Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
EuroLeague player Kyle Hines recently said that the “NBA is checkers and Europe is chess.” Former NBA power forward David West took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and gave a pissed-off reaction to Hines’ statement.
West was selected with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft after a four-season stint playing college basketball at Xavier University. He averaged 11-plus points and nine-plus rebounds in each of his four seasons as a Musketeer.
The 43-year-old played for four teams — the New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana Pacers, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs — across his 15 seasons in the NBA. Most recently, he averaged 6.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game in 73 appearances with the Warriors during the 2017-18 regular season (zero starts).
West is best known for his time as a member of the Pelicans, though. He spent eight seasons of his NBA career with the franchise and averaged 16.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 530 total regular-season games played (438 starts).
Arguably the best season of West’s career in New Orleans came during the 2007-08 season. He averaged 20.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and a career-high 1.3 blocks per game during the regular season.
Those numbers were good enough for West to earn an All-Star nod.
West’s contributions on both ends of the floor translated into a whole lot of success for the 2007-08 iteration of the Pelicans. They finished the regular season with an excellent 56-26 record, tied with the Spurs for the second-best record in the Western Conference.
Also, the 2007-08 iteration of the Pelicans advanced all the way to the Western Conference semifinals, where they lost to Tim Duncan and the Spurs in seven games. West averaged 20.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists during the seven-game series. He also shot the ball with solid accuracy from the field, seeing as he converted 45.2 percent of his field-goal attempts.
It’s understandable as to why West reacted to Hines’ comment in a pissed-off manner. After all, the NBA houses the best basketball players in the world, and West knows firsthand how talented NBA players are.
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