Truth? Hakeem was punked by an old broken down Kareem. Kareem most definitely held his own. Wilt was giving Kareem the business as an old man. Etc, etc, etc... I can only bring you to the water.
They are connected. You saying Bill, Wilt and Kareem wouldn't do well is the exact same thing as saying Hakeem wouldn't do well, because we have a connection in those timelines. Kareem was giving Jordan and Dream the business, pretty easily in fact as a 40 year old man. You know what's crazy, Wilt at 25 might have been better. Wilt was kissing the rim in Chuck Taylors.
Therefore Thon Maker would give Kareem thus Hakeem thus Shaq a run for their money. Incredibly stupid.
I watch how incredibly slow those motha****ers are.... Kevin Garnett in his prime would hurt these guys... If they were born in this generation with all that is available, things might have been different.
Either way, you guys are nuts if you don't think the players I listed couldn't get up and get a couple of blocks on these 'legends'. The velocity and power of any of the guys I mentioned going for a tomahawk jam would knock the wind out of these guys.
You transport Lebron back in time and they might as well shut down the season and hand him the trophy for 30 straight seasons.
If you let a prime Dwight play using the rules from when Russell played, against the players in the league when Russell played, he'd murder people.
I think people underestimate the old players. Humans have not changed that much. I think you'd be surprised at how the competitive nature is the same and that is a great equalizer. Evolution is fact, however, the best against the best would be real good.
Even no name guys in today's game move much faster than those old timers. As soon as Kareem, Wilt, or Bill put the ball on the floor it's gone... I watch the footage and adjust the video settings to make sure they aren't moving that slow but they are...
Evolution doesn't occur that fast in the time span of just a few decades. Modern men of 2016 aren't drastically different physiologically as men from the 1930s. Go back a few hundred years or a few thousand and we'd still not be starkly different from our ancestors besides maybe being taller. Better shoes, modern training methods, rule changes over time all change the scope of basketball eras. I've no doubt Wilt with today's training methods would be an even better athlete than he already was and would adapt to today's NBA rules and playstyle. Likewise for any of the greats. He may not average 50 pts and 25 boards in a single season but he'd no doubt be the best center in the NBA right now by a long shot. Whoever the second best center is would be a sizable tier below him IMO.
I don't know about Russell and I don't know if is a real champion but I know that no matter how any season ends, Dwight is still a champion. And he won't let anyone tell him different.
People greatly overestimate the players from the infancy of the NBA. As to saying "humans have not changed that much".....well that's just not accurate. Here's a fun way to see just how much peak athletes have changed http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-meter-dash-one-race-every-medalist-ever.html What would get you the gold in the 70's or 80's wouldn't even medal today. The NBA is no different, players today are bigger, faster and stronger on average. Someone like Dwight Howard would rag doll literally anyone from the NBA during Bill Russell's time and there's not a person from those days that could stop a guy like Howard from pushing them right under the basket. It's also important to remember that we're talking about Dwight Howard and not even the centers from the golden age of big men that was the 90's. Centers like Olajuwon, Shaq, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, or even Mutombo would have totally owned Bill Russell's NBA to the point where they might as well not even play the games. It would be like an adult playing against elementary school children....or probably a better analogy, it would be like Yao Ming playing in China. The competition was so inferior to the level the game was played at once the league was out of their infancy that no comparison is fair. You could take pretty much any starting center from the 90's and they'd own Russell and Wilt's NBA. Today there isn't much big man talent, so it's a bit different, but if you were to take someone like Lebron, Durant, or Anthony Davis and put them back in Russell and Wilt's NBA, whatever team they were on would win the championship literally every season for a decade during their prime.
No respect from the young bloods. Can't say I'm surprised. They don't know what they missed. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore, Bob McAdoo, Pete Maravich, Walt Frazier, Connie Hawkins, David Thompson, George Gervin, Rick Barry, Calvin Murphy all played against each other, and would easily be All Stars in today's NBA. If prime Kareem Abdul Jabbar were in today's NBA...
I'm not talking about the infancy of the NBA, a bunch of lumbering honkies (apologies to Bob Cousy). I'm talking the era starting in the late 60s/early 70s. Those guys were athletic and skilled. Sheesh, no one in today's NBA can come close to David Thompson's vertical.
That's still the NBA's infancy. Of those you named, some would be on NBA rosters if they played today, most wouldn't.
