The Death of the NBA Big Man Part 1
Posted by Matt McCready on 12.05.2006
Are dominant NBA centers really in decline? Or is this the fabrication of old-timer NBA journalists living in the past? In part one of a three part series, Matt McCready takes a look at the premiere centers of the fifties and sixties. George Mikan, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, find out about their games, career and what lasting impact they left at the highest level of basketball in the world.
The Death of the Big Man: Part One
Greg Oden is the consensus number one prospect for the 2007 NBA Draft. He's currently a freshman at the Ohio State, and while out for several months while recovering from wrist surgery, he's expected to make a full recovery and the injury will not affect his draft status.
There's definitely an advantage for any team with a legitimate center in today's NBA as a majority of teams have gotten smaller in the last year, attempting to capitalize on the new up-tempo ‘Phoenix Suns' basketball craze. A legitimate, athletic center is always a hot prospect but what attracts pro scouts, college recruiters, NBA general managers and even the women to Oden is that the kid's game is old school. The prevailing thought around NBA circles is that there is a lack of centers compared to the NBA of yesteryear, that outside of Yao Ming, the era of lordly big men is over and that current supersized young players prefer to play perimeter games as opposed to a classic back-to-the-basket low post style of play. Is that a fair statement or do old-timers have distorted memories of the quantity and quality of centers in the past? In part one of this series, I'll be taking a look at dominant centers from the fifties and sixties to understand what the term has meant in the past, what trends developed and whether the lack of true centers now is an aberration or an unfair statement.
The history of elite giants over NBA history would have to begin with George Mikan, the man who is acknowledged by all NBA scribes as the game's first dominant big man. If you were to continue conversations with the NBA scribes of yesterday on the subject of Mikan and they would paint a picture of a gentleman who re-defined the center position in the NBA.
I would call him a street legend.
Historians would wince at such a comment but I don't say it because of George's style or because he had a crazy handle on the ball, because he definitely didn't have that. With thick glasses and a sense of style that seemed conservative even for the fifties, he would definitely stand out in a crowd of Bobbito, Hot Sauce and Skip to my Lou. His handle is garbage by today's standards and he sometimes didn't even look co-coordinated on the court.
He's a street legend in the classic sense. Not ‘Professor' style basketball, not the no defense, no steak, And-1 marketing Arch-Deluxe, bullshit basketball fad that's bastardized the term. Mikan's offensive arsenal was effective in the sloppy (in terms of execution) playground style of the early NBA. His signature hook shot could be banked in off of any early NBA backboards, which in those days could be made of glass, tin or even a wood surface. Anyone who's played significant outdoor ball with the possible wind, nipple balls and cracks in the concrete would appreciate the consistency that Mikan showed in an NBA where a new ball would only be complained about if it was covered in duct tape.
The early days of the NBA was no well-oiled machine, and who better exemplifies that than a lumbering, goggle eyed giant? Mikan's rule over the NBA was short lived as the next dominant big man to enter the NBA was also it's winningest.
Bill Russell was picked 3rd overall by the Boston Celtics. The reason he fell to 3rd, despite being easily the most dominant collegiate star of his time, is that the Rochester Royals who owned the first overall pick, were not impressed by his performance during an exhibition game and were offered cash by the Boston Celtics to pass on him with their pick. The team with the second pick, the St. Louis Hawks were struggling with attendance in a new city, and they probably weren't expecting their first black player in team history to turn that trend around. Boston offered them Ed Macauley, a 6-8 center and an All-Star five years running, in exchange for them to pick someone else second. The Hawks decided to pull the woolen hood over their eyes and passed on one of the best players in NBA history. Red Auerbach was the greatest team builder in NBA history and the hard work he put in ensuring that the Celtics end up with Russell was his crowning achievement. When Bill Russell joined Auerbach's Boston Celtics in 1956 he became the centerpiece of the greatest dynasty the NBA has ever known.
