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If you want to talk about athletic all-time, you can't leave out guys like
Vince Carter - Air Canada
Dennis Rodman - very deceivingly athletic, the best rebounder ever
LeBron - the ultimate combination of speed, power and grace
1. Magic Johnson
Only 6' 9" player with lgitimate point guards skills, no one else is anywhere near close. Magic lead the NBA in steals because of his quickness early in his career. There have many many dubbed "The next Magic Johnson". All have turned out to be 6' 7" with iffy big guard skills, none with point guard skills.
2.
Wilt Chamberlain
7' 1" with world class high jumping and long jumping skills.
3.
Ralph Sampson
The only athletic 7' 4" player who ever lived.
4.
DRob
A better athlete than Akeem and 2 inches taller.
5.
Shaq
The quickest 300 pound 7 footer ever.
6.
Kareem
The most coordinated 7' 2" player of all time.
7.
Bill Russell
The quickest 6' 9" player of all time.
8.
Dominique
His brother got bad genes and still made the NBA.
9.
Spencer Haywood - could jump up and put a quarter on top of the backboard, the highest vertical reach of all time.
10.
Connie Hawkins
This dude was amazing, the best NBA talent in between Wilt and Kareem.
11.
Dr. J
Giant hands, super duper leaping ability, 6' 7"
12.
The Dream
13.
Jordan
14. Dr. Dunkenstein Darrell Griffith
48" vertical leap
15.
David "Skywalker" Thompson
45" vertical leap
Honorable Mention:
Mugsy Bogues
Five inches shorter than the next shortest legitimate NBA basketball player.
OK, let the debates begin!
If you want to talk about athletic all-time, you can't leave out guys like
Vince Carter - Air Canada
Dennis Rodman - very deceivingly athletic, the best rebounder ever
LeBron - the ultimate combination of speed, power and grace
Are you sure about that? Chamberlain weighed about 275 while Shaq weighed about 350 in his laker days, I think Wilt would get uprooted out of position and dunked on like everyone else.
Who makes a top 10 list with 15 entries?
In game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finals, Russell had 30 points and 44 REBOUNDS!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Magic just wasn't that athletic, on an NBA level. I'd put him in the 50th percentile, and the 95% percentile of court vision. Strangely enough, that's about the same percentile that I'd have put JKidd in on both of those non-related attributes.
Wilt put up rebounding numbers the way the Celtics hung championship banners. This dude was an absolutely insane rebounder.
Then Russell. Then Rodman. In fact, Rodman was probably the more noteworthy rebounder because of the era in which he played (more superior athletes) and his height 6'7".
Don't forget about Jerome Lane.
You've got to be a super athlete to play point guard in the NBA.
Wilt's rebounding rate hovered around 20-22 most of his career, which is about Dwight Howard level, and a lot less than Dennis Rodman.
When you consider he was playing in a much shorter league than todays, i would say his rebounding was highly over rated. Looking at raw totals was a little mis leading.
Mark Jackson [/end of ridiculous notion]
---Well said.
exactly, theyre competing against much bigger athletes so they have to counter by being that much quicker. a point guard that isn't quick would just get trapped and wouldnt be able to get the ball down the court. and to drive on a taller man you have to be quick to create space. not to mention slow players kill ball movement, unless they're playing in the post, and a point guard that kills ball movement is defeating the purpose of point guard.
Of all the so-called "Magic Johnson wannabes", I'd have to say Micheal Ray Richardson probably came the closest. At 6'5", his game resembled Magic's in so many ways. He was a competent scorer, could get to the basket, at will and boy could he pass the rock.
Defensively, he was a much better defender "on-the-ball", pressing, kind-of- perimeter defender than Buck. The master of the "on-the-ball" swipe, he even led the NBA in steals a couple of seasons. He played passing lanes incredibly well and was even a good rebounder - like Magic. , he even physically resembled Magic.
At the height of his career, he was a pereninnal all-star and was considered, undoubtedly, one of the 2 best PGs in the league. Remember he predated Stockton. Even Magic himself, said how much he hated playing against "Sugar".
Had his career not been so severely derailed by drugs, there's no doubt he was headed to the Hall of Fame.
Mark Price
John Stockton
Steve Blake
Terry Porter
John Paxson
James Gist!
I've never seen anyone as quick off his feet as Russell. I still can't believe the way he could get up and block a shot straight up to be able to grab the rebound. Russell may be the smartest player this league has ever had also. I'd vote Russell with Dominique coming in second.
To the guy listing point guards, those guys are more the exception than the rule, and just because you aren't a high flyer doesn't mean that you aren't athletic. Alot of those guys are quicker than your average NBA player but just don't jump high.
It has to be Wilt Chamberlain - sprinter, high jumper and pound for pound the strongest big man ever.
The two Davids Robinson and Thompson arguebly are too low and Johnson is a laughable choice - he was very skilled but the most athletic? - not even close.
In all sports two have to be considered - Jim Thorpe a better lacrosse player than a football player and Bo Jackson - all star in two professional sports and an Olympic quality sprinter before he got sadly hurt.
you don't know how to count.
le: "Top Ten most Athletic Basketball Athletes"
total: fifteen.
Every one of those guys, except Blake, took their club to at LEAST the conference finals. I'd say that since they were contemporaries of Magic, except Blake, and I consider Magic in their group, that they are more the rule than the exception. They were the great ones.
I also never said they weren't athletic. You have to be to play in the L. What we are judging here are the greatest athletes in a group that must, by definition, be athletic. The freaks of nature. Most of my list are 50th percentile of NBA athletes, or below.
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