Excellent post, crash. Moses is easily a top ten center and, as you point out, other than Coach Guy Lewis, the biggest influence on Hakeem's development. In this case, the student did become the master. Coach Lewis, who should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame long ago, was the team captain and starting center for the very first UH basketball team in 1946. A lot of folks don't know that about him. Coach Guy V. with a couple of pretty good former Cougars: Moses making Kareem look silly:
On a serious note, if you just look at Malone's stats it really is jaw-dropping. It's a shame that people as good as he was don't get recognized as much as they should since they played in a time where media wasn't widespread. That is why you see countless praises for Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks greats, some of which had worse careers than plenty of overlooked players, such as Moses Malone.
If you would have watched Moses consistently out play Kareem Abdul Jabbar then you would agree with me that Moses was simply better.
Moses didn't outplay Kareem until Jabbar was past his prime. Jabbar still got the better of him from 77-80. Moses didn't even really outplay Jabbar by much at all in '81. Pretty even. They didn't guard each other much in the playoffs and Jabbar's stats were nearly as good; and he was clearly better in the pivotal game 3 - Magic choked that game away. Even in the '83 finals Jabbar scored with Moses - at a more efficient rate - with more assists and blocks. He just couldn't come close to hanging with him on the boards - where Moses was obviously a beast - at that stage in his career. But that was far from the only reason LA was swept that year. Moses wasn't even in the same league as Jabbar overall. Prime Jabbar was a vastly superior scorer in volume and efficiency, a much better passer and a much, much better overall offensive impact player. He was also a superior shot blocker and all-around defender. Moses was only a better rebounder. That's it. Go to the realgm player comparisions board for intelligent debate on the subject. You'll get schooled hard. Moses simply wasn't in Jabbar's league when comparing their respective primes and overall careers. Terrible, terrible observation on your part.
