Goat list

[Blake]

Do yourself a favor and quit with the revisionist history. Shaq could have averaged 50+ a game against a storm of 6'0 white guys.

If Wilt had been born more recently, he probably would have been Yao's size, tbh, all things being equal.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Does anyone know the major difference between building teams today and back in the 1960s? There are scouts. The college game was on a regional level. Everyone on the West Coast had heard of Bill Russell, but about a year before the draft Red Auerbach had never even heard of him. Red never even saw Russell play, but because Red had friends the coached college around the nation he knew about players such as Sam Jones or Russell from his coaching buddies. So in a way the Celtics had an advantage over every team in the NBA when it came to drafting talent.

When Wilt played with the Warriors those first few years, the second best player on the team was an old, past his prime Paul Arizan and the third best was a young Guy Rogers. By that time Russell's Celtics had several players already built around him. The Cousy/Sharman back court was just using up it's last few years of being good and players like Tom Heinshon, Frank Ramsey and Sam Jones were all in their mid 20s.

Fastforward to when Wilt played with the San Francisco Warriors, Wilt had the rookie Nate Thurmond, and Guy Rogers as his best players while Russell had Havlicek, both Jones', a still in his prime Tom Heinsohn and some other nice bigmen.

It's also a common misconception that Russell shut Wilt down. Nope. Russell would even tell you today that Wilt scored on him just as easily as he scored on anyone else. The Celtics would always triple team Wilt, and back then it was almost litterally no blood no foul so Wilt would come out of games beaten up all the time.

Very few people here know anything about the era of basketball before the ABA/NBA merger. Since there are few films of games back then, do yourself a favor and pick up a book.

In the book I read written by Auerbach, he talked about all the cheap they did to get in Wilt's head like being nice to him and taking him out to dinner the night before games. Russell even said once that if he wanted to Wilt could have "averaged 100 per game" (which is obviously hyperbole) but he was too nice. If someone gets softened up that easily and has problems scoring on someone because that person took him out to dinner, his compe iveness should be questioned.

[redzero]

>my face when people have Duncan over Hakeem

[Blake]

>my face when people have Duncan over Hakeem

If I was as ugly as you, brocephus, I wouldn't post my pic.

[LakeShow]

1. Michael Jordan

2. Kobe Bryant

[Brazil]

1. Michael Jordan

2. Kobe Bryant

well at least you didn't go with 1. kobe and 2. MJ it's a progress for a laker fan

[Brazil]

What about Blatche?

speaking about blatche he put an impressive stat line yesterday 31 points, 10 rebounds, four steals, three blocks and three assists

[Bob Lanier]

[Smooth Criminal]

If everybody worked as hard as they should have Jordan wouldn't be top 2, and Kobe wouldn't be top 10. Bird wouldn't make top 15.

Wilt, as great as he was, could have been so much more with a killer mentality and work ethic.

Shaq, if he had the Kobe, Jordan, Bird work ethic, would have been the goat, and it wouldn't have even been close. would have been downright silly.

If only everyone could work hard...

[Smooth Criminal]

imho

1. Jordan
2. Magic
3. Bird
4. Shaq
5. Kobe
6. Kareem
7. Duncan
8. Dr. J
9. Russell (tbh i'm not impressed by a guy who dominated a bunch of 6-5 honkeys)
10. Wilt (played in Russell's era and got curbstomped by the one guy who posed a challenge)

Russel had 7 other HOF's. There were the games where Wilt outplayed Russel, there were games where Russel outplayed Wilt, and then there were the games where Wilt dominated Russel.

[Spursfan092120]

>my face when Kobe is on anyone's list while winning all of his les as a 2nd banana

hater...and this coming from a guy who really dislikes the Lakers..Kobe is Top 10, maybe even top 5 on everyone's list.

[stretch]

well at least you didn't go with 1. kobe and 2. MJ it's a progress for a laker fan

hes actually a rocket fan posing as a lakerfan with the sole intent to talk to spursfans.

no BS

[stretch]

you're getting Mikian and Wilt confused. Every team in the NBA had at least twoor three 6'9 or taller players back then. By the 60s taller players and black players were all around the league. Oscar Robertson played point guard at 6'5" which was unheard of back then.



Wilt was a nice person, which is a good thing. He litterally could have killed people. He was the strongest player to ever play. In order of strongest players I would say Wilt, Shaq and then Moses.

so I take it that you were one of the lucky 20,000 to get the hot beef injection from wilt himself

[DBryant88]

1. Jordan
2. Kareem
3. Wilt
4. Magic
5. Bird
6.Russell
7. Kobe
8. Shaq
9. Dr. J
10 Robinson/Duncan

[ambchang]

Anybody ranking Kobe over Shaq is re ed.

[Killakobe81]

Yeah if we're talking the Clutch GOAT it's got to be Horry.

And Shaq could have been the GOAT ahead of Jordan if he wasn't such a fat ass

I agree that is why he is behind hakeem and Tim (IMHO)

[Killakobe81]

1. Jordan
2. Kareem
3. Duncan
4. Magic
5. Kobe
6. Bird
7. Shaq
8. Olajuwon
9. Wilt
10. Russell

Duncan over Magic and Shaq over Hakeem LOL

[ForeignFan]

I would say Barkely was stronger than all three of those guys. Your man love for Wilt is epic.

[stretch]

Duncan over Magic and Shaq over Hakeem LOL

Duncan > Magic

I can understand Shaq and Hakeem though. That I have no problem with switching.

But if I'm choosing a guy to build a team around, I'm taking Timmy all day over Magic.

[monosylab1k]

Shaq 2000-2003 > Hakeem 1993-1996

Hakeem caught Shaq early in his career, which is why he made him look so foolish. In their primes, I'll take Shaq over Hakeem any day.

[mavs>spurs2]

.Wilt was a nice person, which is a good thing. He litterally could have killed people. He was the strongest player to ever play. In order of strongest players I would say Wilt, Shaq and then Moses.

this wilt joke is reaching chuck norris proportions

[Tom Slick]

wilt better be glad i was in 'Nam during all this, or he would have been calling the ambalamps

[hitmanyr2k]

My all-time player rankings place importance on defense just as much as offense so Magic is going to be lower than most lists....

1. Michael Jordan
2. Kareem
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Hakeem Olajuwon
5. Larry Bird
6. Tim Duncan
7. Moses Malone
8. Shaq
9. Julius Erving
10. Magic Johnson

[Blake]

Wilt was a nice person, which is a good thing. He litterally could have killed people. He was the strongest player to ever play. In order of strongest players I would say Wilt, Shaq and then Moses.

I believe it. I remember him well in his role in Conan the Barbarian:

[hitmanyr2k]

Yet you have Bird 5 when Magic was a better defender than Bird... right.

Bird wasn't blessed with great speed and athleticism but he made an impact on defense anyway through hustle and b-ball IQ. He was a damn good help defender and he put in the effort and made enough of a difference on the defensive end for me to include him in my Top 5. Magic didn't possess that intangible. For the majority of his career he barely even tried on the defensive side of the ball. He relied on his other teammates to do that for him. Considering his average defense (at best) I had trouble even putting him in my Top 10 because honestly I usually loathe one-way players.