A
Fly
On The Wall
Words by jonny Auping
Art by Elliot Gerard
“A lot of people ask me that,” Wilson Chandler told me, sitting courtside with ice taped around both knees after a preseason shootaround.
The question?
Who is the craziest teammate you’ve ever played with?
That this is one of the most common questions the nine-year vet is asked says a lot about how the peripheral has always seemed to be a bigger deal than the player himself.
You won’t catch Chandler, who is in his fifth season with Denver after four seasons on the Knicks, throwing any of his old teammates under the bus. He won’t necessarily deny their rumored craziness; he just doesn’t consider it indicative of his personal experiences with them. He has had plenty to choose from: Stephon Marbury, Nate Robinson, J.R. Smith, Zach Randolph, Renaldo Balkman, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, JaVale McGee. The list goes on.
At 28 years old, the Denver Nuggets forward has had countless teammates. His coaches have included Isaiah Thomas, Mike D’Antoni, George Karl, Brian Shaw, and now Mike Malone.
When I caught up with Chandler before the season, he was excited about the fresh outlook the young Denver Nuggets presented. He wasn’t sure how the season would play out; his nine years in the NBA haven’t exactly been predictable, but he liked his teammates, and took the role of mentorship seriously. A few weeks later he would undergo hip surgery that would end any hope of him playing during the 2015-2016 season. Circumstances haven’t been kind to Chandler’s career, but he’s handled them all the same way: with constant professionalism.
One who might have disagreed was Marbury, who feuded publicly with Thomas for most of Chandler’s rookie year. Rumors of physical altercations, shouting matches, and threats of blackmail highlighted the season. Some Knick fans blamed Thomas. Some blamed Marbury. Chandler didn’t choose sides. “The stuff that was going on with Steph when he was in New York, you know, people said he was going crazy or whatever, but personally, he was a great teammate.”
Neither lasted a month into the following season — Thomas was fired and Marbury was asked to leave the team in December. New coach Mike D’Antoni liked what he saw in Chandler’s potential. “He can be a real force,” D’Antoni said in October of 2008. “The guy is really good. He can definitely play inside. He’s strong enough. And he’s quick enough to guard a two or three. If he keeps working he can become a very good player in this league.”
Chandler kept working and broke out under D’Antoni, averaging 15 points and five rebounds over his second and third seasons while defending numerous positions. He enjoyed playing under D’Antoni and dismissed the rumors that the Knicks only ever practiced offense. “It was a little more complex than that. We definitely practiced defense, but he’s an offense guy so a lot of the stuff we did was running on offense.”
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