Seeing some of the older clips Arthur is posting reminded me of Donny Rhodes. I wondered to myself if any of the newer jammers had even heard of the name Donny Rhodes. He is one of the all time greats in my opinion. In his day he combined style and content better than anyone (I will write more about this later) and I don’t think you could have a top ten list without him on it. His creativity was awe inspiring and motivated me to explore this side of freestyle more than anyone. I remember meeting him in the late 70’s at "The Venice Green" in Los Angeles – at the time "The Venice Green" was a huge Mecca for jammers – and he was just a jammer, nothing spectacular, he had average skills, nice moves and a few combinations. Then met him again 1 year later and the transformation was truly epic. I have never seen anyone grow that much in a year. He was wielding a repertoire of skills that was jaw dropping – spins, form, creativity – he went from good and decided to skip getting better and went straight to being one of the best players in the world in one year. Never seen anything like it. Leg warmers anyone:)
I have 3 candidates who might go "Donny" on us next year in Seattle – Andrea Meola, Piccio Cusma & Fabio Sanna.
See you in Seattle!
Now go Jam!
While I agree that Donny Rhodes was quite the spectacular jammer and far better than most of the so-called Champions of today, using the term "who will go Donny on us" makes me a little uncomfortable if you know what I mean — anyone who was around during those days should understand this.