Best centers in the NBA
Posted: Tue Jul 1, 2008 6:22 pm
My first question is: do centers exist anymore?
If you quickly think up a list of the top NBA centers, maybe you'll come up with
In no particular order
Dwight Howard
Tim Duncan
Chris Bosh
Jermaine O'Neal
Amare Stoudemire
Pau Gasol
Emeka Okafor
Marcus Camby
Rasheed Wallace
Tyson Chandler
Al Jefferson
But are these guys not former power forwards who were converted into centers, either by the league (like when Tim Duncan, after 10 years of being a PF all of a sudden became a C on the All Star ballot), or coaches, who have adapted to changes in basketball style and rules and converted more versatile PFs into these PF/C hybrids, who are now today's 'C'
I don't consider these guys centers. These guys all came into the league as PFs. Plain and simple.
In fact, most of these guys came with a lesser-known player who played the REAL center while they played PF, even if there was a huge difference talent-wise. Jermaine O'Neal had Brad Miller. Lorenzen Wright and presumably Andrew Bynum the centers for Pau Gasol. Tony Battie was Dwight Howard's center. Duncan always has a center, but Robinson (do I even need to mention). Chandler had Eddy Curry. Sheed and Ben Wallace and Sabonis. Camby had Ewing and Oliver Miller before that. Okafor has Primoz Brezec. Bosh with Nesterovic, Woods, Antonio Davis and Araujo to name a few. Don't forget about Tskalidis, Scott Williams and Voshkul on the Suns at center with Amare.
And I'm sure I am forgetting others.
But what happened here is the great centers of yester-year got old, the rules changed, maybe the bodies of NBA players changed, the skills and styles changed and it got to the point where there are so many talented smaller players and forwards that we might as well just shift them up. In the process, the center position went extinct.
Maybe I am nostalgic for the days of Hakeem and Shaq, Mourning and Ewing, Robinson and others. We've tried looking in new places to keep the true center position alive, like when Mike Olowokandi was taken first in 1998, or when an international player Ming Yao was taken first in 2002. And now supposedly Greg Oden is expected to revive the position, but he hasn't even been able to get on the court. Coincidentally Ming seems to always get injured too.
I think it would be fair to say at this point that the center position no longer exists. We won't have to wait until Shaq retires. It's gone. We should come up with a new name for the position, like power-power forward. Or power ranger. Any ideas?
If you quickly think up a list of the top NBA centers, maybe you'll come up with
In no particular order
Dwight Howard
Tim Duncan
Chris Bosh
Jermaine O'Neal
Amare Stoudemire
Pau Gasol
Emeka Okafor
Marcus Camby
Rasheed Wallace
Tyson Chandler
Al Jefferson
But are these guys not former power forwards who were converted into centers, either by the league (like when Tim Duncan, after 10 years of being a PF all of a sudden became a C on the All Star ballot), or coaches, who have adapted to changes in basketball style and rules and converted more versatile PFs into these PF/C hybrids, who are now today's 'C'
I don't consider these guys centers. These guys all came into the league as PFs. Plain and simple.
In fact, most of these guys came with a lesser-known player who played the REAL center while they played PF, even if there was a huge difference talent-wise. Jermaine O'Neal had Brad Miller. Lorenzen Wright and presumably Andrew Bynum the centers for Pau Gasol. Tony Battie was Dwight Howard's center. Duncan always has a center, but Robinson (do I even need to mention). Chandler had Eddy Curry. Sheed and Ben Wallace and Sabonis. Camby had Ewing and Oliver Miller before that. Okafor has Primoz Brezec. Bosh with Nesterovic, Woods, Antonio Davis and Araujo to name a few. Don't forget about Tskalidis, Scott Williams and Voshkul on the Suns at center with Amare.
And I'm sure I am forgetting others.
But what happened here is the great centers of yester-year got old, the rules changed, maybe the bodies of NBA players changed, the skills and styles changed and it got to the point where there are so many talented smaller players and forwards that we might as well just shift them up. In the process, the center position went extinct.
Maybe I am nostalgic for the days of Hakeem and Shaq, Mourning and Ewing, Robinson and others. We've tried looking in new places to keep the true center position alive, like when Mike Olowokandi was taken first in 1998, or when an international player Ming Yao was taken first in 2002. And now supposedly Greg Oden is expected to revive the position, but he hasn't even been able to get on the court. Coincidentally Ming seems to always get injured too.
I think it would be fair to say at this point that the center position no longer exists. We won't have to wait until Shaq retires. It's gone. We should come up with a new name for the position, like power-power forward. Or power ranger. Any ideas?
