Who Has a Better History of Big Men? LA Lakers or Houston Rockets

Sorry but I'd have to say Lakers in this case. Though I like the Rockets big men for their homegrown-ness compared to the mercenary nature of the Lakers' squad.

 

I think Elvin Hayes is vastly underrated on this board, simply because most people didn't see him play, and he only played one season in Houston during his prime before being sold off for peanuts, because ownership didn't want to pay him what he was worth, a sadly recurring theme during the early years of the Houston Rockets (see Malone, Moses). The first season of the expansion Rockets saw them at 15-67. They drafted Elvin #1 and he promptly won Rookie of the Year, going 28/17, and not only did they improve to 37 wins, they made it to the semi-finals of the Western Conference in their second year of existence. And this was a team with Pat Riley and Rick Adelman on the squad, great coaches long afterwards, but journeymen as players. Hayes is in the Hall of Fame, of course, winning a championship with Baltimore, and would probably have made it simply on the strength of his incredible career at UH, but he didn't need that college career to get in. His NBA career made him a lock.

I could go on about Moses, and Ralph, and Dream, and Yao, among others, but I'm on vacation in NYC, and will have to post more in the thread later. Need to read some more of the BBS! Great thread, crash, as per usual. -

I'll add that I am most definitely prejudiced towards the Rockets, but I don't need to be here. The Lakers and the Rockets, it could be argued, are equally blessed with great big men, but we drafted and grew ours. That wasn't the case with most of the Lakers big men, as has been pointed out. I think it makes the difference, that and Hakeem Olajuwon.

 

Anybody saying Houston is a shameless homer. It's really not even close. LA unquestionably has the best history of big men.

 

George Miken, I left him out, good pick up.

 

Thanks for the video, nice to see some that again.

 

george mikan sucks balls.

he became obsolete as soon as the nba instituted the shot clock.

people need to stop glorifying these 50s and 60s players to mythic proportions in order to preserve history.

IT IS INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST.

a lot of these guys wouldnt translate over to different eras.

 

Voted for the Rockets only because the Lakers list contains Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

 

Seriously underrating Kareem

 

I'm most offended someone actually ranks Ralph Sampson above Yao Ming.

 

Sigh. I wish this thread would just ask which team has a better history of centers.

OP, take out Bynum, Gasol, Thorpe and Barkley and you have a real poll. Much simpler.

 

Elgin Baylor was neither a big man or a post up player. He was a 6'5" SF slasher with acrobatic moves.

 

I mean does it have to be spelled out.

Milan: First great big man
Chamberlain: 100 point game, revolutionized camping in the paint
Abdul Jabbar: NBA all time scorer
Shaq: Dominant in his era although I feel that Dream is better but that's debatable.

The Rockets have an awesome lineage of of bigs but the Lakers impact is deeper, and I hate the Lakers. Just an opinion

 

Teach them all boss

 

***Mikan

 

Rudy t said to those non believers..

 

And back in the 50s and 60s, Dream woulda been called for traveling at least a dozen times a game... lol.
Don't disrespect players based on the level of competition they dominated.
jus sayin...

 

Wait wait wait....Kareem at 4? Behind Moses Malone?



The homer is strong in this thread