When Cousy was playing there were all of two teams in the league.
Here in NY one of the local sportstalk guys that hates the Spurs and Duncan said today that nomatter how many les Duncan wins he will never put him in his top 10 because the league is so awful compared to years ago. He said he has Duncan in the top 20 but names Cousy as the 10th player in his top 10. Some of these people are insane. So you are going to win more les building around Cousy then Duncan. How many GM's would start their team with Cousy over Duncan. I am guessing if they are sober at the time the answer would be zero. Cousy was a great PG on a team that had an all time great big man already on it. He is not on Duncan's level at all as a player.
When Cousy was playing there were all of two teams in the league.
Umm...is he re ed? There is much more talent in the NBA nowadays than in years past.
Ask him how many les Cousy won before Bill Russell showed up.
Cousy? Yeah, he'd get owned by Beno.
Thats really no lie...
So who is in his top 10?
Many of who you would expect he had Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kareem, Oscar, Russell, Wilt. He stopped there and that is where he went on his rant about Cousy being in his top 10 and not Duncan, he also said that maybe Shaq and Duncan are equal which means he does not have Shaq in the top 10 either. I think he smoked crack before he went to work today.
Cousy was the top playmaker and highlights guy back in the 50s and 60s. All the kids wanted to dribble like Cousy. Cousy and Duncan cannot be compared very easily because they played different positions, had different roles, etc. With that said...I've seen basketball in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s...the Sports-talk guy is probably just myopic.
Duncan should be considered among the greats in the pivot. Cousy among the greats as a lead guard.
Northeast and white v Southwest and black. Who is going to win the media lovefest?
"more talent in the NBA nowadays than in years past"
more talent, but it's very diluted over 30 teams vs 8, at the player AND coaching level.
Cousy was an incredible player, and would be the best shooter in the NBA if he played today. He was an unbelievable dribbler too. Immense talent.
However, just to compare how "awful" the NBA is today, Cousy played on a team that had as many as seven hall of famers on it during a given season playing in their prime, and he was replaced by another hall of famer. Duncan might surpass seven hall of fame teammates for his entire career if you count guys that are way past their prime sitting on the bench.
Maybe diluted, but there are a lot more players to pick from these days including more colleges, high schools, and international players. You also have to admit it is a LOT harder to win a le when 30 other teams are gunning for you rather than 6 or 7. That's just logic. It makes four les in nine years very impressive. Also, 0.4 seconds and one bad Ginobli foul away from six les in nine years....... not to get ahead of myself though, Spurs still need ONE MORE WIN!
Cousy was a 37% lifetime shooter. He never once shot 40% from the floor for a season.
Great scorer, ballhandler and passer but shooting was his main weakness.
. I knew that.
I forgot it before I remembered it.
He was the AJ of the 50s early 60s.
Guys, let's not disrespect the players of the past. Comparing players and teams of different eras is moot.
Um, there were 8 teams in the league, and that makes it even tougher to dominate your position and opponents, because the talent is not watered down so much that there are horrible teams with horrible players...yes?
Hardly anyone ever shot more than 44%(maybe 1 in 7), and most shot around 33-39% back then. The defenders could practically gang rape the players with the ball...there were no hand check rules, no bent one arm in the back only rules...it was much tougher to score back then because of the liberal defense rules.
I am not saying that I would want Cousy over TD, but I am just telling you why his FG% was in the 30%-40% range
I think you had to win about 4 playoff games to win the NBA le when Cousy played. Now it's 16.
This reminds me of Pop's modesty rap about only the Celtics and UCLA being "dynasties." Perhaps, but times were way different in the 60's when those two were happening. During UCLA's run, there were only 16 teams in the NCAA tournament (vs 64 now).
UCLA only had to win 4 tournament games to win the NCAA.
But Cousy was great, no doubt. Arguably the best French point guard of all time. (Well, maybe.)
Excactly
Boston was not great even with Sharman Cousy McCauley and Auerbach on the bench. Bill changed Celtics into dynasty
Has anybody...ANYBODY seen Cousy play???? Just watch a 10 second clip of him dribbling and you'll say " I dribbled better with both hands when I was NINE!!!!" It's sooooooooooooo funny how the old farts think they could have played this game. How pathetic...a FAN of such a pathetic era is more PATHETIC.
The 8-teams-in-the-league and better-compe ion-allround excuses don not apply for any Celtic, as they had more HOFs than any team in history.
Cousy might have played good teams 10 times a year, but he had Russell, Sam Jones, Sharman, KC Jones, Heinsohn. It's not so bad playing the Syracuse Nationals a dozen times a year when you have 7 players averaging double digits a game.
Winning 4 les as the centerpiece of 4 different teams, and being a perennial contender over the course of a decade in the salary cap era is far more impressive IMO
Yes. I did see him play. Yes, it is a different era. MrChug, when you were 9 and dribbling, it was a different era than it is now. When you are old and the big event of your day is getting out to go to the Dr., you will probably be the guy that looks back on the Tim Duncan era with fondness while some young fella tries to tell you that you are pathetic and from a pathetic era.
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