CGB Hall of Fame Semifinal: (16) Lamond Murray vs. (4) Cameron Jordan

Results

We have our first two championship matches set!

• (1) Layshia Clarendon defeated (5) Dave Durden 58%-42% where she will face...
• (7) Russell White, who upset (3) Ron Rivera by a narrow 55%-45% margin.
• In our closest margin of victory of the season, (12) Desmond Bishop defeated (9) Jolene Henderson 50.47%-49.53%.
• Bishop will battle (7) Anthony Ervin, who posted an impressive 68%-32% upset over (3) Shane Vereen.  Vereen had an early lead until Ervin rallied his twitter followers for support.

(16) Lamond Murray

As for Murray, his nomination is all LeonPowe.

The best scorer I've ever seen at Cal - and I saw Ed Gray, Sean Lampley and ‘Reef play. Effortless, smooth jump shots, making 3s from all over, Mid range. Also had to play out of position at power forward due to Al Grigsby's (multiple) injuries. Buttery smooth left handed jumper. Led the Pac-10 in scoring (and maybe rebounding) one year. Of course, wasn't Pac 10 Player of the year due to another Cal player (um, Jason Kidd)

Couldn't find any clips of Murray at Cal on his own, mostly of him finishing off Kidd lobs. Enjoy some of his power finishes (it's scattered in here, he's Number 21)

He did have a productive NBA career, but was unfortunate to be drafted by the Clippers and hence spend most of his pro time in relative obscurity. It would not be a huge stretch to consider him one of the top ten Clippers ever. Nice tidbit: Teamed up with Kidd in New Jersey in his final season in the league.

And check out this unbelievable alley oop dunk from Jason Kidd:

RARE Jason Kidd to Lamond Murray for unbelievable dunks (via thebruceblitzchennel)

(4) Cameron Jordan

You really can't describe Jordan's game better than Avinash does in this in-depth analysis:

"Jordan is an athletic marvel, with incredible arms he can whip around offensive linemen. He's prototypically perfect, the type of defensive linemen you could put on any front and he'd probably succeed. Perhaps Jordan's greatest assets are his arms, those million dollar arms. If he manages to make contact with you on your side when pass-rushing, he will utilize that deadly swim move, cycle that arm around, and get into the backfield and make a play. You have to defeat him and lock him up early. And when he finds you and tries to make a tackle? Might as well get your mind set for the next play, because you're not escaping."

From Remembering the Seniors:

NorCalNick: I loved many things about Cameron Jordan. For one thing, he went to more Cal games than I did. Cal vs. Stanford rugby at Witter field? Cam was there. Cal women's basketball versus, well, a bunch of teams? Cam was there. And he always showed up pretty noticeably at football games too. College fans have this ideal that the players they root for love their university as much as they do, and it's not a realistic or fair ideal most of the time. I'm pretty sure that it describes Cameron Jordan.

Solarise: I think Cam was an ideal teammate. You can tell from his easy smile that he just enjoys playing football. Coaches asked Cam to bring more intensity his senior year and he delivered. Cam was dynamic crashing through the line pursuing QBs, even earning a LIFE photo for his heroic harassment of Nick Foles in a bitter loss.