While trying to find information about the banana boat crew out of pure curiosity, I stumbled across a post from 6 years ago talking about them. The comment section then brought up other close knit friendships in the NBA, and that’s when Boogie, Bledsoe, and Wall were brought up. One user shared their concern that we’d be having conversations in half a decade that we would be having “they should be in their primes right now” talks about Zion and Ja. Obviously both players still have time to get back on track, but it remains true that we are in fact starting to have what if conversations about the 2 explosive players.

Link to original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/fb25fg/what_group_of_nba_players_are_close_like_the/:

syp2207

178 | 4 hours ago

craziest part about this is realizing zion has been in the league for 7 years

sallright | Cavaliers

108 | 4 hours ago

Dude ended up being a background character in one episode of Lebron’s Fifth Prime.

BirdmanTheThird | Wizards

53 | 4 hours ago

It’s like when they spend ages building up a character as a major threat only for the fight to be relatively underwhelming and they leave him as a comic relief character, ignoring the fact he was built up to be a monster

forsuredudelol | Knicks

20 | 4 hours ago

The Braun Strowman of the NBA

JoeFortitude | Pistons

8 | 3 hours ago

I hate to say it, but Zion didn’t reach that peak. Zion is the Shockmaster.

httkbaby11 | Rockets

3 | an hour ago

Fr Braun had it for a couple years. Zions more lord tensai

lalakingmalibog | Mavericks

5 | 3 hours ago

Paul Phoenix after Tekken 4

Corrvaz

1 | an hour ago

Let’s be real Paul was sentenced to slapstick dungeons after 2 😭

igby1

4 | 3 hours ago

Zion is to the NBA as the Abominable Snowman is to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer? /s

RyouBestGirl | Japan

1 | 3 hours ago

Gaolang

RemyGee | Lakers

6 | 4 hours ago

It’ll just be that chip where Zion bullies and dunks on Kuzma(?) then Lebron hits the logo 3 the next possession 😂

sallright | Cavaliers

3 | 3 hours ago

Yep - that was sort of the entire career in 10 seconds.

TonyHawktuah69

4 | 4 hours ago

That random playin game where Zion balled out before getting hurt towards the end may be his peak

40 points but a 4 point loss

BigEggBeaters | Washington Bullets

2 | 4 hours ago

Is the peak of his career playing very well against lebrons lakers in a play in game?

livelaughloaft | Raptors

17 | 4 hours ago

Definitely feels that way because excluding this season, he’s played in 43.5% of possible games.

syp2207

7 | 4 hours ago

thats insane. i know he missed a full season but still. feels like every other year he breaks down after 30 games

decmcc | Raptors

2 | 3 hours ago

people clown Embiid for flopping and being lazy sometimes, but the alternate is destroying himself like Zion

yesastortas | Spurs

5 | 3 hours ago

Zion destroyed himself for loving golden corral too much

And for not having a proper coach (his step dad is his coach lmao)

Nor proper management (mommy is the agent)

Zion is the posterchild on why athletes need proper professionals around instead of leeches/family.

Embiid destroyed himself cause it turns out throwing yourself to the floor on purpose is bad for your body (as pro wrestlers lol)

Pelicans-de-la-NO

2 | an hour ago

He’s been healthy this year and gets his numbers but he’s just really not the guy. He’s basically a 2nd or 3rd option at this point

TopProcess9014

4 | 3 hours ago

Zion really turned into the piccolo of the NBA. Make a reappearance every season, look tuff and then get cooked by the new team making a run.

ositola | Lakers

1 | 24 minutes ago

Damn that’s accurate lol

Hovi_Bryant | Pistons

1 | 4 hours ago

Dude’s virtually done.

Maverick_1991 | Hawks

1 | 3 hours ago

Feels like he’s a sophomore…

ColdCocking | Nuggets

40 | 4 hours ago

funny part is that that poster thought Ja would bust out because of his crazy athletic dunks, not because of his penchant for breaking the law.

syp2207

52 | 4 hours ago

i feel like the bigger reason are his injuries and lack of improvement. yeah the off court stuff is a major distraction, but if he was good enough it wouldnt matter nearly as much

zebrainatux | Knicks

16 | 4 hours ago

If he’d grown as a shooter, the injuries would be a problem still but not a death blow, because of his injuries and inability to grow as a shooter, he’s a negative asset half the time

[deleted]

4 | 4 hours ago

[deleted]

gignac | HOU

7 | 4 hours ago

People trying to actually talk basketball and you have to regurgitate the same joke we’ve been hearing for like 5 years

ColdCocking | Nuggets

3 | 2 hours ago

I disagree. His off-court activities were too much of a distraction for his basketball activities for him to meaningfully improve.

It’s cause and effect.

