With this years flood of Centers in the draft that are predicted to achive greatness it got me thinking about the greatest centers of all time. Here's my top 10 from best to worst. 1. Wilt Chamberlain, IMO the greatest player of all time. The NBA never mades so many rule changes to try and keep any other player from dominating like they did to Wilt. 2. Hakeem Olajuwan. The best mixture of speed and power of any center to ever play the game. Could do it all, score, block shots(most of all time), rebound and steal the ball(most of all time for a center). He could play close to the basket or away. Unbaleivable footwork with great balance. In his prime he was one of the 3 or 4 best athletes to ever play the game. Best defensive center to ever play. 3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Great technique on the offensive end. He had the most unstopable shot of all time with the sky hook. 4. Bill Walton. Another UCLA guy with absalute perfect technique and a killer instinct to go with all that size. 5. Moses Malone. Was listed as 6'10" but was really more like 6'9". A deamon on the boards. 3 mvps. 6. Bill Russell. The best defensive center of all time after the Dream. 7. Shaqueille O'Neil. The most powerfull man to ever play the game outside of Wilt. Unstopable in the paint. 8. Elvin Hayes. You know he belongs on this list. Who would you rather see, Jack Sikma? 9. David Robinson. Great shot blocker, rebounder and scorer. Just not quite strong enough and played a little soft. 10. George Mikan. I have to include him since he was the first dominant post player. There is my list. Does anyone see this current group of draftees breaking into this group? I see Woods as a Robinson type of center but maybe not as good. I could see Cury as more of a Moses Malone type of player although he is being compared to Shaq. I will be surprised if any of them achive this type of greatness though. ------------------
1. Hakeem Olajuwon 2. Kareem Abdul Jabbar 3. Wilt Chamberlain 4. Bill Russel 5. Patrick Ewing 6. Shaquille O'neal 7. Arvidas Sabonis 8. Moses Malone 9. Akeem Abdul Olajuwon 10. Kelvin Cato ------------------ The Protrolls.com message boards! Protrolls.com! Home of Turn, Tweak, and all your demented favorites!
Was Willis Reed any good? Wilt, Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, Dream, Shaq gotta be on the list. I've heard Mikan's name too. ------------------
ZRB, Where's Charles Jones or Zan Tabak? ------------------ Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here...
Serge Zwikker, Jason Collier, Erik Meek, Eric Riley...oh no not the list of Rockets Center draft picks. [This message has been edited by Smokey (edited May 28, 2001).]
5 Worst Rockets of All-Time 1. Scottie Pippen 2. Zan Tabak 3. Kelvin Cato 4. Serge Zwikker 5. Erik Meek ------------------
Willis Reed was awesome baby! Just not quite good enough to break into my list...IMO. ------------------
my greats: 1-Hakeem 2-Kareem Abdul Jabbar 3-Wilt Chamberlien 4-Bill Russel 5-Moses Malone 7-Bill Walton 8-George Mikan 9-Willis Reed 10-Elvin Hayes ------------------ vaids_13
1. Bill Russell- 11 Championships speaks for itself. 2-10, Does it even matter? ------------------ One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.
Sam Jones was there for those 11 championships, does that mean he was better than Micheal Jordan? ------------------
I hear ya' Crash. Bill Russell today would be Antonio Davis. He certainly wouldn't have eleven fetchin' titles. ------------------ You're a fine woman, why don't you mock that draft up
I don't mean to sound like I am ignoring how good Russell was but I don't know of any rule changes the NBA made so the rest of the league could compete with him. Wilt dominated every meeting between him and Russell. Unfortunately for Wilt the rest of his team could not hold up their end of the deal. Put Wilt on those Celtic teams and he wins just as many championships as Russell if not more. Take Russell of the Celtics and we would not even be having this discussion. Just My Oppinion. ------------------
Right now though, I think Shaq should be considered more powerful than Wilt, because I think Shaq is the most physically intimidating and most powerful player ever. ------------------ "See they pick and pick and pick. Man they picked me to death." -Steve Francis on the Utah Jazz
crash-The object of basketball is to win. It is a team game. Jordan was the best individual player to ever play. Sam Jones was more succesful. KD- So Red Auerbach just brought Russell in to fit into his already good team? Hardly. The Celtics were built around Russell. heb- Find some videos of those Russell teams (or check out ESPN Classic). I think you will be suprised at how good Russell really was. crash- You are missing the major point of Russell's success "Put Wilt on those Celtic teams and he wins just as many championships as Russell if not more. Take Russell of the Celtics and we would not even be having this discussion." ummm...wrong. Russell knew how to win, Wilt didn't. Wilt could go out and put up 75 points and grab 30 rebounds. What he couldn't do is set picks to free up a team-mate for an open jumper, he wasn't a very good passer, and he wasn't the intimidator that Russell was. ------------------ One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. [This message has been edited by BobFinn* (edited May 28, 2001).]
Finn, I never saw Russell play except on old highlight reals on espn or other sports chanals so of course I've seen very little. I just think Wilt was a victom of teams that aquired him putting everything into Wilt and forgot that basketball was a team sport and forgot to give him a supporting cast. How many players from those Celtic teams are considered all time greats and have advanced into the Hall of Fame. Now how many players did Wilt play with manage to achive the same high standerds as their conterparts on the Celtics. Once again the NBA made several rules specifically designed to allow the rest of the NBA to be able to compete with Wilt. They never had this problem with other players, not even Jordan. My last point is that not Bill Russell but Red Aurbach was the one that turned that team into a winner. Take away Russell and he still would have found the right combination of players to win a championship. Now who is better Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders? ------------------
Incorrect. The Celtics finished second in the league the year before they acquired Russell, and the team was built around the high octane offense of Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, and at that time the Celtics had an All-star center whom they traded to get Russell. In fact, Russell didn't join the team until 16 games into the season - Boston's record in those games was 13-3. They were a very good team already before they added Russell, but Russell's defense and rebounding helped make them great. Basketball is a game that is played upon both ends of the court, Russell while dominant defensively, was anemic offensively. On a team that averaged almost 130 pts a game, Russell had a career high in ppg with 19. The fact is is that Wilt Chamberlain was the greatest center who ever steped foot on the court, I implore you to watch ESPN classic and watch Wilt stand bestride the court like a Colussus. Russell went to a good team and made them great, Wilt went to a last place team and made them contenders. Basketball is a team game, and the Boston Celtics were wildly more talented that Wilt's team. Perhaps, if like Russell, he could have played with players like Sam Jones, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek and Bill Sharman - All among the top 50 players of all time in the NBA - then we could dispense with this nonsense. ------------------ Charles Barkely on the Raptors defeating the Knicks in Round 1 :"I think it was the Lord. The Lord was with the Raptors. You know the Knicks like to talk so much about religion, but I think the Lord was a Raptor fan."
