I just watched Ralph Sampson on ESPN a couple of hours ago and came to the conclusion that had he stayed healthy that the origanal Twin Towers with Akeem would have been better than San Antonios version of the Twin Towers with David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Damn, Sampson could dominate like very few when he was on his game. It was great to see him on ESPN. It brought back a lot of memories. I think the one player that compares to him today is Kevin Garnett. Sampson had more hight and was better close to the basket than Garnett though. They showed Sampson on one play out jump everyone and with those super long arms, grab an offensive rebound and just put the ball right back into the basket over the heads of everyone else. There is no doubt in my mind that if Sampson in his prime played center in todays league he would be either the best or second best center in the game today. Only Shaq with all his mass would give Sampson problems. Sampson had much better fundamentals than Shaq and could do many more things IMO. I don't think David Robinson would be any match for Sampson. Robinson is just the kind of guy that Sampson would dominate. Throw in Dream which is one of the top 10 all time greats of the game and I just don't see San Antonios front court being as good as the Rockets. So do I have a sever case of homeritas? Am I so biased twords the Rockets that I am fooling my self or was Ralph Sampson really that good? I say if had stayed healthy that he would have been one of the all time greats. ------------------ [This message has been edited by crash5179 (edited May 17, 2001).]
Sampson had a prime? Who knew? ------------------ I always thought "With my talent, it's only a matter of time before I'm discovered". Now I think "With my talent, it's only a matter of time before I'm found out".
Here's his stats for his first three years in the league: 83-84 21 ppgs 2.4 blks 11.13 rebounds Rookie of the year All Star 84-85 22 ppgs 2 blks 10.4 rebounds All Star All Star game MVP 85-86 19 ppg 11 rpg 1.5 blks All Star NBA Finals Appearance I would call that a pretty good prime! ------------------
I always thought an athlete's prime years were roughly between the ages of 25-30, after getting past the rookie learning curve and before age catches up. The only stats you provided were during his early seasons. Even those years show a small decline instead of steady improvement. What happened after 1986? So I ask again: Sampson had a prime? ------------------ I always thought "With my talent, it's only a matter of time before I'm discovered". Now I think "With my talent, it's only a matter of time before I'm found out".
Behad: Sampson had a prime spot on the IR list after 86 . ------------------ I would believe only in a God who could dance. - Friedrich Nietzsche Boston College - NCAA Hockey National Champions 2001
I don't think there is any specific age that a player is considered to be in his prime. I always considered a player to be in his prime when his game was at his best. Ralph was clearly at his best in the three years that I mentioned. In the middle of 86 Sampson took a bad fall against Boston and was carried off on a stretcher. He had been completely dominating that game. Watching the replay of Shawn Marion getting carried off on a stretcher earlier this year reminded me of the Sampson fall in 86. I always thought that that was the begining of the end for him. He seemed to loose some of his fire after that. He did however maintain enough to help Akeem lead the Rockets to the NBA Finals that year. The following year he blew out a knee. He was later packaged with Steve Harris to Golden State for Sleepy Floyed and Joe Barry Carrol. He never made it fully back before again injuring his knee. Ralph Sampson clearly had a tremendous amount of tallent and would have been an easy selection for the Hall of Fame at the end of his career had he stayed healthy. If the three years that I pointed out were not Ralphs prime then they were certainly a lot better than most players prime years. I would love to have someone of Sampsons caliber on our team in the front court now. ------------------
After 99 Spurs' Championship, I read from a site a comparison between the 2 twin-towers. You have to forgive them for giving Spurs tower more credits because it was only a few weeks after the finals. Anyhow, their conclusion is that Spurs twin towers are better because of better chemistry, because Robinson is willing to take a back seat. If you look at the stats, Rockets' twin towers had similar stats to Spur's. However, the site gave them lower ratings because Akeem and Ralph were both bad-tempered guys at that time. ------------------
KD, No doubt Akeem and Ralph had a mean streak that was usually evident when things were not going good. For me that was part of their charm, they hated to loose. Of course as players grow you always hope they learn how to temper their anger the way Akeem did after he became Hakeem. It is a sure sign of maturity. But as young players I love to see that fire that we saw in the origanal Twin Towers. ------------------