Nuclearsunburn | Heat

1 | 3 hours ago

Right, I don’t know what the “what if” with Ja is, he pretty much is who he is

Existing_Set2100 | Wizards

35 | 4 hours ago

Zion did have some potential injury concerns coming out of college because of his massive size combined with truly explosive athleticism.

Remember when this dude’s shoe fucking exploded on the court?

igby1

17 | 3 hours ago

Imagine if Zion’s greatest contribution to basketball was forcing Nike to improve shoe durability.

Barracuda374

5 | 3 hours ago

Some but the guy also said Ja who just played 67 games as a rookie.

archerarcher0 | Celtics

29 | 4 hours ago

Is that really a crazy high end take?

I mean betting on two hyper athletic non shooters to maybe not age well shouldn’t be that wild of a thought to share

Gyshall669 | Bulls

6 | 4 hours ago

Zion had already missed half a season lol

End2Ender | NBA

6 | 2 hours ago

They are 25 & 26. Not aging well is reserved for guys in their 30. They aren’t even close to not aging well they’ve just regressed.

[deleted]

0 | 4 hours ago

[deleted]

Educational-Pea3443

3 | 4 hours ago

Sorry, I just thought it was fun :(

archerarcher0 | Celtics

1 | 4 hours ago

You didn’t respond to me directly but I wanted to say op

No offense to you or your post, not here to tell you what is or isn’t worth sharing just saying how I felt on the matter

Didn’t mean to put you or your post down so sorry about that

decmcc | Raptors

11 | 3 hours ago

I said RJ Barrett would probably have a better career than Zion and got ROASTED.

edit: before he was anywhere near the raptors

cricket9818 | Knicks

7 | 3 hours ago

Well yeah, that was a hot take back then so I think roasting was fair

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

11 | 4 hours ago

Funny that the common answer of “Book, KAT, DLo” turned out to completely implode in various ways.

endlessmeat | Suns

3 | 4 hours ago

I’m not sure what you mean, but I’m genuinely curious. Is there drama between them? Do they not like each other anymore?

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

5 | 3 hours ago

From all accounts the DLo/KAT friendship ended when DLo was traded away from the Wolves. DLo was absolutely concerous to the locker room by that point, refusing to incorporate Gobert in the offense, and still not buying into the defense. Meanwhile, KAT and Gobert seemed to become friends, and Ant and KAT became very close by all accounts.

As for Booker, other than when he yelled “I ain’t got no friends” at DLo and KAT during a Suns-Wolves game, I haven’t heard a word in ages about them being close. I could be wrong.

endlessmeat | Suns

1 | 3 hours ago

I didn’t know about the DLo KAT thing, so I was thinking that nowadays Booker simply doesn’t seems as close with KAT and I was doubting if slowly growing apart counted as imploding. So thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

2 | 3 hours ago

Did a quick google search and it seems like Book and KAT are still close friends, and Book and DLo. I just don’t know about DLo and KAT, things were definitely frosty when DLo was traded to the Lakers.

endlessmeat | Suns

2 | 2 hours ago

That’s nice to learn. Like you, I hadn’t heard anything about them being bestest friends in a while so I had also assumed that Book wasn’t close with them anymore.

Thanks again!

IaMaPsYcHo22

1 | 8 minutes ago

Dawg they even had a podcast when they both were in ny/brooklyn last year why are you talking out of your ass. None of those things you are saying are even remotely true

IaMaPsYcHo22

2 | 4 hours ago

Huh? They are still close lmao what are you on about?

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

1 | 3 hours ago

Not what I read when it came to KAT and DLo. But let’s also point out that the Banana Boat players all stayed pretty decent, DLo definitely nowhere near as good as KAT or Book.

EDIT: Looks like DLo and Book, and KAT and Book are still close. Things were apparently frosty between KAT and DLo by the time DLo was traded, because of the way DLo was sort of sabotaging the Wolves locker room at the time.

captain_ahabb | Lakers

8 | 4 hours ago

I always forget Melo wasn’t actually on the boat

Informal_Support1934

2 | 4 hours ago

That’s always been one of the funniest parts, him noping out of that

ejiggle | Trail Blazers

0 | an hour ago

Extremely easy prediction to make, extreme athletes coming into the league without any elite skills tend to only ever be what-ifs. I’ve been on a “Zion drives me crazy because I don’t understand how is ceiling isn’t just fat Blake Griffin” crusade for over a half decade lol. Ja has always been an easy D-Rose comp.

bedheaded | Trail Blazers

1 | 8 minutes ago

u/MyHonkyFriend congrats! Your off-hand comment six years ago is all grown up.

In 2020, a Reddit user successfully predicted we’d be having “what if” conversations about Zion and Ja