Boston Globe: In today's NBA, big men are in small supply

today there are not many big men because in the past, 6'10" guys were considered to be big men while today's big men usually are 7' and weight 280+. in addition, today's 6'8" to 7' guys are so athletic and possess guard and small foward's skills that they prefer to play facing the basketball. for example, KG and dirk. therefore, it seems that there are fewer big men comparing to the past.

 

It seems like a pretty fair article. I don't agree with everything he says but he is not totally off base. I, for one, could care less what nationality the players are as long as the best league is in the U.S.. With that said, everything is cyclical. many 7 footers today are taught different skills and therefore have more versatility. Years ago they would have been feeding KG a Yao Ming type diet and leave him in the post full time. It is just a different era.


edit: Yeah, what James23 said - man, I type slow!

 

And some of you wanted to draft Jason Williams

 

He mentioned very few centers of the 80's and 90's era. That would have disproved his theory. You could argue that was the greatest era ever for centers in this league. Olajuwon, Robinson, Ewing, Shaq, Mourning, Tarpley, Daugherty, Eaton, Divac, Duckworth, Laimbeer, Cartwright, Parrish, Abdul Jabbar, Bradley, Smits, and others that I cannot think of off the top of my head.

 

Yes, but that is still an era that has passed. And also you are listing a few players whose careers barely overlapped like Mourning and Jabbar or Hakeem and Parrish. His basic theory is right, but I'm biased, I think Bob Ryan is the best national columnist going today.

All of these big men today like to face the basket. That is the biggest problem. Even Hakeem as much as he revolutioned the game, played with his back to the basket.

I was listening to the Tony Kornheiser one day and Bob Ryan was talking about how sports has been ruined for the average fan because of people like Roy Hoffienz. Do any of you know what the significance of that statement is. I was so impressed that a Boston guy would say that.

 

Unless Duke Vitale posts on this board, I can't think of a single person here that wanted to draft Jay Williams...

 

Eh this guy is full of it. Please. If it was the 60s today you would never seen KG the way he is today. He would have been a plodding somewhat-immobile big man as would have Tim Duncan and Ben Wallace... 6foot-10+ players back in the day were taught to post up and block shots, thats it. There is so much more emphasis on athleticism and multipositioned players that hulking big men are an endangered species, is that a bad thing? I don't think so. If he has a problem, blame Magic for upping the height on guards. For every Kareem, Ewing, Walton and Moses- you had a Chuck Nevitt, Manute, Muresan, and Randy Breuer. Blech.

If this guy is still alive in 30 years he'll be complaining about not enough multi-faceted, 7-0 players harkening back to the days of Kevin Garnett Dirk NOwitzki, and Tim Duncan.

STuart

 

For those of you who don't read the Globe regularly... Bob Ryan is one of the best sports writers out there. His historical understanding of basketball is utterly fantastic. In addition, he tends to avoid the idiotic cliches that some sportswriters are so enamored of (Blinebury!). He does tend to wax eloquent about the past, sometimes...

But he's right, here. Garnett's a nice player. But he's not really a C. And he's right that Tim Duncan really is a center masquerading as a PF.

Let's trade Blinebury for Ryan (who predicted Yao's greatness a long time ago, btw)

 

I mostly agree with what the writer's trying to say, but being from Boston, it's typical that he focuses on the era Boston won umpteen titles. But the late seventies did have centers that were considered just OK that would be valuble now. Almost every center then had a couple of good post moves they could score with. Now whole teams don't have a center with any real post moves.

Anyone who remembers Moses as a rookie can tell you he was a beast and had talent, but his skills coming out of high school were almost non-existant. By the time he was in his prime his post moves were better by far than anyone in the game today (other than Yao).

What I don't understand is why centers aren't emerging. When the Rockets signed Cato, they were fairly sure that they could develop his game. As happy as I am this season with Cato, I don't see bread and butter moves. And this is the team that developed Moses and Dream (of course, CD was primarily working with them then).

I know the current style of play is mostly responsible for the center having less importance, but Yao's the only guy I've heard that has come into this league and has said "I'm a center and I want to be the best" since Dream, Ewing and Robinson. And that's just nuts. I understand whacko Walton's perspective completely about Yao. Has anybody thought of the possibility that if Shaq walks away in a year or two, and Yao progresses as we expect, that ten years later everybody says Yao had no competetion and he was so tall, it really wasn't fair?

This era of basketball has tarnished Shaq's legacy in many people's minds. If the game doesn't change the same thing could happen to Yao.

 

I am surprised that he didn't say that Michael Jordon ruined the center position.