Well personally I think Sampson and Olajuwon were a little better than the duo of Robinson and Duncan. A lot of people see Sampsons height and think of him as a center or slow Power Forward but the guy could really run the floor and could actually bring the ball up court(not with much pressure on him but still).Both Dream and Ralph were both really great ALL around players that can do pretty much anything.If you see the early highlights you can see them just standing there in the post like a game of king of the hill waiting for blocked shots and on the offensive end one would shoot,if he missed the other would be right there to clean up every time,it was like volleyball to them! No one my not agree with me but if there was no injury to Sampson there would of been the legacy of Dream and Ralph instead of Phil,Jordan,and the PIP(maybe 7 in a row)!They were unstoppable and feared by most and I just wished we could have seen more of Sampson play.I mean he could/and probably would have been a top 50 player of all time!!! 1 question how well could Sampson pass? ------------------ If I had only 1 wish it would be that I had a big enough @ss the whole world could kiss-Eminem
Sampson could pass. Mostly because of his size he was a great (not good but great) outlet passer. When he got a defensive rebound he almost always found the open man streaking down the court for a fast break. Imagine for a minute that John Lucas did not loose control of his drug problem. Imagine Lewis Lloyed and Mitchell Wiggins did not get popped for drugs. Imagine that Sampson did not end up with injury problems that stole his skill. I think it would be easy to picture at least a couple of championships in the 80s and some in the 90s. The Rockets and the Bulls could have been the Lakers and the Celtics of the 90s. It would have been fun to watch. ------------------
I think the Spurs tandem is better, because they unlike our old tandem brought their city a championship. Their tandem was a lot more experienced and disciplined than our tandem. As far as talent level, the two tandems are probably close to each other. But luckily, Hakeem after he matured, brought us 2 championships basically by himself. ( He got a lot of help from Mr. Drexler the 2nd year though)
Duncan is the better player of the two now. Dream smacked robinson and in his prime could've took duncan. Sampson could have been just as good as Dream and was expected to be better, they also would've hit their prime at the same time so I have to go with the originals on this one. The only thing is that Dream would've been a power foward and one of the best of all time. ------------------
I agree with everything you say except for Akeem being a PF. That role was Sampsons because at the time he was more skilled handling the ball and playing away with from the basket than Dream. I will say that in Dreams more mature years he may have been more suited to play PF than Ralph much like Duncan does for SA but if Ralph had stayed healthy I don't think the Rockets would have changed. I think Dream would have remained at the 5 and Ralph would have remained at the 4. ------------------
People talk about Sampson and look at his stats and say what a wonderful player he was. I agree the numbers are good and that he was a very good player. But there'd be just as many fans cussing him out today as there were back then because he was inconsistent. There'd be nights when Ralph was MIA for who knows what reason. He could go off for 30 and 15 one night and go for 10 and 4 the next. He was aggravating to watch at times simply because he thought he was a guard. He would try to push the ball up the court always risking it getting stolen by some gnat of a PG. He also wasn't as tenacious as people say. There would be games where he would be overpowered and timid going to the glass. I love Ralph and feel sorry for his injuries, because it cut short what could have been a great career. However, of the 4 players you mentioned he'd be the last to get drafted on my team. Hakeem, Tim, and Robinson were on another level because in their prime they brought/bring it every night for the most part. ------------------ NBA Draft Lottery is May 20th. Start praying now.
Talking about consistency, I have the impression that Hakeem is one of the most consistent great players. For sure, Iverson is way behind in this category. Has anyone ever tried to plug the stats into a statictical software to calculate the variance? It would be interesting to see among the superstars, who is the most consistent? It seems to be Duncan at this point in time. ------------------
I agree with most of what you say. One of the things that Sampson was critisized for was lakc of heart back then. But he was still so young. Even Dream was inconsistant at times in the early years. I think as Ralph matured he would have been much more consistent. I would take Ralph over Robinson any day just based on tallent and not knowing the injuries would eventually ruin his career. IMO Robinson is the all time soft big man in the history of the game. Sampson had his problems primarely against Karl Malone who first made a name for himself by talking a lot of smack about Sampson and then backing it up. But I don't recall anyone else dominating Ralph and Malone never dominated Sampson the way Dream dominated Robinson during Robinsons supposed MVP year. My Draft would go: Dream Duncan Sampson Robinson ------------------
