Every once in awhile we hear die hard sports fans making sport analogies crossing over multiple sports, somehow attempting to link a touchdown comparatively to a grand slam, or a no-hitter to a perfect score in bowling. You know what I am talking about, right?

The point is, these stretch-of-the-imagination comparisons of sports apples and oranges rarely achieve a common ground that is truly tangible for any sensible reason, other than some random chit chat over a few drinks at the local sports bar.

That was until I was watching Inside the NBA on TNT tonight. The common ground has officially been established.

Inside the NBA made the perfect two-sport-crossover analogy comparing Charles Barkley’s infamously horrible golf swing to the nightmarish and ghastly free throw stroke of Andris Biedrins of the Golden State Warriors.

Prelude to a golfing disaster. (Credit: picapp.com)

Charles Barkley is quite possibly the world’s worst golfer. Period. Even with the help of the Tiger Woods’ coach, Hank Haney, Charles failed miserably while attempting to correct and refine his golf game.

He is as unreachable as a pupil and his golfing goals are simply unattainable. However, it did make for some highly entertaining television. The harsh truth is Charles Barkley will never succeed at golf. End of story.

Look at the fear in his eyes. (Credit: picapp.com)

Andris Biedrins has always been a rancid free throw shooter. But this season is simply mind blowing. Biedrins took a career average of 51% from the charity stripe into the season.

Befuddled all season by injuries, Biedrins has been extremely “off” in every aspect of his game since returning to the lineup. Namely, his free throw shooting has been garbage.

Biedins currently threatens to destroy the single-season record for lowest free throw percentage in NBA history, replacing Garfield Smith. Biedrins is shooting 13% from the line for the season. Horrid. Strike that, worse than that. Can anything be worse than that?

Barkley and Biedrins are both unsafe from criticism. Biedrins coach, Don Nelson, has openly called him out, accusing him of playing less aggressive because he is downright afraid of being sent to the line.

Barkley’s co-hosts subject him to constant criticism about his horrible golf game, amongst his other fodder like stuttering, gambling, drunk driving. The list goes on. But that is not the point here.

If you watch the video, you will distinctly notice Barkley and Biedrins share the exact type of of hesitancy, hitch, and a horrible “I’m-gonna-make-up-for-my-horrible-form-and-try-to-will-it-correct-at-the-last-second” reflex.

It is so similar that it transcends two-sport analogies to an entirely arcane level.

Watch this video, and you will clearly see the brilliance the TNT segment garners:

A tear- eyed Allen Iverson sat with 76ers GM Ed Stefanski and discussed rejoining the 76ers, a team he spent his first 10 years in the NBA with.

They address the long laundry list of problems surrounding AI, and what Iverson calls his “baggage” that prevented other teams from taking a chance on him.

An emotional AI was genuine about his future. (Credit: picapp.com)

He takes the hard questions head on with answers proving he wears his heart on his sleeve.  He addresses the issues on integrating into the current 76er lineup.  He plans to be a guide, mentor, and comrade to the younger players.

In this heartfelt press conference we see the side of AI we have all bee waiting and wanting to see: a humble Iverson.

His humility and genuine nature becomes evident as he owns up to his mistakes. He says the most disheartening thing about the media to him has been the misinterpretation his ego.

Iverson has realized it is time for him to fit in and be a teammate. In his words, AI simply wants “to be one of the guys” and “just wants to play basketball.”

AI discusses his discomfort in repeatedly relocating, and the strain it has had on his family. You get the sense that he feels Philadelphia has always been home.

Watching this conference it becomes apparent his heart has always been in Philadelphia. Now he gets to save his legacy and end things where it all began.

Whether or not this all comes to fruition will remain to be seen. He has said these things before joining the Nuggets, Pistons, and the Grizzlies. Is the third time going to be the charm for AI?

Here is what Iverson said earlier today:

I hope so. It is amazing to witness what this guy can do on the court. He is tiny by NBA standards, and takes a pounding like no other player his size could.

