Jason Maxiell is a second-year player out of Cincinnati, and he saw very little action last year as a rookie. All that practice time banging with Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Dale Davis paid off, though, as he's seized advantage of every chance to play this year.
Maxiell stands just 6-foot-7, but with a hefty frame and a 7-foot-2 wingspan, he plays much, much bigger -- imagine a poor man's Charles Barkley. He doesn't have Barkley's handle, but he certainly has his intensity as he tries to rip down the rim every time he's in the paint. He's sometimes a little rough around the edges defensively, but he can erase mistakes with his impressive shot-blocking. Seriously, he's a baaaad man. How bad? The man eats babies.
Maxiell put his ferocity on display in Game 1 against the Bulls, dunking in the video above on Tyrus Thomas. He finished the game with 12 points and six boards, scoring three times in a row on Ben Wallace, his former teacher. Maxiell spoke yesterday about what he learned in his one year as Wallace's teammate:
''He told me, 'When a door's open, run through it,''' Maxiell said. ''When the opportunity is open, just run. Don't walk through it.''If you've seen him play this year, it's obvious he's taken that to heart.
