Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
World B. Free couldn\u2019t help himself. His NYC side had to show.<\/p>\n
Free was a Sixers rookie on a fast break in 1975, running a two-on-one scenario with veteran and venerable teammate Billy Cunningham alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Billy,\u201d Free, a recent first-time Naismith Hall of Fame nominee, told The Post. \u201cBut I saw the hoop, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sold-out crowd oohed and aahed as Free converted a spin move \u201clike Earl the Pearl Monroe.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing from New York, we\u2019re shaking and baking, we\u2019re doing what we do to get to the basket. That\u2019s the theme of New York. But I didn\u2019t finish it. I got there, and didn\u2019t finish the layup,\u201d Free said. \u201cSo Billy went to the coach and said, \u2018Get him out of the game.\u2019 I didn\u2019t play much for two months after that. That\u2019s when I had to learn the difference between streetball and this ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free might\u2019ve understood the difference as a rookie but still blurred the lines for much of his 13 NBA seasons. A combo guard who averaged over 30 points in a season for the Clippers, Free dazzled with his showmanship, 44-inch vertical leap, an eagerness to shoot and one of the best names in sports.<\/p>\n
Now 71, and 35 years removed from retirement, Free had mostly given up on the Hall of Fame \u2014 at least until last month, when the Brooklyn product was nominated by the veterans committee for the 2025 class. Finalists are to be announced on Valentine\u2019s Day, with other candidates including Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Doc Rivers and Paul Silas.<\/p>\n
Free\u2019s credentials suggest he\u2019s a long shot for Springfield \u2014 most notably the lack of team success when Free was a leading scorer \u2014 but the selection process is shrouded in mystery and difficult to predict.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a tear-dropping moment if I got in,\u201d said Free, who was only once an All-Star despite averaging over 20 points for his career with the Sixers, Warriors, Cavaliers and Rockets. \u201cTo go through all the things I had to go through to get to where I was in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free grew up in the same Brownsville projects as Mike Tyson, who was younger but nonetheless memorable \u2014 \u201che was Dirty Mike back then,\u201d Free said. His model in the pros \u2014 for both basketball and clothing styles \u2014 was Walt Frazier.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in my era, it was showing that we could do things without sticking people up and robbing people,\u201d Free said. \u201cYou could do different things. Sports were the vehicle to get me out the hood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like any NYC player worth anything back then, Free built a reputation on the streetball courts, touring the boroughs and battling with Brooklyn\u2019s finest James \u201cFly\u201d Williams and Phil \u201cThe Thrill\u201d Sellers.<\/p>\n
Free\u2019s own famous name was forged on the Brownsville court.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst they called me \u2018All World,\u2019 \u201d said the man who at birth was named Lloyd Bernard Free. \u201cThen they called me \u2018Kangaroo,\u2019 because I could jump. But then one time, I went to the basket, we had about 1,000 people out there in the park for a tournament, and I went up real high and a defensive person was in front of me, but I did a complete 360-degree turn on him, and did a Darryl Dawkins dunk \u2014 that\u2019s how high I was up.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the crowd was just like, \u2018Ohhh, that\u2019s World.\u2019 The crowd was like, \u2018Worrlld.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1981, he legally changed his name to World B. Free. It was a genius branding move and also fit the style of a Brooklynite who wasn\u2019t shy about taking shots. <\/p>\n
Over an eight-season stretch of his prime, Free never averaged fewer than 22.5 points or 17.8 field-goal attempts for a season and wouldn\u2019t have had it any other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I played the game, I know people didn\u2019t think it was the right way. But it was the way I grew up, and it was something \u2014 it was always good for me. I enjoyed playing the game,\u201d Free said. \u201cThat was the knock on me \u2014 \u2018He\u2019s going to shoot. He\u2019s shooting before he gets into the building. And he\u2019s taking these long shots.\u2019 Well, yeah, I was taking those shots. But those shots are going in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic World B. Free couldn\u2019t help himself. His NYC side had to show. Free was a Sixers rookie on a fast break in 1975, running a two-on-one scenario with veteran and venerable teammate Billy Cunningham alongside him. \u201cI saw Billy,\u201d Free, a recent first-time Naismith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":180672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-180671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180673,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180671\/revisions\/180673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}