If U could pick a roster of 15 players, and they have to be: 2 centers, 2 power forwards, 2 small forwards, 2 shooting guards, 2 point guards, and 5 players regardless of position, who would u have on your team? I would have: C - O'Neal, Olajuwon PF - Duncan, Barkley SF - Pippen, Bird SG - MJ, Kobe PG - Stockton, Kidd T-Mac, Abdul-Jabbar, Malone, Francis, Pierce Coach - Phil Jackson Assistants - Tex Winter, Jim O'Brian, Rudy T, Pat Riley
C - Chamberlain, Russell PF - Malone, Barkley SF - Bird, Dr. J SG - MJ, West PG - Big O, Magic Bench: Abdul-Jabbar, Baylor, Gervin, Maravich, I. Thomas dude, Evol... Franchise, The Truth, and T-Mac over some of the all time greats? what up with that?
wassup. dont mind tedruxpin. we dont like him much. this is mine. yao ming eddie griffin dirk nowitzki reggie miller steve francis kenyon martin brand stojakovic pierce kidd shane battier, baron davis, vince carter, shawn marion, pau gasol coach - fba34 not the most talented bunch, but i like em. as you can probably guess, i like 3s. more than dunks. in my nba video games, i'd draft 3point shooters. nothing sweeter than those swishes.
i know, it was tough... but how could i put olajuwon over chamberlain, russell, or abdul-jabaar???? i didn't want to carry 4 centers! i'm a rockets fan, but i can also be a nonbiased NBA fan when necessary... my bench has one player from each position, had to go with kareem over hakeem (who would be #4 on the list of centers, IMHO)
Pretty easily. I'm going to get crucified for this, but each time I see an old Lakers/Bucks game I find Kareem more overrated. C) Olajuwon/Chamberlain PF) MO Malone/McHale SF) Bird/Dominique SG) Jordan/Robertson PG) Magic/Zeke
Heres mine C-Chamberlain, Shaq PF-Malone, Ben Wallace (only if he rebounds like he did this year) SF-Dr J, Bird SG-Jordan, Kobe PG-"Pistol" Pete Maravich (spelling?), Kidd
C-Chamberlain, Jabbar, Olajuwon PF-Russell, Barkley, Malone SF-Bird, Baylor, Pippen SG-West, Erving, Jordan PG-Robertson, Stockton, Magic Coach: Alex Hannum Assistants: Pat Riley, Red Auerbach Honorable Mention: Hayes, Petit, McHale, Frazier, Thomas. Yes, I know Russell was a center, but he was 6'9 220, so he would play the 4 today. First 5 are starters, second are backups, third are reserves. Hey Everybody! I like some of your choices, but let me tear up your posts a little, and we can have a friendly discussion. AntiSonic, first of all, you have explained Hakeem over Kareem, but why leave Russell off? He did win 11 championships. And Dominique, sorry... but I'm just not seeing this. Nique was good, but he didn't play defense. He got some blocks because he would let guys get by him and then block them from behind... that's not defense. All-time team? I'd like to hear your reasons. Sonics GM, I don't understand why Wallace over Russell. Russell is the same type of player, except he was better in every way. I mean, he had a career average of like 22 rebounds, plus he could pass. And Maravich... don't get me wrong, I love Maravich, but again, not much defense. Look at all the other guys on your list; they're all great defenders (except Malone, if you mean Mailman, he's just decent, but he can rebound). I don't think Maravich is quite complete enough to include here. How about Magic, or maybe Robertson? drapg, congratulations on choosing Baylor! Here's a general question: how many people on this board know who Elgin Baylor is?
