There has been no shortage of things written about the Miami Heat’s 23-game win streak. Most of the focus is, as it should be, on LeBron’s slow, inevitable march to immortality. But if you put aside the clinical but visceral thrill of watching the best player of the past 15 years find new ways to mutilate opponents every night, there’s been something else about the Heat’s dominant seven weeks that’s been just as enjoyable for me, if not more so. However you feel about the Heat, there is no downside to Chris “Birdman” Andersen being back in our lives in a major way, and the fact that he is legitimately helping a title contender in 2013 is one of the unlikeliest but coolest codas to one of the most unusual careers in recent memory.
Birdman is a pioneer in a lot of ways. He was the first player ever to be called up from the D-League to the NBA in 2001. He was the first to be reinstated to the league after receiving a lifetime ban for violating drug policy. He is possibly the most tattooed player in NBA history, no small feat. The most important thing to remember about him, however, is that he is responsible for the hands-down greatest performance in NBA dunk-contest history, from 2005:
If you can get past the jarring sight of an uninked Birdman, the genius of this performance is apparent. He brought out a crowd of people to stand on the court, the most pointless of all possible props (and I’m generally someone who thinks all props are evil), and then missed the same dunk eight times in a row. It was a brilliant commentary on the overcommercialization of the dunk contest, and considering how awful the last two have been, it now feels as ahead of its time as The Velvet Underground & Nico. In addition to featuring a Birdman that had yet to discover the tattoo parlor, it also included a cameo from then-rookie J.R. Smith. It’s impossible to imagine Smith existing in a world without Twitter (which wouldn’t launch until 2006), but one has to think that he simply asked girls if they were trying to get the pipe via T-Mail on his Sidekick. But I digress.
Birdman’s personal life took a turn for the worse around that time, which led to his much-publicized substance-abuse problems (he has steadfastly refused to say which drugs he used, but the NBA’s “drugs of abuse” list includes cocaine, heroin, and methamphatamine). His 2006 ban from the NBA was overturned in 2008, and he played out the season in New Orleans before signing with the Nuggets the following summer. He is synonymous with the 2008-09 Nuggets, one of the most enjoyable teams of the past few years. They’re primarily known as the only team Carmelo Anthony has ever led out of the first round of the playoffs, but that team also featured a still-in-his-prime Chauncey Billups, Andersen’s former Hornets teammate J.R. Smith (who, along with Kenyon Martin, formed undoubtedly the greatest trio of bad tattoo decisions in the history of professional sports), noted villain Dahntay Jones, and apparently Johan Petro, although I have no recollection of him being on that team. Birdman was the rebounding and shot-blocking force behind that team’s Conference Finals run. Think Kenneth Faried if you cut off his dreads and turned each individual hair into an ink-needle line. His story of addiction and recovery made him a fan favorite as well.
Birdman’s career in Denver never reached those heights again, unfortunately. Injuries and declining play eventually pushed him out of the Nuggets’ rotation, and he was waived last summer under the amnesty clause. Earlier this season, during one of those “Are the Heat in trouble?” periods of the news cycle that always seem to conveniently ignore that the Heat have LeBron James and every other team in the league doesn’t, Miami signed Birdman to a 10-day contract to shore up their rebounding. It was the kind of signing that is usually mocked for taking up a roster spot for someone past their prime that could have been used on a D-Leaguer. But in this case, it worked. Birdman is currently third on the team in total rebounding percentage, including second in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage. Andersen played his first game with the Heat on January 25, about a week before they began the win streak. Before then, the team’s total rebounding percentage was 48.5. Since Birdman entered the rotation, that number has jumped to 49.7. He’s only playing 13.1 minutes per game, but he’s pulling down 9.3 rebounds per 36 minutes and providing a much-needed defensive spark.
More importantly, he starred in the only “Harlem Shake” video I ever have or ever will watch:
There’s something comforting about one of the oddest players in the league settling into the “veteran leadership” stage of his career after a career that’s included so many missed dunks, drugs, and playoff teams that have fallen short. There’s a pretty good chance that Birdman will get a ring this June, and maybe more if the Heat choose to re-sign him. And that seems sort of right.