

Chris Paul is 11th on this list at 3.21%, Maurice Cheeks is 12th at 3.18%, and Michael Jordan is 13th at 3.13%. To qualify for Basketball-Reference’s all-time statistical leaderboard in steal percentage - the percentage of opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player when he was on the floor - players have to have 15,000 minutes under their belt. Prigioni played 4566 minutes in his four NBA seasons. Pablo was a pure point guard with generational basketball smarts. Luca is a better athlete with a more versatile offensive game. The similarities start with their passports: they are Argentinian, and Argentine hoops DNA dictates that they have a knack for playmaking on both ends of the court, with a nationally characteristic panache, an innate flair both in mindset and movement. As for the on-court comparison, there are similarities and differences. Vildoza’s arrival will again tick some of these narrative boxes: the team is winning, the fans still love defense, and the city still lusts after point guard play. Pablo Prigioni’s game - all irresistible charm and unassuming menace - was a perfect fit, in that season, for this city. He played on the best Knicks team by far this century, in 2012-13, winning 54 games. He was a point guard, a timeless positional fetish for Knick fans, who claim the position as a city native. He was an extremely cerebral defender, a timeless favorite delicacy for Knick fans, who idolize intellect above all else.
#Luca vildoza professional
In New York, besides being the poster moment of one of the NBA’s greatest ever steal-getters (yes, Prigioni is one of the greatest, which we’ll get to shortly), these patented Pablo heists tapped into some irresistible Knick narrative nectar: rookies are supposed to be vulnerable basketball puppies, but Prigioni had 17 seasons of professional point guard reps under his belt when he debuted in the NBA, making for a tasty dissonance of expectation and experience, which was a nightly delight to knowingly witness opposing players and fanbases process in real time. The sheer audacity, on that stage, against that opponent: could only be Pablo Prigioni. All in front of 16,000 happily delighted New Yorkers.įor Pablo, the inbounds steal was no regular season gimmick, no surprise gambit, no small-game specialty: Prigioni pulled it off playing for the Houston Rockets, TWICE!, against some guy called Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers, in Game 7 of the 2014-15 Western Conference semifinals, when he was 37 years old. He potentially said something in Spanish.

You’ve been duped by the wiliest rookie in NBA history. A lightning quick flash of a wrinkly Argentine face. A teammate inbounds the ba- what-the-fuck-just-happened. This fossilized YMCA-weekday-run looking chump is about to be in a highlight. Your brain, instinctively, hungrily, peruses a buffet of imminent potential buckets. A 35-year-old rookie you’ve never heard of - kinda small, kinda slow - is guarding you. You’ve spent the summer honing your game: chess master pick-and-roll reads, blink-quick dribble combos, off-the-dribble pull-up jumpers going left, going right, maybe a step-back or two. You’re in the back court, about to receive the ball. You are the best of the best of the very rare few.


Memories headlined by Pablo’s signature play: taking other NBA players’ shit. Being Argentinian, and being a point guard, the 25-year-old’s arrival will inevitably stir up fuzzy-tummy memories of Pablo Prigioni’s magical two-and-a-half seasons in a Knick uniform.
