Best All Time NBA Centers

[AllAbout5]

my top 5 (in order) is kareem, bill russell, wilt, shaq, hakeem. my favorites are bill and shaq though

 

[hoophuskee]

Some of Olajuwon's teams in the middle of his career were not good. Thorpe was decent, but the backcourt sucked and he played several years without a real point guard on the team. Olajuwon went to the press during this time to complain about the quality of the roster. Jordan would have been punching people in the face every practice if he had to play with that level of talent. Olajuwon kept the Rockets competitive in the West throughout that period despite playing on bad teams.

The problem I have with both Wilt and Russell is that the overall competition from that era was weak compared to today. They had each other, and most of the rest of the competition was unathletic 6'7 and 6'8 centers.

I give Wilt a lot of credit not just for his stats and longevity, but because he usually played hungover and after epic nights with multiple women.

Russell is great, but if I was a GM and had a time machine, I would choose Olajuwon in his prime over any of the others.

I wasn't talking of prime. That was the point of taking Russell overall. Russell had a "career type of prime." vs a shorter prime from Hakeem. But Hakeem's prime is off-the-charts. SoI agree I'd take Olajuwon's 3 year prime, but overall it's Russell imo. Though Wilt's 66-67 and 67-68 is absolutely sick. But not to be too picky I loved Olajuwon's prime. Man, would I love to have a prime Olajuwon at center and a prime Russell being coached up in today's game at PF. Russell as a PF can also lead some fastbreaks. It would be like getting "a skilled Rodman but bigger" at PF.

As for the bold above I don't put much stock in either. I wouldn't expect Hakeem to win titles with lesser quality teammates -- but Ewing also did well enough and his teammates were also highly overrated. Hakeem could've done better. Further, his complaining;--> Big deal. That's what he was before he settled down;; a complainer and as mentioned before a cheap-shot player. Then finding religion caused him to settle down. That's when he became "The Dream." That's when he began to dominate such a fine player in DRobinson. Without settling down he wasn't capable of dominating DRob earlier. The timelines all fit.

 

[UConn990411]

Shaq wasn’t great he was just big and strong and out muscled the othercenters

Lol, if this isn’t sarcasm then yikes

 

[Chin Diesel]

Shaq wasn’t great he was just big and strong and out muscled the othercenters

Lol, if this isn’t sarcasm then yikes

An older Shaq was just brute size. But going back to HS 275-300 lbs Shaq was a ton of (skill+speed) X size = power.

From the 1989 McD's game. CAUTION: Mute volume if you don't like obnoxious Dickie V.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Nice top ten list.

George Mikan needs to be in that 10 ten though.

In terms or career numbers and pure skillset Arvidis Sabonis would also be knocking on that door.

Mikan was definitely a function of his era. He would be a backup if he played today. Russell and Wilt would still be stars.

Arvydas Sabonis is one of the biggest "what if" players in the history of basketball. He was supposed to come to the NBA in 1988, and he even showed up at training camp, then left. He never kept himself in shape, and his drinking was definitely an issue, but it didn't matter playing in Europe in the early 90's. I think if Portland's conditioning crew could have gotten him in 1988, he would have been a dominant NBA player for a decade. Portland probalby would have won 3 titles if they had him from 1990 to 1992. That would have taken two titles away from the Bulls and one away from the Pistons, and he and Drexler would be considered two of the greatest players of all time.

Sabonis was still good when he arrived in 1994, but his knees were completely shot by that point.

 

[Mister P]

Mikan was definitely a function of his era. He would be a backup if he played today. Russell and Wilt would still be stars.

Arvydas Sabonis is one of the biggest "what if" players in the history of basketball. He was supposed to come to the NBA in 1988, and he even showed up at training camp, then left. He never kept himself in shape, and his drinking was definitely an issue, but it didn't matter playing in Europe in the early 90's. I think if Portland's conditioning crew could have gotten him in 1988, he would have been a dominant NBA player for a decade. Portland probalby would have won 3 titles if they had him from 1990 to 1992. That would have taken two titles away from the Bulls and one away from the Pistons, and he and Drexler would be considered two of the greatest players of all time.

Sabonis was still good when he arrived in 1994, but his knees were completely shot by that point.

Agree about Mikan . He is one of the era players that can be debated back and forth but he dominated his time and he also was a player where rules were changed to try and balance out his play. He was before my time so I only have seen highlights of his play and base my opinion of him on what b-ball experts have said and on what father told me about him. He would be in the lower tier of my top 10.

I have not looked up any of Sabonis stats but I think he played 8-10 years in the NBA. He was a top center in those days and he was elected to the HOF. He would have been more of a name if he came to the NBA earlier and like you mentioned, he let his body down and his body let him down. He did have a great skill set especially his court vision and passing. Definitely not a top 10 but I would put him in the next 10.

 

[traitor71]

Some of Olajuwon's teams in the middle of his career were not good. Thorpe was decent, but the backcourt sucked and he played several years without a real point guard on the team. Olajuwon went to the press during this time to complain about the quality of the roster. Jordan would have been punching people in the face every practice if he had to play with that level of talent. Olajuwon kept the Rockets competitive in the West throughout that period despite playing on bad teams.

He also played in an era where the Center was king. There was not just Ewing, Kareem, Parish and Robinson, but he overlapped with Shaq, Daugherty, Mutombo and Alonzo. There were a lot of second tier centers that were good defensively like Mark Eaton and Tree Rollins. He had to defend good offensive centers like Seikaly, Smits and Duckworth. Olajuwon would often matchup with power forwards, and had epic battles with the Mailman. He would match up against Garnett and Cliff. The pre-zone NBA was the Era of the Big Man, and Olajuwon played against some really good players.

The problem I have with both Wilt and Russell is that the overall competition from that era was weak compared to today. They had each other, and most of the rest of the competition was unathletic 6'7 and 6'8 centers.

I give Wilt a lot of credit not just for his stats and longevity, but because he usually played hungover and after epic nights with multiple women.

Russell is great, but if I was a GM and had a time machine, I would choose Olajuwon in his prime over any of the others.

I think it was his second or third year when they blew past the Lakers and lost to Boston in the finals. Then Houston's starting back court went on a cocaine binge and never returned, followed by Sampson getting injured. It took them awhile to rebuild their team after that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Fun fact on Olajuwon: before the 1984 draft, the Trail Blazers offered the Rockets Clyde Drexler and the second pick in the 1984 draft for Ralph Sampson. Rockets turned down the trade. If the Rockets had taken it, they would have picked Olajuwon and Jordan, and probably won about 10 titles with those 3 players.