It's not draftday talk, so if you're getting real hyped up on that, go away. Thought this was a nice change of pace, sort of a nice chuckle. PTI was talking about Kendall Gill's future boxing career. I have to admit he looked pretty good, wailing on this one dude. Bob Ryan (filling in for Wilbon) says that of all the NBA players, past and present, the best boxer would have been our very own Murph. He had quick hands and basically just "knew how to box" according to Ryan. What do you think? I think the only limitation Calvin would have would be his smaller stature/lack of reach, but with his footwork/quickness, he could dodge in and out and be a monster with his quick hands. It would be entertaining, to say the least.
Murph was never shy about mixing it up, taking on all comers! His fines in today's NBA would be Rocket-nomical!
Didn't Murph win golden gloves when he was a youngster? Murphy kicked pretty much everyones butt in the 70's.
Yeah, my Dad used to tell me a story about how Calvin once grabbed a tall dude by his fro to bring him down to his level, and then proceded to pummel him in the face. I wish I could've seen that.
from The Punch Calvin Murphy, the little guard whom no one in the NBA wanted to fight, had raced past Washington to get to Kunnert, who was staggering in Abdul-Jabbar's arms. When he heard the punch and saw Tomjanovich go down, he left Kunnert and reached his best friend's side no more than a second or two before Vandervoort. Washington was a few feet away, being ejected by Rakel. Murphy stood rooted to the spot, staring first at his unconscious teammate, then at Washington. "My first thought was, 'I'm going to kill the sonofabitch,'" Murphy said. "There was no question in my mind about it. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I couldn't believe he had done that to Rudy. I saw the security people starting to take him off, and I took a step toward him, because I was going to kill him. That was absolutely my intent: kill the sonofabitch who had done that to my buddy." But when Murphy tried to put one foot in front of the other, he found he couldn't move. His legs were rubbery. It certainly wasn't fear. Murphy was one of the league's smallest men, but he was every bit the enforcer that Washington was. He had been a Golden Gloves boxer as a teenager, and unlike most of the league's players, he actually knew how to fight. Unofficially he had been in seventeen full-fledged fights during eight years in the league and had never lost. The fight that people remembered most was one against Sidney Wicks, then of the Boston Celtics. Like Washington, Wicks was 6-8 and about 225. Murphy had jumped into the air, grabbed Wicks by his Afro, pulled him down to his level, and punched him into submission. Now he stood frozen as Washington left the court. "It was an act of God," Murphy said years later. "It had to be. On any other night I would have killed him. But something happened and kept me there, right where I was. It had to be an act of God. There's no other explanation."
Everything I've heard about the legend of Murph was he was somebody you didn't want to mess with. That being said, there'd be some dudes in the NBA in more modern times you'd probably fear more if it came down to blows : Charles Oakley, Arman Gilliam, Anthony Mason, Charles Barkley, etc. come to mind. That being said, you've got to respect a guy that isn't afraid to kick your ass then twirl a baton over your head like a cheerleader.... um.... i think.
There was a little clip on NBAtv I saw once with an old coach (I don't know who) and Calvin Murphy teaching dribbling skills and talking about finger dexterity. He showed off some baton twirling and then did these awesome dribbling moves that would put Steve Nash to shame. It was like he was break dancing and spinning on the ground while at the same time keeping a very low and fast dribble. Calvin Murphy was the man: And1 dribble skills, greatest FT shooter ever, Hall-of-Famer, constant 20+PPG guy, 5'10", best NBA pound-for-pound fighter of all time, and fathered 239 children. And then there's the branded memory in all Rockets fans' heads of Murphy running around the Summit floor in 1994 after game 7 jumping up in down in that band captain uni with a baton in his hand and blowing his whistle. I didn't even mention his crazy game broadcast clothing yet. He is quite a character.
You could rattle off all the names of thick, hard-bodied NBA guys from now until eternity, but I still think I'd fear the crazy sonsabitches like Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman even more. You just don't know what those guys are capable of.
Dennis Rodman never was quite strong. He hustled all over the place and always put 100%, but when it came to fighting, he never stood a chance. He liked getting into them, but he could never win. Remember in WCW when he was with Hulk Hogan vs DDP and Karl Malone, he sucked it up. He couldn't pick up anyone. All he did was punch and kick. Rodman just looks scary; that's it. Karl Malone, however, rocked that match. He still is in great shape. He can beat anyone up.
Sadly, naresh is right. I'm convinced Karl Malone completely missed his true calling: Pro wrestling's greatest heel.
He was looking to kill Robert Horry when he knocked up his daughter. Robert would have probably have been on the losing end of that fight.
I never saw him fight,but I know this for a fact.... that he is mean as hell.I played in his marching thunder drum squad a couple of times(1997) and the first time I saw him he had on a gallery furniture shirt walking up to up to us from the compaq center tunnel which was called the summit back then.The drummers where warming up in the tunnel and I see this dude walking up in this galley furniture shirt waving his arms and cursing(telling us to cut that bullsh**t off).I knew it looked like him ,but I was like this dude is too tall to be calvin murphy ,but I knew that voice from anywhere.seem like he was about my height 6'1 even though they say he is under 5 feet.too make a long story short murphy is not a dude you want to be arund when he is mad.true story
