazemore seemed to relish the chance to be in the NBA in any fashion, and made sure that he would enjoy the entire ride.
Recently the Monmouth University bench has been in the news for taking their end of the bench fun for levels even beyond Bazemore, which is something that bothered a coach from Iona when he was asked about it. Thankfully, Bazemore is around to defend the honor of bench celebrations and those who perform them.
This is an important thing for Bazemore to do, especially since he could have easily ignored it and no one would have noticed. Instead, Bazemore is out there standing up for players who don’t have the opportunity to do it themselves and sending a message that basketball is supposed to be fun and being a good teammate is important.
Having players like Bazemore, who did these type of celebratory things and yet still blossomed into a good player, standing up for sideline antics is the only way to keep them going and evolving. Considering what we stand for here at The Friendly Bounce, we love to see Bazemore making sure that sideline fun happens.
Also, we love any chance we get at being able to post some of Bazemore’s best work, so enjoy.