C- Bol, Mokeski PF - Bullard, Tom Tolbert SF - Kris Clack, David Benoit SG - Reggie Freeman (NO shots for a second player....) PG - Doug Gottlieb, Chris Jackson Seikaly, Bogues, Webb, Meadowlark Lemon, Curley Neal No coach needed. It'd be like the olympics with chuck daly...no one would EVER have to call a timeout. Basically, this squad would be unbeatable.....
yes, i was wondering why many of you left russell off of your lists? is it b/c you never saw him play? well, i'm too young to have seen him, but I DO know my history... please don't tell me you guys rank olajuwon over russell b/c of homerism... that would be just lame! drexlerfan22: nice putting russell at PF, gets around the whole "does olajuwon deserve a spot" issue! pretty slick. sonics gm: wallace is the 2nd best PF in the history of the nba? what??????? Kidd over Magic? Thomas? Stockton? Kobe over West? Unfathomable... Maybe 10 years down the line, but not today!
drexler: i'm a young fan (20 years old but i only followed about 10 years ago. hard to be aware of NBA from all the way in malaysia). yeah i know the name elgin baylor. read about him in SLAM magazine. the writer (scoop jackson) sang him praises and kinda dissed him. apparently elgin promised scoop an interview or something, told him face to face and never got in touch. elgin is supposed to be the michael jordan of his time. i know he didn't win a championship. now he's clippers gm. i also knew bill russell was only 6'9". but if he asks you face to face, would you tell him why you bumped him off his playing position? "uh mr russell, you're not tall enough"
Russell / Robinson Duncan / Barkley Bird / Hill Jordan / Dumars Magic / Stockton last 3: Sabonis, Horry, Kerr Are these the best 12 players ever? No, but I want my team to have balance, good chemistry, and players willing to play the roles given to them. Jordan, Bird, and Duncan would be the ones taking most of the shots. Russell and Robinson will do the little things without needing the ball in their hands while not being hinderances on the O side. Plenty of fastbreaks. Hill will be the first one off the bench, playing everything from 1-4 and getting plenty of minutes. Barkley(older) will provide low post scoring off the bench. Dumars will play tough d and do whatevers asked of him. Stockton(older) will run the team with great efficiency in small spurts. Sabonis is a smart big body. Horry can play the pf/sf and give clutch play. Kerr is a great 12th man who probably wont see the floor.
C-Hakeem Olajuwon PF-Shareef Abdur-Rahim SF-Dr. J SG-Vinnie Johnson PG-Micheal Williams Bench: C-Ralph Sampson PF-Dennis Rodman SF-Todd Day SG-Micahel Jordon PG-Steve Francis Extra: Drazen Petrovic Oscar Robertson Magic Johnson Bill Laimbeer Terry Teagle Coach: Rudy T This team would probably get smashed, but at least I'd love everyone on my team.
Good for you . Unfortunately, there is very little tape of Elgin when he was really good, because he got injured late in his career when the NBA began to be video-taped more widely. In fact, the day after he retired the '72 Lakers went on their 33-game winning streak. At that point he was in denial and actually dragging the team down. But back in his heyday, he and Jerry West led the Lakers to the finals 5 years out of 8... where they lost to the Celtics every time (talk about frustration). He actually had a season where he averaged 35 points, 19 rebounds, and he was only 6'5"... wow. Probably not, but he's not going to ask me, is he? . There were a lot of good PF I could have chosen, but I had 4 centers (see my post) that I really felt deserved a spot, so I had to bump one down to PF. When it comes to it, I'm allowed '5 players regardless of position' anyway. I guess I'm taking 4 centers. I LOVE your last three. I loved Sabonis, he and Vlade Divac were the best passing centers in the League. Plus Sabas had mad shot. I'm not a Lakers fan, but Horry did used to be on the Rockets, and he is VERY clutch, can't help but like him. Lakers would've had a much harder time without Horry. As for Kerr, I'm putting him up for best pure shooter ever. I mean, he couldn't create his own shot worth a damn, like any superstar, but he may be the best ever when you want to hand someone the ball for an open 3.
