Best athlete of all time and certainly the best handles any basketball player ever? Allen Leavell. My favorite thing about him is that he didn’t scare the ever living **** out of me every single time he was dribbling up court…
Athleticism is drastically misunderstood. Both Luka and Harden are exceptional athletes because they’ve got outstanding / outlier functional athleticism to pair with their BBIQ (deceleration, rhythm etc). I’d venture to say that Sengun is an exceptional athlete because of his outlier flexibility (hence functional athleticism).
The Wilt BS is still pretty funny to me. I imagine the same marks that buy into the Wilt legend are probably the same people that dead ass believed Vanilla Ice was "from the streets" because that's the BS propaganda that was put out about the time his album dropped. Wilt was an athletic 7'1 guy who dominated during an era of unathletic 6'6 centers... then disappeared overnight the second more 7 footers joined the league. Just about any modern big would bully him completely off the court.
Best athlete Ive seen? Bo Jackson “You don’t know Bo” Jordan also For the all-time Rockets Early Olajuwon was lightning bull in a China shop Both Jordan and Olajuwon takes on the other team by themselves because their athletic gifts are more supreme than whoever is guarding them. They are also in the beginning stages of learning to pass and trust their teammates. this year’s Rockets I like Amen Jalen is athletic as well as Cam can’t wait for our young Rockets to out athlete the competition this season
We need to run this season, this roster deserves it. Demons in transition: Jalen Cam Amen Tari Headache for their position: Jabari Sengun Udoka, FVV and Brooks need to pick up the pace this coming season. Amen and Reed have to help here. You cannot convince me a roster this deep, young and athletic shouldn't be attacking opponents fast all game. We're going to end up fresher than our opponents in the 4th and it gives our scorers a chance to attack defenses before they get set. We can lead the league in transition points - that would be a major boost to our offense.
This is largely correct on the offensive side of the ball, except being bullied. He was legitimately one of the strongest players to ever play the game. Even when the competition changed and he had to deal with multiple tall guys he was still a force defensively and rebounding. He is way down the list as far as all-time centers on my list. His offensive records were set in an era of 3 giant centers and a bunch of 6-5 guys. He literally could just stand under the basket, receive a past and finger role it into the basket. It was like a parent playing 1 on 3 against his 8 year old kids.
Agree wholeheartedly with this. If Ime lets FVV go back to dribbling the air out of the ball, I’ll be livid. This team is built for speed. I think gradually FVV needs to be more off ball than on ball.
He was a force up until he picked up his 5th foul, at that point he'd stop even pretending to play defense because it was more important to him that he not foul out than it was for him to help his team.
When you made this thread 90% of this board thought anything regarding Amen's athleticism was made up or was over hyped. " He only looks athletic against 15 and 16 year olds" was clutchfans go to line at that time. Glad he made them look like idiots. He will continue to. His athleticism should have never been up for debate. Anyone who actually watched him pre draft shouldn't have taken offense to the "best athlete they had seen" comment. Ime kind of backed the comment up after his workout. The next great debate regarding Amen is can he or will he ever start at the 1 lol. You know... cause he can't shoot. It will be interesting to see who was right or wrong in that debate too. Regardless I hope he shows out this year. If this team has any hope of contending for a title with this group, I think he is the engine that could make it all work.
During his last three years, from ages 34-36, he led the NBA in rebounding and was twice on the first team All-Defensive. I wouldn't call that disappearing and there's no modern big that would bully him off the court.
Wilt isn't being able to stay on the court against pretty much any modern big, he'd instantly be in foul trouble and then he'd stop giving any effort whatsoever. Guys like Jokic, Giannis, and Embiid would eat him alive on both ends of the court....but that's obvious. Even guys like Clint Capela would be more than Wilt could handle given that he never had to go against that kind of size and athleticism while playing. I get the legend, but it doesn't match up with reality.
As a kid, I saw him play more than once. You're wrong. But that's obvious. *Young Kareem was better than those guys and old Wilt took him to school one year before he retired. **And the idea that twig Capela would pose a problem for Wilt on either end is laughable.
Wilt Chamberlain born in the 90's or later, with all of the modern nutrition/fitness/medical advancements and the heightened emphasis on off-season work....I'm pretty sure he'd be an absolute beast. Mickey Mantle might have hit 800 HRs if modern medicine could have fixed his knees and the baseball culture didn't promote booze and amphetamines. Imagine Jim Brown nowadays?
Dude, this is a horrible take. For example... Dream is my all time favorite athlete. Not just BB, but any sport. I highly doubt that ever changes. If he was playing during the Wilt and Russell era, he'd be the best all time big AND have the numbers and rings to back it up. To think Wilt wouldn't have as much success during the last 20-30 years is crazy. He wouldn't hit 50 PPG in a season or a 100 pc, but he'd still be very good. He was strong as a bull, ultra athletic, with great vision who could move the ball, shoot like Duncan and was very smart. Did I mention he was 7'1, 275 with a 50 inch vert and a 4.6 40. Oh and he could bench 500 pounds so.... there's that. I think you are right about one thing, he was a legend.
The most athletic/fastest/strongest(by far) Center wouldn't be able to stay on court with Jokic/Giannis/Embiid etc....... And got the nerve to call others insults about NBA game Must be some goid herbs or some strong laced up rails work going on in that bubble world of thought Wilt would eat them alive for breakfast lunch n dinner n late nite snack
Sure, I can agree that if these athletes were born in a different era, and they trained better, they'd have a shot at being top tier athletes today....but it's not a given. The point was that the guy who Wilt was wouldn't be considered a top tier athlete today. Standards are just SOOO much higher. It's not just him though, there isn't an athlete from the 60's that would be considered an elite athlete today. For example, in 1968, the world record in the 100m was 9.95...today the qualifying time for the Olympics is 10.0....the fastest person in the world would BARELY meet the standards to even be considered to qualify....and the guy who landed the 3rd and final spot on the US 100m squad ran a 9.88 The margin for error these days is razor thin so we can't assume that a guy like Wilt, who got by on natural athleticism that was considered freak at the time but would be nothing special today, would step his game up to a whole new level today. The modern NBA has an entire graveyard of super athletic guys who couldn't measure up that would have absolutely dominated Wilt's NBA with ease. I know a lot of us old guys don't want to hear that ****, but it's still the truth. We also need to accept the fact that A LOT of the more extravagant claims made about old school legends were outright BS. Wilt really might not even be an NBA caliber player today, Satchel Paige would get rocked by AA hitters today, Earl Campbell probably doesn't make it in the current NFL....4.6 40 speed was all world back in 1978....but it would make him one of the slower NFL RB's today and probably the slowest starting RB (I'm not going to take the time to confirm, so feel free to debunk it if I'm wrong) I think we all realize this if we're honest with ourselves, but it sucks to think that about the legends of the past.
Neither would Babe Ruth or Joe Montana or Walter Payton or Larry Bird...what's the point? You can't compare disparate eras.
