One day recently I heard The Spinners’ “The Rubberband Man” while running errands. That was a song I grew up on, since my parents were very much into the early 1970s soul sound. But I recall it most fondly because of former NBA player Paul Pressey.
While Pressey played his college ball at Tulsa, he earned the nickname “Rubberband Man” because of his dunking abilities. This was back in the day when dunks were simple and you earned a nickname simply if you dunked often.*
(Dr. J. Dr. Dunkenstein. Chocolate Thunder. Etc.)
During his senior season, I remember NBC having a feature about Pressey before their Saturday game of the week. Interviews with Pressey and his coaches, lots of highlights, all with The Spinners as soundtrack. I loved it. I decided when I grew up and played in the NBA, I, too, would be The Rubberband Man. I put my rather meager visual arts skills to work and drew a small poster of a anthropomorphic rubber band dunking the ball and stuck it to my wall. When I made it to the Show, this would be my logo.*
(I was years ahead of Jordan when it came to logos!)
Obviously the NBA thing never worked out; I never even played high school ball. In college I got to the point where I could consistently dunk on a 9.5′ rim, and I could throw down some decent dunks at nine feet. But I don’t think I ever earned the label Rubberband Man. But I can always dream.
The Wikipedia tells me Pressey’s son will enroll at Missouri next year. If he’s the Little Rubberband Man, or something like that, he might instantly become my favorite MU player ever.