Here’s the Denver Post reporting on Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried, who is currently playing for Team USA in the World Cup:
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Kenneth Faried’s recent rising-star status is proof that a world stage can be a powerful thing. Average 18 points and 10 rebounds after the all-star break last season for the Nuggets, against the best players in the world? The skeptics’ voices rang loudest.
Do the same thing against overmatched competition in group play of the FIBA World Cup? Now he’s a keeper. Strange thinking, and backward thinking, but true.
It can be argued Faried has done more to open up the eyes of his own fan base and NBA fans nationwide in one week in Spain than he had in the final two months of the NBA season. That’s been the real value of the tournament for him. He’s playing as he always has, but his name and his nickname, the “Manimal,” are becoming more recognizable. For a player looking to earn his first all-star berth this upcoming season, this is big-time stuff.
