BTB Faithful,
This weeks featured WI sports memory, is none other than Vincent Lamont Baker. Drafted as the 8th overall pick out of the University of Hartford in the 1993 NBA Draft, Baker made an instant impact on the Milwaukee Bucks.
In four seasons with the team, he averaged a little over 18 ppg and 9.5 rpg. His Durability was never in question either, missing only four games in four years. At 6 foot 11 and 232 lbs, he had the size to defend in the post, and score from the wing. His Kevin McHale like backdown, and Jack Sikma like pump fakes gave hope to every 5 foot 5 pudgy 11 year old that basketball was definitely an option.
The Bucks never did make it to the playoffs during his reign, but his numbers speak for themself.
After he left Milwaukee, the pressures of being a 4 time NBA all star apparently took their toll. In stints with Seattle, Boston, New York, Houston, the L.A. Clippers, and Minnesota, the NBA had enough with his drunkeness, and his career ended in 2006. His weight had ballooned up to 300 lbs, and he would often show up to morning shoot arounds with strong scents of alcohol on his breath. In an interview with the Boston Globe, he admitted his struggle with alcoholism, and explained that this was the reason why he was sent home from practice on more than one occassion.
He recently has had his house foreclosed on, and ran a restaurant into the ground. He currently owes creditors over 1 million dollars, and actually borrowed $400,000 from his parents to watch the restaurant fail a few short months later. Hopefully he gets it together. What a fall from grace.
Effing A, or NO WAY?
5 comments:
No way. Never liked him, or those shitty mid-90s Bucks teams.
No way. We all thought he was better than what he really was because he was the only human even close to being a real basketball player on those teams.
did he sing some national anthems as well?
I liked him early on in his career, while I was still a young buck if you will and uninformed. As the years went on and my basketball knowledge grew, I hated him. I was always a Big Dog guy.
Plus Baker invinted the "Black Hole in the Post" moniker that Anthony Mason would make famous years later. Dump it in to him and you weren't seeing that ball again, no matter how closely defended or how bad the shot he was taking was.
My favorite guys from that time were Marty Conlon and Jon Barry. That was back during a time that I could actually get the Bucks on the TV up here in the northwoods. Watching Conlon and his awful shot gave youngsters like myself hopes of playing pro ball. After all, if someone that shot like that could do it, why the hell couldn't someone that didn't look like a complete idiot while shooting make it?
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