Guard Facundo Campazzo played three seasons in the NBA — two with the Denver Nuggets and one with the Dallas Mavericks — and he alleges that rappers directed jeers his way during his short time playing in the league.
“I had to defend Stephen Curry and Trae Young. … There were these rappers sitting in the front row,” Campazzo said. “They were saying to him, ‘Attack him, he can’t defend you! Look, look, he doesn’t know how to defend!’ … And I was thinking, ‘Please don’t attack me! … Or don’t fall so you don’t end up in the top 10 of the week.’ And it was the same when I was defending Curry. Draymond would come up to me and say, ‘No matter how you defend him, he’s going to score 30 points on you, so ask your coach to switch you out.’”
It’s worth mentioning that Campazzo is far from the tallest player ever to put on an NBA jersey. He has a small frame compared to the average NBA player, as he stands at just 5-foot-11 and weighs 194 pounds. So, he doesn’t exactly stick out as an intimidating defensive player.
Curry and Young have also been two of the top point guards in the league for years now, and they’re difficult to keep in check offensively. The former is widely regarded as the best 3-point shooter in the history of the league, and the latter averaged 25.7 points per game during the 2023-24 regular season.
Interestingly, Campazzo saw his production dwindle with every passing year of his three-year NBA career. But in his first season in the NBA, he was one of the better backup point guards in the league.
Campazzo played in 65 games (19 starts) with the Nuggets during the 2020-21 regular season and served as a steady playmaking and scoring hand for the team. He averaged 6.1 points on 35.2 percent shooting from 3-point range while also dishing out 3.6 assists per game.
But Campazzo saw his numbers take a dip across the board in his second season with the Nuggets, as he averaged fewer points, assists, rebounds and steals per contest compared to the season prior.
After Campazzo’s stint with the Nuggets came to an end, he joined the Mavericks but appeared in only eight games in the 2022-23 regular season. He has yet to play in the NBA ever since his cup of tea with Dallas, and the 33-year-old currently plays professional basketball overseas for Real Madrid of the Spanish Liga ACB.
It remains to be seen if Campazzo will seriously consider making a return to the NBA, but considering he turns 34 years old in March, fans perhaps shouldn’t count on him playing in the league again.
