Top 10 Centers of all-time

[sufandu]

The problem I have with Shaq is that he would hit the defender repeatedly with his butt to push the defender back and create space and then he would turn around for a 2 ft layup. Every time he hit the defender with his butt was an offensive foul in my mind, and he got thousands and thousands of points doing that.

Every big tried to do that to some extent in that era. Shaq was just more effective because he weighed 330 lbs.

 

[Oakland]

It's only a foul if it gets called. Why would Shaq stop doing the butt bump if it worked?

Yeah, I understand that take, but it doesn't diminish that fact that a lot of his success was based on a violation of the rules of basketball; just because a high profile pro star repeatedly gets away with 'murder' doesn't mean that I have to respect their 'achievements'.

 

[SWC75]

I consider you one of the best NBA minds on the board, but I personally disagree.

Career PER Wilt is 6th and Russell is 114th. Win shares Wilt 2nd Russell 18th. Offensive win shares Wilt 2nd and Russell isn't in the Top 250 all-time. Defensive win shares Russell is 1st all time and Wilt is 5th.

They're both historically great defenders (Russell slightly better), but Wilt's offensive game is just light years ahead of Russell, which is why I could never put Bill ahead of Wilt.

You've to to look beyond the stats to the results.

The Celtics built their team around Russell's defense while Wilt's teams built around Wilt's offense. Russell's teams won 11 championships, Wilt's, the second one after Russell had retired.

 

[SWC75]

Both are immortal players but I look at this way. Russel won titles at usf. Think of what Usf bball has been since. Slight nod to Russel.

From high school to college to the Olympics to the pros, Bill Russell won 16 out of 19 possible championships. It wasn't a coincidence.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Honestly I wonder if Mikan could even start in the ACC in today’s game. But I always interpret lists like this as greatness relative to ones era. Like Bob Cousy will be a legend until the end of time even though I can’t imagine him making an NBA roster today.

He would kill us on garbage offensive rebounds against the zone.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I might get blasted for this, but I wouldn’t have any qualms about putting the Dream above Shaq. Shaq was physically dominant, but Dream’s athleticism was off the charts. It’s easy to say he won his 2 rings while Jordan was out, but he absolutely killed Robinson, Ewing and Shaq during that run. He was by far the best player on the court and he led Houston to those two titles when the only other all-star caliber player on his team was a past his prime Drexler.

The Jordan being out thing I find sort of odd. The Rockets never lost to the Bulls in the finals…. they weren’t good enough to even get to there .. So maybe … just maybe .. those two rockets teams were just better than the others and how they would have fared against the bulls is a legit open question .. the bulls never had to go Against a center like Hakeem either .. their one weakness was the rockets strength ..

 

[sufandu]

The Jordan being out thing I find sort of odd. The Rockets never lost to the Bulls in the finals…. they weren’t good enough to even get to there .. So maybe … just maybe .. those two rockets teams were just better than the others and how they would have fared against the bulls is a legit open question .. the bulls never had to go Against a center like Hakeem either .. their one weakness was the rockets strength ..

They went against the next best thing, beating Ewing twice near his prime on the way to the finals. They also beat Malone twice, at the time the best power forward of all time.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

They went against the next best thing, beating Ewing twice near his prime on the way to the finals. They also beat Malone twice, at the time the best power forward of all time.

Carl Malone was a fraud. Ewing wasn’t Hakeem .. two completely different type of centers .. and the knicks should have beat them

 

[sufandu]

Carl Malone was a fraud. Ewing wasn’t Hakeem .. two completely different type of centers .. and the knicks should have beat them

The Knicks should have beat them? Malone was a fraud? Ok.

 

[Eric15]

Carl Malone was a fraud. Ewing wasn’t Hakeem .. two completely different type of centers .. and the knicks should have beat them

Steve please elaborate. I mean I know The Mailman was a little shady on a personal level but his career resume is incredible.