Josh Smith has been getting a lot of recognition of late for his prowess in the genre of blocking shots. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as a) he is second in the league at 3.1 rejections per game, and b) he's pretty much been knocking out every "youngest person to ever block x amount of shots" record ever since he got to the NBA.

I mention this today for two reasons. One, the bloggers at Empty The Bench have listed their rankings of the best shot-blockers in the NBA, and Smoove checks in at #5.

I might quibble with putting Yao Ming in front of him on this list since his height has so much to do with his prowess (whereas I think Josh is incredibly skilled at rejecting shots), but otherwise, I'd say this list looks about right.

If you want to see Smith at his finest, check out this compilation of his best blocks of 2007 courtesy of NBA video (#1 can be seen above.

He may need work on his three-point shooting, but when it comes to sending basketballs into the seats, there are few better than Atlanta's own Josh Smith.