Posted by pexetera on 7/22/2019 7:01:00 PM (view original):
Posted by jpevans31 on 7/22/2019 3:26:00 PM (view original):
Posted by pexetera on 7/22/2019 12:32:00 PM (view original):
I'm trying to imagine the look on 205 pound Rochester Royals center Phil Jordan's face if 300 pound Shaq had walked onto the court in 1959. By the way, there were 7' centers in 1959 (Pistons center Walt Dukes was 7') but it was his incredible athleticism and strength that set Wilt apart. Wilt had 30 pounds on Walt Dukes, and it was all muscle.
Lol about seeing Shaq in '59. Given the haphazard way the league was run back then, I could see every big-man outside of Russell calling in sick every gameday against Shaq.
And, you're right, there were 7-footers, but not near as prevalent. Russell was 6'9", 220, about the same size as Robert Covington, and as we've noted, 11 rings in 13 seasons. Satch Sanders split PF duties with Tom Heinsohn (also a backup C) for most of the 60s Celtics teams. Satch was 6'5", 210, Heinsohn was 6'7", 220. Again, most PFs were the size of current SGs. In a league with under a dozen teams, each team had 1 or maybe 2 guys approaching Wilt's size, all with noticeably less athleticism and talent. Wilt was among the 1% in size, and by far the most athletic guy his size. None of this is to take anything from Wilt, he could've been an All-star in any era, and his stats mean you cannot leave him out of any top 5 ever discussions. But it's the same for Russell, and Russell is a winner. Winning and living up to the moment are part of what we consider in athlete's careers, so that's why I can't put Wilt above Russell/MJ. In my list, he's right behind them, slightly above KAJ. Again, it's all subjective, debates are part of the fun.
And for what it's worth, out of my top-5 ever, Wilt probably would've been the most fun to hang out with. Russell seemed to stoic to be fun, MJ would've turned everything into a competition, I've read from too many sources that KAJ was generally cranky, and LeBron (close one over Magic) is too worried about his brand image. Wilt would've been a good wingman, probably without even trying. Or at least he would've let you watch...
Data through 2011 on player heights.
https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/interesting-fact-the-players-of-the-60s-were-just-as-tall-as-today.250054137/
Interesting, but I can't take it too seriously in regards to what I've been saying. First, it takes data from 1989 to 2011. The league and player sizes have changed since the late 80s/early 90s, so that skews the data to read smaller than say, heights from 2009-2011. Second, it doesn't list who is being used for the samples in '89-'11. That means it was left to their discretion as to who is at what position. Listing the average heights of '89-'11 power forwards as slightly under 6'8" seems circumspect as well. How many power forwards drafted since, say, 2000 were under 6'8"? And not PF/Center like in the article, just PF. Josh Smith was drafted as a SF at 6'9". Durant as a SF, played SG his rookie year, at 6'10". PJ Tucker is now playing PF/some C at 6'6", but was drafted as a SF/PF, and is considered an outlier because of his height. There were worries about 6'8" Anthony Bennett, because he was considered too small for PF and too slow for SF. Just glance at the list of '61-62 players in that article. How many 6'5" SFs are there now? Definitely some shorter backups get SF minutes, but definitely not at the same ratio. PGs and SGs have barely gotten bigger, on average, but this article doesn't give the proper info to say bigs from the '60s were the same size.