Kareem was clutch. Even when he was 40 years old, when the lakers need one last shot, Magic will pass it to Kareem. I think he is the best centre of all time.
I am old- I watched Lou Alcindor play for UCLSA and later the Bucks. He and an old Oscar Robertson won rings for Milwaukee. Kareem made his money at the very end of his career. I heard he had anger management problems, but what a dominant-consistent - long term player. LA was lucky to get him. When Steve Patterson was shopping Hakeem Olajuwon around- Magic Johnson made it clear they wanted Hakeem to carry the torch after Kareem retired. Per A-3Po "He showed his utter hatred for Bird on more than one occassion." I did not know this, but Bird would be very easy to hate.
Coasted!? He was the MVP in 75-76, 76-77, and 79-80 for crying out loud... (in addition to winning it 3 times in the early 70s...)
Assuming it hasn't been stated already, I'd just like to add he's on that Trivial Pursuit commercial dancing like a fool now.
He was 7'2" in an era when 7 footers was a novelty, not on every team. There were few of them and most of the time they were nothing but tall stiffs out there like Tree Rollins, Tom Burleson, Artis Gilmore etc. etc. And most of them didn't come along until Kareem had already been around 10 years. When he broke in the league, there was basically Wilt and nobody else at that point. Their matchups were the equivalent of Yao Shaq today. Most of the other centers of Kareem's era were space eaters like Lanier and Malone, who had no answer to the sky hook. Really, the 80s Kareem that played with Magic was at least 2 or 3 notches down from the dominant Kareem of the mid 70's. Still, the skyhook was unstoppable. There's no telling how many games he put away with that thing. When Magic came along with those great 80's teams, Kareem became recognized for the great court presence that he reall was. He had great vision and great basketball IQ. He could take the double team and he always found the open man, in most cases cutting to the bucket for the easy layup/dunk. He was incredibly efficient, had great soft hands, but still had plenty of strength to keep the ball away from swipers. Not the fastest by any means but fast enough with his offensive game and in his day, his up and down court game was great for a big man. He blocked plenty of shots, and intimidated plenty of others. He was a force. Contemporaries consisted of Alvin Adams, Jack Sikma, Sam Lacey, Joe Barry Carroll, Artis Gilmore, Lanier, Bob McAdoo, Dave Cowens, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld, Billy Paultz, Robert Parish, and Bill Walton all of whcih he routinely dominated. He took the mantle from Wilt and held it steadily until Moses came along. Moses tugged at it pretty hard but ultimately Kareem held onto it and finally passed it to Hakeem. He played against quite a few very good centers in his era but he dominated them in their one on one matchups and ultimately dominated the scoreboard as well. Walton and Moses and Parish may have had a moment or two against Kareem but he had many, many more moments over them. He may have been the GOAT at the center position. I rank him and Hakeem 1 and 1A still, and I don't know which one is 1.
Per Jopatmc" "He may have been the GOAT at the center position. I rank him and Hakeem 1 and 1A still, and I don't know which one is 1." Completely agree-very nice past. thank you
Yes, he coasted. MVP? He was 'heads and shoulders' better than others but the man c-o-a-s-t-e-d. Absolutely. And BTW I have always been a KAJ fan with some 'linkage'.
True. Calling him a stiff is just silly. He was ridiculous in college and was a 20/10 guy for 5-6 years of a very long and productive professional career.
Very nice, jopatmc. As you point out, Kareem was a great passer. He really was, and made it look effortless. Heck, a lot of his play appeared effortless, which is one of the reasons you'll hear people say he'd coast. I'm not saying he didn't "coast" for long stretches, because by his standards, I think he did, but he seemed to be able to turn it up whenever he needed to. I loved watching him play. We can only hope that Yao reaches the level of Kareem someday for finding the open man. You know, the guy was 38-39 when he played Akeem and Ralph in that '86 series, and he was still able to turn it up at that age. The Lakers were defending champs, and won the next season as well, right? Kareem had major problems with those two, however, and I think he would have had those problems, at any point in his career, had he played them when the pair was at that level... and especially the level they would have reached had Ralph not been injured against the Celtics in the Finals. (I'm sure some will disagree with me on that!)
