ADVERTISEMENT

Let's try this, who are

The Deplorable Sleeping Dog

HR Heisman
Gold Member
May 9, 2018
7,731
11,040
113
the best ten centers in history. College AND NBA careers both count.

What the hell. Its the offseason. Everyone's getting chippy over complete speculation about who will come to Iowa or how bad are the coaches. Something to distract from fighting about shit none of us know or can realistically predict.

1. Wilt
2. Kareem
3. Bill Russell
4. Shaq Daddy
5. Moses Malone
6. Tim Duncan
7. David Robinson
8. Nate Thurmond
9. Jack Sikma
10. Bill Walton

All opinions valued.
 
In order

Wilt
Kareem
Hakeem
Shaq
Bill
Tim
Artis
Moses
David R
Pettit

*Note- There are a couple of guys that might have made the list had they stayed healthy, and 2-3 others I might have listed if I'd gone by peak instead of overall career. Ming and Walton being the health related.
 
All good choices so far. Perhaps not Top 10, but I think these guys are some of the best as well:

George Mikan -- a transitional player, who's dominance was the impetus for the shot clock

Wes Unseld -- undersized as a center (6'7" or so), but dominated on the defensive end. One of the best passing centers, too.

Patrick Ewing -- great defensive player, and underrated on the offensive end. I didn't realize he average 20+ ppg over his career.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fezzador
Put him where you want, but The Dream has to be on this list, (edit) and top 3 in my opinion

Forgot about Hakeem. I kept thinking I was missing someone. Good call. Slot him in at 4 and move everyone down one. Duh, great catch. Thanks.

Artis was a tough one. The early ABA years kind of hurt but he was great with the Spurs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: unoHawkeye
Tim Duncan may be the greatest power forward of all time.........so I think that excludes him from this list.
Over the course of his career, he played 73% of his mintues at C and 27% at PF. Robinson & Nesterovic were the centers during Duncan's first 9 seasons. He was a center the rest of his career.

Edit to add I'm not sure I agree with bball reference in getting the percentages. This classifies Duncan as a C during the Splitter years but when they shared the floor, they both guarded centers.
 
A lot of today's players could learn a great deal from studying Moses Malone and Wes Unseld getting rebounding position before the ball came off the rim. Most of their combined roughly 29,000 rebounds (guessing) we at or below the rim, but the offensive players were pushed out a couple of feet behind Moses and the Oak Tree.

Also, for those old enough to remember, Wes Unseld could throw two hand over head outlet passes 40-50 feet with precision. Only Walton was a better passer among the centers. Both of them would routinely have the outlet pass on its way before their feet hit the ground.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BBHawk
I would put mchale at power forward.

Probably go with the guy that invented the position, Bob Pettit. Maybe follow him up with Jerry Lucas. I do not know the position LeBron purports to play since he really does everything but he's a number 1 at power forward.

Duncan was a center. Only a forward if you go with a CFFGG positions. They just kept two centers on the floor. Like Hakeem and Ralph Sampson.
 
I am life long Celtics fan and I am biased AF. Tim Duncan is the better player and McHale is a top 50 player. JMO.
Tim Duncan is definitely a top 10 NBA player all time.

He wasn’t cocky or douchey so he didn’t stand out. His game was beautifully unflashy so the average fan didn’t appreciate how amazingly skilled he was.

Also don’t forget how long of a period that he was winning titles. Probably a 12 year period between his 1st & last title. Just guessing.

And he won without having to have other superstars team up with him to win. All of this during the era where a team had to have superstars team up to win.

Pretty amazing career!
 
Tim Duncan is definitely a top 10 NBA player all time.

He wasn’t cocky or douchey so he didn’t stand out. His game was beautifully unflashy so the average fan didn’t appreciate how amazingly skilled he was.

Also don’t forget how long of a period that he was winning titles. Probably a 12 year period between his 1st & last title. Just guessing.

And he won without having to have other superstars team up with him to win. All of this during the era where a team had to have superstars team up to win.

Pretty amazing career!

Everything you said is why I hope people respect the Spurs in general. That leadership started with Robinson (I'm sure others before him) and trickled down since. Pap really helped continue that culture which is ironic because he's probably the most outspoken Spur.
 
Tim Duncan is definitely a top 10 NBA player all time.

He wasn’t cocky or douchey so he didn’t stand out. His game was beautifully unflashy so the average fan didn’t appreciate how amazingly skilled he was.

Also don’t forget how long of a period that he was winning titles. Probably a 12 year period between his 1st & last title. Just guessing.

And he won without having to have other superstars team up with him to win. All of this during the era where a team had to have superstars team up to win.

Pretty amazing career!

No way Duncan is a Top 10 player all time.
 
Walton would be much higher on the list if he hadn't been so injury prone from his HS days to his NBA stint. He overcame an incredible number of serious injuries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 24 so far
the best ten centers in history. College AND NBA careers both count.

What the hell. Its the offseason. Everyone's getting chippy over complete speculation about who will come to Iowa or how bad are the coaches. Something to distract from fighting about shit none of us know or can realistically predict.

1. Wilt
2. Kareem
3. Bill Russell
4. Shaq Daddy
5. Moses Malone
6. Tim Duncan
7. David Robinson
8. Nate Thurmond
9. Jack Sikma
10. Bill Walton

All opinions valued.
Walton was really good when healthy, which seemed like wasn't very often.