It is unknown if Iverson will indeed be effective or have a positive impact this season. He is a major liability but also has huge payoff potential for the 76ers if things do work out.

All I can say is that I believe what AI had to say today during this press conference, and hope that things work out for him.

Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns shares resemblances with multiple celebrities. We wanted to morph him, but alas, we could not find that “one” perfect fit to complete the morphing.  Four people lead us into an ensuing editorial debate as to whom actually resembled Nash most.

The first three candidates are singers/musicians James Blunt, Liam Gallagher of Oasis, and Tom Petty. The fourth and final candidate is the character Walter Kovacs aka Rorschach from the film Watchmen, played by Jackie Earle Haley.

After much litigation on the issue, we had come to a dead end. All candidates had striking attributes presenting far too strong an argument to disqualify any of them. The solution?

Morph all of them! Make NBA Lookalike Morphing #14 a compound morphing.

But how do we do this? How can we do this fairly and without bias? Simple. We used the scientific method.

Purpose:

Morphing all 4 candidates into 1 composite “morphing” candidate that will almost identically resemble Steve Nash. We have given this composite entity the name “Liam James Petty-Kovacs.”

Hypothesis:

We expect that the participants in the poll will vote towards a majority trend determining that our composite “Liam James Petty-Kovacs” resembles Steve Nash. Voting  trends should overwhelmingly favor that “Liam James Petty-Kovacs” and Steve Nash do in fact look alike.

Materials:

We placed images of both Nash and each individual candidate side by side,  in order to highlight the attributes each candidate  individually shares with Steve Nash. Here is what we came up with.

James Blunt – Main attributes of similarity: Nose, hair, cheeks, chin, and eyes.

We like to think James Blunt represents the sensitive, high-pitch-singing, feminine and sensitive sides of Nash.

Liam Gallagher – Main attributes of similarity: Forehead, eyebrows, Jawline, Brit Pop hairstyle, and cock-eyes.

Liam represents the rugged rock n’ roll side of Steve Nash. This is the side of Steve Nash you would not want to piss off at the pub.

Tom Petty – Main attributes of similarity: Pretty much everything except Petty has blond hair and rocks the sh*t out of the guitar.

This would also be associated with the laid back, “it’s all good because I am Tom Petty and smoke tons of marajuana” side of Steve Nash. Of course, Steve Nash does not smoke marajuana. But if he did, a young “heartbreaking” Tom Petty would be a dead ringer for Nash.

Walter Kovacs aka Rorschach – Main attributes of similarity: Everything but the hair and ears.

This character represents Nash’s toughness; however, Nash does not have the psychopathic blood lust of his counterpart comparison. We all witnessed this toughness when Nash received a gash to his nose. While bleeding everywhere, he was determined to return into the game vs. the San Antonio Spurs during the 2007 playoffs.

Procedure:

We started by morphing Liam Gallagher and Walter Kovacs aka Rorschach into a composite morphing named “Rorschach Gallagher” (below, left).

We then proceeded to morph James Blunt and Tom Petty together. We named this composite product “James Petty” (above, right).

Taking things one step further, for the sake of science,  we morphed “James Petty” with “Rorschach Gallagher” to create the aforementioned “Liam James Petty-Kovacs.”

We felt this would adequately represent all four of the celebrities’ attributes for comparative morphing with Steve Nash.

We now present to you the fruits of our scientific labor for you, the reader, to decide the fate of this experiment.

Please answer the poll, and decide the verdict of this experiment in lookalike morphology: The Steve Nash Lookalike Experiment: NBA Lookalike Morphing #14!

Click here to see all of Protect the Paints NBA Look-ALike Morphings

Have a NBA look alike comparison that you would like to see us morph? Please submit the form below or mail morphing@protectthepaint.com to submit!
[contact-form 2 "Contact form 2"]