[Fran Blineburry] Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Please.... If Yao played in the 1990s, he would be slightly better than Rik Smits and behind all of the others...

First Tier A: Dream, Shaq, D.Rob
First Tier B: Pat Ewing.
2nd Tier: Yao, Brad Daugherty
3rd Tier: Rik Smits.

 

We all know this for a fact.

Dwight Howard's popularity has sky rocketed cause he won the damn slam dunk contest.

 

but they also have to market the big men of this league. i mean you have the PGs (paul, nash, deron), SGs (kobe, wade), SFs (bron, melo), PFs (duncan, garnett, bosh), and C (yao, howard)

if they don't market howard, lol, the position would be even sadder.

 

speaking of cassell, i wonder why they haven't played him at all this season, it's not like he's uncle mutombo, he's only 39!!

maybe he is a secret weapon for them come playoff time...

 

Seriously... If Brad Daugherty was in the league today, he would be a perennial allstar. Its quite sad how Big Z might be the 2nd best C in the East today whereas 15 years ago, he would be average at best. You can't say for certain that he would be better than Rony Seikaly

 

nope samuel dalembert was the 2nd leading vote getter in the east. that's just sad for the state of the position.

rony seikaly would be 2nd tier in today's league, with yao and howard first tier.

 

I just remembered Kevin Duckworth and Vlade were in the league at that time also. Damn! Everynight you had a above average center.

 

Vlade was a great passer, however he brought the flop to the NBA and ever since changed the game for the worse.

 

I believe its over for Sam. He's just trying to learn to be a coach this year.

 

No arguing here. It's just funny how many familiar names at the center position there were.

 

you can easily name the center for each team back in the day.
now its hard.

 

We forget about Deke in 91 and zo in 92. I mean think about it, Moses was a all star up until what 89? Parish was a good center until 88, daughtery till 90 along with seikley in 89. So mix it up and in 1988, You had Moses,dream,Robinson in 89,Daughtery in 86,then in 91,92, came shaq,zo,deke and ewing was there back with dream and them. I mean it wasnt every night skull dugery, but there where some good players at the pivot. Then Shaq made guys not wanting to play center like Rasheed,Webber,Garnett and to a extend Duncan. David Robinson wasnt the bggest fellow, but he played center while guys like rasheed,joe smith,garnett, dirk and guys like that were scared to play center.

 

well lest we forget boozer owned yao the same way for an entire playoof series

 

The game was a little different back then, but I understand not by much. I'm not getting into stats either. Yao's numbers, while not horrible, aren't as good as those older guys.

I understand that Yao isn't the best defender out there, but do most of you really think he couldn't put up over twenty facing those guys consistently if thats what the team was built around?

Yes, he doesn't average over twenty now, but how many shots does he take? Never mind that he makes most of them and doesn't get a lot of calls.

Lets not just discount someone because we overlook the whole picture of the past.

On that note, if Wilt played in the relatively modern era would he have scored like he did?

 

Star players rarely get outplayed or cancelled out by mediocre players or players that they are suppose to be better than. Yao has far too many games of that type. That's why I don't think you can compare him to the upper echelon centers of the past.

 

Maybe, but he does seem to step up when playing Shaq, Dwight, etc. Its the scrubs that seem to give him trouble.

Not saying Jefferson is a scrub though.

 

Just goes to show that the age of great centers is dead. Shaq at 36 is still being compared to while the young'n DHo still has a lot to learn.

 

What's sad is that there was an influx of skilled post players. But like Leebigez wrote, any player over 6"10' with any remnance of post skill decided to play the PF position.

 

I think it is impressive that yao competes against these hybrid guys that are fast and can jump out of the stadium. If Yao played the slower centers of the past, it would be up his alley, since he is slow compared to the racecars that play today.
You can't even compare the athletes of today to the athletes from the 80's and before. I mean seriously, would a guy like Paul Mokeski even make the league if he were in his prime during the millenium? Brad daughterty? Good player but a slowpoke too. To think the centers of the past were that much better than todays centers is laughable. Kevin duckworth? good player, but you think he could check dwight howard? With the unprecedented growth of the popularity of the NBA (national and international) the players nowadays are heads and shoulders above those from the past. take a look at some footage of the NBA from the 80's and before and you will notice a markedly different level of athleticism and skill.
Jordan, Shaq, Kobe, led the the new school. Bird, Magic, Parish, Mchale, would they have been as great at the millenium? In my opinion, no way.

 

I cant speak for the rest...but I'm pretty sure Magic still would have been just as good.