With Willis Reed gone, this really felt like a back to back type of choice. Unseld, Reed, Hayes, Cowens are roughly in the same league even if they seem to be voted some 10-15 spots apart on this list. Cowens only falls short of Reed because of his scoring. It was sometimes very MEH for a Top 50s all timer. He made it up with his defense, rebounding, passing and virtue of being on good to great teams - he had some help with guys like JoJo White, Havlicek etc. but also managed to overcome Kareem/Oscar bucks or stiff competition from other bigs such as Thrumond, McAdoo. There seems to be only pro-Cowens material on intangibles, leadership etc. as he just seemed to fit in with the flow. Actually interesting he's one of the 5 greats to be on the list for leading his team in all 5 major stat categories. Cowens like Hayes and most 70s bigmen were very capable of handling tough physical play, and this was likely the reason his career ended a tad earlier than it should have. Anyway, not much to say about him beyond this.
Hmm, I actually have Vince Carter behind all these legends. Perhaps I am rating the past players too high, or being too forgiving for their lack of medical tech. VC's serious longevity likely lands him a spot in the 60's. Otherwise, he didn't make a single All NBA team past 01 and never really was a serious MVP candidate. At his best he barely scratched the Top 10 and I wonder if the talk about VC's lack of playoff strength in the Deep Playoffs was a real issue.
However, he does well enough with all time W/S and really well with VORP, etc. for him to give him the nod in a bit here. He's likely go after Harden, T-Mac, maybe English or Hayes too. Actually I think Carter vs Nique is a good debate.
