Chron: Not Quite Centers of Attention

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4004614.html

"Another year, another round of bemoaning the disappearance of the classic, dominant center.

Look at Dallas and Phoenix running up and down the floor, mixing and matching small-ball lineups in the NBA Western Conference finals. For that matter, look at the Miami Heat winning a championship when Shaquille O'Neal failed to crack double figures in four of six games in the NBA Finals.

"It's always been a bit of a myth that there is no longer the string of great, great centers coming up," said Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting. "You can go back through the years, and you have (George) Mikan, (Bill) Russell, (Wilt) Chamberlain, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) and Shaq. Those are the dominant centers. Everybody else is a big guy who you use according to his individual skill level."

Hakeem Olajuwon is a case in point. Same with Tim Duncan."

I'd love to be across from the breakfeast table with Moses while he reads this article and eats his... tire irons, furniture, well whatever he eats, and see his reaction to this.

So anyone who thinks Kareem wasn't in his prime in '81 when Moses took down a great team almost single-handedly, just bring it because I'm going tinman here.

I'm usually a Blinebury apologist, but even in context of today's NBA this is frikkin' ridiculous. The idiot had questions to ask and didn't.

I feel like praising Robinson, Walton, Ewing, Willis, Daugherty, Sikma and just about anyone who played center in whatever arbritrary window was intended there. (Here's where I go psycho.)

Dream = Duncan? Uh-uh, Duncan = KG with rings. Dream played center and did all the dirty work his predacessors did but with completely unseen artistry. Other than Moses or Shaq there's no one I know that had the power game Dream did.

People here say he was a "finesse center" and they are not all idiots, but their memory is at least tainted. Dream was mean, and when he went strong to to the hoop almost everyone got out of his way, or paid (bizarre Eaton exception not withstanding).

Back to the article, does anyone know of anything Dream was asked to do other than the Rudy PLEASE-TRUST-YOUR-TEAMMATES thing?

Fitch, in Dream's rookie year asked him not to take more than 12' shots, which didn't work and the request was rescinded that year.

But anything else? Did anyone ever tell him to go inside more (ala Kareem and even Wilt)? Did anyone ever ask him to defend the paint better? Did anyone ever ask him to run?

The whole point of this article is to say there's always guys out there that are 7' that can do things, but the real truth is that the NBA has virtually made the center position extinct because of the rule changes that benefit perimeter players.

It does make me wonder what Clyde or MJ would have done, it makes me wonder how good Wade and Kobe are. But it does not make me wonder what Moses or Dream would be.

If Olajuwon became an ideal of what an NBA player can be that scouts and GMs covet, well sure. But the bastards have a very short memory of what he did.

 

Thx. But I pulled back. I have usual low blood pressure, which when it gets up to near cardiac arrest I delete adjectives, adverbs, paragraphs...

 

Yeah. You hear or read about Dream being the ultimate 4 on someone's Dream Team, or he could've played the 3 in stretches and it does drive me crazy.

He did things no other center could do and somehow that makes him not a center, or an out-of-position guy, or not as good as... Basketball fans need a 22 year-old Dream in your face.