The Defensive Prowess of Norm Van Lier
We have discussed Van Lier’s contributions to the Bulls on and off the court quite a bit here in the wake of his passing. After reading something from Basketball Reference Blog, I realize that perhaps I was selling Norm short in a lot of ways. Here is a more well-thought out analysis of his defensive abilities on the court than any I could write:
There’s no question that Van Lier’s calling card was his awesome defense. Although he was only 6′1″, he was quite strong and possessed a lot of what we might call “mental toughness” (they called it plain old “moxie” back then). Even in an era where guards were allowed to handcheck and bump opponents on the perimeter, the fiesty Van Lier was considered a particularly physical player; he used that hard-nosed style to rack up steals on 2.5% of opponents’ possessions (a rate of nearly 2 a game), and along with Jerry Sloan he spearheaded the Dick Motta-coached Bulls to what was the NBA’s 2nd-best defense from 1973-74 to 76-77. In recognition of his great defensive skills, Van Lier was named to either 1st- or 2nd-team All-Defense in 8 consecutive years (1971-1978), and for his career he ranks 19th all-time in defensive rating with 97.7. Let all of that sink in for a second… it’s a very impressive defensive resume, isn’t it?
My impressions of Norm were that he was underappreciated and that he lacked the kind of statistical upside that some other NBA greats of his era had. Apparently I was wrong. The Bulls could use a guy like this to defend the perimeter these days.
Loading ...
