He was the third-best player on those teams, a James Worthy-esque tenure, and next to Nash — who undoubtedly had the most riding on the championship season that alluded him — Marion would have gotten much more recognition for just how special he was on those teams.
With the Mavericks, Marion started all 21 playoff games in , guarding the likes of Kobe, Durant, LeBron and Dwyane Wade en route to his first championship. That title run will be remembered for the ungodly shooting performance by Dirk Nowitzki , and deservedly so, but it should not go unappreciated how critical having defensive stalwarts Tyson Chandler and Marion in that lineup was to their success.
No matter what happens this year in Cleveland, and however many more seasons Marion plays in the league, his numbers tell a great deal of his story. He and David Robinson are the only two players in NBA history to finish a season top 5 in rebounding and steals, which Marion did twice. J and Marion have 17, points, 10, rebounds, 1, steals and 1, blocks. Much like The Matrix changed science-fiction films, Marion changed the way the small forward position could be played.
In a league with bigger and faster point guards, and 6-foot-8 forwards bringing up the ball, Marion is the grandfather of the 3-and-D role player. Look around the league: how many good basketball teams have a player like this? Most of them. Golden State has assembled practically an entire roster full of arm-and-legs defensive types with jump shots. Portland starts a pair of wings who defend multiple positions and shoot. Toronto has tall wings that protect their franchise point guard.
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It's easy to be an NBA player, but it's hard for guys to learn how to be a professional athlete. Those guys made my adjustment easy. I kept getting better and better every year, and I expanded my game. I went from shooting a few threes my rookie season to shooting multiple threes and doing all kinds of stuff.
When you're playing with different point guards—from Kidd to Stephon Marbury to Steve Nash—you have to adjust your game. I played so much it was ridiculous, especially early in my career. People were like, "Take a little time off, young fella. There is a rookie wall in your first couple of years, but once I fought through it, I got to the point where I didn't get tired anymore. I felt like I was the Energizer Bunny out there.
When I came into the league, everybody was talking about my knees. But I've never had major surgeries on them. I had one scope on my left knee and that was it. I've had tendinitis a little bit, but that's about it. But who doesn't have tendinitis when you're playing 82 games per year? More recently, I've developed arthritis in certain joints from just the wear and tear of the game. But I've basically been injury-free my entire career.
One surgery I'll likely get down the road is to correct my bent left pinkie finger. I broke it in high school and then dislocated it my first day of practice in the NBA. During my career, it kept getting hit more and more, and going further and further out. I just can't get surgery while I'm playing because if it breaks again, it will go right back to the way it was. Fortunately, I've avoided the knife a lot. I'm a firm believer in once you do that, you'll probably never be the same again.
A big inspiration early in my career was my former Suns teammate Cliff Robinson, one of the most versatile guys coming into the league. He was the first guy who was able to guard 1 through 5. Even though he was bigger than me, I was like, "If he can do it, I can do it. I went from guarding the 3s to guarding the 1s to the 4s, and I felt like I deserved Defensive Player of the Year. I was banging with the 4s for a full year in Phoenix, and that's when you really had power forwards.
I was way undersized at 6'7". And I didn't do it for like one, two quarters; I did it for the whole game. Even two, three years ago in Dallas, I was guarding all the point guards in the league. You know what's funny? When they talked about my shooting form over what I was doing on the floor.
Nobody in the league shoots the same way, so why do you want to use that as a focal point to talk about what I'm doing? I've seen guys with perfect form who can't hit the backboard.
I don't shoot any different than anybody else; I've just got a slower release. When Kenny Smith gave me my nickname on national TV in my first-ever preseason game, that's what everybody knew me as, and it's something that I ran with. I actually trademarked "Matrix 31" my rookie season, with my jersey number.
I got it incorporated as an LLC. I put "Matrix 31" on everything I do to a certain degree. It's my website, I've put it on my cars and it's the logo on my seats in my home movie theater. Even my pool and poker tables have "Matrix They're about four feet high.
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