I'm pretty young, so I have a question about Bill Russell. Did he have any sort of offensive skills? From what I understand, he was dominant as far as rebounding and defense, but was an absolutely dreadful offensive player who shot 40% from the field. If there's any truth to this, that kind of leads to my reasoning of picking Olajuwon over Russell. I'm not going to lie, I think the offensive side of the ball is actually where players get to show their <b>basketball</b> skills whether it be passing, dribbling, juking, scoring, shooting. Really, those are the main reasons I love the game! Its hard for me to say a player who only rebounds and blocks shots has a lot of basketball skill. In my opinion, those two parts of the game are due to height, weight, leaping ability, or most importantly, the desire to leave it all out on the floor. Its just hard me to rate players like Russell who had extreme physical talent over players like Olajuwon who had both the physical characteristics AND the basketball talent. It just seem like Hakeem was a much more well-rounded player than Russell. You can say Russell's a better defender, but what's that make Hakeem? The 2nd best defender of all time? I mean, how many other players rate in the top ten in steals AND blocks. As I recall: none. (And by the way I've heard the whole Bill Russell would have more blocks than Hakeem if it was recorded back then, but would he also have as many steals?) Then when you take into consideration that Hakeem was probably the most versatile and graceful offensive big man to ever play the game as opposed to Russel's pretty much wortheless offensive game, its hard to say Hakeem was not the better player. And eventhough Hakeem had the finesse, he was by no means considered "soft." He would still mix it up inside, get rebounds, slam it down. Unless I've been fed misinformation about Bill Russell, its hard for me to say that Bill Russel was a more skilled basketball player than Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem really didn't have any weaknesses, but I would think that not having any offensive game would be considered a HUGE weakness. Could Russell had led a team of role players to a championship like Hakeem did in '94? That seems HIGHLY unlikely. Could Hakeem had won 11 Championships back in the day while being surrounded with unbelievable talent? I would have to say yes, that is very likely. And I'm just not buying the whole championship barometer that people are using. There's just too many factors to take into consideration to just simply say Russell won 11 championships, so he's better. How many other great players did he have on his team? How do the levels of competition between the two different eras stack up? You see, it just doesn't work. Compare strengths and weakness. That's how you determine which player is better. Sorry for the length and randomness of this post. I would use this same argument to try and argue that Hakeem is better than just about any other big man you can throw at me.
Drexler: I agree with you on Russell, didnt think about him lol, but Maravich i dont care if my PG cant play defense if hes scoring 30 ppg without a 3 point line!
DCKid, your arguments are VERY valid. Most of what you say is true. His career FG% was 44%. Pretty pitiful when you consider that he was one of the first players that really dunked consistently. Most players in the 60s didn't dunk because it was considered showing off. Bob Cousy admits that "Russ just wasn't gifted in that area (shooting)" and "we only had one play designed for him to shoot that ball, at the top of the key." This is true. As Cousy said, Russell never had great offensive skills. However, you may be underrating just how good Russell was on defense. Try and find tape of this guy. He's just amazing. His feel for the game got him blocks that I just can't imagine other guys getting. And his athleticism did help. Earl Strom once said that "Wilt and Russell were getting 8-10 blocks a game for most of their careers." Yes. He was. Calling Russell's offense 'worthless' is going a little far. Russell's offense in an iso situation was not good. He had a hook shot, but nothing special. But he fit within the team offense, that's all he was asked to do. He in no way hurt the Celtics by not being a good offensive player. That actually helped, because he didn't clog up the offense. Now this is the most important part. No, There is no way Russell would have won a championship with the Rockets in '94. I may get flamed for this, but this is true: Bill Russell was a role player. He was the greatest role player ever, but he was a role player. But that's not such a bad thing. He won 11 championships because he bought into Auerbach's system. Auerbach badly wanted to draft Chamberlain, but Eddie Gottleib sort of cheated by using a territorial draft pick to get Wilt out of high school. So, without Chamberlain, Auerbach had Russell, almost as good, but not capable of carrying an offense. He built his team around Russell, and most of them were better at offense than defense. Russell MADE those players Hall-of-Famers because they never had to play defense, and he got them so many fast-break points. And that brings us to the reciprocal question: could Hakeem have won 11 with Russell's teams? I doubt it. Oh, sure, he might have won a half-dozen, but he was not as skilled at Russell on defense (no one was), and he was a scorer. That might have actually hurt the Celtics, much like Webber slows down the Kings when he hangs around the low post. So, in the end, it depends on what team you're talking about. If your team is a bunch of scrubs, and you need a center to do everything, it's Hakeem, no question. But if your team is already offensively skilled? Russell. Of course, I'm taking Chamberlain over both of them .
