[Dice]

Quote: Originally Posted by AlexBrady

Agreed on the state of the center position in today's game. Depressing. Relatively speaking, the 90s centers were far superior to today's guys. However, Wilt would still be the top guy in that era in my estimation. Olajuwon was unstoppable and he scored on drives, spins, drop steps, turnarounds, and hooks. His man defense, shot blocking, and rebounding were all terrific. His weaknesses were passing and foul trouble. Hakeem was truly great, but Wilt was the slightly better player. Robinson's best apect was his outstanding shot blocking ability. He scored mainly on foul line jumpers and lefty drives. He couldn't defend straight up. Nor could he pass, handle, score in creative ways, or deliver in the clutch. Wilt was a far superior player to Robinson. Ewing was a terrific shot blocker. His offense was jumpers and rolling hooks. He couldn't defend his own man. Passing, handling, diverse scoring, and reliability in the clutch were other weaknesses. Wilt in a landslide. Young Shaq was much slimmer then. His scoring was highly unpredictable as he scored on drop steps, tight spins, hooks, and twists. His rebounding and shot blocking was top notch in those days. His passing wasn't refined yet though and he was a turnover machine. Great as he was, he hadn't figured out how to truly win yet. Wilt by a slim margin. Alonzo Mourning tried to block every shot and actually got some of them. On offense he scored on jumpers and rolling hooks. His weaknesses were man defense, passing, handling, and doing anything useful in the clutch. Wilt by a TKO. Dikembe Mutumbo was a truly great man defender, shot blocker, and rebounder. However, his scoring wasn't diverse and he couldn't pass or handle. Also not sure how 'young' he was back then either. Wilt by a sizeable margin. Vlade Divac was a good passer. He couldn't defend, score with creativity, rebound in a crowd, or make a clutch shot if his life depended on it. Wilt would steal his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Brad Daugherty was a solid scorer and a good passer. But he couldn't defend or rebound at a high level. Wilt has the gigantic edge. Based on their respective games: 1. Wilt 2. Hakeem 3. Shaq 4. Robinson 5. Mutombo 6. Ewing 7. Mourning 8. Daugherty 9. Divac

Not sure about the passing evaluation you have for Olajuwon. I thought Olajuwon was one of the best passing centers in the NBA. The Rockets back then would have not been successful with their "4-out 1-in" motion offense if Olajuwon was no better than an average passer at his position. His ability to read the defense and find the spot up shooters when teams crowded him was remarkable. He would also find the cutters like Horry when the defenses tightened up on the perimeter. The Magic in the 90's tried to run the same offense and failed when they got deep into the playoffs because Shaq's passing ability was not honed at the time. The key man like the center had to be a solid-to-great passer in this type of offense and Olajuwon provided this for his team.

And as much as you crucify some of these center's 'clutch' abilities, from my understanding, Wilt wasn't as clutch as I read him to be either. As supremely talented as Wilt was back then, people would argue that Bill Russell was the best center in the league at the time. And Wilt was much more talented than Russell.