haha! Yes, David...What do you think? Do you think Timmay was tougher for you to play against than Hakeem?
Wilt had better intanglibles than Russell ever had (even by Russell's own admission), Wilt would set screens, help more, etc etc. Wilt had a cpl problems, first his early teams when he was really a monster, were crap, and their coaches were crap. All they wanted Wilt to do was score and rebound, even though he was a much better passer and had much better handles than Russell. Also where do you keep getting this rebounding crap? First Duncan, now Russell. Wilt was never out rebounded in a playoff series ever, not by anybody, in even 1 series. An what was actually bad about Wilt's defense? was it that he could block the skyhook and everything else? Russell was a better defender, but it wasn't by much.
Yeah but Horry played with Dream, in that stretch of 2 years where dream was unstoppable. Of course, his memory was skewed. Hakeem basically was his own worst nightmare. If Hakeem had not demanded to play center, Sampson would not have tore his knees up playing pf. Hakeem was flashy, but Duncan was plain better and he has the rings to prove it. Hakeem couldn't beat the sonics or he might have had a chance at more rings. Tim beat better teams than Dream has.
It's all about blocks. You do not see Duncan block a lot of shots. Keem is like No. 1 shot blocker right now.
This is not to say Hakeem is not a great team mates, but Duncan is the bench mark for best team mate. What he hell does that even mean? How is Duncan the bench mark for best team mate. How is that even measured? And furthermore, you gives a crap about being a model teammate. Kobe, Jordan were both asshats, hard on teammates. Combined they have 11 rings, and both are better than Duncan. So shouldn't they be the model teammate? I mean HOF, Better stats and more rings? This debate was over before it began. The fact somebody had to actually use "Ducan is a better teammate" to prove he's better says it all
Being a good team mate means Duncan mentors his team mates to better players and even better person, means he amplifies his team mates's efficiency and effectiveness, means he create more opportunities for his team mates. Carmelo, for instance, relies heavily on iso ball plays which may not create opportunities for his team mates as well as Duncan. Say, if both Duncan and Carmelo's individual stats is a normalized 100, and a 3rd player is a 80. The chance is Duncan + the 3rd player will be > 180 and Carmelo + the 3rd player will probably < 180. This makes Duncan a better team mate.
Of course he hasn't. This whole debate is dumb. Anyone who ever saw the two of them play would know Olajuwon is better.
duncan owes most his greatness to the fact that he was drafted by spurs. no player in the history of the nba can say that they had a first class coach, first class gm, first class franchise, and always had a all star caliber player by his side their entire career (admiral, parker, and ginobili). take out the rings argument, hakeem is greater than duncan statistically and analytically. as for wilt and russell, these guys are a product of their time period. the bulk of their career; the time they accrued their statistical greatness was done in the early 60s. THEIR GREATNESS DOES NOT TRANSLATE OVER TO DIFFERENT ERAS. They played in the dead ball era of the nba. They played in the weakest era talent, speed, and size wise in the history of the nba. Basically the infancy of the nba. In its most unrefined and undeveloped state. It was the time of one handed dribblers for pete's sake. All you have to do is look at GAME FOOTAGE and see both wilt and russell were devoid of actual post man skills. Look at their free throw % which is a sign of skill, its utter crap, and before you say shaq had bad % well shaq played in the modern era, in a modern nba, with modern skilled, speed, size, and talent. Put hakeem, shaq, robinson, ewing in any time period, their greatness would translate over. Put wilt and russell in the 80s or 90s with their skill set they would be role players. An exception would kareem who actually had skill that would translate over to any era; the skyhook. People need to stop mythologizing old school athletes to mythical proportions in order to PRESERVE HISTORY. Its analytically dishonest. Wilt and Russell = Babe Ruth. Grossly overrated players whose greatness would not translate to different time periods.
If Duncan wasn't there, Pop wouldn't have lasted a few seasons. He was the reason the Spurs were successful, not quite the other way around.
He was pretty unstoppable when he first stepped foot on the nba . fake fan, you know he made the finals right? in his SECOND YEAR
Duncan is the best pf ever to me, he's a good center if you wanna put him at the 5, top 5 is pushing it but duncan vs. Dream lol come on now. I'm pretty sure if dream was drafted by the spurs in 96 or whenever duncan was drafted and had these teams duncans had over this past decade and change, he'd have about 6 or 7 titles
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The best leaders all had an ******* streak inside them, fortunately for San Antonio, Popovich has it in spades.
Russell no, but Wilt would dominate in any era, obviously not to same amount (7'1, huge wingspan and vertical and the skills to go with it, Wilt and his ridiculous stats is basically a modern player in the 1960's) Chamberlain and Russell played head-to-head a total of 142 times. In those matchups, Wilt averaged 28.7 PPG and 28.7 RPG. Russell, on the other hand, averaged 23.7 PPG, and 14.5 RPG. Whilst Wilt set the scoring record of 100 against the knicks, he set the rebounding record of 55 against Russell
hakeem was the better player, offense and defense... duncan's offense is not even top 10 power, so many better scoring PF's than duncan, but duncan's defense is top-notched, but still not better than Hakeem's defense. duncan's longevity might have an edge with today's advanced medicine and small ball players. prime years hakeem is better than prime years duncan EASILY...if people actually watched hakeem's prime years they would know
