For the first time since the fall of the Duncanian Empire, the San Antonio Spurs are returning to the NBA Finals. They have arguably the most unique talent in NBA history with Victor Wembanyama, have a Big Three already establishing themselves alongside him through Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle, and all but four of the rotation were born in the 2000s. They are, in fact, the favorites to win it all.
This is, clearly, a wonderful time for Spurs fans to be living in the present. And the future is not looking half bad, either. But a little call-back to the past never goes amiss.
All the way back in 2011, the Spurs signed a player little-known outside of NBA circles, but oddly well-known within them. Now aged 42, that player has posted to LinkedIn, of all places, about his intent to make a comeback.
Who Is He?
Antoine Hood played collegiately at the United States Air Force Academy for four seasons from 2002 through 2006. During his senior season in 2005-06, he averaged 14.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 54.3% from the field and 38.5% from three-point range, at a time when shooting prowess was not as ubiquitous as it is today. He earned Mountain West All-Conference First Team honors as a senior, after previously being named to the conference second team during the 2004-05 season. He did pretty well, albeit in a mid-major.
Hood went undrafted in the 2006 NBA Draft, though, and never really came close to being drafted. He did however have his fans in the NBA, and in October 2006, he signed with the Denver Nuggets for training camp. The Nuggets waived him before the start of the regular season, with two-way contracts not a thing at that time – but it was also not Hood’s only NBA dalliance.
After his release from the Nuggets, Hood defied the usual way of doing things and hardly played anywhere. The Rio Grande Valley Vipers selected him in the sixth round of the 2009 NBA Development League Draft, but waived him less than two weeks after the draft without playing a game – and apart from a a four-game stint with Llaneros Gaiteros in Venezuela during the 2011-12 season in which he averaged 8.0 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. that was it for Hood.
Until the Spurs came calling.
HeavyLinkedIn post by Antoine Hood, formerly of the San Antonio Spurs
Former Spurs Guard, Albeit For Nine Days
In December 2011, the Spurs signed Hood to another unguaranteed contract for training camp, just as the Nuggets did. And although they too waived him without playing a game, that marked two NBA contracts for Hood in five years, even in spite of not playing anywhere else of note whatsoever. The obvious connection for such was Gregg Popovich, still at the time the head coach of the Spurs and front office executive, himself an Air Force alum and former assistant coach. Air Force game recognize Air Force game.
Hood would go on to appear in 17 games for the Idaho Stampede of the G League in 2013-14, and averaged 3.1 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 11.3 minutes per game while shooting 35.2% from the field and 29.6% from three-point range. He also later played for the Mississauga Power in Canada’s NBL during the 2014-15 season, albeit for only 25 minutes. His is one of the most empty professional basketball CVs out there for a player who once legitimately signed an NBA contract. It is either him, Master P or Brad Stricker.
It makes no sense that Hood, aged 42, would now have any aspirations of coming back to a career he never much had anyway. Then again, beating the odds has always been Hood’s thing. If it is not too hackneyed of a thing to say, Hood’s basketball career, staccato though it has been, has been one of overcome adversity. From beating cancer as a child to making two different NBA rosters despite working real life jobs and serving in the Air Force at the time, Hood has routinely defied odds to get back into the game.
With his main advocate in Popovich now retired, it is surely at best a four jillion to one shot that Hood will make a comeback at any meaningful level at this point. But the heart wants what it wants.
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