It’s been a long time since the NBA has seen some great one-on-one battles on the hardwood. With players changing teams so often, legendary match-ups like Chamberlain vs. Russell and Magic vs. Bird never come to fruition in today’s version of the NBA.
This Summer, a rivalry on a much smaller scale may be brewing between a pair of flashy young bucks who are showing out in Baltimore’s Melo Summer League. Memphis Grizzlies rookie and Baltimore native Josh Selby has been proving all Summer that the Grizz may have gotten one of the sleepers of the 2011 Draft when they selected him in the 2nd round. He’s dropped 30+ on a number of occasions this Summer, including some vicious poster dunks against quality competition.
Another player with something to prove heading into next season is Milwaukee Bucks 3rd year PG Brandon Jennings, who has been equally impressive this Summer, as he recently scored 51 points in DC’s Goodman League. Jennings is hoping to return to form after sustaining a broken foot last December that forced him to miss significant time last season.
Prior to the injury, Jennings was well on his way to becoming a superstar as he’s alreadydropped 55 points in a game during his rookie campaign, has his own Under Armor shoe line, and may prove to be one of the league’s rising young stars. Now if we could only keep him from making cheesy videos lip-syncing to Lady Ga Ga.
The two recently squared off in the Melo League in Baltimore. With both players no strangers to showing up opponents and talking trash during games, things got a bit testy between the two as both exchanged 3 point bombs and highlight reel dunks, all the while posturing and staring daggers aimed at each-other during the contest.
I’ll argue this is a better individual battle than the John Wall/Julius Hodge tilt we saw recently at the Greater NC Pro-Am. When the dust settles, Selby’s squad won behind Josh’s 48 points but Jennings had the play of the night when he did his best to replicate T-Mac’s famous dunk off the glass years ago.
Check out Jennings vs Selby:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
