B. Patrick
As a basketball fan, I have always had a love for the lesser known, obscure and/or underappreciated. At school, when most kids were wearing Penny Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal or Michael Jordan jerseys, I was wearing Bobby Hurley, Derek Harper and Dino Radja.
This is my open tribute to the lesser known players in today’s game. This is Spotted on the Pine.
JARVIS VARNADO
Name: Jarvis Varnado
Team: Miami Heat
Jersey Number: 24
Rookie Year: 2012-13
Drafted: 2010 Draft, Round 2, 41st overall
College: Mississippi State
Twitter: @RealSwat32
In last week’s entry, I covered a member of Los Spurs in honor of San Antonio reaching the NBA Finals.
The Eastern Conference just wrapped up their Conference Finals, so I feel it is only fair to choose a player from El Heat. Seeing as this is Miami’s third consecutive trip to the Finals, it is a little harder to have someone on their roster go unrecognized. This isn’t even factoring in a team like the Heat features players that were former All-Stars playing in roles at the end of the bench.
People know Joel Anthony but his topless profile picture on the Heat website was almost seductive enough to have me write on someone that is vaguely familiar!
Instead, I decided to write on the guy who may be the least known member of the Heat. I also like to think much like others I have featured to date, he has also some talent that people don’t know about.
This week, let’s look at big man on the Heat bench, Jarvis Varnado.
A native of Fairfax, Virginia, Jarvis Varnado’s first step toward the NBA began when he joined the Mississippi State Bulldogs in 2006. Jarvis would play in 35 games that year and work his way into the starting lineup for 13 games as a Freshman. He caught the attention of some Bulldogs fans, when his 67 blocked shots broke MSU’s freshman block record held by former first-round pick and NBA player, Erick Dampier. The 67 blocks ranked Jarvis 5th overall in the SEC that season and also made him tied for 7th in the nation. With a few big spark games, Varnado showed promise averaging 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds in the regular season. His growth continued for that season’s NIT tournament as in MSU’s three games, he averaged 8.0 points and 6.3 rebounds.
With this production, Jarvis moved into becoming a permanent starter as a sophomore. With more time on the floor, he led the nation in blocked shots in the 2007-08 season with 157. The massive amounts of blocks, among other feats, led to Varnado being recognized as the top defensive player in not only the SEC, but the entire nation. The 157 total blocks also matched the SEC single-season record set in 1991-92 by some Louisiana State center named Shaquille O’Neal.
These records and accolades would continue for the rest of Varnado’s days at LSU. He would be named the top defender in the SEC multiple times, becoming the first player to win three years in a row. He would make All-SEC teams.
His biggest accomplishment would still be crushing the world with his shot blocking ability. In his Junior season, Jarvis broke the SEC blocks record with 170 blocks. By November of 2009, early in his senior season, he would pass Shaquille O’Neal’s all-time SEC blocked shot record with his 413th block.
In January 2010, he would pass Adonal Foyle to move into second all-time Division I shot blocker, enraging Colgate fans everywhere, who had felt that sense of relevance for a decade. This would only be topped on February 24, 2010. In a game against Alabama, Varnado moved into the all-time Division I Block Shot leader, passing Wojciech Myrda’s 535 career blocks.
(Note: For those who are hearing Mydra’s name for the first time, Mydra played from 1998 to 2002 at the University of Louisiana at Monroe in the Southland Conference and despite being an all-time Division I record holder, never got a shot at the NBA.)
Varnado would break this record early enough in the season and block shots with such frequency that he would break the all-time record by 29, ending his career with 564 blocked shots. In fact, Varnado is just one of two college players in history to have 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 blocks. The other guy? David Robinson.
With his production, Varnado did get some looks during the 2010 NBA Draft but dropped to the second round. Selected by the pre-Lebron era Miami Heat at 41, Jarvis instead opted to start his professional career overseas, joining Italian club Carmatic Pistoia. The results were not too shabby, as he averaged 15.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks during his 33 games in Italy.
With some international seasoning under his belt, Varnado would play with the Heat in the summer but went and played in Israel during the 2011-12 NBA Lockout. He left his team shortly after the lockout ended but went back to Italy playing for Pallacanestro Virtus Roma, a team in a more premiere Italian league.
He would participate in Heat summer workouts but the reigning champions would waive their rights before the season began, leading to Jarvis to start the 2012-13 season in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
His impact was immediate, being named the first Player of the Week of the D-League season and becoming quickly recognized as the top potential call-up candidate. In 10 games in the developmental league, Jarvis was averaging 14.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.9 blocked shots in 30.5 minutes per game.
This was enough to get the attention of the injury plagued Boston Celtics, who brought in Jarvis on a short term contract on December 24th for some big man help. However, the Celtics rarely would use Varnado and cut him free on January 6th.
Jarvis didn’t wait long for another offer, as his original team, the Miami Heat gave him a 10-day contract on January 9th, 2013. The Heat would give Jarvis a second 10-day contract and then retain his services for the rest of the season.
Jarvis has not had a lot of play time this season and ended up getting sent back to Sioux Falls two more times by the Heat. As Miami enters the Finals against the Spurs, Varnado still awaits his playoff debut. Could his services be needed against some of the Spurs bigs? Time will tell but one thing is for sure, every team can use a shot-blocker and Jarvis has done that on every level where he has received an opportunity to play.
