Presenting the most Boris Diaw anecdote imaginable

The beauty of Boris Diaw's NBA career has always been the juxtaposition of his plump, indifferent appearance with remarkable innate talent. As this wonderful Marc Stein feature reveals -- and there's way more good stuff in there besides this anecdote -- Diaw isn't just deft. He's got some genuine bounce buried in there as well:

"Boris walks into the gym one day wearing flip-flops and holding his customary cappuccino, which was a staple for him every morning," Griffin recalled. "It was during pre-draft workouts, so he sees the Vertec [machine] and asks what it is.

"We tell him it measures your vertical leap by determining how many of the bars you can touch. He asks what's the highest anyone has ever gone, and we tell him Amare' [Stoudemire] cleared the entire rack.

"Boris puts down the cappuccino, takes off his flip-flops and clears the entire rack on the first try. Then he calmly puts his flip-flops back on, picks up his cappuccino and walks away, saying, 'That was not difficult."

Amar'e Stoudemire's pre-draft vertical was measured at 32 inches standing and 35.5 inches max. Boris Diaw -- albeit a young, slenderer Boris Diaw -- matched that in one try, barefoot, with a belly full of coffee and probably a pastry or six. And then he said, "That was not difficult."

Apocrypha or not, I hope this story is factored into NBA Finals MVP voting. Flying Barefoot Cappuccino Frenchman 4 MVP!