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Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye pick their most underrated NBA players from 2000s
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- Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye pick their most underrated NBA players from 2000s
While the 2000s were dominated by household names like Kobe Bryant , Tim Duncan , LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal, several other players carved out a place for themselves with their all-around play and torrid scoring. One player whom former NBA champion Richard Jefferson still remembers and is in awe of to this day is Andrei Kirilenko , a 6'9″ russian forward who was picked 24th in the first round of the 1999 NBA Draft.
It took Kirilenko a few years before he finally got to play for the Utah Jazz . But once he did, he never looked back, establishing himself as a disruptor and a unique defensive force.
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Blessed with long arms, subtle athleticism and a defensive tenacity comparable, Kirilenko could shut down anyone on the floor, from cat-quick guards to burly big men. This ability earned him All-Star and All-Defensive Team honors in his 13-year NBA career. But more than any of his statistics, what Jefferson remembered most about Kirilenko was how much of a problem he was to deal with on the hardwood floor.
Jefferson picks Kirilenko
Kirilenko was a vital part of the Jazz teams that consistently made the postseason in that decade. He first teamed up with Jazz icons Karl Malone and John Stockton, later working with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer to lead Utah to the Western Conference finals in 2007, where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs .
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Jefferson recalled Kirilenko's subtle greatness, saying the latter played his role to a T. However, when he looked at the box score once the game ended, he would be surprised to learn that Kirilenko had stuffed the stat sheet.
"People are like, ' Andrei Kirilenko ?' I'm like, 'Yes.' Because you'd look up and he would have 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four blocks, three steals and four offensive rebounds. And you're just exhausted," Jefferson stated .
"It wasn't 30 points. It wasn't any of that. But there are always those dudes where you know their name, but you don't understand how they were such a problem," he added.
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Frye picks Ellis
Channing Frye cited high-scoring guard Monta Ellis as another underrated star of that era. A 6'3″ guard who the Golden State Warriors selected in the second round in 2005, Ellis went on to win the Most Improved Player award, and during his peak, was a durable and dependable scoring threat who once averaged 25.5 points during the 2009-10 season.
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"Listen, when I had to play him the first time, I said, 'Uh-uh. Nah, brother.' I said, 'Did you run track?' He said, 'Nah, this is just what I do,'" Frye, who won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, shared.
Frye said Ellis was unstoppable mainly because he combined his quickness and scoring chops into one devastating package in an era when most players had just one attribute, not both.
"I'll tell you, I've played some fast dudes. John Wall, crazy fast. Gilbert (Arenas), crazy fast. Tony Parker, quick, but still fast," he continued, stressing that Ellis could beat all the aforementioned All-Stars up and down the floor.
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A substantial reason why the NBA is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world is the fact that even if a player isn't as popular as, say, James or Steph Curry , it doesn't mean he can't impact a game in the same way a big-name star usually does.
Related: Sophie Cunningham learned a lot from analyzing the NBA: "They don't have a brain, we do"
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Aug 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
