What More Must Kevon Looney Do?

“How did we let that guy beat us?”, says the fan of a team that just witnessed their team lose multiple important possessions to the tenacity and elbows of Kevon Looney. “Just some scrub who wouldn’t even start for us”, they might add, shoulders down, slinking home as quickly as possible. “This sort of thing only ever happens to us”, grumble the dispirited supporters on the receiving end of another Looney Game, unwilling in the anger of the moment to acknowledge that they were in no way the first to feel that way, and nor will they be the last.

Strawmen? Sort of. Those are certainly not direct quotes. Yet such frustrations are out there, particularly in the spaces of Sacramento Kings fans, who have just seen their heartening, joyful, promise-filled rejuvenation season ended in seven pulsating games by the relentless peskiness of the veteran Golden State Warriors big man, to whom no one ever gives enough credit.

Anyone with more than a passing interest in the NBA will know that Kevon Looney is a good role player. But every year, on the biggest stage, we are reminded of how good of one he is. And yet somehow, prevailing opinion never seems to catch up to the facts.

This is Kevon Looney, and this is what he does. And in the biggest moments, too.

In the Kings/Warriors series, Looney put in Dennis Rodman-esque numbers. He averaged 6.9 points, 15.1 rebounds and 4,3 assists in 30.1 minutes per game, totals including 5.3 offensive rebounds per game and a mere 1.1 turnovers. A Game-7 50-ball by Hall of Famer Stephen Curry – the most points scored by any player in an elimination game in NBA history – was the most obvious factor in winning the series, but Looney’s work in every less glamorous aspect was arguably just as important.

Every year, this happens. In the 2018 Warriors title run, Looney’s ability to stay in front of a then-prime James Harden on switches was a decisive factor in the Western Conference Finals; in 2o22, the double-double he averaged in a relatively comfortable Conference Finals win over the Dallas Mavericks caused them to rethink their roster construction.

Maybe it is Looney’s unassuming aesthetics that let him down. Slow when running forwards, neither a good scoring talent nor a particularly interested one, and someone who takes minimal risk offensively, there is nothing YouTubey about Looney’s awkward gait and old man game. However, as a smart, tough, physical and surprisingly laterally mobile defender, Looney expands the Warriors’ defensive playbook, able to step up to the perimeter while also securing rebounds amongst four opponents in the paint.

Beyond the positional defence and the grabbing of all the rebounds, Looney adds to the Warriors’ more potent offensive threats through being a good (and very willing) passer, who very rarely makes mistakes. A reliable calming presence for the stars around him, opponents cannot simply run Looney off the floor, and few if any can outfight him inside.

If Kevon Looney makes your frontcourt look bad, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are bad. It just means that Kevon Looney is very good.

The major knock on Looney used to be his hardiness. The only thing that used to be inconsistent about his game was his appearance on the court in the first place – while he is still (amazingly) only 27 years old, Looney missed almost all of his rookie season, and most of 2019/20, with a variety of injuries and illness that made him unreliable, contributing to the underappreciation.

However, since that time, Looney has transformed his body, and he has not missed a regular season game in either of the last two years, In the era of load management, this is particularly impressive. And with that, the final shortcoming to his modern-day Rodman Role has been snuffed out. Now, any strawman and their implied digs at Kevon Looney have no basis for their sass.

There is such a thing as to become so underrated that one becomes burdened by the label rather than benefitting from it. After a while, when any player without top-tier athleticism is unable to make any winning plays without announcers pointing out how underrated they are, it becomes rote, maybe even to the point that the player involved becomes overrated. It happened to Al Horford, it happened to Khris Middleton, and perhaps one day it will also happen to Kevon Looney.

But once again, today is not that day. Maybe next year, after he does this one more time.