In today's NBA, its rare to find an All Star caliber player who has made his name by doing anything other than scoring a lot of points or being a human highlight reel. Well Cleveland's Anderson Varejao is doing just that.
This year Varejao is getting the national attention he has deserved for most of his career thanks to some eye-catching stats, averaging a double-double with 11 ppg to go along with just under 12 rpg, but Andy has been an invauable piece of this team and outstanding overall player for years under the radar. I couldn't tell you how many games I've watched over the years that Lebron (or now, Kryie) may have had the amazing stats, but it was Andy making a hustle play, taking a charge, grabing a loose ball, or getting a steal that was really the difference in the game.
I know there are a lot of players who do the 'little things that don't show up on the stat sheet' but there arent ANY that do to it night in and night out like Andy. For example, last week in Boston the Cavs were down 1 with 20 seconds to go. After a Cavs miss Kevin Garnett seeemed to have grabbed an easy rebound until Anday somehow knocked it loose. After a long scramble Celtics Foward Brandon Bass took got control of the ball until Andy came out of nowhere and again knocked it out, this time diving on the loose ball and calling a timeout after. Kyrie would later hit the game winning layup, but who really won that game for the wine and gold?
Throw in the fact that Andy is putting up SUPERSTAR numbers for a center (even though hes actually a PF forced to play C) recently, it looks like a no brainer that he should be backing up Dwight Howard in Orlando for the All Star Game. He is from a Cleveland team though, and you know how most people feel about those players.....So we'll see.
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