Long before LeBron, before Wade, before Kobe and even before Penny, there was Chris Jackson, Shaq's original unstoppable teammate. A man Coach Dale Brown once said was "a unique man who the good lord reached down and touched on the shoulder to give him special skills."

To most, the 6'1" Chris Jackson is known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf -- the man who refused to stand for the Nation Anthem. Some will remember him as the only NBA player with Tourette's syndrome. Some will remember him as the great free throw shooter who would have had an NBA record if it wasn't for Calvin Murphy jinxing the ball. Dunk fans might remember him as an NBA dunk contest contestant who never dunked in an NBA game. Angry Steph Curry fans know him as the guy Phil Jackson said reminded him of Steph. My memories of him go back to the late 80s when he was the most unstoppable offensive player in college basketball.

It only took a couple of weeks into his freshman season for Jackson to let the world know about his scoring abilities. He scored 48 and 53 points in the first month of his collegiate career. His season-high of 55 (with nine 3-pointers) against Ole Miss came soon after. He would go on to average 30 points as a freshman and set the NCAA freshman scoring record with 966 points.

His numbers took a slight dip during his sophomore season (28 PPG), but his game continued to improve and was as deadly as ever with the ball in hands. He scored 40+ points 11 times, 50+ points four times and topped his 3-point barrage against Ole Miss by hitting 10 3-pointers against Tennessee.

While Jackson was shattering offensive records, his new teammate, freshman Shaquille O'Neal, was shattering defensive records. The raw 286-pound freshman became the first SEC player to block more than 100 shots in a season and recorded two triple-doubles with blocks. Also on the team was the "better center" Stanley Roberts. Most people probably don't remember Stanley, who was the backboard breaking center for LSU and the Orlando Magic before Shaq, but Roberts was the better player back then. Sports Illustrated wrote an article about the first meeting between the two goliaths in practice and according to the story, Stanley Roberts had his share of dunks over Shaq and "rained jumpers over O'Neal." Shaq even said when he played in the NBA that Roberts was "the only one who ever really slowed me down. His game is just like mine: Big, funny, silly -- but he can shoot.  I can't."

Soon after that year, all three careers went in different directions: Shaq would go on to become one of the most dominant college and NBA players of all-time; Stanley Roberts would struggle with injuries and weight problems before being banned by the NBA in 1999 for drug violations; Chris Jackson had a slow disappointing start to his NBA career until winning Most Improved Player in 93. A couple of years later, he committed career suicide with his controversial stance on the National Anthem right when he was playing the best ball of his NBA career.

Regardless of how his NBA career controversially and unfairly ended, I don't think there's much to debate on the topic of how great he was in college. Great enough to be called one of the best freshman of all-time and great enough to be called one of the greatest NCAA scorers ever.

"He's a better human being than he is a basketball player," said Dale Brown during Jackson's freshman season. "He's just a very unusual person and a very unusual talent too. He's almost too good to be true."

Sources: Sports Illustrated, LA Times &  LSU Sports

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I still consider Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson) to be one of the greatest college scorers and best college freshman ever. He scored 48 and 53 in the first month of his college career, 55 a month later and ended his season with the NCAA freshman scoring record. During his sophomore season, he scored 40+ 11 times and 50+ four times. I forgot to mention he also has Tourette syndrome.

After being drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the third pick (behind Derrick Coleman and Gary Payton) in the 1990 NBA draft, he started his NBA career with a couple of disappointing seasons. Then he lost a few pounds, had a breakout season in 1993 and won the Most Improved Player award.

But it was his controversial 1995-96 season, when he averaged a career-high 19.2 points a game and played like Chris Jackson or (this is going to piss a lot of people off) Steph Curry before Steph Curry, that I rave about the most when his name is mentioned.

The season started off with a 32 & 13 game against the Lakers. He followed that up with 30 and 9 against the Spurs. Then in mid-November, he exploded for 30 points, a career-high 20 assists and 8 rebounds in a triple OT win over the Suns. It did take him 56 minutes to get those numbers and he did miss 15-of-27 attempts but it was still an exceptional and very entertaining performance.

A week after this game, he put up 39 & 10 vs the Mavs and then a week after that, he blew up for 51 with nine 3-pointers in a win against John Stockton and the Jazz!

Unfortunately, the only thing most people remember about this season is how it ended and pretty much ended his NBA career. If you want to know more about why it ended and the National anthem controversy then you can Google it. I just want to focus on what he did before the incident, and why I constantly bring his name up when I watch Steph Curry play.

CHRIS JACKSON /  MAHMOUD ABDUL-RAUF MIXTAPE

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf!

(Via @Hoopmixtape) pic.twitter.com/LxO9U2dyec

— David Astramskas (@redapples) July 13, 2018

Another great upload by LamarMatic

The post Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's Unappreciated First Half Of The 1995/96 Season appeared first on www.ebooksnet.com.