Does the current NBA have a center in the top 10 all-time? Besides D. Howard does the current NBA have a center in the top 25 all-time?
Depends what you mean by "top ten all time." And I'm not sure why you're asking. If you went back in a time machine and rounded up the guys most people rank in their "NBA top ten centers of all time" when they were at their peak and tried to put them in today's NBA, everyone but Shaq and Hakeem would get their butts handed to them by the garbage time backup guys on the lottery teams.
The level of play in all sports improves over time, but probably none like the NBA. Forty years ago it was a niche sport played by a few hundred thousand American kids. Now it's a global game played by tens of millions of people around the world. When you draw from a talent pool thousands of times larger than it used to be, the elite talent is going to be correspondingly WAY better. And that's before we even get to advances in film study and technique and conditioning.
Kareem would do just fine in today's league. He might be the best offensive post player ever. I don't think garbage time backups would be able to handle guys like Wilt, Lanier, Gilmore, Walton (the one year he was healthy), Moses Malone and a bunch of other guys I can't be bothered to list.
Yeah I thought about Kareem. I think he'd get pushed around a
lot. And as great as the sky hook was, I'd be curious how it would play in the modern era. He'd get doubled on the entry pass immediately so he wouldn't have nearly the room he got back them to pivot and toss that thing up. Admittedly I don't know much about his passing ability, but I know it wasn't tested in his era they way it would be now.
Also- and I know this is sacrilege, so I apologize in advance- was the sky hook really that efficient of a shot? Kareem was a 56% career shooter who never took a jump shot. I assume he got lots of near-100% looks as a center on offensive rebounds and the like. So what was the % on the sky hook? Maybe just under 50%? Is a sub-50% two point attempt that rarely draws a foul actually that good of a shot?
I know it's sacrilege. Don't flip out on me and post a bunch of quotes about the awesomeness of the skyhook. Guy was amazing, probably underrated if that's even possible. I just think it's interesting to think about.
The simple answer is, you just needed to see the man play, particularly when he was in his prime.
He may have been a bit wiry up top, but his legs were as strong as about anybody you'll see, even in today's NBA. You'd have to foul him to move him off the block once he got there.
While he's primarily remembered for the sky hook, he had all the shots and all the moves. He could go left or right with equal skill. He was a great passer - he got double and triple teamed constantly and burned people for it.
Was the sky hook efficient? I think so. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw it get blocked - and I watched a lot of Laker games. You had to stop it on the ground by being in position where he couldn't roll the direction he wanted to to shoot it, that was pretty much your only shot at stopping it. His shooting percentage was that high without as many layups/dunks as guys like Shaq and Howard have - he had game outside 5 feet from the rim.
If you think Pau Gasol is a skilled big man - Kareem was all that times about 10, and he could play some D too.
Me, and a lot of other people. Ratings are down across the board, even in San Antonio and Miami -- for a variety of reasons.
