If you could take any player in the history of the NBA who would you start your team with? All these guys are in another stratosphere. I love Dream and believe him to be the best center of all time.He's definitely my favorite player by far. MJ is MJ.......Obviously a great argument could be made for him being the greatest player to ever lace them up. But if I was starting a team from scratch I would take the Magic man.He was a coach on the floor,could play every position,and came right into the League and changed things forever....helped save the NBA.People need to go back and watch those highlights if they haven't seen them recently.Watching Showtime was like seeing poetry in motion and Magic was the reason.
Magic is my all time favorite player to watch but ... The Showtime teams were loaded with talent. I am unsure if Magic were stuck with a bad team that he would be able to do anymore than say Lebron James has at Cleveland. We certainly had first hand experience with Dream coming into the league on a bad team and on a bad team after the entire backcourt got kicked for snorting coke. Kareem took a mediocre team to a championship (right?) when he came into the league. Oscar Robinson was on that team, but past his prime iirc. Really tough call to make.
I look at the talent in the League at the time of Magic and Bird and to me it was much higher. But more than anything when looking at that Lakers team(who I do see as probably the greatest team of all time) I see Magic and a deep team of guys filling roles.- Yes,they had a bunch of talent,but lets take a closer look. Kareem was in dinosaur mode at that point in his career.The guy was so great he was still better than just about anyone else at the time though. James Worthy is best remembered for his assaults from the wing.Those vicious dunks were set up by Magic.True until he broke down he had that sweet baseline move,but a little overrated IMO. Cooper was a defensive specialist who could drain that outside shot. Byron Scott was also more of a specialist,sticking that J. True the team was deep but IMO it was Magic that made it happen.He was the catalyst and would pick up the slack when needed.Like I said I would take them ahead of any team ever,but without the Magic Man they wouldn't have been even close to what they were. Just my take. They were a TEAM and it started up top.
I would go with the one player no other Center could stop, and that would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His skyhook was only blocked one time in his whole career (Courtesy of Houston Rocket's own Bill Willoughby). He is the one player who could dominate offensively in any era.
i think i would start my team with pistol pete maravich.... he was and 1 before there was and 1 he had the highest college point average... he was simply amazing and quite possibly one of the most underrated players ever.
Easily my choice is MJ. Magic was incredibly great, but if you put him on the Bulls they don't win 6 championships. If you put MJ on the Lakers, they might have won 8 or 9.
He was a great player and very entertaining, but I'd want a lot more than 44% shooting and little D from my franchise guy. Kareem Dream Wilt Russell MJ Magic Bird Jerry West Oscar Robinson Shaq would be the top 10, in their primes, to build around
I think you have to go with Magic. He could play all positions offensively and realistically guard a 1, 2, 3, or 4 on D. Assists, rebounds, points, team first. You'd have the luxury of getting the best available talent regardless of position with your second pick and know that Magic could make it work.
yeah i know he was blocked by Wilt.. it was either Wilt or Russell that blocked 2 sky hooks in a row on 1 possession, too. i'd go with Magic.. if Kidd could take crappy ass Nets teams deep in the playoffs, Magic could go nuts with anyone.. (in this era of no-real-PG's-remaining)
Russell retired after 1969, before Kareem entered the league. According to wikapedia, and my memory, the guys to block Kareem in his prime were Wilt and Artis Gilmore. The Wilt block was on TV when I was a kid-- in Kareem's rookie year as a Buck. TV games were big back then since there was only one or two a week, usually on Sunday afternoon. Late in his career he was stuffed by the likes of Manute Bol & Mark Eaton. He was also blocked by both Hakeem and Ralph Sampson in the 1986 Western Conference finals. I kind of doubt that any of the blocks except Wilt's were by defenders standing BETWEEN Kareem and the basket. He held it so far back and high you would have to go through his body unless you were helping out on the backside or coming from the side. Wilt would probably be the only guy with the reach and hops to possibly do that. You would need to reach a long way, many feet above the rim, to do that.
