Hate him or love him, he was just commenting on Shaq's comeback from injury during the Miami-Detroit game on ESPN. He compared Shaq's performance to those of the immortals, "Hakeem Olujawon, Wilt, and Russell". He mentioned Dream before Wilt and Russell. Coming from another all-time great center in Walton, it should mean something. Then, they showed Walton's "5 greatest centers" list, and he had the following: 1) Russell 2) Wilt 3) Kareem 4) Dream 5) Shaq Anyways, just thought I would throw that out there...
I like Walton, I met the guy a couple years back. he's not one of those dudes who shows up for the paycheck. he loves talking about basketball. he's not a big JVG fan, but he likes Yao. His podcast on ESPN this week is a tribute to Dennis Johnson. Its good.
If you missed it during pregame i was amazed at Tim Legler's analysis of the 5 greatest Centers of all time. 1. Bill Russell 2. Kareem Abdul Jabbar 3. Wilt Chamberlain 4. Shaquille O'Neal 5. Moses Malone No Dream.
He lost all credibility when he said the Suns defens was better then ours. I love his enthusiasm for the game, but the dude might be dumber then Barkley. Or at the least should think twice in his head before speaking.
50% of the time, he says stuff just to draw reactions. Unfortunately, that's encouraged in sports journalism. Not to beat a dead horse, but saying that we should fire JVG is as bad...
If I tell you that Bill Walton spends hours thinking about all the crazy things he's going to say on TV, would you believe me?
You have to realize that he can't be Bill Walton unless he says something moronic on a regular basis.
I still place Hakeem over Wilt, Kareem, and Russell. The level of competition in the NBA was might higher when Hakeem was there. A lot of wilt's skill came because no one knew how to guars someone that tall at that time. Kareem didn't play D. But Bill Russell was SO GOOD that he's the ONLY center that I could justifiably see put above Hakeem. Still think Hakeem's better though.
Walton also said last night there were 5 teams in the running for the ring: Dallas Phoenix San Antonio Detroit Miami LOL. With a healthy Yao, we can blow out either Eartern team and we've got a decent shot at the top 3 in the West.
I understand why he would list those 5 ahead of the Rockets. Would be interesting to see who #6 would have been. If he put the Jazz or any other EC team ahead of us, then he would have no credibility at all IMO. If the Rockets start piledriving teams after Yao comes back, we will make everyone's top 5 list; but not before.
Russel is overrated, his teams were stacked and he was a horrid offensive player. So if you put Hakeem on that level your definately underrating him
You have to be kidding. Maybe you are confusing him with Rodman or Ben Wallace. On a team laden with scorer,s he was comfortable doing all the dirty work, but he still averaged 15.1 ppg for his career. Oh yeah, and 22.5 boards per game, with 9 rings. Russell, Jordan, and Wilt are the three greatest players ever. Hakeem is in the next rung, with Magic, Bird, Oscar, Jerry West, and Kareem.
