Shawn Marion

Kenny Smith had watched one preseason of Shawn Marion and named him the Matrix, and on November 10, 1999 the nickname made its own case. Five games into his career, the ninth pick of the 1999 draft jumped a passing lane in New Jersey and pushed the ball ahead to Penny Hardaway, who never turned his head before flipping a lob back over his own shoulder. Marion ran it down and finished above the rim in a 104-89 Phoenix win. Everything the Suns would lean on for the next nine years sat inside that one sequence: the hands, the closing speed, the finish nobody else attempts. Four All-Star selections, a championship in Dallas and a number 31 in the Phoenix rafters followed. Marion finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, one steal and one block.