1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Yinka Dare vs. Bill Curley

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Oatdog, Sep 27, 2000.

  1. Oatdog

    Oatdog Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2000
    Messages:
    127
    Likes Received:
    0
    After enjoying the Zo vs. Duncan thread from a few weeks back, I thought I would spark a debate over who is the better between two other titans at the center position.....

    No, actually, I was just curious about Yinka Dare. This guy's got great size (muscle, not just a toothpick) and supposedly has a knack for blocking shots. These traits earned him a selection as a lottery pick years back. Now, he's been out of the league for a couple of years and is trying to make a comeback. What was his problem to begin with? No hands? Couldn't run the floor? Surely, there must have been something about him that earned him his high draft position. The league is so desperate for athletic big men, and this guy couldn't find a spot?

    ...which brings me to the Curley comparison. When Barkley, Hakeem, and Cato were out for a large stretch this season, the Rockets seemed to go just about anywhere to find a big man. Why didn't they give Yinka Dare a call? I really liked Pig, but the one thing he didn't give us was shotblocking in the middle. I really think that once Cato is left as our starter, it would be a good idea to have some sort of shotblocker on the roster as insurance. Why couldn't it be Dare? Why do you think the Rockets didn't bring him in? With the board's affinity for project big men (Kandi man, Oyedeji, E. Brown, etc.) and draft busts of yesteryear (Montross, O'Bannon), I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dare yet. Could someone fill me in on what kind of player Dare really is? Thanks

    ------------------
     
  2. SmeggySmeg

    SmeggySmeg Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 1999
    Messages:
    14,875
    Likes Received:
    119
    nyuck nyuck nyuck

    ------------------
    Discombobulation Imminent
     
  3. Pass 1st shoot 2nd

    Pass 1st shoot 2nd Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 1999
    Messages:
    1,394
    Likes Received:
    30
    Oatdog,

    You are going to be ragged on for days for that one, but I'll spare you and tell you about Yinka Dare.

    He could block shots and rebound, but he was slow, foul prone, and never (except 3 times) passed the ball. Plus he couldn't hit water from a boat when it came to shooting the ball.

    He was a gamble. People picked him hoping for a Hakeem dream come true. They are both from the same town in Nigeria, and had similar stories. But Yinka sucked, and sucked really bad.

    ------------------
    Don't anybody ever suggest again that we sign Tracy Murray to a deal.
     
  4. BobFinn*

    BobFinn* Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2000
    Messages:
    11,438
    Likes Received:
    6
    Dare at peace with past, hopes NBA is in future
    Wednesday, November 10, 1999

    By NATE TRELA
    Knight Ridder Newspapers

    FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The past five years have taught Yinka Dare how to laugh at himself.

    The former Nets first-round pick has been a bust. He went 2 1/2 seasons in New Jersey without picking up an assist, and had just four in 110 career games. Over four seasons, he played just 1,002 minutes -- which works out to almost $9,000 a minute over the life of his contract.

    And he has even suffered the ignominy of seeing a former teammate mock him on late-night television.

    "It's just people talking," Dare said. "I can deal with it."

    He has had to deal with it a lot. Dare hasn't been on an NBA roster in 21 months, and the talk still goes on. It will stop only when he's back in the NBA, being productive. Playing with the Fort Wayne Fury of the CBA is just a steppingstone along the way.

    Dare was directed to the Fury by longtime assistant Clifford Ray, one of the few coaches who still believes in him. Ray tutored Dare with the Nets during the 1995-96 season and the USBL's New Jersey ShoreCats last summer, and he and head coach Keith Smart tried in vain to convince Dare to join the Fury last season.

    The CBA was the last thing on Dare's mind this summer, when the Phoenix Suns invited him to training camp. But he injured his back while getting into game shape, and Ray recommended he come to the CBA to recuperate.

    "These guys have all seen a guy in [a CBA camp] who was a free agent who went to an NBA camp, or second-rounders who played in the NBA, but this is a first-rounder, a top-15 pick that was in the NBA," said Smart, whose team opens the season at home against Idaho on Nov. 19. "He's running the floor, doing the things that have to be done. For all the guys who want to get there . . . he can show them the attitude they need."

    Part of that attitude is humility. Dare, who played only three years of organized basketball before the Nets selected him in 1994, knows he's still learning the game. But his naivete was exaggerated in May 1998, when former teammate Jayson Williams appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and told a story about a midgame exchange on the bench between himself, Dare, and Benoit Benjamin.

    The way Williams tells the story, Dare asked what the "C" on then-Minnesota Timberwolves forward Christian Laettner's jersey represented. Williams, knowing it stood for captain, played dumb and asked the young center what he thought it meant. Dare replied, "Caucasian?" Benjamin leaned over and chided Dare for not knowing that "caucasian starts with a 'K' "

    "If you know Jayson, you've got to know Jayson's a liar," Dare said with a laugh. "The whole thing sounded like I asked him, when he was the one who asked me. And when I said 'caucasian,' I was the one joking. My only input was saying 'caucasian.' "

    Then the Nigerian immigrant added, "And I don't have as bad an accent as he made it sound."

    Despite his underclass status, Dare was 22 when he played his first NBA game. He should have been considered a project, but the Nets could not afford to wait. Knee surgeries limited his rookie season to one game, and when he didn't produce immediately, the Nets buried him on their bench.

    "The only thing I regret about leaving school early is going to the Nets," Dare said. "If I would have gone to another team, I believe it would have worked out. . . . It was a bad situations with the politics involved. I don't know how I got involved with it, but I did."

    The CBA will give him a chance to exorcise one on-court demon, but hinder another. This season, the league prohibits defensive double-teams until the final five minutes of a game. The way Dare has looked in training camp thus far, he will get plenty of opportunities to score in the paint. But the no double-team rule will make it hard for Dare to show he can pass out of trouble, a problem that led to his record assist drought.

    "You know, I came to the league to block shots and get rebounds," Dare said. "If I don't have any blocked shots or rebounds, it would be something to talk about. But as far as assists go, even if I don't have another assist the rest of my career, if I get all the blocked shots and rebounds I know I'm able to get, I'll be content."

    Like everything else, he'll just laugh it off.


    ------------------
    In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things:
    1. Don't tell everything you know.
     

Share This Page