Legends to be remembered: Greatest players that never played in the NBA

Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond

Eli Herring didn't go to the NFL because they play on Sundays and mormons aren't supposed to work on Sundays.

Jabari Parker I guess is mormon. Another jack mormon like Ainge and Jimmer or the real deal?

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW][B]Maurice Stokes[/B] - NBA top 5 potential all-time forward... career cut short.

[IMG]http://images.sportscarddatabase.com/0/700000/760000/760000/760514.jpg[/IMG]

He was a bigger and stronger forward than Elgin Baylor - actually he was virtually identical in size and strength to [I]Lebron James[/I]. As a forward his massive hands and jacked physique were setting rebounding records hauling in 17+rpg for 3 seasons in the mid-late 1950's... He is still #3 all-time in rebounds per game behind only Russell and Chamberlain. Basketball history would have been very different if he hadn't suffered from this:

[I]Stokes drove to the basket, drew contact and fell to the floor, hit his head, and was knocked unconscious. He was revived with smelling salts and returned to the game. Three days later, after a 12-point, 15-rebound performance in an opening-round playoff game at Detroit against the Pistons, Stokes became ill on the team's flight back to Cincinnati; "I feel like I'm going to die," he told a teammate. Stokes' head injury was greatly aggravated by airplane cabin pressure during the flight back to Cincinnati; he later suffered a seizure, fell into a coma and was left permanently paralyzed. In the end, he was diagnosed with "post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor control center."[/I]

[B]History got Wilt vs Russell and Magic vs Bird. But it missed Stokes vs Baylor.[/B]







[B]Connie Hawkins[/B] - The NBA wouldn't let him play until he was past his prime.

[IMG]http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/156/337/Hawkins_display_image.jpg[/IMG]

The NBA blackballed him because his name was connected to a gambling scandal that he [I]wasn't[/I] guilty of. His prime was wasted away in amateur leagues. Julius Erving did not invent some of the style we connect to his name. [I]Connie Hawkins[/I] did. Erving borrowed from what he had seen Hawkins do.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmO41v27k00&t=6m50s[/url]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUThAmz2Yak&t=4m14s[/url][/QUOTE]

deep