Fat Lever

[WW1MR]

Did anyone watch Lafayette "Fat" Lever when he played for the Blazers, Nuggets, and Mavs '82 to 94' ?

Read the bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Lever

Season    Team    GP    MPG    RPG    APG    PPG
1982-83    Trail Blazers    81    24.9    2.8    5.3    7.8
1983-84    Trail Blazers    81    24.8    2.7    4.6    9.7
1984-85    Nuggets    82    31.2    5.0    7.5    12.8
1985-86    Nuggets    78    33.5    5.4    7.5    13.8
1986-87    Nuggets    82    37.2    8.9    8.0    18.9
1987-88    Nuggets    82    37.3    8.1    7.8    18.9
1988-89    Nuggets    71    38.7    9.3    7.9    19.8
1989-90    Nuggets    79    35.8    9.3    6.5    18.3
1990-91    Mavericks    4    21.5    3.8    3.0    7.3
1991-92    Mavericks    31    28.5    5.2    3.5    11.2
1993-94    Mavericks    81    24.0    3.5    2.6    6.9
Career    11 Seasons    752    31.7    6.0    6.2    13.9

2 time all star, one second team selection, All-defenive team, and one of three to post 15 pt, 15 reb, 15 assists in a playoff game? Sat out the 92 to 93 season due to knee injury?? Shades of Rondo???

I'm 29, started watching the C's during the Wallace/Pitino era... anyone who watched Lever... any correlations w/ Rajon Rondo?
-WW1MR

[WW1MR]

So more internet searching and I find this article comparing Rondo to Lever posted by ACEIII over at Denver Stiffs:
http://www.denverstiffs.com/2010/6/13/1516643/rondo-and-fat-lever

Seems I'm not the only one to see a likeness between the 2 in the reporting and the stats  still interested to hear from the "ol' timers" who might remember having seen "Fat" play for the Nuggets...

[hpantazo]

I thought long ago that Rondo is very, very similar to Fat Lever, and that is a compliment. Lever was a very underrated player. He was a force. His game was identical to Rondo's, but I believe Lever had a better personality.

[WW1MR]

hpantazo, just curious, what was better bout Fat's personality (not bumping refs and breaking tvs?) compared to RR? And give us some perspective on how much you saw of Lever through his career?

-WW1MR

[WW1MR]

And also do you worry that the similarities in knee injuries impacting their careers does not bode well for Rondo in the long term as he recovers (albeit in a resoundingly convincing fashion so far) from a partial ACL tear?

[hpantazo]

hpantazo, just curious, what was better bout Fat's personality (not bumping refs and breaking tvs?) compared to RR? And give us some perspective on how much you saw of Lever through his career?

-WW1MR

I saw Lever about as much as I see non-celtic players today, so basically whenever they play the celtics and on national TV games, so I knew his game, but not nearly as well as I know celtics players.

Yea, chest bumping refs, throwing the ball at refs, p---ing off teammates, overall being petulant, even to fans (I know a number of people who met Rondo and they all have similar stories about him being a jerk. He's a great player, and I love to have him on the celtics until he retires, but as a person he's overall a bit of a stuck up jerk on and off the court.

[slamtheking]

Fat Lever was a very underrated player.  could go off for a triple double in any game.  the thing was, to look at him, you'd wonder how he does it.

[Boris Badenov]

Found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgDPFlbd3no