Looking at all the centers and comparing this to the PF thread, if you had an all-time draft, you'd arguably have 10 centers go before any PF... Dream Kareem Wilt Russell Moses Walton Robinson Ewing Sabonis Lanier For the record, I'd put Dream at the top of centers because there no other center that commands the double team on offense no matter who the opposing Center is and simultaneously could guard any of the other centers one-on-one if required.
People mostly kids don't realize that Russell's greatest ability was his impact not his stats, not his scoring, not his passing, but his impact on the overall game. If you honestly think about, Bill Russell could turn any team into a championship caliber team, doesn't matter if they were scrubs. His impact was tremendous.
I have no problem with you guys ranking Russell 5th though, but calling him overrated is just pushing it to the limit. If stats honestly meant everything David Robinson and Patrick Ewing should be in there over Russell.
Kareem Wilt Shaq Dream Russel yeah, I know Russel is automatic top 3 because of his rings but if he played in the league today he would basically be what Ben Wallace was 5 years ago. The rings are all that get him into my top 5. I would prefer to put Moses Malone there. Eff it, I am. Kareem Wilt Shaq Dream Moses Malone
Dave_78, Deciding between Moses and Russell was a tough choice for me, but I wouldn't have a problem putting even Mo up there above Russell. My reasoning is anybody that can battle Hakeem (albeit, prior to Hakeem's skills expanding) routinely and teach him how to play basketball has to be pretty damn good. I remember watching Mo play as a kid and talk about a sweaty beast. That dude was a human waterfall - I've never seen anybody else sweat that much. I sometimes flip-flop between Moses and Russell when listing the best centers.
My Top 10 would be. 1. Kareem 2. Russell 3. Wilt 4. Hakem 5. Shaq 6. Moses 7. Robinson 8. Walton 9. Ewing 10. Mikan Mikan is pretty hard to tell though, since nobody watched him play including myself.
I agree with Kareem being number one dude was a monster on the court in his prime, to me hes the second greatest player to ever play the game. And I believe they didn't start counting blocks till his 8th year so theres no doubt he would have been the all time block leader. I'll put Wilt at number two then Russell. I know Russell won more wins, but I still think Wilt was the better player. And other thing I don't see how people can call Russell over rated, yes he played with a lot of great players but thats not his fault he had help around him. We'll still talking about a guy who avg over 20 rebs a game in a season and won three stright MVP's. At number four and five I'll go with Shaq then Dream with Moses being a close 6th.
You will have to forgive him, rimrocker. His age is showing. I do find that sentence amusing considering he is too young to have watched either Hakeem or Moses play to be making such bold statements.
My understanding is that both Wilt and Russell probably averaged 5+ bpg over their careers, maybe significantly more than that. If blocks were tracked from the beginning, I think one of them would have been the all-time leader.
How is my age showing? Its it because I have Shaq ahead Dream? I don't understand you guys act as if its not even a debate.
