An ode to Mario West
by hawksdawgs on Oct 22, 2009 7:37 AM EDT
20 comments
It was probably time for Mario West to go. He has served whatever point he had come to serve for the Atlanta Hawks. New reasons could not be justified to keep him because no new reasons existed. Mario was the same guy he had always been, a man who out hustled everyone and out skilled no one. And the truth of the matter is that as the Hawks become a better team, they should not need Mario, they cannot need Mario. Elite teams play at a higher energy level all the time. The whole team does. They are never going to match Mario, but as the Hawks improve, his one skill should become markedly less noticeable. If the Hawks need Mario to provide energy, they are not the team anyone wants them to be.
But leaving that basketball reality, which is not that hard to do because Mario West has refused to live in any kind of basketball reality for going on seven years, all we Hawks fans can do is sit back and say thank you. What's done is done, and what we have left is a memory of a professional athlete who had the one skill we want every little kid playing any organized sport to have. You can work on your jump shot and your post moves, but at the end of the day, you just hope your kid hustles. That he tries hard.
Mario West played in the NBA for two years on the best of little kid's emotion. That is incredible. I don't know if you have ever been really good at something. Worked really hard at it. Been better than most. And then been told that is just not good enough, and the fact is, it was not good enough. You were gifted enough to keep doing or playing whatever it is you were playing or doing. As soon as Mario left high school, his basketball career should have been over. A really good player who should have moved on. And before you know it, he hustled his way first onto Georgia Tech and then to the NBA. He did the impossible where thousands of others quit just figuring that childhood talk of giving your best was something dads said to make you try hard.
So personally, I am not interested in people flaming Mario West for overly celebrating a stop on Dywane Wade or Kobe Bryant because he not only had never been there before. He should not have been there. And he happened to be in a place Kobe or Dwyane have never even been either, and that is giving all out effort every time they hit the floor. Literally leaving every bit on the court. No one wants to see cute effort in the face of other wordy skill, and Mario shoved it down people's throats every time he hit the floor. He made every single one of us feel bad for giving up on childhood dreams. And the whole thing was galvanizing. It was beautiful.
And in my mind, that is worth celebrating. Not because it is so rare in professional sports, but because it is right, because it is good. So as Mario West walked off that practice court yesterday, I hope he was celebrating. Acting like he had never been there before. Because Mario, you have a lot to be proud of. At the very least, we are proud of you.
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Very well said
There are a lot of people who need to read this. What made West special in my mind was that he was one of us, one of the regular guys at the bar, he was me back in high school, except he was doing it for real in the NBA. How many times have you said to your friend, “Damn, I’d do anything just to hold a bench spot, just to experience it”? Be it in the NFL, the MLB, NBA, or whatever professional sport of your choice, we’ve all said that at some point. Mario got to live it, his dream, and there’s not one single thing anyone could possibly say to take that away from him.
For me, he was my connection to the pros. I sure hope I get to see him again.
"This is America, if we can’t self-righteously look down on others and blame them for our faults, the commies win."-----Cormican on Bleeding Green Nation w/r/t fans overreacting to the Eagles signing of Michael Vick
Mario
sucks. Glad he’s gone, and any of you thinking we aren’t better off without him, ask yourselves this question:
If Mario played against us, would you be worried when he got on the court?
If your answer is yes, then you will always be nervous. Thats a tough way to watch the game.
by marvin's ladies of the night on Oct 22, 2009 12:10 PM EDT reply actions
Clearly you completely miss the point
"This is America, if we can’t self-righteously look down on others and blame them for our faults, the commies win."-----Cormican on Bleeding Green Nation w/r/t fans overreacting to the Eagles signing of Michael Vick
What I liked about Mario
Was that he personified what is means to show 100% effort every time on the court. Yeah he had bad offensive skills, but he had a nose for the ball and was a fantastic on the ball defender. Every time a shot went up, Mario would follow it. He knew how to stay with his man and fill lanes.
In a league plagued by non-effort, Mario was a lot that was right.
In a leagued full of talent...
Mario had very little. Effort is for high school. the NBA is big boy basketball.
by marvin's ladies of the night on Oct 22, 2009 2:00 PM EDT reply actions
You must love guys like Zach Randolph then.
How can you hate Mario West? That’s like hating ice cream cake.
No.
Randolph has no talent and no hustle. Take him out back and put him down with mario
by marvin's ladies of the night on Oct 22, 2009 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions
You can not
Mourn Mario AND want Woody to go. Mario was a Woody project. If you like Mario, you have to like Woody. What say you Hawksdawgs?
by marvin's ladies of the night on Oct 22, 2009 2:15 PM EDT reply actions
So basically,
You’re comparing Mario to an old dog. You love him, but its time to put him down?
by marvin's ladies of the night on Oct 22, 2009 2:20 PM EDT reply actions
He was talentless and often enbarassing to have on our team and a detriment to our offense, but there is still something to be said about a man willing to go up and contest an alley-oop dunk when 99 times out of 100 he will get posterized and called for the foul. He didn’t care at all about his image, but only how he could help his team get ahead.
by coachkcastellon on Oct 22, 2009 3:30 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
i believe
mario west will be on another team that will use his talents. mario was the best defender on the team. If he had a jumper he’d be okay
Atlanta will win a championship....someday
he'll be back I hope
I loved to see him get in games. Sometimes when you felt like somebody wasn’t giving it their all I wanted Woody to put West in…just because he hustled….he made you feel like if there was any Hawk who would never quit it was him…..I hope he bcomes the next Bruce Bowen…for somebody else….maybe the Suns
I salute Mario....,
Due to the fact that no one makes it to the NBA by mistake. I will not focus on skills he didn’t have, but the skills he did have.
by xavip on Oct 22, 2009 5:40 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Amazing article
Mario West was the player every fan liked. He rarely played, but when he did, he played with a certain energy and ferocity rarely matched by anybody else in the league. It’s too bad that he couldn’t do anything else. The NBA should open a new wing in the Hall of Fame: the Mario West ring.
"I always believe there's a reason why you go through everything." -John Elway
I meant "Mario West wing"
But y’all get my point.
"I always believe there's a reason why you go through everything." -John Elway
will keep on repping his jersey ...
chicago native, been in atl for little over a year. after watching mario west defend kobe in person last spring (and finding out he was a fellow yellow jacket!), there was no doubt that i was going to get a mario west jersey.
didn’t realize he was cut, i just assumed he would make the team again. now two weeks later, stumbled across this post and just had to leave a comment.
WADE 2010
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