Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, Ralph Sampson (before the bad knees), Hakeem Olajuwan, Otis Thorpe and Charles Barkley. Am I missing anyone? Is there another team in NBA history that can claim a better stable of big men in their teams history? I can only think of one other team. ------------------
That was the other team I was thinking of I had forgotten about Mikan. So who do you think is the best group. I still like the Rockets but of course I am biased! ------------------
How about Boston? McHale, Parrish, Bird, Russell, Cowens, Walton, etc. Oh, and how could you forget to mention with LA.......ELGIN BAYLOR!!!! Or were you meaning strictly centers? I just saw Barkley and Thorpe, forwards, and thought all the notable post players should be included. ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Boston is in there but not on the same scale as Houston and LA IMO. Walton only had a couple of Servicable years with Boston (although one was very good), Parish and Cowens were both great but not on the same level as Wilt, Hakeem, Kareem, Moses, Big E and Shaq. Russell certainly is in that group. I don't include Bird becouse he was not a low post banger(although I know he was a good rebounder sometimes mixed it up in the paint). McHale is absulutely in there though...one of the best power forwards of all time! I was mostly talking about centers and pf's...the guys that made a living in the paint. ------------------
New York has also had some notable big men: Willis Reed Dolph Schayes Dave DeBusschere (although he was not "big" in size persay) Patrick Ewing Any others? ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Bill Bradley was on the Knicks also. ------------------ This is ktfirstbsktof01. I changed my email address, and I put it in the profile thing. I spelled it wrong, so I can't get my new password. Do you guys know how to recover the password? I can't use the forget your password? thing, cause the email address I put in is invalid. I'll use this username until I can restore my password.
The Lakers have had some great big men, no doubt. But Wilt's best days were while he was in Philly, and they didn't get Kareem's entire career either (though he certainly played for them long enough). Mikan counts for the Lakers, but not for LA (played in Minnesota). ------------------ "Thirty-seven?" -Randall, Clerks www.clutchtown.com
The Lakers have had some great big men, no doubt. But Wilt's best days were while he was in Philly, and they didn't get Kareem's entire career either (though he certainly played for them long enough). Mikan counts for the Lakers, but not for LA (played in Minnesota). Well, by that criteria, then you can't count Elvin Hayes in Houston since he had his best days in San Diego and Washington (he only topped 20ppg one year in Houston). Same for Barkley. Neither Thorpe or Sampson played their entire career in Houston. I agree that Wilt's best days were in Philly, but he did post 20+ ppg seasons and a 19.2reb/game season in LA. ------------------
Wilt had some very dominant years in LA. There is no doubt that he counts twords the tradition of great big men in LA. Big E was only away from the Rockets for a few years. As memory serves me he was traded to Washington after the 74 season and came back for the 79 season where he played for 4 or 5 years. He is best remembered as a Bullit only because of his championship with Washington. But he also was on the Rockets team with Big Mo that lost to the Celtics. Otis had the meat of his career here with us and Ralph had the only dominating part of his career here with us and also hit the shot in LA in 86. I think they all count. ------------------
Big E was only away from the Rockets for a few years. As memory serves me he was traded to Washington after the 74 season and came back for the 79 season where he played for 4 or 5 years. He is best remembered as a Bullit only because of his championship with Washington. But he also was on the Rockets team with Big Mo that lost to the Celtics. Otis had the meat of his career here with us and Ralph had the only dominating part of his career here with us and also hit the shot in LA in 86. I think they all count. I agree that they all count. I was just pointing out that if you were going to discount the Laker players, then you had to use the same criteria on the Rockets. As for Hayes, he was traded prior to the 72-73 season and then was reaquired prior to the 81-82 season. The Rockets lost to the Celts in the 80-81 finals and Hayes was not on that team. In his prime, Elvin only played one year in Houston. The bulk of his prime time years were played in Washington. ------------------
I never said they didn't count. I only mean that they were only "dominant big men" for the team when they were actually on that team. Barkley was a better player with the Suns than he was with the Rockets. But that's not to say he wasn't a "good big man" (at 6' 4 3/4") here, too. Probably as good a PF for us as Sampson was, in his short-lived period of excellence. ------------------ "Thirty-seven?" -Randall, Clerks www.clutchtown.com
Thinks for the history lesson. My years were a little off. In the 80's championship series against the Celts I remember Moses being great and a lot was made of how well Robert Reid played against Bird and how well Cornbred Maxwell did in the series. I didn't remember anything about Hayes in that series but I thought that was because I was so young back then. Now I no the reason is because he was not there. I remember Hayes playing with Moses but I guess that came later. ------------------
I think what most people remember abuot Sampson was his lack of heart. Tom Chambers and especially Karl Malone use to abuse him. But there were some nights he would show up and just dominate the whole game. I always thought that he would have had a much better career if he would have stayed at center and not moved to power forward. While he had great moves and agility for a big man I never thought he had the a quicknes to come out on the floor with guys like Chambers. One of my favorite Rockets memory will always be the shot he made with only about a half of secound left on the clock against LA. It looked almost like he was hitting a vollyball over a net because he never really caught the ball when he took the shot. A freind of mine use to have a poster of Kareem taking a hook shot with Hakeem trying to block the shot and Sampson behind Hakeem actually blocking it. On the poster it said "how does it feel to be 7'2" and just a little too short". Of course Kareem was 7'2" and Ralph was 7'4". ------------------
I think you can add San Antonio to the list, just off of the strength of their current players, Robinson and Duncan. Artis Gilmore also played his latter years with the Spurs. ------------------
What about Otto Moore, Kevin Kunnert, Billy Paultz, Zaid Abdul-Aziz, and Dick Cunningham. The stakes go up! ------------------ Time is a great teacher-- only problem is it kills all its pupils. www.FlashAdvantage.com
ROTFLMAO! Don't forget the great Billy Paultz was also a Rocket! See even more greatness. Do you remember when we were playing the Jazz in the playoffs (85 I think) and the Jazz get a defensive rebound and everyone runs to the Jazz basket except Paultz (a Jazz at the time)....and Hakeem. Hakeem slugged Paultz and none of the Refs or other players saw it but the Utah fans did. Paultz hits the floor and Hakeem jogs to the other end of the floor like nothing happened. Paultz is laying on the floor the fans are screaming and noone but Hakeem, Billy and the fans and anouncers new what had happened. No fouls, techs or ejections! Of course the Dream got a nice little fine from the league. ------------------ [This message has been edited by crash5179 (edited January 05, 2001).]
