How has Marcus Camby’s reedy, 6-foot-11, 235- pound frame survived a decade of NBA punishment? Call it basketball jujitsu.
He gives away inches, and more important, pounds, to just about every other A-list center in the NBA. Two of his 6-8 Denver teammates – Eduardo Najera and Linas Kleiza – weigh as much or more than he does.
Camby’s raw talent made him a lottery pick coming out of Massachusetts in 1996. But his wits have carried him a long way from there. Let third-year Nuggets center Francisco Elson explain.
“He’s teaching me how to use what you lack,” Elson said. “If you lack strength, use your body. Try to make up. Use your timing. Use your quickness.”
In another life, Camby may have been a judo prodigy. The principles are the same – in the martial art, as in his game, one derives power by using the opponents’ strengths against them.
“He’s probably the smartest basketball player we’ve got,” Najera said. “He knows all the little tricks.”
At age 31, Camby has a million of them. He learned one defensive move called “pulling the chair” when he played with Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson in New York.
“When they’re leaning on you, just step to the side and let them fall down and the ball gets thrown out of bounds,” he said with a slight smile.
He has built a career on details such as knowing the precise moment to go up for rebounds, when to make subtle positioning shifts, knowing where teammates might be to receive a tip.
“He’s very good at reading lobs, reading defensive help situations, slips, spinning away and getting his own lobs,” said Nuggets coach George Karl, who calls Camby his craftiest player.
After a couple of seasons in which injuries sent him to the NBA’s periphery, two strong seasons in Denver have put Camby in the odd position of being bestknown for being underrated.
But while his stock may have risen around the league, he’s the kind of player coaches don’t fully appreciate until they work with him. Karl seemed to surprise himself when he called Camby the team’s MVP last season.
When Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy got Camby with the Knicks in a trade from Toronto in 1998, all he knew was he was getting a talented player.
“But what I was unaware of was how intelligent he was on the basketball floor,” Van Gundy said. “He knows when to pass and when to shoot. He knows game plans and rotations.
“(And) he’s a tremendous rebounder and much-improved shooter from 15 to 17 feet. The only thing that ever stopped Marcus from being a top-five center in this league was being able to stay on the court more. If you’re going through the league and talking about what guys are underappreciated, I think Marcus would be right at the top of that list.”
Camby is one of the more gregarious Nuggets, but talk like that often turns him into a robot. Despite averaging 10.3 points and 10 rebounds last season – the third double-double season of his career – and leading the league with 199 blocked shots, he bristles at Karl’s MVP label.
“It really doesn’t sit well with me, because I know there are a lot of other players on this team that made this team go,” Camby said. “I always thought that Carmelo was our best player. Not one person is going to make this team go.”
As for questions about shooting for defensive player of the year, he added: “I’m a guy who never sets individual goals. Ever since the summer, that has been George’s goal for me. If it happens, it happens, but it’s not something I’m going to personally push for.”
A survey of NBA general managers recently found Camby receiving no votes for the league’s best interior defender, while the likes of Jeff Foster and Joel Przybilla each earned at least one.
Injuries could be the reason he keeps getting overlooked. They are the well-known bugaboo that have hindered his career. Camby experienced more frustration this preseason when an inflamed plantar fascia in his left foot sidelined him. It’s the kind of nagging problem that has forced him to miss at least 10 and as many as 53 games in his nine NBA seasons.
But when he plays, he plays well. He has never missed a playoff game to injury. And in the 66 games he played last season, he had 23 more blocks than his closest competitor, Detroit’s Ben Wallace, who played eight more games.
The Nuggets took a risk by signing Camby to a six-year contract before last season. He will be 36 when his contract expires, a lot of time for his body to accept more abuse.
But that’s also more time for him to accumulate insight on the small things that fuel his game.
