TEAM THORPE

My favorite NBA players

BY DAVID THORPE

Do I have to admit to some bias? In creating our first TEAM THORPE roster, I have picked players I love. With the exception of Ed Davis, they are not players I have worked with or even really know. They are players I love watching play—players that make me happy. That might be a little different from my normal role as an analyst, where we’re looking strictly for what wins. 

Some of my decision-making is simple to understand. If you have been reading my work for any amount of time, you know I love players who are amazing teammates, full of love. You know I love professionals who show up and work hard every day.

But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see the first-ever TEAM THORPE is also loaded with players I noticed doing winning things long before they made it. In many cases, these are players who once coped with low expectations, and then blew those expectations away. Then there are young players, who haven’t blown away expectations yet—but who strike me as likely to. T…