Here’s a very ‘90s question for you. Is Gerald Green the perfect NBA Jam athlete?
Step in the wayback machine, if you will, to that room from your childhood where you had your Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. Or maybe even the old arcade you used to frequent and spend quarters like people retweeted Ellen’s Oscar ‘selfie’ fast and without thinking. The theme song for the original NBA Jam kicks on and it’s time to select your team. What were you always looking for?
If you were anything like me, you probably spent time scouring rosters to find the one guy who had decent size, could run so fast that it seemed like turbo never ran out, could steal the ball , can hit from long distance and, as the name of the game indicates, jam like nobody’s business.
Sound like anyone you know?
Decent size? Check. Green is 6-8 and 210 lbs.
Fast? Check. The man runs like a gazelle on the prowl or Gisele trying to run off ladies courting Tom Brady.
Steals? His hands are almost as fast as his feet and that is even missing a finger.
Threes? He hit six in a quarter on Thursday and fell one short of the franchise record of nine for the game. Not to mention he’s shooting almost 40 percent from deep overall.
There are a few other categories that come into play like power (ask the rim just how strong he is), clutch (the T-Wolves will let you know about that) and an overall offense and defensive rating that averages the other stats. When you look at it all, it’s hard to imagine Green having a rating that fell below a seven on a scale of one through 10.
On numerous night’s this season, like his 41 point performance Thursday, Green has looked as if he was playing in a virtual world where the effects of gravity have been coded out and the logical offensive abilities have disappeared like they were incepted away. If he can do it in real life, you’d have to imagine that an 8-bit version of the man we love to refer to as G-AIR-ald Gr33n would have lit up the NBA Jam world as well.
Would Gerald Green have made the Ultimate NBA Jam player?