And since Jack Sikma came up (who I am skeptical belongs on this list personally) on a sidenote to this conversation, a cousin of mine from the Seattle area way back when, dated Jack Sikma for a stretch of time (they never came back to the Midwest during that time so never got to meet the guy). Very pretty blonde gal (no pics) who was smart enough to prefer guys with a lot of money! Great plan I would say. Ha!
 
Id say Jokic is more skilled than Hakeem (although I wouldn't put him in the top ten of anything yet) and Sabonis was more skilled than Jokic.

Hakeem was the most agile man of that size IMO.

If Hakeem came up today he'd be another Giannis/Anthony Davis.

You aren't old enough to remember Wilt. In addition to basketball, in college, he ran the then 100 yards and maybe a shorter sprint-but he was just off the 1956 Olympic numbers, high jumped, threw the shot. For college workouts he would wrestle Kansas grapplers and, once in the NBA club boxed for cardio. After he retired from BBall he became the best beach volleyballer, probably ever.

The autobiographies of the guys that played with and against Wilt are just filled with these stunning stories of the shit Wilt would do. When I was a lad I subscribed to Por Basketball Weekly, a little 5x6 magazine and Pro Football Weekly. We packed about 12 years of those little mags in the same chronological order as they were in my parents' basement when we cleaned out the house. Stored 'em at my brothers and his new house blew up and they were destroyed.

A Tom Meschery story. Tom and Wilt liked to hang around the Eagles (a Philly boy) and came to a lot of practices in the NBA off season. So one day Wilt shows up in a sweat suit and a new pair of spikes at a no pads offensive practice. Went up to the coach and said he wanted to "try out". Coach says sure, what position. Wilt says receiver. So they line up and Wilt was outside and just supposed to run "a long one". Sunny Jurgensen underthrows by about 10 yards. They do a few more routes and Sunny tells Wilt to run straight and when get got behind the defense to cut toward the middle. So Wilt grabs TDS for 20 minutes.

Of course everyone was impressed. Wilt asked if he played well enough to play on Sundays. The coach, can't remember name, said "Yeah, you can play on Sunday Big Man but you'd be taking a hell of a pay cut." They got in the car and Wilt said it would be fun but he didn't think they paid those guys much money. Meschery said that was the end of Wilt's football career, but they still liked hanging around the team.

I remember reading that more than 50 years ago. Can't remember all the bullshit I was supposed to do today.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 24 so far
the best ten centers in history. College AND NBA careers both count.

What the hell. Its the offseason. Everyone's getting chippy over complete speculation about who will come to Iowa or how bad are the coaches. Something to distract from fighting about shit none of us know or can realistically predict.

1. Wilt
2. Kareem
3. Bill Russell
4. Shaq Daddy
5. Moses Malone
6. Tim Duncan
7. David Robinson
8. Nate Thurmond
9. Jack Sikma
10. Bill Walton

All opinions valued.
Leaving out some good ones...Willis Reed, Patrick Ewing, Jerry Lucas....and of course, George Mikan.
 
Leaving out some good ones...Willis Reed, Patrick Ewing, Jerry Lucas....and of course, George Mikan.
Its tough. Lucas was a forward that played center when Willis was hurt, after the humane mnemonic device was traded from Cincy to New York.

I hope Riley Mulvey gets some old fashioned knee pads and keeps the nerd glasses...already throws the hook like Mikan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 24 so far
You aren't old enough to remember Wilt. In addition to basketball, in college, he ran the then 100 yards and maybe a shorter sprint-but he was just off the 1956 Olympic numbers, high jumped, threw the shot. For college workouts he would wrestle Kansas grapplers and, once in the NBA club boxed for cardio. After he retired from BBall he became the best beach volleyballer, probably ever.

The autobiographies of the guys that played with and against Wilt are just filled with these stunning stories of the shit Wilt would do. When I was a lad I subscribed to Por Basketball Weekly, a little 5x6 magazine and Pro Football Weekly. We packed about 12 years of those little mags in the same chronological order as they were in my parents' basement when we cleaned out the house. Stored 'em at my brothers and his new house blew up and they were destroyed.

A Tom Meschery story. Tom and Wilt liked to hang around the Eagles (a Philly boy) and came to a lot of practices in the NBA off season. So one day Wilt shows up in a sweat suit and a new pair of spikes at a no pads offensive practice. Went up to the coach and said he wanted to "try out". Coach says sure, what position. Wilt says receiver. So they line up and Wilt was outside and just supposed to run "a long one". Sunny Jurgensen underthrows by about 10 yards. They do a few more routes and Sunny tells Wilt to run straight and when get got behind the defense to cut toward the middle. So Wilt grabs TDS for 20 minutes.

Of course everyone was impressed. Wilt asked if he played well enough to play on Sundays. The coach, can't remember name, said "Yeah, you can play on Sunday Big Man but you'd be taking a hell of a pay cut." They got in the car and Wilt said it would be fun but he didn't think they paid those guys much money. Meschery said that was the end of Wilt's football career, but they still liked hanging around the team.

I remember reading that more than 50 years ago. Can't remember all the bullshit I was supposed to do today.
I know Wilt was a phenomenal athlete but I don't think his feet weren't as good as Olajuwans.
 
ADVERTISEMENT