Kobe, Trivia, and The Jaren Jackson Award

First off, there are WAY too many stories in the media right now about Kobe's 9-26 (34.6%) game 1 performance. Kobe had played in 3 previous NBA finals Game 1's and was a combined 19-52 (36.5%). History has shown us that Kobe usually comes out of the blocks a little slow and then picks up his game - Kobe's career shooting percentage in Game 2's of the finals? A not-too-shabby 51.2%. I expect Kobe to go for 35+ tomorrow night as the Lakers tie up the series heading back to LA.

Now for today's "stump your friends with this because there is one guy nobody will ever get - and I mean ever" trivia question - AKA "the Snuffy Stirnweiss question"

The last 25 years, there are only 10 players that have led the entire NBA in scoring in the playoffs - Here they are in order of most to least obvious:

Jordan, Bird, Shaq, Olajuwon, Kobe, Duncan, Iverson, Wade, Lebron, and...Latrell Sprewell??? A total of 407 points in 20 games gave Latrell and his repo'd boat the title for the 99 playoffs.

Another nugget about the 99 playoffs I found interesting...you know how some guys are in the spotlight and then fade away and you forget about them? Travis Fryman and Barry Foster are 2 right off the top of my head. How about Jaren Jackson? Went for 17 in game 1 of the finals for SA and played an average of about 18-20 minutes in each game of the finals. Less than 10 years later, even big-time hoops fans have no idea who he is.

Lets name an award for him - the "Jaren Jackson Award" - given weekly to an athlete whose name is never mentioned anymore in any situation, yet had a career that warrants recognition. I will go ahead and lay down a few rules - 1) If any reader of this blog has heard a nominees name in the last 4-6 months, he is DQ'd. 2) Must be a modern day athelete - no 1960's crap. 3) At least 3 readers must say to themselves - "Oh yeah, I forgot about that guy!"

I will go ahead and give nomination #1 -Phil Plantier - played in the big leagues from 1990-1997 for Boston, San Diego, and Oakland. Had 34 HR's and 100 RBI in 1993 for San Diego finishing in the top 10 in the NL in HR's and RBI. Big, powerful lefty that was probably roided out like crazy.

Let the nominations begin...