"Chicago Toughness"

by JakeTheSnake on Oct 5, 2008 1:46 PM EDT Comment 14 comments

You may remember that title phrase from a quote from Eddie Jordan this week during training camp, when he said this about Dee Brown:

Eddie Jordan is becoming a big Dee Brown fan. Loves Brown's quickness, energy, "Chicago toughness" and defensive pressure. This could be Brown's real opportunity. When Eddie trusts a player, that player plays.

But what does Chicago toughness really mean? As someone that's never been to Chicago, I can't really say, but I can take a look at the players to come out of the Windy City and draw some assumptions about "Chicago toughness" from the things that all the players have in common. Here are all the players in the NBA that were born in Chicago:

Sean May
Bobby Simmons
Awvee Storey
Tony Allen
Dwyane Wade
Justin Williams
Quentin Richardson
Juwan Howard
Steven Hunter
Nazr Mohammed
Jason Maxiell
Luther Head
Shawn Marion
Antoine Walker
Derrick Rose

I think you could say just about every player on that list exhibits toughness in one way or another (except Antoine Walker), whether it's having the cojones to take the big shot, or taking on the role of a gritty, defensive stopper. Growing up watching the likes of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, they learned from two of the best what it means to be tough. But as you look further back, you'll see that "Chicago Toughness" isn't something that's just started with the current generation. Here are some other players from NBA history that called Chicago home:

Isiah Thomas
Mark Aguirre
Nick Anderson
Mateen Cleaves
Tim Hardaway
Hersey Hawkins
Doc Rivers
Terry Cummings
Maurice Cheeks

Not a soft player anywhere on that list. Clearly, Eddie was paying Dee a high compliment when he raved about the tougness that's been exhibited by many of the players to come out of his hometown. Will that toughness manifest itself in productiivity this season? No one's really sure, but the pedigree of Chicago tough players to go before him, certainly bodes well for his future.

Hopefully someday Wisconsin will become a basketball hotbed, so we can coin the term "Racine Tough(Juice)ness."

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I'm curious...

Is there a style or characteristic that can be attributed to players out of the DC area?

by mlarroca on Oct 5, 2008 2:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Let's see

The 4 DC natives in the NBA right now are: Delonte West, Roger Mason, DerMarr Johnson, and Kevin Durant.

Funny hair, maybe?

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by JakeTheSnake on Oct 5, 2008 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

DC?

Are they DC or DC area? I was going to include West and Durant on my PG County team. We’ve also got Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Michael Beasley, and Jarrett Jack. I’m forgetting a few others I’m sure.

by hotplate on Oct 5, 2008 9:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Some I remember (from the past)

Lawrence Moten…..Keith Bogans…..Sherman Douglass……Randolph Childress…..Adrian Dantley…..Thurl Bailey……Danny Ferry…..Johnny Dawkins

Going ol’ school, I know that Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, Kermit Washington and Dave Bing were from DC.

If your counting the greater, greater, metro area, you might mention Grant Hill and David Robinson.

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by Truth About It on Oct 5, 2008 11:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Travis Garrison…

Oh, wait.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 5, 2008 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Stop that.

That’s just mean. ::Sobs about Terps Basketball::

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by mamemimo on Oct 7, 2008 2:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Those 4 are the ones officially listed as DC natives on Basketball-Reference

But the whole DC area is kind of subjective, so the number can fluctuate based on what you consider DC and what technically constitutes a hometown. I’m not sure if they’re going with their true hometown or where they spent the majority of their childhood, or where they went to high school at. Especially with top-tier basketball players who go to the top high school academies, the three aren’t always the same.

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by JakeTheSnake on Oct 5, 2008 11:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Edit

They were the only 4 active players listed as DC natives.

I should’ve clarified that.

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by JakeTheSnake on Oct 5, 2008 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Impressive list. Not a lot of guys you tag as soft there.

by NBR on Oct 5, 2008 4:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Eddie is just trying to boast Brown's confidence

Remember Brown has really proven only to be a D-league player so far and he will be Wizard’s #2 point guard at the start of the season. He has some tools physically but he barely competed in the summer league and confidence seems to be what he needs to make an impact on this team.

by LoneWiz54 on Oct 5, 2008 5:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Also..any player that developed in a major metro area is has to be tough

I doubt Chicago toughness is no different than LA toughness or Memphis toughness or DC toughness. There are different styles of play across regions, but for the most part being tough is being tough. JMO

by LoneWiz54 on Oct 5, 2008 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not that I played at any great level

but when I left the DC area and moved to SF in the early 90s, I was shocked at how soft the games were out there, how ticky tack the foul calling was. I always matched up with a guy from NY ’cause the California boys wanted nothing to do with either of us and were happy to let us pound each other. BTW, I wonder if Eddie Jordan has any thoughts about DC players, given that he played at Carrol about the time Adrian Dantley was at DeMatha.

by mlarroca on Oct 5, 2008 5:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I can see Jordan's point if

he’s referring to the toughness no doubt acquired if you grew up in a bad Chicago neighborhood. But I’m not sure that a bad neighborhood in Chicago is better/worse than any other metropolitan area that a lot of NBA players grow up in.

The idea that they grew up watching Jordan/Pippen is interesting.

Most times you hear ‘Chicago toughness’ in reference to football, trying to tie the Bears defense or running game (nice ways to say crappy offense) to a long-departed notion of Chicago as this blue-collar steel and stockyard workers town. That’s, um, silly.

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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Oct 5, 2008 6:00 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well I have always heard about Chicago toughness

And maybe some of had heard different, but I’ve always thought or heard that basketball in the Windy City (especially in the high school public league) is very tough and that is a calling card of Chicago basketball players. I’ve always read that players expect to get knocked down a lot and expect to get up everytime (like that damn Dwyane Wade for instance!!)

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by George Templeton on Oct 6, 2008 10:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs