Rod Strickland: Is Kyrie Irving’s Godfather the MOST UNDERRATED passer of ALL TIME? | FPP

Rod Strickland was a New York legend who put together three great seasons for the DePaul Blue Demons where he led the team to a couple of upsets in the NCAA tournament as a freshman. After three years at DePaul he would declare for the NBA draft where he be drafted to his hometown New York Knicks. But from draft day this was a strange move as they already had a great New York point Guard in Mark Jackson, and during his short stint in New York, Strickland would never get a fair shot to compete for the starting spot that he had showed he was deserving of. In his second year he would be traded to the San Antonio Spurs who were led by David Robinson, and in San Antonio he would finally get to start and showed just how great he was as he find himself high on the league’s assist leaders list during his Spurs years. Unfortunately, a bitter contract holdout would cut his time in San Antonio short and he would go on to the Portland Trailblazers on the tail end of the Clyde Drexler era. Strickland would again work his way into a starting role and cement himself as a true playoff performer as he consistently upped his play in the postseason. But again after overstaying his welcome by clashing with coach PJ Carlesimo, he would be traded to the Washington Bullets where he would team with Chris Webber and Juwan Howard, and in 1998, after the Bullets had rebranded to the Washington Wizards, Strickland would lead the league in assists with 10.5 per game. But Soon after, the Wizards would trade away Webber for Mitch Richmond and would spend the next few years declining, before Strickland forced himself out of that situation. He would spend the last few years of his career bouncing around the league with the Portland Trailblazers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets until he played his final game in 2005. But during his 17 year career he was one of the most underrated point guards in the league with an incredible ability to finish around the rim, embarrass defenders with handles and consistently be one of the best passers in the league. But unfortunately, his attitude issues and lack of playoff success, as well as playing in an era with great and more successful point guards, result in him being left out of the conversations for top point guards and best passers in NBA history, and even though he was never elite, he was right up at the top with many of the greats of his era for most of his career; and that’s the career we’re going to look at on today’s episode of Forgotten Player Profiles, featuring Rod Strickland.

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