another point about the Spanish team: Sergio Rodriguez

Sergio Rodriguez is mainly getting American media coverage today for elbowing Tyson Chandler in the ribs, leading to technical fouls for both of them.

But I’m very interested in Rodriguez as a player, due to a rather amazing live performance I saw from him one night. While visiting my brother in Portland in early 2007, we decided to catch the Portland-Denver game.

Rodriguez came off the bench for Portland, and he was instant energy, only 21 years old. I think Portland was down by something like 17 points, and Rodriguez brought it back to a tie game, or close to it.

Allen Iverson was playing for Denver at the time, and was still not that far off his peak. But Rodriguez was every bit as good– distributing the ball, slashing down the lane, faking people off balance.

If you look at Rodriguez’s career stats before he finally left the NBA in 2010 (only 24 years old) they are quite mediocre. But for one night in Portland in January 2007, and perhaps on other nights, he was as good as anyone I’ve ever seen on a basketball court. I was pleased to see him playing for the Spanish team, having lost track of him for awhile.