Up to that point there was never a player in the NBA that had Russell's size and athleticism. Before he arrived, the Celtics were a collection of undersized scorers that typically had regular season success but folded in the playoffs. Russell could keep up with all the undersized scorers on the Celtics while controlling the glass and provided the team an interior presence they so desperately needed.
His offensive skills were limited when he came into the league and they didn't progress too much, but what set him apart from his peers and made him into one of the five most dominant big men of all time is his outstanding defensive presence. He's arguably the best shot blocker in NBA history. Not only did he have the physical characteristics necessary to block shots, but he also had supreme anticipation skills. He was able to read opposing players extremely well and would never leave his feet for a pump fake.
No one could ever say that he was a selfish player as the only thing that mattered to him was winning. His legendary unwillingness to lose led to eleven Boston championships in thirteen seasons. With the exception of Auerbach, Bill Russell best exemplifies the winning tradition of the pre-90s Boston Celtics. Aside from the winning, Russell's lasting impact was demonstrating to the NBA how dominant an athletic big man could be. It's unfortunate that his offensive game didn't live up to his defensive skills, a player like that would be Wilt ‘The Stilt' Chamberlain.
"When I look back on the Wilt-Russell games, I divide them into three parts. A third of the time, Wilt outplayed Russell. A third of the time, Russell outplayed Wilt. And then there was the other third of the time, when Wilt dominated Russell." – Philadelphia sportswriter George Kiseda
When compared to the NBA of today, 1960s NBA basketball was extremely undersized. Today a NBA team might have four or more players that are 6'9 or taller. When Wilt Chamberlain entered the NBA in 1960, there were only four players in the LEAGUE that were taller than six foot eight. The 7'1 275 pound titan was a dominant force from the moment he arrived in the NBA; he was the first player to capture both the rookie of the year and MVP in the same season. He averaged a whopping 37.6 points per game that season, with his go to move being a powerful dunk that became known as ‘The Big Dipper'. Wilt's legendary strength helped put ‘The Dipper' up there with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook in the debate for the most dominant offensive maneuver in basketball history. It's the main reason that the man holds NBA records for best points per game average in league history (50) and most points in a single game (100!).
"He was unbelievably strong, I remember one time, Wilt went up to dunk the ball and Dick Barnett jumped on him and grabbed him by the neck. And he took him from the floor, up in the air – you ask Barnett about it – and dunked the basketball." – NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor
Wilt's dominance wasn't contained to simply scoring. Along with owning the league's best points per game average in history, Wilt also owns the best rebounding average as well. He was the angry landlord of the backboards and every opponent's rent was past due. During that tremendous rookie season he pulled down 27 a game and would improve on that number the following season, the two highest rebounding totals in regular season NBA history. It's not like his success was limited to the regular season as he's the only player in NBA history to average 30 boards a game during the 65-66 playoffs.
Wilt's all-around offensive brilliance and ability to command double teams was critical to his teams' winning percentages. During the 67-68 season, his last with Philadelphia, Wilt commanded so many double teams that he decided to give the ball over to his open teammates more often and actually led the league in assists that year. That year with his attention focused more on playmaking, rebounding and blocking shots, Wilt would go on to win his first NBA championship.
Mikan established the importance of height and size in the NBA, Russell established the paramountcy of athleticism while Chamberlain obliterated any pre-conceived notion of what a pivot could do in basketball. The average height of a center in the fifties and sixties tend to have the size of a small forward in today's NBA. Mikan was probably too slow and not athletic enough to make an impact in today's NBA, while I think Bill Russell would put up Emeka Okafor type numbers, with even more D but less scoring. Wilt, however is a really tough player to call. Obviously his numbers would take a hit in the new NBA, but to what degree? Would he put up Shaquille O'Neal type numbers, or something a little less. Personally I would compare him to Dwight Howard, but with more offensive ability.
What is apparent is that the experts are not referring to the fifties and sixties when talking about the abundance of skilled bigs in the NBA, considering the lack of height at that time. We're the seventies, eighties and nineties really filled with more goliaths or are they abundant as ever? Next week in the second part of this series I'll be looking at big men from the seventies onward, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O'Neal.
